Books and Manuscripts

London: Printed for J. Murray, 1784. Second edition. 4to. (ii), xv, (v), xvii-xxii, 162 pp. Illustrated with an engraved frontispiece and 18 engraved plates (16 folding). Full vellum, stamped in gilt, red morocco spine labels; top edge gilt, other edges untrimmed; marbled endpapers; foxing to prelims; scattered light to moderate foxing to text and plates; offsetting on plates; old catalogue slip mounted at rear; from the library of Captain Cyril G.R. Matthey, with his signature stamped in gilt on front board, and with his armorial book-plate on front paste-down.

Cyril G.R. Matthey (b. 1864) was Captain of the London Rifle Brigade, a member of the London Fencing Club, and Membre d'Honneur du Cercle d'Escrime de Bruxelles. He wrote extensively on the history of fencing, and helped reintroduce the work of English gentleman George Silver (ca. 1550s-1620s) on swordplay. Alongside Alfred Hutton, Egerton Castle, Carl Thimm, Sir Richard Burton, and Sir Frederick Pollock, Matthey was instrumental in the 19th-century in bringing scholarly and historical attention to Renaissance martial arts and other historical forms of swordplay.

From the library of bibliographer, bookseller, and arms collector Raymond L.J. Riling (1896-1974), and with his illustrated book-plate on verso of front free endpaper.