- Royal Armouries Ms. I.33
Royal Armouries Ms. I.33, also known as "the Tower
manuscript " because of its long stay in theTower of London , is the usual name for the earliest known surviving Europeanfechtbuch , although it deals only with thesword andbuckler . Theilluminated manuscript , of German origin, is now in the collection of theRoyal Armouries atLeeds ,England . It is also referred to asBritish Museum No. 14 E iii, No. 20, D. vi.The 64 page treatise shows a
martial arts system of defensive and offensive techniques between a master and a pupil, referred to as "sacerdos" (priest) and "scolaris" (student), each armed with asword and abuckler , drawn in ink andwatercolour and accompanied with Latin text, interspersed with German fencing terms. On the last two pages, the pupil is replaced by a woman calledWalpurgis . The priestly teacher can be recognized by histonsure .The manuscript has not been conclusively dated in printed publication;
Alphonse Lhotsky in a handwritten note suggested the late13th century and identified the scribe as a secretary to thebishop ofWürzburg , but other experts tend to assign it to the early to mid-14th century .The manuscript is first mentioned by
Henricus a Gunterrodt in his "De veriis principiis artis dimicatoriae" of 1579, where he reports it to have been discovered by a friend of his, one Johannes Herbart ofWürzburg . The manuscript was part of the ducal library of Gotha until it disappeared inWorld War II and resurfaced at aSotheby's auction in 1950, where it was purchased by theRoyal Armouries . The author of the treatise may be a cleric called "Lutegerus" (possibly a Latinised form of the German proper nameLiutger appearing in the text).The fencing system is based on a number of wards ("custodie") which are answered by displacements ("obsessiones"). The wards are numbered 1 to 7 on the first two pages and supplemented by various 'special' wards later in the text. The seven basic wards are:
# under the arm ("sub brach")
# right shoulder ("humero dextrali")
# left shoulder ("humero sinistro")
# head ("capiti")
# right side ("latere dextro")
# breast ("pectori")
# 'long-point' (langort )The German terms appearing in the Latin text are the following:
* "albersleiben" (possibly thefool's guard position)
* "durchtreten", "durchtritt" ('stepping through')
* "halpschilt" ('half shield', one of the "obsessiones")
* "krucke" ('crutch', a defensive position)
* "langort " ('long-point', may be either a "custodia" or an "obsessio")
* "nucken" ('nudge', a specific attack)
* "schiltslac" ('shield-blow')
* "schutzen" ('protect')
* "stich" ('stab')
* "stichschlac" ('stab-blow')
* "vidilpoge" ('fiddle-bow', a specific "custodia")Sporadic dialectal elements in these terms (notably "nucken" and "halpschilt") suggest a location of composition consistent with the reported discovery in a
Franconia n monastery in the wider area ofWürzburg .Literature
*Jeffrey L. Singman (now Forgeng), The medieval swordsman: a 13th century German fencing manuscript, Royal Armouries Yearbook 2 1997, 129-136.
*Jeffrey L. Forgeng, The Medieval Art of Swordsmanship, A Facsimile & Translation of the World's Oldest Personal Combat Treatise, published jointly with the Royal Armouries at Leeds, Chivalry Bookshelf, 2003; ISBN 1-891448-38-2
*Paul Wagner & Stephen Hand, Medieval Sword And Shield: The Combat System of Royal Armouries MS I.33, Chivalry Bookshelf, 2003.External links
* [http://freywild.ch/i33/i33en.html Full text of I.33 and translation] (Freywild)
* [http://home.armourarchive.org/members/jester/I33/A_Possible_Interpretation.html A Partial, Possible Interpretation of the I.33 Manuscript] by John Jordan
* [http://www.higginssword.org/guild/demo/muse/buckler/index.html Demonstration of basic attacks] includes slow-motion video clips (Higgins Armory Sword Guild)
* [http://www.thearma.org/Manuals/i33/i33.htm Anonymous Fechtbuch: Manuscript I.33] (TheAssociation for Renaissance Martial Arts )
* [http://www.thearma.org/Manuals/I33-guards.html A comparative pictorial study of the Wards and techniques of the I.33 or Tower Fechtbuch] by Brian Hunt (TheAssociation for Renaissance Martial Arts )
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