L’Art Des Armes. DANET (Guillaume).

L’Art Des Armes, Ou l'on donne l'application de la théorie à la pratique de cet Art, avec les principes méthodiques adoptés dans nos Ecoles d’Armes; Ouvrage aussi utile que nécessaire à la Jeunesse, aux Militaires, et aux personnes dont l'état les oblige de porter l'épée, aussi celles qui veulent faire profession des Armes. Enrichi de 47 Figures, gravées en taille-douce.

Engraved frontispiece in both volumes and 45 folding plates by Taraval after Vaxcillere.

Two volumes. 8vo. [202 x 122 x 57 mm]. xxxviii, 247, [3] pp; [1]f, x, [iv], 215 pp. Bound in contemporary marbled calf, the spines divided into six panels with gilt compartments, lettered in the second and numbered in the fourth on red labels, the others tooled to alternating patterns, plain endleaves, yellow edges. (Headcaps and corners repaired).
Paris: chez Bélin, & Cerioux, [1797-1798]

Pardoel 375. Thimm p.75.

With the half-titles. Plate 14 is bound before 13 and 40 before 39. Short tear at the inner margin of plate 37. Some light browning and spotting but a good copy in attractive contemporary bindings with a printed prize label in vol.1 of the "Ecole Polymathique, Rue De Clichy, No.43, a Paris, dirigée par P. R. F. Butet (De La Sarthe)" dated "L'An XIII" (i.e. 1804-05).

The first volume was first published in 1766 and the second in 1767. They were republished together in 1788, making this the third edition. It is one of the more important 18th century manuals and a key work in the development of modern fencing. Danet managed to upset a significant section of the French fencing establishment, but his methods were eventually adopted and he was appointed director of the Ecole Royale d'Armes.

Stock no. ebc5123