Comments on: Early modern swimming

By: Tim Johnson

Tim Johnson — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 01:29:44 +0000

Not that I want to brag but you should check out a book I wrote: History of Open-Water Marathon Swimming available from Amazon.com… the early history of British and American swimming is quite thorough and the drawing I discovered of Renaissance swimming is mind-boggling. I’m presently revising the book for a third edition with color prints.

By: Carsten

Carsten — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 13:51:12 +0000

Another great book (mostly for people interested in the history of swimming) is Ralph Thomas’ book: Swimming (London - Sampson Low, Marston, 1904). Basically he wandered around Europe for 13 years visiting every library he found and wrote af bibliography of everything ever written on the subject of Swimming (this takes up more than 400 pages). Charles Sprawson holds him in great regard and I suspect that Nicholas Orme might also have peeked thru Thomas’ book before writing his own…

… and let me just say, that I only found your blog today while searching the net for references on early british swimming, and I find that it is a very fascinating subjectmatter that you have chosen. Great work

By: Kristine

Kristine — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 12:45:31 +0000

Thanks, Carsten! That sounds good, I’ll definitely take a look.

Here’s the University of Minnesota Press’s webpage on Haunts of the Black Masseur, to save others the Googling.

By: Carsten

Carsten — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 12:30:25 +0000

A very very good cultural history of swimming is Charles Sprawsons: Haunts of the Black Masseur. Required reading indeed, and easily found in almost any online bookstore. A Canadian documentary based on that book was pÃ¥roduced in 2004, but I have yet to find a copy or catch it on tv.

Thanx for the Nicholas Orme reference, I will most definetely get that in the near future. hadn’t heard about it before…

By: Frog in a Well - The Korea History Group Blog

Frog in a Well - The Korea History Group Blog — Thu, 15 Dec 2005 12:10:46 +0000

[...] First notes towards a History of Swimming in Early Modern Europe. [...]

By: kristine

kristine — Fri, 09 Dec 2005 07:59:44 +0000

Thanks you so much, Peacay! It’s great to have an image from Digby to go with the post.

By: peacay

peacay — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 21:05:55 +0000

Oh actually, there’s one image I found..
http://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/library/special_collections/early_books/pix/Natandi.htm

Not so much swimming as floundering !

By: peacay

peacay — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 21:03:09 +0000

Thanks Kristine, that was a thoroughly interesting post.

You made me go searching but alas…I can’t find much in the way of images to borrow and post ;- )

The lack of cultural context for early modern times is obvioulsy giving you a book to write in the future!