Tabula XXI / Fechten

Title

Tabula XXI / Fechten

Description

Print shows the rules and practice of fencing. From the famous "Academie de l´Espée" Fencing academy.

ca. 1628

Artist

Anver d´-Thibault (1547-1627)

Gérard Thibault d’Anvers (c. 1574–1627) was a Flemish-Dutch fencing master, merchant, and author. Born in Antwerp, he first received his fencing training in the Netherlands and later studied in Spain the famous rapier fencing school La Verdadera Destreza. From around 1610 he worked as a fencing instructor in the Netherlands and demonstrated his system at princely courts, including before Maurice of Orange. His principal work, Académie de l’Espée (published posthumously in 1630), is considered one of the most important fencing manuals in history. In it, he combines fencing technique with geometry, particularly through his well-known concept of the “mysterious circle.” Thibault’s method continues to influence the study of historical European martial arts to this day.

Historical Description

Anleitung und sehr präzise Distanz- und Winkeltheorie. An outstanding work that was already expensive and luxurious at the time. Particularly remarkable were its richly illustrated copper engravings, life-size fencing figures, Baroque architectural and courtly scenes, and its extreme level of detail (weapons, clothing, phases of movement). It thus represents a fusion of mathematics, philosophy, and fencing, with a strong orientation toward the Spanish Destreza tradition, a high scholarly ambition rather than purely practical instruction, and a very precise theory of distance and angles.