Andreas Liegnitzer
A German fencing master from the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries, author of the only prose treatise in the Liechtenauer tradition on combat with sword and buckler.
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Andreas Liegnitzer (also spelled Andres Liegniczer or Lignitzer) was a German-writing fencing master from the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries. His name refers to the town of Lignitz, present-day Legnica in Poland, from which, according to the source, he came. His date of birth is unknown; he died before 1452, when the Starhemberg Fechtbuch was created.
His brother Jacob Lignitzer was also a fencing master. Both brothers appear on the list of the Fellowship of Liechtenauer (Gesellschaft Liechtenauers) compiled by Paulus Kal in 1470. We have not been able to establish from the sources who taught them.
He is the author of the only prose treatise in the Liechtenauer tradition on combat with sword and buckler. His work has four parts: combat with the short sword in full armor, sword and buckler (six pieces with terminology paralleling the longsword), dagger, and wrestling. The treatise on the dagger was exceptionally translated into French (1538) and Latin (around 1550).
The oldest surviving copy is the Roman version (Cod. 44.A.8) from 1452, the only manuscript containing all four texts attributed to him. His teaching survives in more than twenty manuscripts from 1452 to 1570, including copies in Kraków, Glasgow, Dresden and Vienna.