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Die Blume des Kampfes

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“Die Blume des Kampfes”
The Flower of Battle
Cod.10799 287v288r.png
Author(s)
Ascribed to
Illustrated by Unknown
Date before 1420s
Genre
Language Early New High German
State of Existence Original hypothetical; multiple incomplete copies exist
Manuscript(s)
Concordance by Michael Chidester

Die Blume des Kampfes (“The Flower of Battle”) is a nickname given to a group of three German manuscripts that share a common technical syllabus and set of illustrations. It might be based on the tradition of 14th century Italian master Fiore de'i Liberi, from whose treatise Fior di Battaglia it derives its nickname, given that his works include considerable technical overlap. It is equally likely, though, that they represent an earlier German tradition of which Fiore was himself an initiate. Fiore mentions in his prefaces that he owned books on the art and he also names two older masters in his tradition, Johane Suveno and Nicholai de Toblem; it is possible that either or both of those masters authored texts which inspired both this tradition as well as Fiore's own writings.

The oldest manuscript in the Blume des Kampfes group is the Cod. 5278, which dates to the late 1420s and contains only crude line drawings somewhat reminiscent of the art of Fiore de'i Liberi, though lacking many signature characteristics such as garters and crowns and generally less organized than the Friulian master's work. The second entry was completed in ca. 1500 by Ludwig VI von Eyb, and contains a significant degree of overlap with the 5278 but also a wealth of new material. While the artwork, though colored, is of similar quality, Eyb's treatise improves on its predecessor by including detailed German descriptions of the devices in most of its sections. Whether this text was authored by Eyb or present in the sources upon which he based his work cannot currently be determined.

The final manuscript, Cod. 10799, is dated 1623 and is again textless. Unlike its fellows, though, it is illustrated with watercolors of high quality; it is also the most extensive of the three by far, encompassing nearly every device from both works as well as a number of unique devices that suggest that it was either not derived directly from the other two known manuscripts or that it used additional sources currently lost to us. The two older manuscripts include war books derived from Konrad Kyeser's famous treatise on siege warfare Bellifortis, and the copyist of the 10799 also included the few Bellifortis illustrations that seem to portray knights and soldiers, perhaps indicating that he did not understand what he was copying. Aside from the Blume des Kampfes material, the 10799 also has a good deal of extra material, including portrayals of laying down and taking up the sword, Germanic sash wrestling, armored dagger and buckler, and the sword dance.

There is a fourth Germanic manuscript potentially connected to this tradition, the Cod.Guelf.78.2 Aug.2º. This manuscript, dating to between 1465 and 1480, includes a version of Johannes Liechtenauer's record, a complete set of illustrations from Gladiatoria, and a heavily-abridged version of Bellifortis. Tucked away amidst these works are illustrations of fencing with sword, spear, axe, and dagger that parallel the teachings of the Blume des Kampfes but only occasionally replicate them exactly. While this may simply be a case of an overambitious artist reinterpreting the manuscript art he was copying, the differences are too many to include the manuscript in the concordance below.

Treatise

Like Fior di Battaglia, die Blume des Kampfes treats grappling, dagger (including dagger against sword), sword both armored and unarmored, poleaxe/halberd, spear, and mounted fencing; it also includes unique content such as armored sword and shield and dueling with longshields. In comparison to its Italic counterpart, the Germanic works place a much greater emphasis on armored fencing, doubling or tripling the number of devices, and also dwarf Fiore's own rather brief treatment of unarmored grappling. The dagger, sword, and polearm material is all more or less consistent across both traditions, and where available the explanatory text, though unconnected to that of Fiore, demonstrates a similar understanding or interpretation of the techniques.

