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Difference between revisions of "Walpurgis Fechtbuch (MS I.33)"

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| Hils' catalog      = [[HK::30]]
 
| Hils' catalog      = [[HK::30]]
 
| Beck catalog      = [[BC::38.9.8]]
 
| Beck catalog      = [[BC::38.9.8]]
| Also known as      = {{plainlist | ''Liber de Arte Dimicatoria'' | "The Tower Manuscript" | [[British Museum]] No. 14 E iii, No. 20 }}
+
| Also known as      = {{plainlist | ''Liber de Arte Dimicatoria'' | "The Tower Manuscript" | No. 14 E iii, No. 20 }}
 
| Type              = [[type::Fencing manual]]
 
| Type              = [[type::Fencing manual]]
 
| Date              = ca. [[year::1320s]]
 
| Date              = ca. [[year::1320s]]
Line 29: Line 29:
 
| Material          = Parchment, in a modern binding
 
| Material          = Parchment, in a modern binding
 
| Size              = 34 [[folia]]
 
| Size              = 34 [[folia]]
| Format            = Double-sided; two illustrations per <br/>side with text above and below
+
| Format            = Double-sided; two illustrations <br/>per side with text above and <br/>below
 
| Condition          =  
 
| Condition          =  
 
| Script            = [[script::Bastarda]]
 
| Script            = [[script::Bastarda]]
Line 38: Line 38:
 
| Previously kept    = MS Membr.I 115, [[Forschungsbibliothek Gotha|Schloß Friedenstein]]
 
| Previously kept    = MS Membr.I 115, [[Forschungsbibliothek Gotha|Schloß Friedenstein]]
 
| Discovered        =  
 
| Discovered        =  
| Website            = {{plainlist | [http://collections.royalarmouries.org/viewItem.php?i{{=}}351572 Museum catalog entry] | [http://www.wpi.edu/~jforgeng/I.33_Corrigenda.pdf Addendum to Forgeng (2003)] }}
+
| Website            =  
 
| Images            = {{plainlist | [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Royal_Armouries_Ms._I.33 Digital scans] (600x800) | [http://www.thearma.org/Manuals/i33/i33.htm Microfilm scans] }}
 
| Images            = {{plainlist | [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Royal_Armouries_Ms._I.33 Digital scans] (600x800) | [http://www.thearma.org/Manuals/i33/i33.htm Microfilm scans] }}
 
| Translations      = {{plainlist | {{german translation|http://freywild.ch/i33/|1}} | {{italian translation|http://lutegerus.wordpress.com/|1}} | {{italian translation|http://www.compaquila.com/manuali/I-33.pdf|1}} }}
 
| Translations      = {{plainlist | {{german translation|http://freywild.ch/i33/|1}} | {{italian translation|http://lutegerus.wordpress.com/|1}} | {{italian translation|http://www.compaquila.com/manuali/I-33.pdf|1}} }}
Line 170: Line 170:
 
* Cinato, Franck and Surprenant, André (in French). ''Le Livre de l'art du Combat: Liber de arte dimicatoria. Édition critique du Royal Armouries MS. I.33, collection Sources d'Histoire Médiévale nº39.'' Paris: CNRS Editions, 2009. ISBN 978-2-271-06757-9
 
* Cinato, Franck and Surprenant, André (in French). ''Le Livre de l'art du Combat: Liber de arte dimicatoria. Édition critique du Royal Armouries MS. I.33, collection Sources d'Histoire Médiévale nº39.'' Paris: CNRS Editions, 2009. ISBN 978-2-271-06757-9
 
* [[Jeffrey L. Forgeng|Forgeng, Dr. Jeffrey L.]] ''[http://illuminatedfightbook.co.uk/ The Illuminated Fightbook Royal Armouries Manuscript I.33]''. Extraordinary Editions, 2012.
 
