ANGELO, Domenico & Henry.

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The School of Fencing with a General Explanation of the Principal Attitudes and Positions peculiar to the Art. First octavo edition of Domenico Angelo's renowned guide to swordsmanship, first issued as a sumptuous folio in 1763, and undoubtedly one of the most important fencing works ever published. This edition was the first with the text in English only.Domenico Angelo won the patronage of the Earl of Pembroke and introduced swordplay to George III and his children. His pupils included the actor David Garrick, the artist Joshua Reynolds, and the radical activist John Wilkes. Richard Sheridan and Thomas Gainsborough were members of his salle, as was Johann Christian Bach (son of the great composer).The 1763 folio was "the most lavishly illustrated fencing book since Thubault's in 1628... it was endlessly plagiarized and imitated but was far from being just a book of pictures: it argued that fencing should be seen as a sport, practised to improve one's physique" (Cohen, pp. 82-3). Angelo posed as model for the illustrations. The editing and compression of this edition was undertaken by Domenico's son Henry under the auspices of his father, who had recently retired to Eton where he continued to give lessons at the college. "I have endeavoured to render it of more general use, by reducing it both in size and price" (Henry's preface). The original 1763 folio edition presented the text in French only; later editions provided a parallel text in English. This edition was the first

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