Manuscript I.33
The I.33 manuscript , inventory number; Tower of London manuscript I.33, Royal Library Museum, British Museum No. 14 E iii, No. 20, D. vi. (also known as the "Tower Fechtbuch") is the oldest known fencing book of the late Middle Ages . It is dated by most specialists around the year 1300 and contains illustrations including written statements, which deals exclusively with the sword-and- buckler - Fencing deal. The authorship of the script is generally attributed to a German cleric whose name is suspected to be "Liutger". The fencing master Heinrich von Gunterrodt mentioned the manuscript for the first time in 1579. Due to the linguistic peculiarities, it is assumed that the I.33 manuscript was created in the Würzburg area.
Description and content
The manuscript consists of 32 parchment sheets written on both sides with colored ink drawings. The illustrations show two unarmored fighters demonstrating combat techniques explained by the (mostly Latin) text. It is generally assumed that the fighter portrayed as sacerdos (i.e. clergyman) with a monk's tonsure is the author of the writing. The other fighter, referred to as scolaris , is apparently the customer / student (also discipulus, iuvenis, clientulum ) who is taught by the cleric. This can also be seen from the fact that the cleric in the pictures often loses the fight - probably for educational and didactic reasons.
The importance of the techniques illustrated in I.33 is controversial. Many experts tend to believe that the art of fencing represented is a knightly-bourgeois exercise that is no longer militarily meaningful. Practical fencers point out, however, that many techniques - such as the stab that was already forbidden in knight tournaments in the 13th century - are potentially lethal and therefore intended more for life and death. The fencing system also allows quick counterattacks, which allows the thought that it is not just a "sport" but an effective self-defense system. In other manuscripts from the 13th and 14th centuries there are also illustrations in which the warriors (armored and unarmored) also wear bucklers.
Fencing style according to I.33
The fencing system of I.33 essentially consists of the seven established "hats" ( custodia ), the displacements ( obsessiones ) and attacks ( invasiones ). In addition, many hats or displacements can also be used as an attack. The seven hats are divided as follows:
- Sub broke; "under the arm", the 1 hat
- Humero dextrali; "right shoulder", the 2 hat
- Humero sinistro; "left shoulder", the 3 hat
- Capiti; "Main", the 4 hat
- Dextrose; "right side", the 5 hat
- Pectori; "Chest", the 6 hat
- Langort; "straight tip", the 7 hat
There are also common hats, which are only mentioned in passing : the vidilpoge (nhd. Fiddled bow ), "Walpurgis" and the "Spezial-Langort" (also known as the "priest hat").
The next group of techniques, the misalignments, are understood according to the text as opposing positions to the hats that you want to attack or repel:
- Halpschilt; "Half shield"
- Crutch; "Crutch"
- Langort; acts as both a hat and an offset
- Protect; "Protect"
- Valde bona; modified 5 hat
- Valde aliena; modified "fiddle bow"
- Walpurgis
The opponent can z. B. be defeated or forced to surrender by using the following attacks:
- Schiltschlac; "Shield blow"
- Nod
- Stabbing battle; "Sting"
- Wrestling (melee)
Course of the fight
The fighter's primary goal is to disarm, kill, or surrender the enemy. The following scheme is generally used here; Depending on which hat the opponent and you have accepted, a hat is first chosen that is considered tactically advantageous. Thereafter it is usually added , i. H. Approaching the opponent from a safe distance, performing one of the above shifts. The offset (quasi an "uncomfortable" and "unfavorable" position for the opponent) primarily serves to protect oneself if the opponent strikes instinctively, and makes it difficult for the opponent to carry out a counter-reaction. As a countermeasure, it is recommended that the displaced person bind , i.e. H. to block the enemy blade in direct contact with your own. After a successful bond, each of the fighters can use one of the attacks (invasiones). When moving the opponent, it is recommended to use a blow or stab if the opponent fails to tie.
Examples
- Opponent A takes the first hat, opponent B the Walpurgis. B takes a step towards A and quickly changes to Halbschild (offset), whereupon A connects with Langort. Then B blocks the opponent's weapons with his own shield ("shield blow") and uses his own blade for a direct cut / stab / cut.
- A and B have the second hat as their starting position. B steps forward and puts protection on the opponent's second hat, whereupon A connects with the (front) Langort. B pushes the enemy blade aside and starts wrestling.
- A and B have the first hat. A crutched B, whereupon B tied up. Turning the opponent's blade to the side, A stabs at the belly of B.