* [[Jeffrey L. Forgeng|Forgeng, Dr. Jeffrey L.]] ''[http://illuminatedfightbook.co.uk/ The Illuminated Fightbook Royal Armouries Manuscript I.33]''. Extraordinary Editions, 2012.
* Forgeng, Dr. Jeffrey L. ''The Medieval Art of Swordsmanship: A Facsimile & Translation of Europe's Oldest Personal Combat Treatise, Royal Armouries MS I.33 (Royal Armouries Monograph)''. [[Chivalry Bookshelf]], 2003. ISBN 1-891448-38-2 | [http://www.wpi.edu/~jforgeng/I.33_Corrigenda.pdf Addendum to Forgeng (2003)]
+
* Forgeng, Dr. Jeffrey L. ''The Medieval Art of Swordsmanship: A Facsimile & Translation of Europe's Oldest Personal Combat Treatise, Royal Armouries MS I.33 (Royal Armouries Monograph)''. [[Chivalry Bookshelf]], 2003. ISBN 1-891448-38-2
 +
** [http://www.wpi.edu/~jforgeng/I.33_Corrigenda.pdf Addendum to Forgeng (2003)]
 
* Hester, James. ''A Few Leaves Short of a Quire: Is the ‘Tower Fechtbuch’ Incomplete?'' Arms & Armour '''9''' (1): 20–24(5). April 2012. {{doi|10.1179/1741612411Z.0000000003}}
 
* Hester, James. ''A Few Leaves Short of a Quire: Is the ‘Tower Fechtbuch’ Incomplete?'' Arms & Armour '''9''' (1): 20–24(5). April 2012. {{doi|10.1179/1741612411Z.0000000003}}
 
* [[Andrea Morini|Morini, Andrea]] and Rudilosso, Riccardo (in Italian). ''Manoscritto I.33'' Rome: Il Cerchio Iniziative Editoriali, 2012.
 
* [[Andrea Morini|Morini, Andrea]] and Rudilosso, Riccardo (in Italian). ''Manoscritto I.33'' Rome: Il Cerchio Iniziative Editoriali, 2012.

Revision as of 02:31, 23 November 2014

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
HagedornLeng38.9.8
Wierschin9Hils30
Also known as
  • Liber de Arte Dimicatoria
  • "The Tower Manuscript"
  • No. 14 E iii, No. 20
Type Fencing manual
Date ca. 1320s
Place of origin Franconia
Language(s) Medieval Latin
Ascribed to Clerus Lutegerus
Scribe(s) Unknown (three hands)
Illustrator(s) Unknown (up to 17 artists)
Material Parchment, in a modern binding
Size 34 folia
Format Double-sided; two illustrations
per side with text above and
below
Script Bastarda
Previously kept MS Membr.I 115, Schloß Friedenstein
Treatise scans
Other translations

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, United Kingdom. The I.33 is earliest extant treatise on Medieval martial arts, 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 explaining a much older tradition.) It treats unarmored fencing with sword and buckler; 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 this was a middle class or priestly art rather than one of the knightly 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 believed to be missing (assuming it started with complete quires of four bifolia each).[3] 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 which appear in the Libri Picture A 83, the Codex I.6.2º.4, and the Cgm 3712; alternatively, these may originate from another manuscript in the same tradition. The anonymous 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.

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]
  • 1552-53 – looted from a monastery by Johannes Herbart von Würzburg during the Franconian campaigns of Albert-Archibald, Duke of Brandenburg-Kulmbach.[4][3] Würzburg was a belt-maker by trade and later served as fencing master to the dukes of Sachsen-Gotha; he inscribed his name on folio 7r.
  • before 1579 – possibly duplicated by Heinrich von Gunterrodt while compiling material for his book[4] (such a copy is currently unknown).
  • late 1500s-1945 – owned by the dukes of Sachsen-Gotha; listed in an 18th century library catalog as Cod.Membr.I.no.115.[citation needed] 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.[5] 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). 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.[6]
  • 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.

Contents

Folio Section
1r - 32v

Gallery

Images hosted by the Royal Armouries. Identification and placement of lost leaves based on work by Dr. Jeffrey L. Forgeng[citation needed] and James Hester.[1]

