Kunst des Messerfechtens (Cgm 582)

Kunst des Messerfechtens (Cgm 582) is a German fencing manuscript that Hans (Johannes) Lecküchner completed on 19 January 1482. It is held in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich under the shelfmark Cgm 582 and, according to Wiktenauer, is probably an autograph. Lecküchner came from Nuremberg, studied in Leipzig, where he obtained a bachelor's degree in 1457, and from 1480 served as a priest in Herzogenaurach. He died on 31 December 1482, the year the manuscript was completed. The text deals with fencing with the messer. Its core is a recital (Zettel) on six hidden strikes, four stances and seventeen main elements, among them Zornhau, Wecker, Entrüsthau, Zwinger, Geferhau and Winckler, together with counters against them. According to English Wikipedia, the text is accompanied by 415 drawings of fighters and the manuscript has 216 folios. In places the recital almost matches Liechtenauer's, and the exposition quotes or paraphrases the Lew gloss. Lecküchner's teaching on the messer also survives in the Heidelberg manuscript Cod.Pal.germ. 430, which has no illustrations. The colophon of the Munich manuscript mentions an earlier draft. The Munich manuscript served as the model for shorter versions in later manuscripts: M.I.29 from 1491 and the manuscripts of Gregor Erhart (1533), Paulus Hector Mair (in the forties of the sixteenth century) and Lienhart Sollinger (1556). Jeffrey L. Forgeng translated it into English in 2015.

Martial arts in this work

Authorship

Manuscript Cgm 582 is, according to Wiktenauer, probably Lecküchner's autograph. Its relationship to the Heidelberg manuscript Cod.Pal.germ. 430 on the same subject remains disputed. English Wikipedia dates the Heidelberg manuscript to 1478 and regards it as the draft from which the Munich version emerged. Wiktenauer, by contrast, places its completion in the years 1478–1482 and relates the earlier draft mentioned in the colophon of the Munich manuscript rather to a lost third manuscript. In its view both versions are equal authorities, differ in substantial points, and some differences can be read as corrections. We therefore do not regard the Munich manuscript as a mere reworking of the Heidelberg one. Wiktenauer lists the dedication to Philip the Sincere of Wittelsbach, Count Palatine of the Rhine, for the Heidelberg manuscript, and we have not been able to confirm it for the Munich one.

Editions and translations

The English translation of the Munich manuscript was published by Jeffrey L. Forgeng in 2015 with Boydell and Brewer under the title The Art of Swordsmanship by Hans Lecküchner. Wiktenauer has published a working English translation of Cgm 582 and names Żabiński, Mitchell and Fritz as its authors. We did not find the year of its creation in the sources. Lecküchner's teaching also reached print: Christian Egenolff printed in 1531 short teachings on the messer attributed to "Meister Hans Lebkommer", a variant of Lecküchner's name. We have not been able to confirm any other modern editions or translations.

People and martial arts

• Hans LecküchnerAuthor
• Jeffrey L. ForgengTranslator

Details

Form

Manuscript

Repository

Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, München

Shelfmark

Cgm 582

Illustrations

415

Library digitisation

digitale-sammlungen.de/de/view/bsb00002184

Editions

• 2015 · EN · The Art of Swordsmanship by Hans Lecküchner · Boydell and Brewer · first edition