Der Fechtkampf

Sword fighting manual from the 16th century

This fencing manuscript, made from paper*, was produced in the early 1500s in the Bavarian city of Nuremberg. There is next to no online commentary and the work consists of about 140 pages, featuring ink and watercolour/ink-wash illustrations.

Combatant swordsmen, in armour, make up only about twenty pages, with the balance of generally unsophisticated sketches showing duelling individuals in ordinary clothes. Perhaps they were soldiers in training, or for-hire, without the necessary funds to buy armour. It must have been an enormously expensive protective garment.

There is no accompanying text, beyond occasional notes scribbled across some pages. Presumably it was intended as a training manual, perhaps even copied from (an) earlier source(s). The scenes are fairly narrow in terms of the weapons portrayed, with long swords, daggers and bucklers^ making up the vast majority, if not the entire illustrated repertoire.

*I think

The 16th century manuscript, listed simply as: 'Fechtbuch: Libr. pict. A 83' is hosted by the State Library of Berlin.

Fechtbuch = fight book
Der Fechtkampf = the sword fight

Previously: combat