A little while ago I went to the National Fencing Museum to photograph some of Malcolm Fare's amazing book collection. Most researchers and other interested folk find a compiled pdf of the photos much more useful than the raw footage, not least because the raw footage is not usually in order; for technical reasons, the shoot usually takes the recto pages in order first, then the verso pages in reverse order. Plus there are duplicates, duff images, and so on. Also, the raw footage is between 2 and 10 Gigabytes per book, which is way too large. So, the photos are being released as and when the pdfs are ready; these are being done by volunteers from all over the world, so there is no fixed schedule for them.

The first book is now ready for free download, from the Spada.Press website. Prepared by Jim Alvarez, De La Touche's glorious “True Principles of the Sword Alone” is a vitally important book in the history of fencing, one of the earliest smallsword treatises we have. It dates from 1670.

To download the book, go to this address: http://www.spada.press/book/the-true-principles-of-the-sword/ and follow the instructions… please note that while you are welcome to the pdf for free, it is set to ‘pay what you want', so you can chip in if you wish. When the book has raised enough money to pay for the production costs, we will produce an affordable facsimile, so be generous!