Published by Lance Lobo of Laureate Press -- who has done for quality fencing literature what Sam Colt did to the repeat explosive acceleration of lead -- Gaugler's book is the first title published in the last 100 years to seriously rival (if not exceed) the critical efforts of Egerton Castle.

Of course, there will be the usual complaints by the medievalist crowd -- that Gaugler did not pay attention to Talhoffer, Liechtenauer, Fiore dei Liberi, and all the other medieval masters. But as the subtitle implies, his concern were the Foundations of Modern European Swordplay. Accordingly, Gaugler begins his exhaustive micro-analysis of techniques with the works of Marozzo.

Reflecting his own background in the Italian traditions, Gaugler's bibliography has little to offer to scholars looking for insights into traditions other than the Italian and French schools (and, of course, some of their saplings in the German and English cultural spheres.)

But when it comes to the big and not-so-big names and works of Italians and French authors on the Art, The History of Fencing is truly peerless -- an example to anyone undertaking scholarly analysis of historical fencing techniques.

...Also just out from Laureate Press is a paperback reprint of the English edition Baron de Bazancourt's Secrets of the Sword (originally published in London by George Bell & Sons in 1900). This no-frills introduction into the skills of swordplay (with an eye on the practical aspects of plying its insights in a duel) occasionally drifts off into the numbingly polite after-dinner conversation of a bygone era. But it manages to capture some core insights into fencing better than some of the professional literature of the period. A good deal at US$19.95.