Swordplay: An anonymous illustrated Dutch treatise for fencing with rapier, sword and polearms from 1595

Tucked away in the Newberry Library of Chicago is an anonymous manuscript entitled Schermkunst ("Art of Swordsmanship"), whose brief text and exquisite watercolours details fencing with the single sword, rapier and dagger, rapier and buckler, halberd, and full pike. Beyond its artistic charms, however, this little book of 1595 is one of the oldest known martial arts treatises from the Low Countries and gives us a glimpse into the Art of Defense as it was practiced at a particularly volatile...