Treatises/Manuscript purgatory

Items in red have not yet been verified with the holding museum.

M	Title	Year	Call number	Author	Location	Notes
No	Fior di Battaglia	Early 15th century	Ms. 84	Fiore de'i Liberi	Biblioteca Estense	Last seen 1508
No	Fior di Battaglia	Early 15th century	Ms. 110	Fiore de'i Liberi	Biblioteca Estense	Last seen 1508
No	De Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi	ca. 1480s		Philippo di Vadi	Vatican Library	Possible second copy of De Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi (Cod.1324)
No		1515		J. Schwerer	Formerly Ortenburg'sche Bibliothek zu Tambach	o.S. verschollen – bei WELLE aufgeführt, W 08
No	Rast Fechtbuch	ca. 1549		Antonius Rast		Purchased at auction by Paulus Hector Mair, used to create the Reichstadt Nr. 82 in 1553.
No		1556		Johannes Bierchenauwer		19th century facsimile possibly exists
No	Kunst des Fechtens	1561		Joachim Meyer		Lost as of the mid 20th century. http://talhoffer.wordpress.com/2011/07/04/1561-joachim-meyer-dedicated-a-fencing-book-to-the-pfalzgrafen-of-pfalz-veldenz-2/
No	Cabinet d'escrime de l'espee et poingnardt	1585		Captain Peloquin		Source for MS KB.73.J.39
No	Il Disegno Del signor Cesare Pagano, Cavaliere Nopoletano, su'l vero Teatro di Marte, Per la Teorica della Schrimia, All' Altezza, di Don Ferdinando, de Medeci, Gran Duca di Toscana	1592		Cesare Pagani	Biblioteca Nazionale di Firenze	(XIX, 194, Magliabecchiana) This is mentioned by Gelli. It is dated 1592, and Cesare declares himself a relative (possibly a nephew) of Marcantoio Pagano, who published his treatise in 1553.  This is a weird one. It is in a good state of conservation, written in a beautifully clear hand and in a mostly not too obtuse Italian. The who thing was quite pricey to scan so I ordered the first 1/3 (which came to over 150 pages) to have a look and never followed up the next 2/3 as it is 99% irrelevant to the practical study of fencing. Instead it is literally stuffed with classical references but also observations about the natural world and sundry other digressions; there are no techniques and only scattered pieces of very general fencing advice.
No		Late 1500s or early 1600s	Add. Ms. 23223		British Library	This is listed by Castle, and is catalogued as 17th Century but the content itself seems more consistent with 16th century treatises. A black and white, easily readable, scan is inexpensive from the BL. It is handwritten in Italian, no illustrations, in two separate hands which are both fairly easy to read, although some of the pages are damaged and it is reasonable brief (the scan is 96 pages including blanks). Interestingly it uses the same guard nomenclature as Altoni with high, medium and low guards, and primarily discusses the single sword, sword and dagger, sword and cape and sword and rotella. The way it is organised is unusual, in that rather than relegating the rotella to a section of its own like most comparable treatises, it has a section on say the high guard, then explains how this applies to the single sword, sword and dagger, sword and cape and sword and rotella. It also very briefly mentions polearms, the spadone and two swords, which makes a nice round 10 Italian sources (alone) that includes two swords (Manciolino, Marozzo, Altoni, Agrippa, Di Grassi, Lovino, Lucino, Palladini, Docciolini, and this one). It is anonymous and it contains no overt contextual references (on an initial scan) to tie it down temporally or geographically. My gut feeling however is that it is Tuscan and late 16th century. In addition to guard nomenclature, it appears to have further commonalities with Altoni (for example it mentions the “zagaglia” as a pole weapon, which does not appear in any other known treatises except Altoni). The language appears quite “modern” and there are no glaring dialectal traits on an initial reading, but not inconsistent with a Tuscan/Central Italian origin…
No	Discorso del Gioco di Spada dell'Orafo di Cremona (Discourse on the Play of the Sword by the Goldsmith of Cremona)	Early 1600s	Urb.lat.1231 Cod. vatic. Urbin. 1231	Orafo di Cremona	Vatican Library Vatican Library (Fondo Urbinate), Rome	This was relatively inexpensive as a copy from microfilm, however the scan is very bad and the words quite hard to read. This manuscript previously belonged to Gelli, and is described here: http://www.swordforum.com/forums/showthread.php?92497-New-Manuscript-Orafo-di-Cremona On a quick scan through there is little or no non technical content to put the treatises into context, and the scan is so faint in places I haven't managed to force myself to read it. It seems to have only two guards, the “diritta” and “roverscia”.
