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The English term "rapier" comes from the French rapière and appears both in English and German, near-simultaneously, in the mid-16th century, for a light, long, pointed two-edged sword. It is a loan from Middle French espee rapiere , first recorded in 1474, a nickname meaning ' grater ' .
More manuscripts survive from the 15th century, and during the 16th century the system was also presented in print, most notably by Joachim Meyer in 1570. The German tradition was largely eclipsed by the Italian school of rapier fencing by the early 17th century. Practitioners of the German school persisted at least until the end of the 18th ...
The present chronology is a compilation that includes diverse and relatively uneven documents about different families of bladed weapons: swords, dress-swords, sabers, rapiers, foils, machetes, daggers, knives, arrowheads, etc..., with the sword references being the most numerous but not the unique included among the other listed references of the rest of bladed weapons.
The oldest surviving manual on western swordsmanship dates back to the 14th century, [1] although historical references date fencing schools back to the 12th century. [2] [3] [4] Modern fencing originated in the 18th century, influenced by the Italian school of fencing of the Renaissance as modified by the French school. [5] [6]
Colichemarde smallsword with a silver guard, 18th century. The abrupt narrowing of the blade, the defining feature of the colichemarde, is visible. Vevey historical museum. Colichemarde is a type of small sword (often written "smallsword") blade that was popular from the late 17th to the mid-18th century.
Throughout the course of the 18th century, the French school became the western European standard to the extent that Angelo, an Italian-born master teaching in England, published his L'École des Armes in French in 1763. It was extremely successful and became a standard fencing manual over the following 50 years, throughout the Napoleonic period.
During this time, civilian swords evolved to side-swords, also known as "cut and thrust" swords, and progressed towards the thicker, tapering sword that eventually became the 17th century rapier. This new weapon was popular for both protection on the street and as a tool in the duel , but found little success on the battlefield.
Frenchmen adopted the Italian duelling sword and mastered it, and it is believed that between 1600 AD and 1700 AD well over 70,000 Frenchmen died in duels, many of them mortally wounded by a Rapier. From the late 16th century, Italian rapier fencing attained considerable popularity all over Europe, notably with the treatise by Salvator Fabris ...