Codex Ringeck (Mscr.Dresd.C.487)

Codex Ringeck is a German fencing manuscript that the Sächsische Landesbibliothek in Dresden keeps under the shelfmark Mscr.Dresd.C.487. It originated in Swabia or Bavaria between 1504 and 1519, as Hoffmann showed in 2010 by analysing the watermarks. It reached the Dresden library before 1755 and has been kept there ever since. The volume has 148 paper leaves measuring 150 × 110 mm, written in black and red ink in Early New High German. After Liechtenauer's verses (leaves 3r–9v) comes Sigmund Ringeck's gloss on the long sword (10v–48v). The gloss on the short sword (88r–108r) and the beginning of mounted fencing (109r–110v) are also attributed to Ringeck, and they are followed by the mounted fencing of pseudo-Peter von Danzig (110v–121v). In between stand an anonymous treatise on the long sword, Andre Lignitzer's text on the sword and buckler (54r–55v), a fragment of Liechtenauer's verses, a fragment on wrestling by Otto Jud (78r–84r) and anonymous passages on wrestling. Leaves 126r–148v are blank. We have not been able to establish who compiled the volume. The manuscript is often wrongly attributed in its entirety to Ringeck, although the introduction speaks of him in the third person. According to Wiktenauer it is a hasty copy full of errors, deletions, insertions and omissions, which leaves out most of the references to the illustrations of its model. It gives the gloss on the long sword without armour in full.

Martial arts in this work

Authorship

The dating of the manuscript has shifted considerably in scholarship. In 1956 Wierschin placed it in the first half of the 15th century, or possibly at the end of the 14th century, basing this on Ringeck's relation to Liechtenauer and on the dependence on manuscript MS 3227a. In 1985 Hils proposed the years 1438–1452, saw Duke Albrecht III of Bavaria in the dedicatee, and regarded the manuscript as a source of the Starhemberg Fechtbuch. The dating accepted today, 1504–1519, was brought by Hoffmann in 2010 through his analysis of the watermarks. Sigmund Ringeck is accepted as the author of the gloss on the long sword, while the glosses on the short sword and on mounted fencing are merely attributed to him. His name appears in Kal's list of members of Liechtenauer's society from around 1470. According to Wiktenauer it may refer to the village of Ainring on the German-Austrian border. Duke Albrecht of Bavaria is regarded as Ringeck's patron, but it is not certain whether it was Albrecht III or Albrecht IV.

Influence

Besides the Dresden manuscript, Ringeck's gloss has survived in further copies: Cluny Cl. 23842 (around 1490), Salzburg M.I.29 (1491), Glasgow E.1939.65.341 (1508), Nuremberg Pirckh.Papp.353 and Vienna 26-232 (both from the 16th century), Augsburg Reichsstadt 82 (1553) and Rostock Var.82 (around 1570). According to Wiktenauer these are independent and fragmentary lines of transmission from a lost original, which was richly illustrated. The Dresden copy omitted most of the references to these illustrations. According to the same source, Hans Medel and Joachim Meyer followed Ringeck's interpretation of Liechtenauer's verses.

Editions and translations

The first printed edition of Ringeck's gloss was prepared by Christian Henry Tobler in 2001. David Lindholm's English translation with illustrations by Peter Svärd appeared in 2003 and 2006. Further English translations were made by Bellinghausen (1999), Rawlings (1999–2003), Farrell (2010), Trosclair (2015), Cheney (2020) and the pair Chidester and Hagedorn (2024). These editions concern Ringeck's gloss, not necessarily the whole Dresden volume with the texts of Lignitzer, Otto Jud and pseudo-Peter von Danzig.

People and martial arts

• Johannes LiechtenauerAuthor
• Sigmund RingeckAuthor
• Andre LignitzerAuthor
• Ott JudAuthor

Details

Form

Manuscript

Repository

Sächsische Landesbibliothek, Dresden

Shelfmark

Mscr.Dresd.C.487

Folios

148

Material

Paper

Editions

• 2001 · EN · first edition
• 2003 · EN · translation
• 2006 · EN · translation