The so-called Codex Wallerstein or ''Vonn Baumanns Fechtbuch'' (Oettingen-Wallerstein Cod. I.6.4
o.2,
Augsburg University library) is a 16th-century convolution of three 15th-century
fechtbuch manuscripts, with a total of 221 pages.
The inside of the cover is inscribed ''1549. Vom baumanns 108'', suggesting that the manuscript belonged to one Michael Baumann, listed as a
mercenary by profession in the tax registers of Augsburg between 1471 and 1495. The manuscript came in the possession of
Paulus Hector Mair in 1556. After Mair's execution in 1579, the ms. may have passed to the library of Marcus Fugger, whose library was sold by his grandson in 1653, passing into the
Oettingen-Wallerstein library.
Contents
Part A treats fighting with the
longsword,
dagger and
messer. Part B is inserted in two parts, interrupting the first part, treating
grappling. Parts A and B were made in c. 1470; the paper is dated to 1464/5 based on its watermark. Part A is considered a source for the fechtbuch of
Albrecht Dürer
Albrecht Dürer (; ; hu, Ajtósi Adalbert; 21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528),Müller, Peter O. (1993) ''Substantiv-Derivation in Den Schriften Albrecht Dürers'', Walter de Gruyter. . sometimes spelled in English as Durer (without an umlaut) or Due ...
of 1512.
Part C is somewhat older, made in the first half of the 15th century. The paper is dated to 1420 based on its watermark. It treats longsword,
armored combat, stechschild and grappling.
The final page, fol. 109r, has a register, written in the hand of
Paulus Hector Mair (foll. 109v and 110 are empty).
Part A
*3r-14v, 21r, 21v longsword techniques
*22r-28v dagger
*29r-32v messer
Part B
*15r-20v, 33r-74r
grappling
*74v drawing of an armed robbery (with instructions for the robber to draw blood from the victim's neck for intimidation)
ol. 75 empty
Part C
* 1r, a drawing of a fencer with various arms, still used as a title page in the convoluted ms. and inscribed with Paulus Hector's name.
*1v-2r, a double page illustration showing a fighting arena with spectators
*76r-80v, 101r-102v longsword
*81r-91v,
ol. 92 empty93r-95v, 103r-108r armoured combat
*96r-96v, 98v judicial combat, Swabian law (with swords)
*97r-98r judicial combat, Franconian law (with clubs)
*98v-100v grappling (fol. 98v combines a grappling image with a judicial combat one)
*108v, image of a wedding ceremony.
[four figures in festive clothing; the bridegroom is saying ''ich nim dich'', the bride ''ia ia liber löffel ia'', with two witnesses pictured below.]
See also
*
Fechtbuch
*
Historical European martial arts
References
*Hans Peter Hils: Fecht- und Ringbuch - vermischtes Kampfbuch. Munich 1991
*Rainer Leng, ''Fecht- und Ringbücher'' fascicle. 1/2 of vol. 4/2 of ''Katalog der deutschsprachigen illustrierten Handschriften des Mittelalters'', eds. Hella Frühmorgen-Voss, Norbert H. Ott, Ulrike Bodemann, Christine Stöllinger-Löser, Munich, 2008, pp. 110-113 (Nr. 38.9.1
*Rainer Welle, ''…vnd mit der rechten faust ein mordstuck - Baumanns Fecht- und Ringkampfhandschrift''. Herbert Utz Verlag, 2014. .
*G. Zabinski, 'Several Remarks on the Bloßfechen Section of Codex Wallerstein', ''Journal of Western Martial Art'', April 200
*G. Zabinski, with B. Walczak, ''Codex Wallerstein, A Medieval Fighting Book from the Fifteenth Century on the Longsword, Falchion, Dagger, and Wrestling'', Paladin Press, (2002), {{ISBN, 1-58160-339-8.
External links
media.bibliothek.uni-augsburg.dedigital images hosted at Augsburg university
(messer portion)
partial transcription at schwertfechten.ch
15th-century illuminated manuscripts
Combat treatises