Paulus Kal
Bavarian court official and 15th-century fencer, author of the manuscript Cgm 1507, in which he recorded 17 masters of the Liechtenauer Society.
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Paulus Kal was a fencer and court official, author of a manuscript on combat in the tradition of Johannes Liechtenauer. He was born around the 1420s in Dingolfing. He is last documented on 17 October 1485, when he was in Innsbruck as a witness to interrogations during a witch trial; the date of his death we have not been able to verify.
Between 1465 and 1475 he served as a customs officer in Dingolfing. As a court official (Schirrmeister) he served three rulers: Louis IV the Gentle, from 29 September 1450 Louis IX the Rich of Bavaria-Landshut, and from 12 February 1480 Sigismund of Tyrol. He commanded units of gunners and on 4 December 1468 took part in the siege of Saldenburg castle. Sources also record that on 17 March 1449 he broke the Nuremberg peace by drawing his weapon.
In his manuscript he recorded 17 masters of the Liechtenauer Society, among them his own teacher Hans Stettner of Mörnsheim. At least seven copies have survived, among them the Munich presentation copy Cgm 1507 with a German text from around 1470 and the Vienna MS KK5126 from around 1480. The manuscripts describe mounted fencing, the short sword, the halberd, combat with the pavise, a duel between a man and a woman, sword and buckler, the longsword, the messer, the dagger and wrestling, and also address judicial duels.