Codex Wallerstein

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the first page shows a fencer with various arms.

illustration of a half-sword thrust against a mordhau in armoured longsword combat. (Plate 214)

The Codex Wallerstein (Augsburg University library I.6.4.2) is a 15th century fechtbuch. The title Vom Baumans Fechtbuch appears on the first page, together with the date 1549. The Codex came in the possession of Paulus Hector Mair in 1556. It consists of 221 pages, illustrating techniques of fighting with the longsword, dussack and dagger, armored and unarmored, stechschild, as well a system of grappling.

The manuscript is a convolution of three parts, clearly separable by three different styles of illustration. The part A treats longsword, dagger and messer. The part B is inserted in two parts, interrupting the first part, treating grappling. The part C treats longsword, armoured combat, stechschild and grappling.

The swords depicted are of a tapering spadone style. The fighting style is somewhat different from that in the other fechtbücher in Liechtenauer's tradition. Especially the longsword techniques involve a lot of lever work and gripping the blade, reminiscent of Hans Talhoffer, probably executable by most fencers only with blunts, or in armoured combat.

Part A is considered a source for the fechtbuch of Albrecht Dürer of 1512. A note on fol. 56v indicates that part B post-dates part A. Part C is probably the oldest, dating to the mid-15th century, the illustrations possibly by a professional draftsman of playing-cards, while parts A and B may date to the 1470s, possibly by one Michael Baumann, listed as a mercenary by profession in the tax registers of Augsburg between 1471 and 1495. The present confused sequence of the pages is the result of a binding in the 16th century.

1 Contents
2 See also
3 Literature
4 External links

[edit] Contents

1r drawing of a fencer with various arms
1v-2r drawing of a fighting arena with spectators
Part A
- 3r-14v, 21r, 21v longsword techniques
- 22r-28v dagger
- 29r-32v messer
Part B
- 15r-20v, 33r-73r grappling
- 74v drawing of an armed robbery (with instructions for the robber to draw blood from the vicitm's neck for intimidation)
Part C
- 76r-80v, 101r-102v longsword
- 81r-95v, 103r-106r armoured combat
- 96r-96v, 98v judicial combat, Swabian law
- 97r-98r judicial combat, Franconian law
- 98v-100v grappling
108v four figures dressed in the style of the 13th century
109r register, in the hand of Paulus Hector Mair

[edit] See also

[edit] Literature

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. [1]