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Le Jeu de La Hache (Bibliothéque Nationale France MS FR. 1996)
Talhoffer’s Fechtbuch aus dem Jahre 1443 (der herzoglichen Bibliothek zu Gotha (Ch. A. no. 558)) (The "Gothaer Codex")
Talhoffer’s Fechtbuch aus dem Jahre 1459 (der kaiserlich-königlichen Ambraser Sammlung) (The "Ambraser Codex")
Talhoffer’s Alte Armatur und Ringkunst (Det Kongelige Bibliotek, Copenhagen, Thott 290 2, 150 ff. Bayern 1459)
Talhoffer’s Fechtbuch aus dem Jahre 1467 (Cod.icon. 393/ München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek)
Ringeck’s Commentaries (Mscr. Dresden C487/Dresden, Sächsische Lendesbibliothek) c. 1440
The Wallerstein Codex (Universitätsbibliothek Augsburg: Cod.I.6.40.2) c. 1470
Gladiatoria (Biblioteka Jagiellonski, Krakow Ms. Germ. Quart. 16, NR: 5878 1989 ROK)
While most of the fechtbücher listed above are from Germany, Le Jeu de La Hache was written in the late fifteenth century by an anonymous master of arms in Burgundy.
"The tone, quality and precision of Le Jeu all suggest that it is the work of a professional master of arms… especially concerned with preparing them for judicial combat in the lists." (Sydney Anglo) It is the only extant manuscript dealing entirely with the pollaxe, and for that reason I have included it among the sources for this work.
It’s interesting to note that while many masters of arms considered wrestling or the longsword to be the foundation of martial arts, the author of Le Jeu considered the pollaxe to be the base from which all other systems came. "…let every man… naturally desire to exercise and make himself dexterous in virtuous and honourable occupation, and principally in the noble feat of arms, that is to say in Axe-play, from which proceed and depend several weapons above-named."(Sydney Anglo again.)
Le Jeu consists of 73 paragraphs, including 3 paragraphs of the prologue, 48 concerned with fighting right hander against right hander, and 22 with fighting against someone in a left-handed guard. Not all of these paragraphs contain specific techniques, however. For example, paragraph 10 says: "If you fail. You must return on guard. And this should be done quickly." while other paragraphs give important conceptual ideas about pollaxe combat but not specific techniques. For example, paragraph 73 says: "You must frequently attack him with jabs at the face and at the feet to make him lose his composure."
There are no illustrations accompanying the text, however, and this can make it extremely difficult to interpret the techniques. Indeed, were it not for the similarity of techniques in Talhoffer’s 1467 fechtbuch I would not have been able to make sense of some of the techniques in Le Jeu, and some remain opaque to me even now. Still, in spite of this lack, Le Jeu de La Hache is a very well written work with relatively clear instructions and a relatively consistent terminology, a rarity among early fighting manuals.
Hans Talhoffer (c. 1420-c. 1490) was master of arms for Leutold von Königsegg, a Swabian knight in the service of Count Eberhardt the Bearded of Württemburg. Several fechtbücher were written either by him or in his name, of which the most commonly known are his Gothaer Codex (1443), Ambraser Codex (1459), Alte Armatur und Ringkunst (1459), and Fechtbuch aus dem Jahre 1467 editions.
The Gothaer Codex begins with a detailed discussion of how to determine the proper day and time to fight based on your name and astrolgogical data, all sheathed in a pseudo-scientific wrapper by the addition of the name "Pythagoras", as if the name itself were a talisman of science. This trend of attempting to apply pseudo science to fencing would continue throughout the period as fencing masters sought to legitimize their art. After this, the fechtbuch continues with pictures of various scenes of daily life in Swabia; why these scenes are present isn’t clear, but for the historian they are a treasure trove of information.
Finally, we get down to combat: There are some scant scenes of blossfechten (fighting out of armor, in this case with longswords), some ubiquitous scenes of the large dueling shields written of elsewhere, and then a fairly lengthy section showing armored halfsword combat. After the halfsword combat there are a few pictures of pollaxe combat, however these pictures are so imprecise and unclear it’s almost impossible to tell who’s supposed to be the attacker or defender, and the exact nature of the techniques completely eludes me. Next we have some plates showing a series of very odd dagger techniques: these are interesting in that they are fairly unclear (again, it’s hard to tell who’s supposed to be attacking or defending), and don’t seem to match the dagger techniques shown all through Talhoffer’s other books. The book finishes with some wrestling material which suffers from the same problems as the other sections. All in all, this is my least favorite of Talhoffer’s works, and it’s no surprise it’s the earliest of them.
The Ambraser Codex is dated to 1459 by many authorities, however I don’t believe this to be the case: The clothing illustrated in the work is much earlier than that; compare the high waists and low skirts of the doublets with those of the Alte Armature und Ringkunst or with the 1467 fechtbuch.
This book starts with a brief recitation of some combat principles which are largely a re-stating of Liechtenauer. We then move to some figures showing armored halfsword guards. After this, however, we see something very telling: We see Talhoffer himself acting as squire to Leutold von Königsegg (the text actually says as much), arming him in preparation for combat in the lists. After this we see a combat in the lists which opens with cast spears and moves to halfswording and is finished by dagger combat on the ground (after which the loser is stripped out of his armor and his body is carried off the field).
