Walpurgis Fechtbuch (MS I.33)

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Walpurgis Fechtbuch
MS I.33, Royal Armouries
Leeds, United Kingdom
MS I.33 31v.jpg
MS I.33 32r.jpg
ff 31v-32r, including St. Walpurga in her ward
Hils' catalog 30
Leng's catalog 38.9.8
Also known as Liber de Arte Dimicatoria
The Tower Manuscript
British Museum No. 14 E iii, No. 20
Type Fencing manual
Date ca. 1320s
Place of origin Franconia
Language(s) Medieval Latin
Scribe(s) Unknown
Author(s) Lutegerus (?)
Illustrated by Unknown
Material Parchment, in a modern binding
Size 34 folia
Format Double-sided; two illustrations per
side with descriptive text above
and below
Script Bastarda
External link Museum data sheet
ColorImageshigh-res.jpgBlackandWhiteImages.jpg
German Translation.png
Italian Translation.png

The MS I.33 is a German fencing manual dating to the 1320s.[1] It currently rests in the holdings of the Royal Armouries at Leeds, England. The I.33 is earliest extant writing on Medieval martial arts and the oldest known treatise on swordsmanship, and it appears to have been devised by a secular priest, possibly the "Lutegerus" (or Liutger) mentioned in the text.[2] It was the work of three scribes and potentially as many as 17 illustrators.[3]

The treatise is fully illustrated, and consists of both mnemonic verses and longer explanations in a vernacular Medieval Latin. (The format of verse and gloss may indicate that the priest was recording a much older tradition.) The technique presented is one of two unarmored opponents fencing with arming sword and buckler. This, together with the intriguing fact that the fencers depicted are a priest and a student (and on the last two pages, a priest and a woman identified as St. Walpurga), seems to suggest that the subject matter treated was not a chivalric art, but rather an art of self-defense outside the warrior class. Repeatedly, the text makes mention of the pupils (scolaris/discipulus) of the priest, as well as youths (iuvenis) and clients (clientulum). It seems, therefore, to treat a secular priest who was offering fencing lessons to young men.

The manuscript in its present form consists of five quires, of which all but the first are incomplete; at least eight leaves are known to be missing (assuming it started with complete quires of four bifolia each).[4] The precise contents of these missing leaves are unknown, but it is possible that they were a source for the thirty uncaptioned sword and buckler plays in the Libri Picture A.83, the Codex I.6.2º.4, and the Cgm 3712; alternatively, they may originate from another manuscript in the same system. These plays seem in turn to have been the primary source for Paulus Hector Mair's treatment of the side sword and buckler, which he captioned with his own interpretations.

Contents

Provenance

The known provenance of the MS I.33 is:

  • Written in the 1320s, possibly by a priest named Liutger; owned by Franconian monks until the 1500s.
  • 1400s – an additional couplet was inscribed at the top of folio 1r, possibly by Enea Silvio Piccolomini (Pope Pius II; 1405-1464).[citation needed]
  • 1552 or 53 – looted from a monastery by Johannes Herbart von Würzburg during the Franconian campaigns of Albert-Archibald, Duke of Brandenburg-Kulmbach.[5][3] Würzburg was a belt-maker and later fencing master to the dukes of Sachsen-Gotha; he later inscribed his name on folio 7r.
  • before 1579 – possibly duplicated by Heinrich von Gunterrodt while compiling material for his book[5] (this copy has been lost).
  • late 1500s-1945 – owned by the dukes of Sachsen-Gotha; listed in an 18th century library catalog as Cod.Membr.I.no.115.[3] The second device on folio 26r was copied into the Codex Guelf 125.16 Extravagante in the 1600s by a scribe who couldn't decipher the Latin text.[6] The manuscript was further described on six leaves of paper (with short excerpts of the text) by Heinrich Niewöhner in 1910. (Lost during World War II.)
  • 1945-1950 – location unknown (sold London, Sotheby's, 27 March 1950).
  • 1950-1996 – held by the Royal Armouries and stored in the Tower of London; known variously as "Tower of London Ms. I.33" or "British Museum No. 14 E iii, No. 20, D. vi. I".
  • 1996 – moved to the newly-opened Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds.

Sotheby's listed the manuscript as "a 14th-century manuscript of unknown provenance", and it was not identified as the lost Cod.Membr.I.no.115. until Krämer in 1975.[7]

Contents

Folio Section
1r - 32v

Gallery

Images hosted by the Royal Armouries.

Additional Resources

References

  1. The manuscript has been dated to anywhere between 1290 to 1350. Anglo (1988) dated it to "the very end of the 13th century". Cinato and Surprenant (2009) avoid claiming a specific decade, placing it "at the turn of the 14th century".
  2. See f 1v.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 Cinato, Franck, & Suprenant, André. Liber de Arte Dimicatoria: The Book of the Art of Fighting. Lugdunenses, 2006. Retrieved 13 May 2011. (dead link)
  4. Private conversation with Jeffrey Forgeng.
  5. 5.0 5.1 von Gunterrodt, Heinrich. De Veris Principiis Artis Dimicatorie. Wittenberg, 1579. p C3rv
  6. See Codex Guelf 125.16.Extrav 45r.
  7. S. Krämer. "Verbleib unbekannt Angeblich verschollene und wiederaufgetauchte Handschriften." Zeitschrift für Deutsches Altertum und Deutsche Literatur, volume 104. 1975
  8. The introductory verse was added on the upper margin of the page. According to [Forgeng], it is attributed to Aenas Sylvius (later pope Pius II; 1405-64). It is obviously referring to other sorts of unmonkish behaviour, but it seems to underline the unusual nature of fencing monks and women.
  9. lutegerus: presumably tha name of the author / sacerdos: Liutger.
  10. This verse is open to disputation. Most likely, quoque combines sword and shield into a unity; sub seems to refer to a lower bind, as halpschilt threatens a blow from above. The same situation is depicted 8v and 23v. That a binding between sword and shield is not intended becomes clear on fol. 11r, where exactly that move is deprecated.
  11. diligenter intell...: seems unclear to me; either the instructions, that one should not hesitate should be understood diligently, or the diligence with which the adversary will judge one's actions is stressed.
  12. ligans ligati: One would expect *ligans ligatusque vel. sim. (plural subject). Literally, the translation would be "The binder of the bound - they are...", or "The binder; the bound ones are...". But I believe my translation correctly renders the intended meaning.
  13. fugit ad partes laterum: refers to side-stepping, i.e. taking into account the 3rd dimension not rendered in the images.
  14. recipere plagam: to execute (not to receive) a blow. Probably intended as 'receive the opportunity to strike'.
  15. recipere plagam: to execute (not to receive) a blow. Probably intended as 'receive the opportunity to strike'.
  16. durchtritt: a step to the side seems intended; for the (preferable) action depicted, we would expect 'to the left', so dexteram may be taking the opponent's view.
  17. 17.0 17.1 dampnum for damnum
  18. vidilpoge = "fiddle-bow".
  19. fingitur for figitur; fuit vicium pictoris: Here is evidence that the author is not identical with the draftsman.
  20. Concerning the name of the woman fencer: The name walprgis as written directly above the word sac'dos (below which are five dots forming a line). It is not entirely clear, whether Walpurgis is meant to replace sacerdos or if it is an addition (in which case it would be genitive of Walpurga). But since in the picture, the woman is executing the schiltslac, and because the woman is said to have been ready first (parata), she must be called (in the nominative) Walpurgis.
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