A special feature of the I.33 combat system is the lack of the classic parry itself. The interception of the enemy blow or stab "edge against edge" is completely absent, hard blows with the sword on the opponent's weapons or static blocking and attacking based on the model of the modern fencing sword are absent. Instead, the body of the opponent is attacked directly if possible, or if it does not succeed, indirectly, out of the bond.
The weapons used
The approximate dating of the manuscript and the images themselves also allow conclusions to be drawn about the weapons used. A certain popularity of type XIV according to the Oakeshott classification can be attested between 1270 and 1340 , which is expressed by numerous illustrations and other artistic representations (see: Ewart Oakeshott; The Sword in the Age of Chivalry). Such a sword usually has a blade length of 70 cm, a weight of approx. 1.1 - 1.2 kg and the center of gravity between 9 and 11 cm. Since the illustrations in I.33 show a sword weapon with a straight cross-guard, the blade type of which is somewhere between types XII and XIV, one can generally assume that the two above mentioned. Types were equally used for fencing if they had the appropriate physical characteristics for the purpose. According to modern practitioners, such a weapon can be wielded very quickly and precisely without any significant loss of the cutting properties and at the same time with pronounced puncture-resistance. Fencing with sword and fist shield is likely to have been as highly developed and refined as the Asian martial arts that exist today.
Historical meaning
Manuscript I.33 is a unique source of medieval martial arts and culture, as it is not directly related to the German or Italian sword fencing school. Nevertheless, many technical parallels to the fencing teaching of Johann Liechtenauer can be recognized, although he only lived and worked half a century later. Many fencing masters of the 15th century also used swords and bucklers, but in a form adapted to the Liechtenauer nomenclature.
The sword-and-buckler fencing must not be equated with the shield fight of earlier times, such as the fighting style of the early Middle Ages . Although the fencing with the fist shield can already be proven in the High Middle Ages , the fight with the large round shield (which is mainly associated with the Vikings ) is clearly different with other techniques. In addition, the buckler became particularly popular at the time when the shield as a protective tool increasingly faded into the background due to the emerging plate elements in the ring armor . One of the clearest differences between the round shield and the buckler: the buckler does not serve to directly ward off enemy attacks, but protects the sword hand. Fighting here is almost exclusively done with the sword blade.
The I.33 also refutes the long-standing modern prejudice, which says that the high and late medieval fighters should have fought without any system. Sources from the 12th to 14th centuries document the extensive use of the fist shield and the presence of the schirm maister (defense master ), who had the task of training the young fighters. The sources in connection with manuscript I.33 make it clear that even before the time of the long sword there were highly developed combat systems with the weapons customary at the time. Since the I.33 fencing system is explicitly referred to as "knightly art" in the primary source and fencing with the sword & buckler has hardly changed in terms of fighting technology up to the 16th century, one can assume a long and continuous tradition of this type of fencing.
Ultimately, the manuscript I.33 is the only primary source that gives direct information about the fighting style of the high and late medieval Central European knight from the time before Johann Liechtenauer and Fiore dei Liberi . Considering the sources of the 14th century (I.33 and Nuremberg manuscript GNM 3227a), the thesis of the late 19th century of the chaotic manner of fighting of European knights and the "invention" of artistic fencing is only in connection with the rapier in the 16th and 17th centuries 17th century no longer tenable.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Pfaff Liutger ( Memento of the original dated November 7, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ First mention of I.33 ( Memento of the original from October 21, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ I.33 - Martial Sport
- ↑ Martial art or a martial sport?
- ^ The hats in I.33
- ^ The offsets in I.33
- ↑ The verses of I.33
- ↑ Thomas Locker: The Meaning of Obsessiones. (pdf; 58 kB) (No longer available online.) April 11, 2007, archived from the original on May 2, 2016 ; Retrieved December 12, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ The games of I.33
- ^ John Clements: The Sword & Buckler Tradition
- ↑ PDF at elib.uni-stuttgart.de
literature
- Jeffrey L. Forgeng: The Medieval Art of Swordmanship , Chivalry Bookshelf ISBN 1-891448-38-2
- Ewart Oakeshott : The Sword in the Age of Chivalry Boydell Press, 1964. ISBN 0-85115-715-7
- Cinato, Franck: Le livre de l'art du combat: (liber de arte dimicatoria); commentaires et examples; édition critique du Royal armories MS. I.33. Paris 2009.
- Herbert Schmidt: Sword fight: The fight with the short sword and buckler according to the German school . tape 2 . Wieland Verlag, Bad Aibling 2008, ISBN 978-3-938711-29-3 .