Additional Resources

References

  1. ↑ Presently, a term more commonly associated with firearms evidently originated with throwing of javelins. Schiessen means ‘shooting’, but it is also indicative of ‘throwing’, ‘launching’, ‘discharging’ etc.
  2. ↑ A similar method of holding the weapons together is found in Talhoffer.
  3. ↑ Lexer equates “Torlich” with temerarius: accidental, rash, thoughtless. I have used the term ‘spontaneous’ in order to avoid an undesirable connotation in English.
  4. ↑ Lit: “run under”, “pass under”, “undermine”
  5. ↑ This is evidently Talhoffer’s second position for throwing (MS XIX.17-3, 6r; MS 78.A.15, 10r; MS KK5342, 6r)
  6. ↑ Gewappent can mean “armed” whilst verwant can mean “relatively”.
  7. ↑ Ebers, Vol.5 (1799, 354-355) “Stecken, signifies also, to pitch, to drive or thrust in, to stick”. Pfahle stecken “to set Pales, to drive or thurst them into the ground” also referring to “auf einen Pfahl stekcen, spießen: to impale”. It also follows the implication to Plant, i.e. trees into the ground. Also consider the meanings of “einer Sache das Ziel stecken: to stop the Course of a Thing”, “ein Ziel stecken: to set an Aim or a Mark to aim at”, “sich in Noth stecken: to engage, embark or intangle in a dulle Piece of Trouble”. “Ich weiß wo es steckt: I know the Difficulty of it”. The term stëchen means to Stab, but with a driving action. Such a meaning caused it to be used variously as a synonym for tournament jousting (das turnieren), particularly in poetic works (http://woerterbuchnetz.de/Lexer/?lemid=LS07141 : WIG. SUCH. LIEHT. 71,26. VIRG. 75,5. 546,8. REINFR. B. 27113. ANTEL. 185. 87. FASN. 646,25. CHR. 4. 323,15; 9. 859,2; 10. 375,17). Talhoffer makes use of the term appealing to such chivalric epics in his exordium to Liutold von Koenigsegg. Here we see the logic for why a the sword and spear are to be taken together, as per the preliminary instructions.
  8. ↑ wîʒen stv. II. (BMZ III. 781b) beachten, bemerken s. die partic. adj. gewiʒʒen, ungewiʒʒen; mit dat. u. acc. (oder präp. umbe DIEM. BÜCHL. WALTH. WIG.) jemand einen vorwurf woraus od. weshalb machen, ihm es schuld geben, verweisen, allgem. z. b. waʒ wîʒest dû mir? RUL. 50,1. waʒ wîʒet ir mir Hildebrant? BIT. 7655. 980.waʒ wîʒet ir disem wîbe? GLAUB. 2174. daʒ ne darf man ire nicht w. GR.RUD. 21,15. vgl. noch GEN. D. 62,15. ER.6303. BÜCHL. 2,15. MSF. 40,35. 113,17. NEIDH. XXXVII, 4. XXXIX, 12. LIEHT. 48,9. TROJ. 45829 (lies im statt in). AMIS L.1937. CRAON 1720. MART. 148,79. ALBR. 1,318. 24,9. HEINR. 4041. SSP. prol. 14. mit abh. s. der vater weiʒ in, daʒ GEN.65,12; bestrafen KCHR. D. 153,29. REINH. 307,445. ENGELH. 1670. mit ent-, ge-, ver-. gt. veitan nhd. sehen (in gt. in-, fraveitan) zu skr. vid, lat. videre, gr. ἰδεῖν GSP. 321. Z. 154. CURT.3 227. FICK2 189. vgl. wiʒʒen.
  9. ↑ The Bohemian Pavise, a form of shield as shown in the illustration named after the city of Pavia, Italy. It became the quintessential duelling weapon, being featured heavily in the Weisskunig. Here it takes the German form of the noun, Pavessen. Because of its size (up to a yard wide, and four or more feet tall) it often became grouped to form a shield-wall known as a Pavisade. It also tended to be used heavily by archers in the English wars with France (Fosbroke 1843, 880)
  10. ↑ The implication seems to be that the body stands evenly, and using ponderation, the body-weight is transferred forward to take the opponent by surprise.
  11. ↑ starck aus d[er] wag, lit: “strong from the balance”, or in other words, with strength from your stance, or derived from the legs. A good example of kinetic linkage perhaps?
  12. ↑ This play has a resemblance to Kal, BSB Cgm 1507, 22v, this seems to be Hundsfeldts fourth guard.
  13. ↑ Lit: “grip around”
  14. ↑ Lit: “the balance on both sides”
  15. ↑ Lit: run-in
  16. ↑ Lit: “set upon”
  17. ↑ Lit: get-around
  18. ↑ ewich = entwicht, entkommt
  19. ↑ This is evidently the Gerader Versatzung (Meyer, Rapier: 2.74r; Forgeng 2006, 195), or Kron/Crown (Hutter CGM 3711, 41r-42r; Sollinger MS 38.21.Aug.2°, 46r-47r ).
  20. ↑ The word “fall” in some narratives is known to have been used as euphemism for dying.
  21. ↑ Typo! The writer meant "Anclitz".
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