The manuscript not only contains diverse descriptions of late medieval and Renaissance duels, it is also a magnificent illustrated volume with colourful and detailed illustrations. The martial arts of well-known masters such as Hans Liechtenauer and the Jew Ott can be found in it as well as almost unknown, anonymous fencing teachings. The manuscript was written in 1515, probably by Hans Schwerer, body armourer to Emperor Maximilian I.
A masterpiece of fencing book literature is now available in print for the first time. All illustrations are reproduced in colour, and the complete text is presented in a literal transcription as well as a translation into modern German. The Ortenburg Fencing Book disappeared from the Count Ortenburg Library in Tambach, Upper Franconia, in the 1980s. It was sold and has since been in unknown private ownership. Fortunately, films of the manuscript have been preserved so that it can be made accessible to an interested public and to research.
Group
Books (first-hand)
Author
Hagedorn, Dierk
Title
Das Ortenburger Fechtbuch
Details
56 bw and 177 coloured illustrations, landscape format. 448 pp.
