Richard Burton reference

[Ed]

The Book of the Sword

Dated perhaps but classic. Free download.

https://archive.org/details/BurtonSw...e/n27/mode/2up

[Hotspur]

Very cool

A great Sunday bonus

I find a lot of stuff on archive and other bookshelves

Most countries have online libraries on history sites

One I used to use more 19 years ago

https://www.british-history.ac.uk/

Another
https://origin.web.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook.asp

One that led me to this site in 1999
https://www.sirclisto.com/

Cheers
GC

[Jim McDougall]

GREAT ADDITION ED!!!
In my earliest days of collecting and study, THIS book was the backbone of everything, and I totally blame Burton for this lifelong affliction/obsession in the study of historic and exotic weapons. Back in those days, there were few books and references, especially accessible or affordable. Obviously decades before computers, the web, email etc. (years ago Andrew here wisecracked, yeah Jim but they still had papyrus, right?). ...this book became my guide.

I wanted to follow him, and learn of every kind of sword worldwide, and their history. ...and I've come close in the past 50+ years. A wonderful and fascinating odyssey, in the steps of Burton, one of the most intriguing characters Ive ever known of.

One if the most exciting moments came over 20 years ago, when after a long search, I finally found that his notes were actually held in the rare books section of the Huntington Library in Calif. I was able to obtain access by invitation of the curator, and when I went I was led into a private room by security guards. There, wearing white gloves etc. the boxes of now yellowed sheaves of unlined paper......was the original MANUSCRIPT! for the Book of the Sword!
The words were printed in pencil in the tiniest letters Ive ever seen, and the line drawings seen in the book were pinned with straight pins to the pages (there were no staples in the 1850s).
I am not afraid to admit trembling a little as I carefully went through the pages of the book I cherished most of my life, in the first words of Burton from those days before publishing the book.

I could not resist reminiscing, hazards of old age.

While indeed dated, this book has been so valuable in setting the benchmarks for study in virtually every area. It has been the baseline for so many researches I have done, and despite some errors corrected with new data a century later, overall he was amazingly accurate.

Thank you Ed, for sharing this here, an important reference that even young newcomers to all of this should find fascinating.

Gratefully,
Jim

[Ed]

Here is a funny story. I came across a first edition of this book some years ago on ebay. Very reasonably priced, ex lib.


Seems a guy working at the Manchester UK library got jilted and swiped tons of books. A few months later Scotland Yard contacted me and asked if I bought the book and if I still had it in my possession. I did, naturally, and offered to return it free gratis. "No no" they said. Turns out the guy never spent the cash, just kept in under a mattress or something. Turns out I got my loot back, they got their book and I ended up having a nice correspondence with the head librarian for a while.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/e...er/6083672.stm

[CutlassCollector]

Great link to the book Ed. Bedtime reading for me. Thanks.
And also good story re the Book Thief!

Best,
David

[Jim McDougall]

Excellent story Ed!!!
Thats what its all about when it comes to books, and what they give us in addition to the information they hold. I learned early in in the collecting game that the books and info were more valuable than the weapons in some perspectives.

While information is of course accessible online, there is something about holding the original old references, the musty smell, the feel of the pages, and above all the original context of cited material.

A quotation I have long held in my library:

"...if you cannot read all your books, at any rate handle, or, as it were, fondle them- per into them, let them fall open where they will.
Read from the first sentence that arrests the eye, set them back on their shelves with your own hands, arrange them on your own plan so that if you do not know what is in them, you will at least know where they are.

Let them be your friends; let them at any rate be your acquaintances.

-Winston Churchill

As the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin was in his last days after suffering a mortal wound in a duel in 1837, he went into his library, and bid farewell to his beloved books, his friends as he called them.

After nearly six decades of assembling my own library, I can entirely relate, and my happiest moments have always been awaiting a new arrival of some obscure title.

A 'Bizarro' cartoon I saved from back in the 90s:

[Ed]

Last thing ... books speak to us, right? Well I bought a vellum bound religious book when I was 16 or so. It had a handwritten inscription on the flyleaf. Finally, 420 years later, the speaker spoke:

De die 20 junii 1605 sub ? conventus sanctissimae trinitatis debet regi et inhabitari per solos fratres gallos quandiu invenientur qui inibi residere et cultui divino insistere voluerint, ita ut de caetero quandiu fratres dicti ? praedictae nationis gallicanae idonei reperientur, ut praemissum est, nullus alius quam eiusdem nationis gallicae in ? eligi seu admitti aut electus ? quoquo modo possit seu praesumatur

On June 20, 1605, under Paul 5, the convent of the Most Holy Trinity must be governed and inhabited only by French brothers as long as those who wish to reside there and attend to divine worship are found, so that, moreover, as long as the brothers of the said order of the aforementioned French nation are found suitable, as has been stated above, no one other than a member of the same French nation may be elected or admitted as corrector or, having been elected, confirmed in any way.

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by Ed

Last thing ... books speak to us, right? Well I bought a vellum bound religious book when I was 16 or so. It had a handwritten inscription on the flyleaf. Finally, 420 years later, the speaker spoke:

Exactly Ed! Just as the weapons do.