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Welcome to the Wiktenauer! The world's largest library of Historical European Martial Arts books and manuscripts

Without books no one can be a good teacher nor even a good student of this art. ~ Master Fiore de'i Liberi, ca. 1405

Wiktenauer's mission is to collect all of the primary and secondary source literature that makes up the text of historical European martial arts research and to organize and present it in a scholarly but accessible format. The Wiktenauer project is funded by the Historical European Martial Arts Alliance and supported by researchers and practitioners from across the Western martial arts community. It is named for Johannes Liechtenauer, grand master of the oldest known longsword fencing style; his tradition was also the best-documented of the early Modern era, the subject of many dozens of manuscripts and books during a period stretching from ca. 1389 to 1713. Here are a few basic categories of pages that are being constructed:

• Master Pages host biographical information about each master, as well as the transcription and translation of his complete works. In cases of multiple copies of a master's work, the transcriptions are laid out side-by-side to facilitate the most accurate translation possible. To aid in interpretation, the writings will also be illustrated with images from the masters' work as available. A bibliography at the end of each page lists additional transcriptions, translations, and scans that are available in print. The exemplar for this category of pages is Fiore de'i Liberi. Ultimately, every master in all of the traditions of Western Martial Arts will have a dedicated page.
• Treatise Pages host all relevant data on a book or manuscript, including description, provenance, table of contents (with links to the appropriate master pages), gallery of page scans, and bibliography of additional print resources. The exemplar for manuscripts is the Goliath Fechtbuch, while the exemplar for printed books is Ergrundung Ritterlicher Kunst der Fechterey. Ultimately, every text in the corpus of Historical European Martial Arts literature will have a dedicated page.
• Technique Pages compile all of the relevant information from all of the relevant manuals on a particular technique, including transcriptions, translations, and images. There is also a section at the end of each page where groups may embed videos of their interpretations. The template for techniques is the Zornhaw. Ultimately, every technique mentioned in the manuals will have a dedicated page.
• Weapon Pages provide information about how a specific weapon form is described and used in the treatises, data on surviving artifacts, an overview of archaeological research pertinent to a given weapon, and a comprehensive index of the treatises and writers that discuss each weapon.

The wiki also features pages for HEMA groups, pages for HEMA events, general information pages, and almost other topic of interest to the HEMA community you can think of. If you'd like to pitch in, simply request an account and consult How can I help?

Recent Feature Additions We've begun a major overhaul of the way the wiki stores information which should make article updates easier and possibly allow us to do some interesting stuff programmatically in the future. All transcriptions will be moved off of the master pages (or manual pages, in a few places) and shunted into their own dedicated pages from which they will be transcluded back into their previous locations. Which is a complicated way of saying that we'll be creating a single page for each transcription and then displaying pieces of that page wherever we need them. This is what we should have done in the first place, but I didn't this was possible back then (for all I know, it might not have been—that was four versions of Mediawiki ago) and we didn't have the right extensions installed even if I did. The ultimate goal is to arrive at a point where the only content on a page is the English-language material (we'll visit the idea of moving translations onto their own pages at a later date), which will not only serve to make the code easier to read and edit, but will also make the translation engine more useful since it won't have to grapple with the transcription text when marking up a page. (Hopefully my long-suffering Spanish translators haven't lost interest after all this time that I've spent trying to get the wiki to a state where it can work for them.) For a detailed explanation of how this system works, see the Wiktenauer:Tutorial. Since Goliath and Fiore dei Liberi are our exemplar pages for their respective categories, they get the treatment first and I've been using them to test out and tweak the model. After them, we'll be rolling through on a treatise-by-treatise basis, creating transcription pages and then updating master pages when all the content is in place. Here's where you come in. This is a huge undertaking and will essentially usher Wiktenauer into its third major incarnation. Doing it by myself (yes, I've been using the royal plural throughout this note since it's just me working on it), this will take several months and won't be completed on any deadline. Gone are the days when I could put in 50, 60, 70 hours a week working on this. If it's going to happen soon, I'll need volunteers. This isn't difficult or technical work for the most part—I can walk someone through the process in just a few minutes—but it will consist of a lot of copypasta and repetition. (I usually watch movies while doing it to stay focused.) (Alternatively, if you're good at that sort of thing and can develop an automated scenario for extracting and reformatting this content, I'd be very interested to hear about it. At the moment, the only automation I'm planning on is converting HTML to Wiki Markup Language for the transcriptions where I can get the source code.) People often ask me how I learned so much about treatises, but there's no mysterious answer; this is how, looking at manuscripts for hours and hours (in my case, I'd guess I've spent somewhere above 6,000 hours) and seeing all the ways they fit together. Here's your chance to do a little of the same. Contact me here or elsewhere if you can help, and we'll talk about setting you up with a master or treatise that interests you (it's all got to get done, so why not start with something you like?). ~ Michael Chidester (Contact) 01:43, 23 August 2013 (UTC)

