Gerard Thibault d'Anver's
ACADEMY OF THE SWORD (1630)
The Mystery of the Spanish Circle in Swordsmanship and Esoterica
Translated by John Michael Greer

This work is a book of firsts. The Academy of the Sword, a monumental project that culminated the life's work of one of Europe's most renowned swordsmen, is a massive catalog of techniques and insights, a systematic manual of swordsmanship intended, as Monsieur Thibault himself mentioned, "for use by students without access to an instructor."

But it is also one of the first works to clearly incorporate both techniques and the esoteric magical philosophy, embedding incredible amounts of coded messaging within the text and the extraordinary copperplate engravings.

The engravings themselves area first, for each is clearly different, massive two-page spreads with unbelievable detail not present in earlier drawings, painted figures, or woodcuts. They are detailed enough to be modern paper currency!

Mr. Greer, the talented and prolific writer of esoteric writings, brings his considerable knowledge of French, fencing and esoterica together to produce a superb introduction and translation to this monumental work. It is a beautiful and readable translation, one that like Salvatore Fabris, is clearly enough presented to stand as a modern training manual.

The Spanish Circle itself distills Pythogrean geometry into a system of swordsmanship and esoteric function that has intruiged generations of students and passionate enthusiasts. This is the first complete English translation that unlocks these secrets for the first time.

Finally, this is the first Iberian work in English by any publisher. Chivalry Bookshelf is proud to present an accessible and fundamentally important work to fencing historians, reenactors, SCA fencers, Western martial artists and students of the esoteric or magical arts.