Oplodidaskalia sive Armorvm Tractandorvm Meditatio Alberti Dvreri (MS 26-232)

Oplodidaskalia sive Armorum Tractandorum Meditatio Alberti Dureri, in Wiktenauer's English translation Weapon Training, or Albrecht Dürer's Meditation on the Handling of Weapons, is a fencing and wrestling manuscript made around 1512 in Albrecht Dürer's workshop in Nuremberg. Wiktenauer links its origin to the visit of Emperor Maximilian I to Nuremberg in 1512. Today it is kept in the Albertina in Vienna under the shelfmark MS 26-232. The manuscript has 127 folios measuring 220 × 310 mm. Pages carry two to three illustrations with text to their right in Early New High German. The main illustrated part shows wrestling, the sword, the dagger and the messer. It is followed by copies of older texts: a fragment of Lecküchner's gloss on the messer, Lignitzer, Ringeck's gloss on Liechtenauer's Zettel for the short sword, an anonymous teaching on the dagger and Lew's gloss on fighting on horseback. According to Wiktenauer, the text is not Dürer's original work but a copy of older treatises of the Augsburg tradition. The illustrations were made in Dürer's workshop, and Dürer himself wrote part of the folios as a scribe, others were written by Willibald Pirckheimer and an unknown scribe. The model was the Codex Wallerstein (Cod.I.6.4º.2), whose parts A and B the workshop took over. The lost Codex 1246 from the early 17th century was a copy of this manuscript and of Egenolff's reprint of Andreas Paurenfeyndt. Wiktenauer ranks the illustrations of wrestling, the long sword, the dagger and the messer among the best in fencing manuals.

Martial arts in this work

Contents

Wiktenauer distinguishes four parts of different ages in the manuscript. The youngest, part A with the introduction, dates from around 1600. Part B was illustrated in Dürer's workshop and later supplemented with blank folios. Parts C and D are the oldest, from around 1500, and may originally have been parts of other manuscripts. Wrestling occupies folios 14r–53r, the sword folios 60r–66r, the dagger folios 66v–67v and the messer folios 73r–92r, with groups of blank folios between them. Folios 96r–100v hold a fragment of Lecküchner's gloss on the messer, folio 100v a verse by Martin Huntsfeld on fighting on horseback, Liechtenauer's Zettel for the short sword and a fragment of Otto Jud's wrestling. Folio 101 carries Lignitzer's text, folios 105r–112v Ringeck's gloss on the short sword in scrambled order, folios 112v–116v an anonymous teaching on the dagger and folios 116v–124r Lew's gloss on fighting on horseback. The whole closes with an epitaph on folios 125r–127r.

Origin

The manuscript was made around 1512 in Albrecht Dürer's workshop in Nuremberg. According to Wiktenauer, Dürer's works on fighting are connected with the visit of Emperor Maximilian I to Nuremberg in 1512 and with the effort to win his favour. The workshop drew on manuscripts of the so-called Augsburg group and used parts A and B of the Codex Wallerstein (Cod.I.6.4º.2) from the seventies of the 15th century as its model. In 1823 the manuscript was discovered in Styria by the theologian Vincenz Weintridt (Wiktenauer also writes the name as Weindridt) and in 1833 it was handed to Emperor Francis I. Since then it has been in the Albertina in Vienna. At the beginning of the 17th century a copy was made from it and from Egenolff's reprint of Andreas Paurenfeyndt, listed as Codex 1246, which has not survived.

Authorship

The Latin title attributes the manuscript to Dürer, but Wiktenauer lists it as a work made in his workshop. The text is not Dürer's original work, it is a copy of older treatises of the Augsburg tradition. Dürer himself is attested as the scribe of folios 13r–29r and 33r–42r. Folios 30r–32r were written by his friend from youth and intellectual adviser Willibald Pirckheimer, folios 43r–52r by an unknown scribe. Wiktenauer does not claim that Dürer personally drew all the illustrations. The dating is not uniform. Wiktenauer gives the year around 1512, but places the illustrating of part B at around 1510 and, for the Codex Wallerstein, speaks of the origin of Dürer's manuscript around 1500. The most frequently given year is 1512.

People and martial arts

• Michael ChidesterTranslator
• Albrecht DürerIllustrator

Details

Form

Manuscript

Repository

Albertina, Wien

Shelfmark

MS 26-232

Folios

127

Editions

• EN · Wiktenauer · translation