Jörg Breu Draftbook (Cod.I.6.2º.4)

The Jörg Breu Draftbook is a German manuscript held at the Universitätsbibliothek Augsburg under shelfmark Cod.I.6.2º.4. Folio 2r bears the date 1545, and the manuscript is placed around that year. It has 44 folios measuring 195 × 279 mm, and the text is written in Fraktur in Early New High German. According to Wiktenauer, Jörg Breu the Younger appears to be responsible for the codex. The manuscript consists of sections of different origin. Folios 2v–6r contain wrestling techniques after Gregor Erhart, repeating the content of his earlier manuscript MS E.1939.65.354 and adding descriptive text. Folios 7r–13v hold an anonymous treatise on wrestling, apparently the original draft of the work Kunstlicher stuck Kämpffens Ringens und Werffens, according to Wiktenauer. Anonymous depictions of combat with sword and buckler are on folios 14r–15v and 40r. Most of it consists of preparatory sketches for the work of Paul Hector Mair: longsword on folios 16v–33v, dussack on folios 34r–35r, dagger on folios 36v–39v and sickle on folio 40v. Folios 41r and 41v were left blank, with only a drawn frame. Wiktenauer classes the codex among the preparatory works for Mair's manuscripts held in Dresden and in Vienna, whose illustrations Breu worked on. Dierk Hagedorn made an incomplete transcription of the manuscript. In Leng's inventory it is listed under number 38.8.2.

Martial arts in this work

Origin

The draftbook is connected with the project of Paulus Hector Mair, who hired the workshop of Jörg Breu the Younger to produce illustrations for his text on fencing and wrestling. Wiktenauer regards the codex as preparatory sketches for Mair's sets held in Dresden (C93/C94) and in Vienna (Cod. 10825/10826), on which Breu worked. According to Wiktenauer, the Dresden version has the fewest pieces and is stylistically closest to Breu, so it was probably made first. The sketches for Mair cover longsword, dussack, dagger and sickle. Folios 41r and 41v bear only a drawn frame, without a drawing.

Authorship

The manuscript is not the work of a single author. The wrestling section on folios 2v–6r is based on Gregor Erhart, whose earlier manuscript MS E.1939.65.354 it repeats and extends with descriptive text. The treatise on wrestling on folios 7r–13v is anonymous, as are the depictions of sword and bucklers. According to Wiktenauer, Jörg Breu the Younger, author of the preparatory sketches, appears responsible for the codex as a whole. Paulus Hector Mair is not its author. He commissioned the project for which the sketches were made. A later note on folio II r links the manuscript with Albrecht Dürer and the time around 1512. According to Wiktenauer, the rest of the manuscript does not support this, and folio 2r bears the date 1545.

People and martial arts

• Gregor ErhartAuthor
• Dierk HagedornEditor
• Jörg Breu the YoungerIllustrator

Details

Form

Manuscript

Repository

Universitätsbibliothek Augsburg

Shelfmark

Cod.I.6.2º.4

Folios

44

Library digitisation

nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:384-uba002004-0