Treatise

The Art of Fencing, or, the Use of the Small Sword
ARMORUM Archive Record
Treatise Catalogued Reviewed

The Art of Fencing, or, the Use of the Small Sword

Treatise 1734 English United Kingdom

ABBAT

A-block staging entry validated for model fit. Imported from staging batch duell-thimm-a, source entry 3. Title normalized on August 6, 2026 from the title page. The concise bibliographic form `The Art of Fencing, or, the Use of the Small Sword` is preferred for catalog use, while the fuller translator and attribution wording is preserved in notes.

A later Gelli witness confirms the Andrew Mahon Dublin translation family as 1734 with a 1735 London reissue. The apparent 1784/1785 reading in raw OCR is rejected in favor of the primary bibliographic witnesses.

Gelli confirms the Dublin 1734 Mahon witness, useful for the Irish publication context of the work family.

Vigeant 1882 preserves the full Dublin 1734 Mahon witness as the only known treatise in Ireland, stressing that it is an English translation of the 1696 Labat treatise and that the 12 plates were copied from the French original.

1 Editions
4 Resources
0 Holdings
4 References
Bibliographic Overview
TitleThe Art of Fencing, or, the Use of the Small Sword
AuthorABBAT
Earliest publication date1734
LanguageEnglish
CountryUnited Kingdom
Document typeTreatise
FencingSwordsmanship Sword
Authority Roles
Author
ABBAT
Edition History
The Art of Fencing, or, the Use of the Small Sword 1734
CityDublin
PublisherPrinted by James Hoey
PrinterNot specified
Format12°
Pages[2], x, 133, [3] p.
DimensionsNot specified
Source pages: 1. Bracketed notes: ["12copperplates, outofthetext."] Full title-page wording preserved after normalization on August 6, 2026: `The Art of Fencing, Or, the Use of the Small Sword. Translated from the French of the late celebrated Monsieur L'Abbat; Master of that Art at the Academy of Toulouse. By Andrew Mahon, Professor of the Small Sword in Dublin`.

Vigeant 1882, pp. 85-86: Dublin, printed by James Hoey, at the sign of Mercury in Skinner Row, 1734. In-12 with 12 copper plates outside the text. Vigeant stresses its Irish uniqueness and its status as an English translation of Labat's 1696 treatise.

Quality phase 109: the Dublin 1734 James Hoey edition is collated as [2], x, 133, [3] pages with 12 engraved plates; the 1735 cancel-title reissue confirms the shared sheet collation.
Digital Witnesses
Project Gutenberg text record
HTML
Project Gutenberg · open
Imported from The Online Books Page keyword search "fencing" with publication date <= 1920.
PDF facsimile
PDF HTML
Michigan State University · open
Imported from The Online Books Page keyword search "fencing" with publication date <= 1920.
The Online Books Page record
Catalogue HTML
The Online Books Page · open
Imported from The Online Books Page keyword search "fencing" with publication date <= 1920.
MSU Fencing Collection PDF - Labat
PDF
Michigan State University - Fencing Collection · open
Imported from reviewed MSU fencing confirmed mapping on 2026-07-17. Source row 3; confidence=high.
Scholarly References
Gelli entry GEL-P515-E001
Gelli (1890)
Jacopo Gelli, Bibliografia generale della scherma con note critiche, biografiche e storiche.
Pages 515 · Entry GEL-P515-E001
Gelli entry GEL-P573-E001
Gelli (1890)
Jacopo Gelli, Bibliografia generale della scherma con note critiche, biografiche e storiche.
Pages 573 · Entry GEL-P573-E001
Thimm entry 3
Thimm (1896)
Carl A. Thimm, A Complete Bibliography of Fencing and Duelling.
Pages 1 · Entry 3
Vigeant entry VIG-P086-E001
Vigeant (1882)
Arsène Vigeant, La Bibliographie de l'escrime ancienne et moderne. Paris: Imprimé par Motteroz, 1882.
Pages 85-86 · Entry VIG-P086-E001