In 1670, Philibert De La Touche published an extraordinary book, Traicté sur les vrays principes de 1’espée seule (Treatise on the true principles of the sword alone). It is one of the earliest fencing manuals to cover the dazzling new style of sidearm, the smallsword. Light, fast and deadly, it was all the rage in the Royal court of France, and swiftly spread to most of Europe. This book represents a key moment in the history of fencing.
And it is yours, free. You can download a pdf of the entire book below.
You are welcome to the RAW image files too (at about 25mb per image), just contact us and we’ll arrange to share them with you.
The book is free, but you are welcome to drop some money into the (virtual) tin; once the book has raised enough money to pay for production costs, we will gladly produce an affordable printed facsimile. Please note that this book is in French. You can buy a translation into English from here: http://www.academyofhistoricalarts.co.uk/publishing/true-principles-of-the-single-sword.php