SCIENTIFIC TREATISE ON FENCING
Marco, Alessandro di: Riflessioni fisiche, e geometriche circa la misura del tempo, ed equilibrio di quello, e della natural disposizione, ed agiltà del competitore di scherma, e regolamenti essenziali per saggiamente munirsi da ogni inconsiderato periglio sul cimento della spada nuda […] In Napoli, 1761. Con licenza de’ superiori.
Rare work claiming to be a scientific discourse on fencing, written by a professor of the subject in Naples. It is organized as a series of three reflections, the first on perfect equilibrium being key to the fighter’s speed, tempo and measure, the last on disparity between fencers’ bodies. A section at end is on fighting with naked swords. The book builds on ideas that had been published in 1669 by a Neapolitan fencing master called Francesco Antonio Mattei (Gelli).
Details
One volume, 17.4 cms. x 11.2 cms., octavo, pp. 86 [2]. Signed: A-E8 F4. Final leaf, blank, present. Roman and italic letter. Woodcut decoration to title-page, woodcut factotum initials, woodcut tailpiece. Foxing and medium browning, bound in stiffened vellum wrappers. Worming to front free endpaper and final blank. Final pastedown with old printed label ‘3524’ and bookseller’s label (damaged), “Libri antichi ed autografi, Francesco Casella Fu G[…], Napoli, Piazza Municipio 81”.
SBN: IT\ICCU\NAPE\035027 (copies at Biblioteca Zelantea, Acireale (Sicily), and Biblioteca Nazionale di Napoli). OCLC adds a copy at Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
Jacopo Gelli, Bibliografia generale della scherma (second edition, Milan, 1895), 68-69.
Carl A. Thimm, A complete bibliography of duelling and fencing as practised by all European nations from the Middle Ages to the present day (London and New York, 1896), 180.