Folio 1r
MS I.33 01r.jpg
Folio 1v
MS I.33 01v.jpg
Folio 2r
MS I.33 02r.jpg
Folio 2v
MS I.33 02v.jpg
Folio 3r
MS I.33 03r.jpg
Folio 3v
MS I.33 03v.jpg
Folio 4r
MS I.33 04r.jpg
Folio 4v
MS I.33 04v.jpg
Folio 5r
MS I.33 05r.jpg
Folio 5v
MS I.33 05v.jpg
Folio 6r
MS I.33 06r.jpg
Folio 6v
MS I.33 06v.jpg
Folio 7r
MS I.33 07r.jpg
Folio 7v
MS I.33 07v.jpg
Folio 8r
MS I.33 08r.jpg
Folio 8v
MS I.33 08v.jpg
Missing folio
Missing folio
Folio 9r
MS I.33 09r.jpg
Folio 9v
MS I.33 09v.jpg
Folio 10r
MS I.33 10r.jpg
Folio 10v
MS I.33 10v.jpg
Folio 11r
MS I.33 11r.jpg
Folio 11v
MS I.33 11v.jpg
Folio 12r
MS I.33 12r.jpg
Folio 12v
MS I.33 12v.jpg
Folio 13r
MS I.33 13r.jpg
Folio 13v
MS I.33 13v.jpg
Folio 14r
MS I.33 14r.jpg
Folio 14v
MS I.33 14v.jpg
Missing folio
Missing folio
Folio 15r
MS I.33 15r.jpg
Folio 15v
MS I.33 15v.jpg
Folio 16r
MS I.33 16r.jpg
Folio 16v
MS I.33 16v.jpg
Missing folio
Missing folio
Missing folio
Missing folio
Missing folio
Missing folio
Missing folio
Missing folio
Folio 17r
MS I.33 17r.jpg
Folio 17v
MS I.33 17v.jpg
Folio 18r
MS I.33 18r.jpg
Folio 18v
MS I.33 18v.jpg
Folio 19r
MS I.33 19r.jpg
Folio 19v
MS I.33 19v.jpg
Folio 20r
MS I.33 20r.jpg
Folio 20v
MS I.33 20v.jpg
Folio 21r
MS I.33 21r.jpg
Folio 21v
MS I.33 21v.jpg
Folio 22r
MS I.33 22r.jpg
Folio 22v
MS I.33 22v.jpg
Folio 23r
MS I.33 23r.jpg
Folio 23v
MS I.33 23v.jpg
Folio 24r
MS I.33 24r.jpg
Folio 24v
MS I.33 24v.jpg
Folio 25r
MS I.33 25r.jpg
Folio 25v
MS I.33 25v.jpg
Missing folio
Missing folio
Folio 26r
MS I.33 26r.jpg
Folio 26v
MS I.33 26v.jpg
Folio 27r
MS I.33 27r.jpg
Folio 27v
MS I.33 27v.jpg
Folio 28r
MS I.33 28r.jpg
Folio 28v
MS I.33 28v.jpg
Folio 29r
MS I.33 29r.jpg
Folio 29v
MS I.33 29v.jpg
Folio 30r
MS I.33 30r.jpg
Folio 30v
MS I.33 30v.jpg
Folio 31r
MS I.33 31r.jpg
Folio 31v
MS I.33 31v.jpg
Missing folio
Missing folio
Folio 32r
MS I.33 32r.jpg
Folio 32v
MS I.33 32v.jpg

Additional Resources

  • Cinato, Franck and Surprenant, André (in French). Le Livre de l'art du Combat: Liber de arte dimicatoria. Édition critique du Royal Armouries MS. I.33, collection Sources d'Histoire Médiévale nº39. Paris: CNRS Editions, 2009. ISBN 978-2-271-06757-9
  • Forgeng, Dr. Jeffrey L. The Illuminated Fightbook Royal Armouries Manuscript I.33. Extraordinary Editions, 2012.
  • Forgeng, Dr. Jeffrey L. The Medieval Art of Swordsmanship: A Facsimile & Translation of Europe's Oldest Personal Combat Treatise, Royal Armouries MS I.33 (Royal Armouries Monograph). Chivalry Bookshelf, 2003. ISBN 1-891448-38-2
  • Hester, James. A Few Leaves Short of a Quire: Is the ‘Tower Fechtbuch’ Incomplete? Arms & Armour 9 (1): 20–24(5). April 2012. doi:10.1179/1741612411Z.0000000003
  • Morini, Andrea and Rudilosso, Riccardo (in Italian). Manoscritto I.33 Rome: Il Cerchio Iniziative Editoriali, 2012.

References

  1. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Hester