Introduction

In 1996, exactly one hundred years after Carl A. Thimm published his classic A complete bibliography of fencing and duelling, the Canadian fencer Henk Pardoel presented his bibliographical work - The complete bibliography of the art and sport of fencing. A number of fencing bibliographies had been published in the hundred years between these two books, but none as comprehensive as those of Thimm and Pardoel.

Henk Pardoel has now brought out the long-awaited and expanded edition of his bibliography, seven years after its original publication. The time lag between the editions is understandable in view of the immense effort Mr. Pardoel has put into this project. Henk Pardoel has not been able to access, nor study personally, all the literature described in this bibliography. Instead, he had to rely on catalogue descriptions of the books in a large number of libraries. This makes difficult the attainment of absolute consistency in the cataloguing and categorising of the literature in this type of compendium. The work on cataloguing has also been complicated by variations in the spelling of names and titles between libraries in different countries and different languages. In spite of these obstacles, Henk Pardoel has succeeded in bringing order to the information he has obtained. Mr. Pardoel’s work on verifying the existence of the books in libraries, rather than relying on information in previous bibliographies, has enabled him to exclude a number of manuscripts and printed works whose existence has been in doubt. He has also provided references to other bibliographies, and information in which collections he found the books, so anyone needing specific or more detailed information about a book can use these references to acquire further information.

Only a few of the large private libraries containing fencing literature that were built up around 1900 remain complete today. The most distinguished of these collections is that of the British fencer, Archibald Corble (1883-1944). This huge collection is now housed in the library of the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium. Another large collection was assembled by English shipping magnate and weapon collector Robert Lyons Scott (1871-1939), who donated his exclusive weapon collection and library to the city of Glasgow, where it is now housed in the Glasgow (Kelvingrove) Museum and Art Gallery. A third, and equally impressive, collection of books on the art and sport of fencing were amassed by Emil Fick (1863-1930). A Swedish officer and fencer, his extensive collection of books was bought after his death by the Royal Armoury (Livrustkammaren) Stockholm, Sweden. The libraries of Alfred Hutton (1839-1910), bequeathed to the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, and the French fencer and bibliographer, Arsène Vigeant’s (1844-1916) books, now belonging to a private collector in the United Kingdom, should also be mentioned among those collections. Both of these collections are small in terms of numbers of books, but are highly interesting because they include a number of rare publications and manuscripts.

I have been custodian of Emil Fick’s books in the Royal Armoury library, and so it has been a pleasure and an honour for me to contribute to this bibliography. I hope that this work will make people interested in fencing more aware of these special collections. I also hope that this bibliography will promote increased collaboration and exchange of experiences between the custodians of these cultural treasures.

Henk Pardoel’s preface shows that many other people have assisted in making this work so comprehensive and of such a high standard. But without Pardoel’s commitment and laudable work in collecting and compiling all the information submitted by public and private libraries, this book could never have been published. Therefore, I wish to congratulate Henk Pardoel on his work, which undoubtedly will prove to be a vital source of knowledge for those involved in fencing, for those conducting research into this special subject, and for the layman. In this context, I conclude with a quote by Egerton Castle in the preface to his small fencing bibliography of 1889, Bibliotheca Artis Dimicatoriæ: ‘A complete and critical bibliography is not only the most efficient help that can be afforded to the pursuit of original inquiry on any particular subject, but, as all know who have had to hunt for small details and cross-references among old books and manuscripts, often proves of value to investigators of other and not even necessarily cognate matter.’ I firmly believe that this work fits that description.

Henrik Andersson
Curator Swedish Royal Armouries