CLASSIC SPORT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 February 1939, Page 3

CLASSIC SPORT

ANTIQUITY OF FENCING. The long lineage of fencing, which reaches back to the classic age of Greece, has been well reviewed by Dr I. Szukovathy, Director of the Royal Hungarian College of Physical Education "at Budapest. “This branch of sport,” he states, “boasts the oldest bibliographical past. The fine arts, as painting and sculpturing, preserve historical relics of other sports, as of wrestling, in Egypt and China, and of Pony-polo in Asia. There are also very old records of shooting and fishing, but considering printed matter and manuscripts preceding them, we find the oldest records regarding fencing. I must here mention Tahloffer’s manuscripts of 1443, 1459, and 1467, and also Albert Durer’s of 1512. This last contains a few illustrations of wrestling, otherwise all four only mention fencing. Fencing not only has the oldest literary records remaining with us, but it also has the most exhaustive bibliographical data compiled regarding it. In contrast, fencing has, of all the sports, the least amount of literature in present times, which, however deplorable, can be explained in present times, which, however deplorable, can be explained by the decreasing interest shown for this sport, and by the fact that the works of the last century seem to have explored every detail in this field.” ’