Corble Collection To Be Digitized!

This is ridiculously exciting news! Big thank you to Gunðormr Dengir for pointing me at this!

(This is going to be an exclamation point heavy post. Deal with it.)

A portion of the headline reads, "KBR, KU Leuven Libraries and Google signed agreements to share a large portion of important digitised documents reflecting the rich cultural and historical heritage located in the libraries."

The article notes that more than 80,000 individual works are going to be made freely available, which is itself absolutely bonkers exciting. However, of special interest to me is the last bullet point example of what's going to be put up on Google books: "Corble collection: collection of the British fencer Archibald Corble (1883-1944), one of the world's most extensive collections on the history of fencing."

The Corble collection is probably one of the most extensive fencing-related collections you may never have heard of. A description of it is here, but let me just quote from it: "The collection consists of about 1,900 copies, dating from the 15th to the 20th century, and mainly originates in France, England, Latin America, Italy and Germany." Additionally, it notes that "This valuable collection is attractive to many scholars because of its diversity. The scope of the Corble Collection is much broader than only the art of fencing. It also contains treatises on duelling written by various fencing masters; works on self-defence; and books on the handling, making, and evolution of stabbing weapons and firearms. But the collection also contains material that focuses on the legal and religious side of duelling, such as pamphlets on lawsuits and legislation, as well as religious pamphlets that warn audiences against the dangers of duelling."

I am so excited for this! There's what looks to be a partial list of the collection here. That's just from a quick digging around - if I find a better or more useful list, I'll edit this post to include it. There are definitely works in there that are readily available in translation (Marozzo's Opera Nova, for instance) but I can't wait to see what manuals or treatises we haven't had ready access to before this get to be seen by anyone on the internet.

This is so awesome and I cannot wait.