Glasgow Fechtbuch (MS E.1939.65.341)

The Glasgow Fechtbuch is a German paper manuscript on fencing and wrestling held under shelfmark MS E.1939.65.341 in the R. L. Scott Collection at Kelvingrove Museum (Glasgow Museums) in Scotland. On folio 22r it bears the internal date 1508, while the English Wikipedia gives the year 1505. It is written in Early New High German, its leaves measure 206 × 155 mm. Wiktenauer counts 107 folios, Wikipedia 105. We have not been able to document the scribe, the place of origin or the patron. The manuscript is a compilation of teachings from the tradition of Johannes Liechtenauer, and Wiktenauer lists ten named authors alongside several anonymous sections. It opens with a fragment of Sigmund Ringeck's gloss on Liechtenauer's Zettel for the long sword, followed by an anonymous treatise, a new Zettel by Martin Syber and the teachings of Andres Juden, Jobs von der Nissen, Nicklas Preußen and Hans Döbringer. Next come a short anonymous teaching on the Messer, the wrestling of the Augsburg group, André Lignitzer and Ott Jud, Ringeck's gloss on fencing on horseback, glosses on the short sword, the dagger and short sword of Martin Huntsfeld, and finally Lignitzer's sword and buckler. According to Wiktenauer, it is the only known version of Ringeck's gloss in which the illustrations are executed as the text prescribes, probably following older models. The same source says the wrestling fragment of the Augsburg group complements the version in the Bauman Fechtbuch, and that the inclusion of Martin Syber and other masters helps to document their connection with Liechtenauer.

Martial arts in this work

Contents

The long sword section occupies folios 1r–29v: a fragment of Ringeck's gloss (1r–22r), the anonymous treatise Stuck im aufstreichen (22v–24r), Martin Syber's new Zettel (24v–25r) and, on folios 27r–29v, the teachings of Andres Juden, Jobs von der Nissen, Nicklas Preußen and Hans Döbringer. Between them is inserted the anonymous teaching on the Messer (25v–26v) with stances, steps into a triangle, covering and a cut or thrust to the head. Wrestling consists of the Augsburg group (35r–56r), Lignitzer (64r–66r) and Ott Jud (67r–73v). Next follow Ringeck's gloss on fencing on horseback (74r–82r), an anonymous gloss and the gloss of Pseudo-Peter von Danzig on the short sword (83r–95v), Martin Huntsfeld's dagger (95v–97v) and an anonymous dagger (97v–100r), Huntsfeld's short sword (100v–104v) and Lignitzer's sword and buckler (105r–105v). In some sections each page carries one illustration with the text above it, and we did not find the total number of illustrations in the sources.

Authorship

The dating of the manuscript differs between sources. Wiktenauer points to the internal date of 1508 on folio 22r, the English Wikipedia gives the year 1505. We go with the internal date. The extent also differs: Wiktenauer counts 107 folios and lists the last leaves 106r–107v as blank, Wikipedia gives 105 folios, and none of the sources explains the difference. We have not been able to document the scribe, the place of origin, the patron or any dedication. Only the copyist is therefore unknown, not the texts, since the compilation carries the names of ten masters from Johannes Liechtenauer to Martin Huntsfeld. Who owned the manuscript and how it reached the R. L. Scott collection, we did not find in the sources.

Editions and translations

The manuscript is fully digitised, the scans are in the public domain and published by Wiktenauer and by the online collection of Glasgow Museums. Dierk Hagedorn made the transcription of the text. The anonymous teaching on the Messer from folios 25v–26v was translated into English by Jens P. Kleinau and published in 2011 on the blog The Fencing and Life of Hans Talhoffer. Harrison Ridgeway prepared an English translation of the dagger section. The English Wikipedia further refers to the study Messer Fighting from the Glasgow Fechtbuch by Christian Henry Tobler from 2010, but we did not find its publisher or nature in the sources.

People and martial arts

• Johannes LiechtenauerAuthor
• Sigmund RingeckAuthor
• Martin SyberAuthor
• Andres JudenAuthor
• Jobs von der NissenAuthor
• Nicklass PreußenAuthor
• Hanko DöbringerAuthor
• Andreas LiegnitzerAuthor
• Ott JudAuthor
• Martin HuntsfeldAuthor
• Jens P. KleinauTranslator

Details

Form

Manuscript

Repository

R. L. Scott Collection, Kelvingrove Museum (Glasgow Museums), Glasgow

Shelfmark

MS E.1939.65.341

Folios

107

Material

Paper