Goliath (MS germ. quart. 2020)

Goliath is a German fencing manuscript, a collection of teachings of several masters, mostly in the tradition of Johannes Liechtenauer. According to Rainer Welle, basing himself on the handwriting and paper watermarks, it was made in the late thirties of the 16th century, roughly in 1535–1540. It originated in Augsburg or Landshut. The scribe and the patron are unknown. It is now in the Biblioteka Jagiellońska in Kraków under the shelfmark MS germ. quart. 2020. Its nickname comes from the painting of David's fight with Goliath inside the cover. The paper manuscript has 285 leaves. It opens with Liechtenauer's Recital with a gloss attributed to Pseudo-Peter von Danzig on the long sword. Next come pole weapons by Andre Paurenfeyndt and Peter Falkner, the dagger by Andre Lignitzer and Martin Huntsfeld, wrestling by Otto Jud and Lignitzer, fencing on horseback and fighting with the short sword. The illustrations are the work of a single painter. Welle identifies him with the painter and woodcut artist Georg Lemberger, but that is only his thesis, not a certainty. The first sections are richly painted, at the start of the section on fighting in armour the illustrations suddenly stop, and blank spaces in later parts show the decoration was never finished. Before 1564 Lienhart Sollinger copied part of the manuscript into his own compilation. In 1938 the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin bought it from Lucerne, and it has been in Kraków since 1946. Scans are provided by the Pionier digital library.

Martial arts in this work

Contents

The manuscript arranges its material by weapon. The long sword has Liechtenauer's Recital (fol. 1r–7r) and the gloss of Pseudo-Peter von Danzig (7v–73v). Pole weapons belong to Andre Paurenfeyndt (75r–84v) and Peter Falkner (85r–86r). The dagger has anonymous teaching (89r–97v), Andre Lignitzer (98r–102v) and Martin Huntsfeld (103r–110v). Wrestling has anonymous teaching (111r–128r and 157v–159r), Otto Jud (130v–147v) and Lignitzer (148r–157r). Fencing on horseback opens with Liechtenauer's Recital with figures (163r–166r), then the gloss of Pseudo-Peter (166v–192r) and Huntsfeld (192v–196r). The short sword has the gloss of Pseudo-Peter (199r–251v), Lignitzer (252r–271v) and Huntsfeld (272r–281v). A period list on the cover gives 40 illustrations of the long sword, 17 of the dagger, 29 of wrestling on foot and 52 of fighting in armour on horseback and on foot.

Origin

Before 1564 Lienhart Sollinger copied part of the manuscript into the compilation Cod. I.6.2º.2. Before 1923 the manuscript was owned by Johann Ludwig Burckhardt (1807–1878) and Jean Louis Burckhardt (1883–1943), but we have not been able to document the circumstances. From 1923 to 1938 it was with the dealers Fischer Gallery and Kunsthandel A.-G. Böhler & Steinmeyer in Lucerne, who repeatedly offered it to Robert Lyons Scott in 1935, but no sale took place. In 1938 the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin bought it. During the war it was moved to Fürstenstein Castle in 1941 and to Grüssau monastery in 1944. After the Second World War it came to Kraków, and since 1946 it has been in the Biblioteka Jagiellońska.

Authorship

The date 1510–1520 is written on the inside of the cover. Zabinski (2010) considers it correct and believes the manuscript was made for Emperor Maximilian I (1459–1519). Rainer Welle (2017) rejects this and, from the handwriting and paper watermarks, places it in the late thirties of the 16th century. Wiktenauer regards the date on the cover as a later addition, apparently incorrect. The authorship of the decoration is also disputed. One painter illustrated the whole manuscript and one scribe may also have written all of it, although several types of script alternate in it. Welle identifies this painter with Georg Lemberger (born about 1490–1500 in Landshut, died about 1540–1545), last certainly documented in 1537. Wiktenauer gives his authorship only as possible. The sources do not document why the decoration was interrupted, and Wiktenauer only presumes a link with Lemberger's death.

People and martial arts

• Johannes LiechtenauerAuthor
• Pseudo-Peter von DanzigAuthor
• Andre PaurenfeyndtAuthor
• Peter FalknerAuthor
• Andreas LiegnitzerAuthor
• Martin HuntsfeldAuthor
• Ott JudAuthor
• Georg LembergerIllustrator

Details

Form

Manuscript

Repository

Biblioteka Jagiellońska, Kraków

Shelfmark

MS germ. quart. 2020

Folios

285

Material

Paper

Library digitisation

fbc.pionier.net.pl/id/oai:jbc.bj.uj.edu.pl:350451