Following the success of Jeffrey L. Forgeng s translation of Joachim Meyer s The Art of Sword Combat the author was alerted to an earlier recension of the work which was discovered in Lund University Library in Sweden.

The manuscript, produced in Strassburg around 1568, is illustrated with thirty watercolor images and seven ink diagrams.

The text covers combat with the long sword (hand-and-a-half sword), dusack (a one-handed practice weapon comparable to a saber), and rapier. The manuscript s theoretical discussion of guards is one of the most critical passages to...