The Encyclopedia of the Sword

Rating:
Summary: Worth the bucks!
Review: "The Encyclopedia of the Sword" is probably the most expensive fencing-related book on the market today, but there is no other reference volume that can touch it. It may not be as indepth on some topics as some specialty sword fighting books, but it certainly makes up for that in the amount of varied information it presents. I've seen this book in public libraries. You should have a copy for yourself. Nick Evangelista knows his stuff.

Rating:
Summary: A GREAT REFERENCE BOOK!
Review: I find myself using "The Encyclopedia of the Sword" all the time. That's probably the mark of a useful reference book, huh? The encyclopedia covers swords from all over the world, movies, art, literature, sport, history, sword fighting techniques, biographies. Sometimes it's just fun to sit down and read it. I recommend "The Encyclopedia of the Sword" to everyone.

Rating:
Summary: What an impressive Mess
Review: This book contains a voluminous amount of interesting information on sword history and fencing. It is also teeming rather horrendously with misconceptions, familiar myths, historical inaccuracies, and pure fiction. The author only used the barest references as his sources, some terribly outdated to the 1920's! He even omitted the major recent works of world experts and it really shows.

Throughout, the author's point of view is exclusively that of a modern instructor of sport fencing who is enthralled with choreographed Hollywood swordplay. His inexperience with medieval fighting manuals and with medieval swords in general shows clearly. In this way it distorts much of what would be useful to today's sword enthusiasts and students of historical medieval & renaissance swordsmanship. The amount of irrelevant material included is matched only by the amount of relevant material that was left out, especially on medieval German and Italian sources, and renaissance English ones. The work excludes several major categories of European sword forms and blade types while seeming to come up with altogether new ones. Also, the entries on Japanese swords and swords arts (as well as those on Chinese) are erroneous and insultingly simplistic.

If you can afford to, get the book just to serve as a bad example of biased research. Otherwise, you'd be a lot better off to start your own library of primary sources rather than paying $75 for this.

John Clements Author, Swordsman HACA Director Houston

Rating:
Summary: Quite a load
Review: This book contains a voluminous amount of interesting information on sword history and fencing. Unfortunately, it is also teeming rather horrendously with misconceptions, familiar myths, historical inaccuracies, and pure fiction. The author only used the barest references as his sources, some terribly outdated to the 1920's! He even omitted the major recent works of world experts and it really shows. The author is to be commended for his efforts, but his one-man show missed a tremendous amount of fundamental material on the attributes of sword types and wasted effort on frivolous entries.

Throughout, the author's point of view is exclusively that of a modern instructor of sport fencing who is enthralled not with our martial heritage but with choreographed Hollywood swordplay. His inexperience with medieval fighting manuals and with medieval swords in general shows clearly. In this way it distorts much of what would be useful to today's sword enthusiasts and students of historical medieval & renaissance swordsmanship. The amount of irrelevant material included is matched only by the amount of relevant material that was left out, especially on medieval German and Italian sources, and renaissance English ones. The work excludes several major categories of European sword forms and blade types while seeming to come up with altogether new ones. The material on 19th century German swords and Mensur are full of holes and errors. Also, the entries on Japanese swords and swords arts (as well as those on Chinese) are erroneous and insulting in their simplistic.

Only those who have never before encountered or studied anything substantial on the history of swords and fencing will be impressed with this book or fail to notice its serious and glaring discrepancies. It's certainly worth pursuing, but if you can afford to get the book, do so just to serve as a bad example of limited, biased research. Otherwise, serious students of the sword would be far better off to start their own library of primary! sources rather than paying $75 for this.

Rating:
Summary: A TOP REFERENCE BOOK ON FENCING!
Review: This book is so full of useful information, you'll be using it for both references and entertainment. It hits on so many topics, I was amazed when I purchased my copy a few years ago. I don't believe there is another book quite like it on the market today. True, it is costly, but it brings together information you'd have to locate in fifty or a hundred separate books. And it is all served up in Nick Evangelista's highly readable style.

I can't understand the negative comments about this book, and can only imagine that the reviwers are following their own personal agendas.

Nick Evangelista has done a service to both fencing and scholarship by writing "THE ENCYCLPEDIA OF THE SWORD."

I recommend this book highly.

Rating:
Summary: Everything you always AND never wanted to know about swords.
Review: This is a great book for everybody with even a passing interrest in swords or fencing. It covers a lot of the colorfull history of swords, ranging from the ancient swords used in the Troyan war to fencing in the Olympics today.
"The Encyclopedia of the Sword" is more then just an other quick reference of fencing or antique swords. When you read it you'll get an idea how fencing evolved from warfare to an art, science and sport.
Evangelista describes much more as merely fact about sword-types, fencers, techniques and fencing-schools, he also manages to include a lot of anacdotes about duels and Maitres. Undoubtely inspired by Evangelista's own maitre he also includes a lot of information about the sword in fiction: literature, theatre and movies.

Everybody who buys this book must however bear in mind that it wasn't written as a manual on fencing, kendo or any other form of swordsplay, nor as a elaborate book for collectors of swords. You don't have to fence to read this book but by reading it you certainly won't learn HOW to fence.

Personaly I thought the book had one minor drawback: the information about famous contemporary fencers focuses almost entirely on Amarican fencers, not a word about the reigning European champions from France, Germany or eastern Europe.

Rating:
Summary: Not exactly...
Review: Very useful to Society for Creative Anachronism members. It will help give you background on the medieval history of sword fighting, and the associated cultural baggage. Also useful in that it has good coverage of Asian, especially Japanese, sword culture. In case you have a persona with a samurai background, say.

Granted, it does not tell you how to perform medieval sword fighting, per se. But the contextual information helps flesh out your understanding and persona.

Rating:
Summary: Not exactly...
Review: What a glorious mess. Perhaps it was too ambitious an undertaking.

Whatever the reason, this book is so flawed in it's approach and information as to be, essentially, useless. Particularly at a $125 pricepoint.