![]() “ We don’t know who was the true publisher of Discours sur les Duels,” stated the Notice sur Brantôme (Paris, 1824). The one about duels never came out before 1722. They are still sought-after today, and the different titles-including the lives of the great French Captains of his time, of the great foreign Captains, and anecdotes about duels-are often sold independently. His posthumous memoirs weren’t printed before 1655-56, in Leyde, chez Jean Sambix (1), and didn’t enjoy success until reprinted in 1722. While at Court, he collected many stories and anecdotes from the great Captains of his time. But he was a warlike young man, who almost joined the Knights of Malta at one point, and who knew what he was talking about as well as who he was talking about. Brantôme wasn’t a specialist, so to speak and he wisely bowed to the Italian masters, who published numerous books on the matter-he respectfully called them the Duelists. Thus governed by holy and social rules, duels gave birth to fighters as well as theorists. But as our author Brantôme put it: “ God moves in a mysterious way, and His gifts of justice, equity and mercy are not to be discussed.” Others claimed that the innocent victims paid for earlier crimes, while their wicked executioners would soon pay for theirs-including this one. Of course, the winner was sometimes convincted of felony later on. When a quarrel occurred, and when it was impossible to decide who was right from wrong, the belligerents resorted to fight before God. The idea was simple: God would rather make a miracle than to let injustice prevail. They settled their problems with swords: the belligerents fought one another, and the winner was always right.” This practice, known as the art of duel, spread like a disease mainly in France, Spain and Italy, “ where,” stated Mr de Saintfoix in his Essais historiques sur Paris (Londres, 1759), “ people were a little bit too proud to be men.” Christianity soon justified duels. All their virtue was at the point of their swords, and they knew no right but might. “ They knew no laws, no discipline and had no social rules. “ These people were fierce to the extreme,” reads L’Esprit de l’Encyclopédie (Paris, 1798). Among these new migrants were the Lombards-from the current Germany-, who took over Italy in the late 6th century. When the Roman Empire fell, the Barbarians left the North of Europe to invade the rest of the continent, taking their customs with them-including duels. It plunged me into a world of honour, absurdity, and brutal deaths-and it also reminded me of an old ripped coat. ![]() The one I picked up on this occasion is a volume of the memoirs of Brantôme (circa 1540-1614) the one Contenans les anecdotes (.) touchant les duels -about the anecdotes linked to duels (A Leyde, chez Jean Sambix-1722). But how come such a barbaric custom became so generally established among them? When I look for an answer, I have a conditioned reflex: I open a book. I couldn’t help thinking that such a nonsense behaviour would have led us, some two hundred years ago, to a deadly fight-a duel! Thus our brutal ancestors defended their honour at the slightest provocation. Push never came to shove, and we wisely went our separate ways. I had an idiotic argument in the street the other day, with a guy who considered I had stared at him. ![]()
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