A&S
Swetnam Chapter 1
This is part of an ongoing project to summarize and provide SCA focused commentary on The Schoole of the Noble and Worthy Science of Defence by Joseph Swetnam, published in 1617.
For links to the other sections of the Swetnam Project please go here.
I am using this facsimile: http://tysonwright.com/sword/SwetnamSchooleOfDefence.pdf for the project.
This first Chapter sheweth what weapons are chiefly to be learned, with many other principall notes worthy of observation
Swetnam likes long chapter titles.
Now we get to the beginning of the manual. As I understand it the first several chapters are not directly about combat, but are instead about various topics related partially to combat.
A number of different looks at Joseph Swetnam I’ve read ignore these chapters. I’m hoping to get a feel for his concept of combat through reading them.
I’ll try to organize his thoughts, something Swetnam doesn’t seem to have done. That means that it won’t be in the original order, as Swetnam jumps around a lot.