Yes	Fechtbuch des einfachen Rapiers / Fechtbuch in Rapier und Dolchen	1611	Mss. germ. qu. 1190/1191	Hans Wilhelm Schöffer von Dietz	Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin	(Single rapier, dated 1611. Many ink drawings. Belonged to Erasmus von Starhemberg, who owned another well-known Fechtbuch.) Ms. germ. qu. 1190, Berlin, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz Mayster Hans Wilhelm: Fechtbuch des einfachen Rapiers (single rapier) 318 folios · 1611 (Another book by the same master, this one on rapier & dagger) Ms. germ. qu. 1191, Berlin, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz Mayster Hans Wilhelm: Fechtbuch in Rapier und Dolchen 327 Blatt · 1611 ~ Matt G. Archetype for Grůndtliche vñ eigentlichte Beschreibung der Fechtkunst? Archetype for earlier publication of same in two volumes, making the 1620 a compilation reprint? Possibly the same as or related to 4º MS Math.2
No	Compendio y Philosophia y Dztreza de las Armas	1625		Octavio Ferrara		Traced by Archibald Corble in the early 20th century to create the MS R4-B274.
No		1662	Ms. Chart. B 2117	Christian Günther con Berlepsch ?	Universitäts- und Forschungsbibliothek Erfurt/Gotha ?	7- Ms. Chart. B 2117 * Papierhandschrift; 1662 ; lateinisch-deutsch-französisch ; 305 Bll. Sammelhandschrift in der Art des mittelalterlichen „Hausbuches“ mit Texten verschiedener Art (lateinische Sentenzen, französisch-deutsches Vokabular, französische Briefentwürfe, deutsche Fechtanweisungen, etc.) von Christian Günther con Berlepsch: 'Phrases ex variis autoribus quam studiosissimi collectae'. 259r-260v Vorschriften für das moderne - französische - Stoßfechten. 285r-286v Vorschriften für das Hiebfechten mit dem Rapier. Von Liechtenauer unabhängig.
Yes	Anfangs Gründe der Edeln Fechtkunst	1744-1763	MS B 215	Salomon Christoph Müller	Universiätsbibliothek Erlangen	Paper 99 fol. German manuscript on the smallsword: Hs. B 215 at the University Library in Erlangen, Germany. It dates from around 1750, and was written by Salomon Christoph Mueller, the court fencing master for the Brandenburg court at Ansbach. The manuscript was originally in the palace library at Ansbach. The work is entitled Anfangs Gruende der Fechtkunst (Foundations of Fencing), and consists of two volumes: Vol. I has 56 pages and 81 plates. Vol II has 60 pages and 114 plates (many of which deal with left-handed fencing). The illustrations are ink drawings with watercolor. This sounds like an interesting work by someone who must have been a fairly prominent master. ~Matt G.
No	Abregé de l'exercice des armes[. Necéssaire à la jeunesse de savoir, pour pouvoir se deffendre avec son espée]	1767	MS E.1939.65.459	G. Belfin	RL Scott Luxembourg (place of manufacture)	Paper, vellum Manuscript entitled, 'Abrege De L'Exercice Des Armes', by G Belfin. Published Luxembourg, 1767. Subject classification: Fencing - French, 18th century. Bookplate with coat of arms
No	Traite Des Armes	1797	MS E.1939.65.489	Theophile-Malo Corret de La Tour D'Auvergne	RL Scott	Manuscript by author, 'Traite Des Armes', by Theophile-Malo Corret De La Tour D'Auvergne. Published 1797. Subject classification: Fencing - French, 18th century NB letter inside giving history of this MS, Rouen, 1900 Also typed paragraph about the book