The Book of Sword - Richard F. Burton - Chatto and Windus, 1884 (First edition)

beautiful leather binding. Pages yellowed with age. some pages with small creases at the edges outside the text. maÎtre darmes (brevetÉ) with numerous illustrations. first and only edition. burton undertook this comprehensive history of the sword and its use during his later years, after his explorations ended. the arme blanche, as he liked to call it, had always had a fascination with him from his younger days on the continent. he collected a great deal of literature and inspected the arsenals of europe and india. to his encyclopedic mind the matter began with the first weapon fashioned by man's simian ancestors, began again with the invention of metallurgy (which he attributed to the Nile valley), henceforth coincided with the history of military prowess