The Art of Fencing
The Rainer Köbelin Library
Auction Sale at Reiss & Sohn October 27 2026
Rainer Köbelin’s (1938–2025) love for books was sparked in early years by his parents: “My father was a book collector; I essentially grew up in a library”, Köbelin, who founded his own antiquarian bookstore in 1967, once told the Münchener Abendzeitung in an interview. Beginning with his training under Carl Stritesky – university fencing master and fencing instructor at MTV München – he also developed a lifelong dedication to fencing starting in 1960. Stage fencing in particular, which combined his passion for fencing with his love of dance, remained an active pursuit for him as both a practitioner and instructor until the very end.
Over six decades, as an active fencer, member of the German Fencing Academy (Akademie der Fechtkunst Deutschlands, AdFD), and fencing historian, Rainer Köbelin compiled a unique private archive that he maintained well into his later years. Comprising several hundred works, the collection documents in impressive depth the evolution of European fencing and the history of dueling.
Alongside the Who’s Who of early fencing literature – featuring renowned and sought-after names from Agrippa (Trattato di scientia d’arme, 1553) and Fabris (De lo schermo overo scienza d’arme, 1606) to Liancour (Le maistre d’armes, 1686) and Weischner (Die ritterliche Geschicklichkeit, 1765) – the library contains rarities on the development of academic fencing (Mensur), such as Escher’s Anweisung zur Fechtkunst auf Hiebe in verhängter und steiler Auslage (1833) and Roux’s Deutsches Paukbuch (1857). It also includes works recording the differentiation of modern sports fencing, such as Embry’s Dictionnaire raisonné d’escrime (1857–1859). Even extremely rare, niche titles – like La Béraudière’s legal treatise Le combat de seul à seul en camp clos (1608) – reflect Köbelin’s collecting philosophy, which encompassed fencing in its entirety.
The collection is distinguished by the expert selection of a practitioner, historian, and antiquarian who valued a magnificent bibliophile gem bound in red morocco just as much as a significant, one-of-a-kind volume that proudly shows its age and past. The small bookplate of Rainer Köbelin, which appears in some volumes, is usually not mentioned in the descriptions.
Amsterdam, R. de Baudous, 1608.
We take pride in presenting to you this collection, which was compiled over decades and we are confident it will spark the interest of an audience not limited to the circle of classical bibliophile colletors, an audience of book-lovers who all share the same: a passion for fencing.
