Wiener Fechtbuch (Cod.11093)

The Wiener Fechtbuch (Cod. 11093) is an anonymous German fencing and wrestling manuscript, held today by the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna under the signature Cod. 11093. Its origin is placed in the fourteen-forties. According to Hans-Peter Hils it was probably made in south-western Germany, and the clothing and armament of the figures lead him to both dating and localisation. We have not been able to document the author or the illustrator. The manuscript consists of 46 small-format parchment leaves measuring 105 × 135 mm, in a modern binding. It is largely pictorial: one illustration fills each page. The sections progress from the spear through the short sword, which takes almost two thirds of the leaves, to the dagger and pole weapons, and end with wrestling and mounted fencing. Researchers disagree about where the manuscript belongs among the other German fencing books. Rainer Leng, in his 2008 inventory of German illustrated manuscripts, places it in the Gladiatoria group. Hils rejects this classification: despite several similarities, its content and artistic style recall rather the treatise of Hans Talhoffer from 1448. The scholarly literature on it includes Hans-Peter Hils's 1985 work on Johann Liechtenauer's long sword art and Rainer Welle's 1993 study of wrestling as a noble art of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The Österreichische Nationalbibliothek provides a digital copy, and microfilm scans are also on Wikimedia Commons. We found no printed editions or transcripts in the sources.

Martial arts in this work

Contents

The manuscript is divided into six parts according to weapon or discipline. It opens with the spear on leaves 1r–3v. There follows by far the largest section, on the short sword, on leaves 4r–32v, which occupies 29 of the 46 leaves. The dagger is given leaves 33r–37r and pole weapons leaves 37v–39v. Wrestling is recorded on leaves 40r–44v, and the closing leaves 45r–46v show fencing on horseback. Each page carries one illustration, so the manuscript conveys its material mainly through images. We did not find the total number of illustrations stated explicitly in the sources. The leaves are parchment, measuring 105 × 135 mm, and are bound in a modern binding.

Authorship

The author and the illustrator of the manuscript are unknown, and its origin is inferred only from the illustrations. Hans-Peter Hils places it in south-western Germany on the basis of the clothing and armament of the figures. We did not find the dating to the fourteen-forties supported by a specific study. Researchers disagree about which manuscripts Cod. 11093 is closest to. Rainer Leng, in his 2008 inventory of illustrated German medieval manuscripts, assigns it to the Gladiatoria group. Hils rejects this classification. He admits several similarities, but overall its content and artistic conception remind him rather of the treatise of Hans Talhoffer from 1448.

Details

Form

Manuscript

Repository

Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Wien

Shelfmark

Cod. Vindobonensis 11093

Folios

46

Material

Parchment

Library digitisation

digital.onb.ac.at/rep/access/open/10BE3944