First published in 1884, this volume is still widely considered the definitive work on fencing history and the art of European swordsmanship. The author, Egerton Castle, ranks as one of the three great Victorian scholars of the sword. Castle traces fencing from its roots in the unschooled brawling of the Middle Ages to its latter-day precision and refinement; he focuses particularly on the sixteenth-century development of the rapier and the weapon"s popularity in Renaissance Italy, where Italian masters founded the modern art of swordsmanship. Abundantly illustrated, this long-out-of-print work will be warmly welcomed by scholars as well as fencing and sword enthusiasts.