What's New? Gloss and Interpretation of the Record of the Long Sword die gloss und die auslegung der zettel des langen schwert Author(s) Unknown Ascribed to Pseudo-Peter von Danzig Illustrated by Unknown Date before 1452 Genre Fencing manual Wrestling manual Language Early New High German Archetype(s) Hypothetical Manuscript(s) Codex 44.A.8 (1452) Codex I.6.4º.3 (1450s) MS KK5126 (1480s) MS M.I.29 (1491) MS 26-232 (1512) MS German Quarto 2020 (1510-20) MSS Dresden C.93/94 (1542) Codex 10825/10826 (1550s) Codex Icon 393 (1550s) Reichsstadt Nr. 82 (1553) Cgm 3712 (1556) Codex I.6.2º.2 (1564) MS Varia 82 (1570) First Printed English Edition Tobler, 2010 Concordance by Michael Chidester "Pseudo-Peter von Danzig" is the name given to an anonymous late 14th or early 15th century] German fencing master. (This name stems from the false assumption of many 20th century writers identifying him with Peter von Danzig zum Ingolstadt.) Some time before the creation of the Codex 44.A.8 in 1452, he authored a gloss of Johannes Liechtenauer's record which would go on to become the most widespread in the tradition. While his identity remains unknown, it is possible that he was in fact Jud Lew or Sigmund Schining ein Ringeck, both of whose glosses show strong similarities to the work. On the other hand, the introduction to the Rome version of the text—the oldest currently extant—might be construed as attributing it to Liechtenauer himself. Early on in its history, this text seems to have split into two primary branches. The first branch, found in the Rome (1452), Krakow (1510-20), and Augsburg (1564) versions, has slightly longer descriptions and is always accompanied by illustrations. The second branch, appearing first in the Augsburg (1450s) and used in all extant versions except the three listed above, has shorter descriptions but a number of additional devices (some of which seem to be drawn directly from Ringeck's gloss). (Read more...) Recently Featured: Codex Döbringer (MS 3227a) – Johannes Liechtenauer – Johannes Lecküchner – Carlo Giuseppe Colombani

Wiktenauer Sponsor Organizations

Each year Wiktenauer holds a two-week fundraising drive to cover our server fees and fund new projects and acquisitions. The following are the organizations are official sponsors of the 2015 fundraiser; a full list of donors can be viewed on the Contributors page.

Top three 2015 donors

Kron Martial Arts

xKdF Network

Schola Saint George

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Associació Catalana d'Esgrima Antiga

Boston Armizare

Fechtschule Victoria

Longpoint: HEMA Tournaments & Workshops

Noble Science Academy

Ottawa Swordplay

Purpleheart Armoury

The Rhode Island Fencing Academy and Club

School of European Swordsmanship

Sword to Sword - Kunst des Fechtens

Système d'Armes - New Orleans

Tattershall School of Defense

Historical European Martial Arts Federations

Australia Western Martial Academies of Australia

Austria Österreichischer Fachverband für Historisches Fechten

Belgium Societas Belgarum Scientiae Nobilis

Brazil Associação Brasileira de Artes Marciais Históricas Européias

Czech Republic Česká asociace šermířů

France Fédération Française des Arts Martiaux Historiques Européens

Galicia (Spain) Asociación Galega de Esgrima Antiga

Germany Deutscher Dachverband Historischer Fechter

Greece Ελληνική Ομοσπονδία

Hungary Magyar Hosszúkardvívó Sportszövetség

Italy Vnione Arti Dimicatorie Italia

Netherlands H.E.M.A.-bond Nederland

Poland Polska Federacja Dawnych Europejksich Sztuk Walki

Portugal Federação Portuguesa de Esgrima Histórica

Slovenia Historical European Martial Arts Federation of Slovenia

Spain Asociación Española de Esgrima Antigua Federación Española de Esgrima Histórica

Sweden Svenska HEMA-förbundet

Switzerland Swiss Federation for Historical European Martial Arts

United Kingdom British Federation for Historical Swordplay