What’s particularly interesting about this to me is that many of the plates in this sequence don’t show good technique; we see the combatants sort of just struggling together. Indeed, in one plate the combatants are both on the ground, neither has a clear advantage, and the text says : "Here they lie, each is searching for the advantage". To me, this suggests that this section of the MS is meant to represent a depiction of an actual fight with which Leutold took part. In other words, it’s not so much an instruction about how to fight as it is a retelling of a fight which actually took place. This is in keeping with my theory that few fechtbücher were really "training manuals", at least in the sense we mean the term
After Leutold’s duel he is placed in a chair and the text says: "Here Leutold von Königsegg begins to learn the dagger fencing from Master Hans Talhoffer". Then we see a series of dagger techniques, then wrestling techniques, some spear work, and, finally, some mounted combat (the spear and mounted material is very scanty). From this, I gather that the only "instructional" material in the manual, per se, is the dagger and wrestling. This isn’t to say that we can’t learn a lot from the halfsword material, we can, but I think the rest was intended more to impress Leutold von Königsegg than to teach anyone anything.
Talhoffer's Alte Armatur und Ringkunst was written in Bavaria in 1459. The work covers a variety of aspects of war, including a fascinating collection of war machines and devices (ranging from the practical but doubtful to the extreme and outlandish), illustrations with short descriptions for the longsword, sword and buckler, dagger, wrestling, pollaxe, judicial combat, and mounted combat, as well as some specialized forms for the judicial duel: double-ended dueling pavises used with sword or club, and man in a pit with a club woman with a rock in a sock. Other illustrations include six foot tall throated and hewing shields (Gekehlte and Hackenschilde, respectively).
To my mind the ‘Alte Armatur’ manuscript is the most beautiful of all of the extant fighting manuals. Lavishly painted with colors that remain appealing almost 550 years later, there are exquisite details of costume and custom which are of tremendous value to the student of the period. Unfortunately, I have not yet found a translation of this work, so it must remain of somewhat lesser utility. Still, knowledge of other techniques in the German tradition makes many of the techniques fairly easy to comprehend.
Talhoffer’s 1467 fechtbuch is a more mature work than his previous efforts, albeit not as artistically beautiful as the ‘Alte Armatur’ manuscript. Here we have none of the detailed textual material preceding and following the illuminations of the techniques proper in ‘Alte Armatur’, nor any images of his fanciful war machines. The techniques, however, are clearly drawn and have much more detailed descriptions associated with them than do any of his previous works. In addition, the techniques are more clearly organized into sections including the longsword, armored combat in the lists (a very brief section, unfortunately), pollaxe, various kinds of judicial combat (oversized shields with mace or sword and the man in a hole, woman above with a "rock in a veil", etc.), dagger fighting, wrestling, falchion or messer, sword and buckler, and various sorts of mounted combat. Moreover, we are fortunate to have a very well-done translation of this entire work available to us done by Marc Rector.
Ringeck’s Commentaries dates from approximately 1420-1440. It is comprised of 254 pages of text and, like Le Jeu, contains no illustrations. It is supposed to have been written by Sigmund Ringeck, a master of arms in the employ of Albrecht, Count Palatine of the Rhine and Duke of Bavaria, although modern scholars don’t believe he actually wrote all of it. It contains instruction regarding the use of the longsword, sword and buckler, wrestling, armored halfsword, armored wrestling, armored spear, and mounted techniques. Most of the techniques in this book are based closely on the teachings of the famous German master, Johannes Liechtenauer, who live in the fourteenth century and wrote his seminal fechtbuch in approximately 1389. Liechtenauer is truly the father of German martial arts: His work is the foundation for almost every German fechtbuch produced to the end of the Middle Ages, however, no copies of it survive, if, indeed, he ever wrote anything down. We have only the work of his students from which to learn his teachings. Christian Tobler has produced a superb translation and interpretation of Ringeck’s work in a book published by Chivalry Bookshelf.
The Wallerstein Codex (often called the von Bauman Fechtbuch) dates from approximately 1470 (but see below). It consists of two parts: In the first we see unarmored longsword combat reminiscent of but not identical to the Liechtenauer tradition; he seems to use the Liechtenauer material as a starting point and then experiment away from that point. This section then goes on to detailed material on wrestling, dagger play and the messer (a single-edged, one-handed sword), finally closing with a plate that describes and illustrates a method for stealing from a peasant without actually harming him. I swear, I’m not making this up!
The second section of the Wallerstein Codex is of a much earlier date than the first part; I would estimate it as being from 1410-1415, making it one of the very earliest fechtbücher in existence. It is clearly a very different work from the first section, with a different artist, different clothing, armor, etc. It was apparently just gathered in with the other section and bound together as many books were. It begins with some unarmored longsword material, some more of the famous German dueling shields, some wrestling, and then goes on to an armored section. The armored material is completely out of order, but we see a judicial combat starting with spear, longsword and small heater shield. The fight moves from the spear to halfsword to dagger and wrestling combat. Interestingly, the swords depicted have spikes sticking out all over their pommels—we see representations of this sort of specialized weapon in several sources, but none outside the fechtbücher, and there’s no evidence they were ever actually used. There is no text in the second section at all except some notes in a later hand describing the material (but not explaining the techniques, alas).
We are fortunate in having a very good translation (of the first part, at least) of the Wallerstein Codex available in print by Zabinsky and Walkzac from Paladin Press.
And, finally, we come to Gladiatoria. This work appears to date from after the middle of the 15th century and is certainly German, but little else is known about it. It begins with a standard German judicial combat starting with spear and sword and small heater shield. After an exchange of spear techniques we move to halfsword combat which is akin to but not identical to the Liechentauer material; there is a great proportion of grappling, for example. After that there is an extensive section of armored dagger combat, both on foot and on the ground—in this Gladiatoria is very rare. The book also contains a very few unarmored plates showing staff, sword and buckler play, and the ever-present German dueling shields. Unfortunately, there appears to be no translation of this interesting work, even though each plate is accompanied by extensive text, so its use is somewhat limited. Nonetheless, I have been able to identify a few unique techniques from it to add to our curriculum. I look forward eagerly to working through more.