Mathematical Treasure: Gérard Thibault’s Académie de l'Espée

The early modern Spanish school of fencing, La Destreza, used geometrical principles to define circles of attack and defense. By thinking of himself as the diameter of a circle, the swordsman used small movements of his foot, hand, or body within the circle to force his opponent to open up and become vulnerable. Although the practices are most attributed to two authors, Jerónimo Sánchez de Carranza (died ca 1608) and Luis Pacheco de Narváez (1570–1640), Belgian fencing master Gérard Thibault also described and illustrated the techniques in his 1628 manual, Académie de l'Espée. A detail from one of his plates is shown below.

The work’s title page:

The frontispiece depicts Thibault alongside the tools of the geometer:

The circle within which a fencer was to maneuver:

Fencers with their geometrical movements diagrammed on the floor:

Reference

Lankin, Evgeny. 2015, May 18. Дестреза (Destreza). https://studfile.net/preview/3963413/.

Thibault’s manual has been digitized by GoogleBooks.

Index to Mathematical Treasures