Book

ARMORUM Archive Record
Book Partial Reviewed

Les vrays principes de l’espée seule

Book 1670 French France

Philibert de la Touche

Created from the Wiktenauer Books staging import for likely-missing late seventeenth-century and early eighteenth-century works. Source row 74.

Gelli treats Philibert de la Touche's book as one of the most beautiful and original French fencing treatises, noting its portrait, eighty-five engraved plates, royal letter, and strong technical interest despite later controversy around its theories.

Castle also records the Paris 1670 La Touche witness.

Vigeant 1882 places Philibert de la Touche among the principal and most curious masters of the old French school, praising the work's progress despite the controversy that surrounded some of its theory.

The former shell record TOUCHE (De La) has been folded into this canonical work so that bibliography references and edition evidence stay on a single public record.

Quality phase 164 (2026-08-15): two imported bibliography fragments (former works 2708 and 2711) were consolidated here; the false 1892 manifestation was a parser carry-over from a following Hutton cross-reference.

1 Editions
1 Resources
0 Holdings
6 References
Bibliographic Overview
TitleLes vrays principes de l’espée seule
AuthorPhilibert de la Touche
Earliest publication date1670
LanguageFrench
CountryFrance
Document typeBook
Authority statement
Philibert de la Touche
Authority Roles
Author
Philibert de la Touche
Edition History
Les vrays principes de l’espée seule 1670
CityParis
PublisherNot specified
PrinterFrançois Muguet
FormatOblong 4°
Pages[20], 102, [2] p.
DimensionsNot specified
Paris, 1670, Francois Muget. Gelli notes the author portrait, 85 engraved plates, letter to the king, preface, approval by thirteen fencing masters, and the work's great rarity.

Vigeant 1882, pp. 128-129: Paris, Francois Muguet, rue de la Harpe, 1670. Oblong quarto with frontispiece, author portrait, 35 copperplates outside the text, epistle to the king, preface, and the names of 13 approving masters. Vigeant also notes a plate showing an assault before the king at Versailles.

Quality phase 101b: publication city recovered from the explicit opening imprint in this note.

Quality phase 101h: François Muguet printer recovered from the explicit edition statement.

Former fragment edition 2717: Source pages: 360. Bracketed notes: ["PHILBERT", "Maistre enfaitd'armesà Paris et des pages de la Reyne, et de ceux de la Chambre de son A. R. Monseigneur le Duc d'Orléans", "PortraitofLa Touche. 35copperplates, outofthetext. \"La Touche is thefirst to describe that curious mode ofholding the rapier withbothhands, whichseems tohavebeeninfavourinFrancethroughout thesecondhalfoftheseventeenthcentury.\"-Castle's \"Schools andMasters ofFence.\"", "—"]
Former fragment edition 2720: Source pages: 361. Bracketed notes: ["I"]

Exact first-edition copy description checked in quality phase 164 (2026-08-15): engraved title leaf, nine further preliminary leaves, 102 pages and a terminal privilege leaf; portrait and 35 fencing-scene plates. The digital total of 170 images was not used as pagination, and the old claim of 85 plates is corrected.
Digital Witnesses
Wiktenauer article - Les Vrais Principes de l'Espee Seule (Philibert de la Touche)
HTML OCR
Wiktenauer · open
Created from Wiktenauer Books batch 9 on 2026-07-17.
Scholarly References
Castle entry CAS-P083-E004
Castle (1892)
Egerton Castle, Schools and Masters of Fence, from the Middle Ages to the End of the Eighteenth Century. With a complete bibliography. New and revised edition. London: George Bell & Sons, 1892.
Pages 83 · Entry CAS-P083-E004
Gelli entry GEL-P487-E001
Gelli (1890)
Jacopo Gelli, Bibliografia generale della scherma con note critiche, biografiche e storiche.
Pages 487,488,489 · Entry GEL-P487-E001
Thimm entry 2225
Thimm (1896)
Carl A. Thimm, A Complete Bibliography of Fencing and Duelling.
Pages 360 · Entry 2225
Thimm entry 2228
Thimm (1896)
Carl A. Thimm, A Complete Bibliography of Fencing and Duelling.
Pages 361 · Entry 2228
Thimm entry 584
Thimm (1896)
Carl A. Thimm, A Complete Bibliography of Fencing and Duelling.
Pages 90 · Entry 584
Vigeant entry VIG-P128-E002
Vigeant (1882)
Arsène Vigeant, La Bibliographie de l'escrime ancienne et moderne. Paris: Imprimé par Motteroz, 1882.
Pages 128-129 · Entry VIG-P128-E002