De Arte Natandi (The Art of Swimming), by Everard Digby, 1587.
(Photo:Wellcome Collection via The Public Domain Review)
How did you learn to swim?
Swimming is something that is often learned bydoingrather thanreading, but that wasnt always the case.
“De Arte Natandi (The Art of Swimming),” by Everard Digby, 1587. (Photo:Wellcome Collection via The Public Domain Review)
In fact, this practical skill has been immortalized in text.
Written by Digby, who was a theologian at Cambridge University, the book was originally published in Latin.
His purpose is clear: safety first!
“De Arte Natandi (The Art of Swimming),” by Everard Digby, 1587. (Photo:Wellcome Collection via The Public Domain Review)
If swimming was a science, it could be studied.
However, certain strokes were deemed less worthy.
This included those like the crawl which put the face in the water.
“De Arte Natandi (The Art of Swimming),” by Everard Digby, 1587. (Photo:Wellcome Collection via The Public Domain Review)
All the same, swimming was natural.
Yet unlike fish, men and women could do so much more in the water.
