L'Ecole des Armes, avec l'explication générale des princpales attitudes et positions concernant l'Escrime. Dediée à [sic.] Leurs Altesses Royales Les Princes Guillaume-Henry & Henry-Frédéric

by ANGELO Malevolti Tremamondo, Domenico (1716-1802)

Price: $12,000.00
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Book desription: London: R. & J. Dodsley, 1763. Oblong folio. (12 1/2 x 18 3/4 inches). 4pp. subscriber's list, 1p. errata at back. 47 engraved plates after J. Gwin or Gwyn by Hall (25), Ryland (13), Grignion (5), Elliot (2) and Chamber and Gwin himself (1 each). (Expert marginal repairs to title and occasional text leaves). Expertly bound to style in 18th-century half diced russia with marbled paper-covered boards, spine in six compartments with raised bands, red morocco lettering-piece in the second, the others with repeat decoration in gilt. The first edition of Angelo's renowned fencing manual: this work 'is certainly the most important book that had appeared on the subject in England since the [sixteenth century]' (DNB) During the eighteenth-century, fencing was a popular sport among English royalty and aristocracy, but one which was primarily learned on the Continent until the Italian fencing master Domenico Angelo Malevolti Tremamondo established his fencing school in London. The son of a wealthy Italian merchant and a riding instructor of note, Angelo was born in Leghorn, Italy in 1716 and trained with the celebrated fencer Monsieur Teillagory in Paris. After arriving in England in 1755, he participated in and won several public fencing matches, quickly earning a reputation that helped him secure high-ranking clients such as the Duke of Devonshire and the Earl of Pembroke. He soon capitalized on his popularity by establishing Angelo's School of Arms, where he taught horsemanship as well as fencing to an affluent and fashionable clientele. Angelo also continued to teach privately and in 1758, instructed the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York. 'Among his acquaintances were numbered Garrick, Reynolds, Gainsborough, Wilkes, and many other distinguished persons. Encouraged by such a clientele, Angelo bought out in 1763 his suberb "L'Ecole des Armes ...", dedicated to Princes William Henry [the Duke of Glocester] and Henry Frederick [the Duke of Cumberland] ... The expense was covered by subscriptions among 236 noblemen and gentlemen, Angelo's patrons and pupils'. (DNB). The plates were from drawings by an Irish-born artist James Gwin or Gwyn (1700-1769), a coach painter, who, apart from the present work, is now chiefly known for his enamel work. The majority of the engravings are by Hall (probably Charles Hall [c.1720-1783]), Ryland (probably Edward Ryland [d.1771]) or Charles Grignion (1716-1780). The work went through a number of editions in the 18th and into the 19th century. Angelo retired and his place was taken by his son, and over the years Angelo's School became a venerable British institution. The school continued to operate throughout the 19th century, always run by successive generations of the Angelo family, until it eventually closed in the early twentieth-century. J. Gelli Bibliografia generale della scherma (1890) 21; Lipperheide Td47; Sander 23; Thimm p.9.

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