Joachim Meyer: The Art of Fencing with the Rapier From the celebrated printed treatise — Strasbourg 1570

If the longsword was an inheritance and the dusack a school, the rapier was a glimpse of the future. When Joachim Meyer turned to it in his Gründtliche Beschreibung des Fechtens of 1570, he stood at the threshold of two ages: the slender, thrust-driven weapon of the burgher and the nobleman was just beginning to conquer Europe, bringing with it a new way of fighting—the elegant, point-centred art of the duel. Meyer answered in his own way: he took the proven principles of the German school and applied them to the weapon of the new age. The result is one of the earliest and most important German treatises devoted to the rapier.

This volume presents Meyer's teaching on the rapier in its entirety. It leads you through the fight exactly as Meyer taught it: from the onset (Zufechten), through work in the bind and in the thick of the encounter (Handarbeit), to a safe withdrawal (Abzug). You will learn the rapier guards (Ochs, Pflug, Eisenport, Langort, Zornhut, Mittelhut, Nebenhut, Wechsel) and the full range of techniques where the cut meets the thrust (Stich): leading the point, parrying and changing, play upon the four openings (Blößen), and the tactical devices that create an opening for the attack. Under Meyer's guidance, the rapier emerges not as a break with the German tradition, but as its natural continuation.

The text is accompanied by Meyer's detailed illustrations: pairs of fencers captured in motion and clear diagrams that reveal the geometry of thrust and cut at a glance. A work already regarded in its own day as the pinnacle of the art now speaks again in a clear English translation, with carefully crafted typography that preserves the spirit of the Renaissance original, including decorative initials, period-inspired layout, and facsimile pages.

Because this is a digital edition, Meyer is always with you: available for immediate download after purchase, ready to open on your computer, tablet, or phone, fully searchable, and easy to take with you to seminars, training sessions, or while travelling.

What the edition contains

• Complete English translation of Meyer's teaching on the rapier (1570 treatise).
• Original illustrations and facsimile pages from the printed source.
• A complete account of the fight, from the onset (Zufechten) to the withdrawal (Abzug).
• The rapier guards and the full range of cut-and-thrust techniques presented with consistent terminology.
• Carefully designed typography inspired by the original edition, optimized for comfortable on-screen reading.

Discover the weapon where the German tradition meets a new age of the duel—and with it Meyer's art, which united both into a single, coherent system.