Fechtbuch - Definition

Fechtbuch (plural Fechtbücher) is German for 'combat manual', one of the manuscripts or printed books of the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance containing descriptions of a martial art. Usually, the term is taken to include 15th and 16th century German manuals, but the nature of the subject matter does not allow a clear separation of these from treatises from other parts of Europe on one hand (particularly from the Italian and French schools), and from manuals of later centuries on the other hand.

List of Fechtbücher:

• German school
  • MS I.33 (ca. 1300, predating Liechtenauer)
  • MS 3227a (ca. 1389)
  • Codex Vindobonensis B 11093, (ca. 1440, not directly dependent on Liechtenauer) Vienna
  • Fechtbuch of Sigmund Ringeck (1440s)
  • "Gladiatoria", a mid 15th century fechtbuch, discovered in Poland (largely uninfluenced by Liechtenauer)
  • Fechtbücher of Hans Talhoffer (several surviving manuscripts dating 1443–1467).
  • Fechtbuch of Peter von Danzig, Cod. 44 A 8, 1452
  • Jud Lew Cod.I.6.4°.3 (1450s), Augsburg
  • Fechtbuch of Paulus Kal (1460s)
  • Codex Wallerstein (Vom Baumans Fechtbuch), 1470s, Augsburg
  • Solothurner Fechtbuch, no text, dependent on Paulus Kal, 1470s, Solothurn
  • Johannes Lecküchner Cod. Pal. Germ. 430, Heidelberg (1478), Cgm. 582, München (1482)
  • Hans Folz Q566 (ca. 1480), Weimar
  • Hans von Speyer (MS M I 29) (1491)
  • Hans Wurm, grappling, (ca. 1505)
  • "Goliath fechtbuch" (1510s) [1] (http://www.thearma.org/Manuals/Goliath/Goliath.htm)
  • Albrecht Dürer's fechtbuch HS. 26-232 (1512), Michigan State University
  • Fechtbücher by Jörg Wilhalm (1520s)
  • Hans Czynner MS. 963 (1538), Graz
  • the compendia of Paulus Hector Mair (1540s).
  • Hans Lecküchner (1558)
  • Joachim Meyer (1570)
  • Gunterrodt: "De veris principiis artis dimicatoriae" (1579), Wittemberg
  • Jakob Sutor von Baden (1612)

• French and Italian schools
  • Le jeu de la hache (ca 1400)
  • Fiore dei Liberi's Flos Duellatorum (1410)
  • Fillipo Vadi (1485)
  • Camillo Agrippa, "Trattato di Scienza d'Arme" (1568)
  • Giacomo di Grassi (1594)
  • Ridolfo Capo Ferro (1610)
  • Monsieur L'Abbat "The Art of Fencing, or, the Use of the Small Sword" (1734)

• English manuals
  • "Additional Manuscript 39564", 15th century [2] (http://www.thearma.org/Manuals/MS39564/MS39564.htm)
  • Harliean Manuscript 3542 ("The Man Who Wol"), 15th century [3] (http://www.thearma.org/Manuals/Harleian.htm)
  • George Silver "Paradoxes of Defense" (1599)
  • Joseph Swetnam "Schoole of the Noble and Worthy Science of Defence" (1612) [4] (http://www.thearma.org/Manuals/swetnam.htm)
  • Sir William Hope, several books (1690s)
  • Capt. John Godfrey "A Treatise Upon the Useful Science of Defence, Connecting the Small and Back-Sword" (1747)
  • Alfred Hutton "Cold Steel, A Practical Treatise on the Sabre" (1889), "Old Sword-Play" (1892)

See also

• Historical European Martial Arts
• German school of swordsmanship

External links

• http://www.thearma.org/manuals.htm
• http://www.aemma.org/onlineResources/library_15c_body.htm
• http://www.aemma.org/onlineResources/hils/genealogy/hils.html