Angelo, L'ecole des armes, London, 1763, later armorial calf

ANGELO, DOMENICO

L'ecole des armes, avec l'explication générale des principales attitudes et positions concernant l'escrime. London: R. and J. Dodsley, 1763

oblong folio (289 x 457mm.), 47 engraved plates, nineteenth-century armorial calf with the Sandys arms, gilt edges, without the list of subscribers, plates 8 and 9 transposed, extremities rubbed

A fine set of fencing plates, subsequently used by the compilers of the Encyclopédie. An English language edition was published in the same year. Angelo, from Livorno, ran a fencing school in Soho and then in Eton and was a friend of David Garrick. The plates were designed by John Gwyn.

LITERATURE:

ESTC T88336 (listing 3 copies in the UK); Vigeant, Escrime p. 28

PROVENANCE:

Michael Edwin Marcus, 5th Baron Sandys of Ombersley (1855-1948), arms on binding