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Difference between revisions of "Paulus Hector Mair"

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! <p>Source Images</p>
 
! <p>Source Images</p>
 
! <p>Images<br/>from the [[Opus Amplissimum de Arte Athletica (Cod.icon. 393)|Munich Version]]</p>
 
! <p>Images<br/>from the [[Opus Amplissimum de Arte Athletica (Cod.icon. 393)|Munich Version]]</p>
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! <p>{{rating|start}}<br/>by [[Per Magnus Haaland]]</p>
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! <p>{{rating|c}}<br/>by [[Eric Mains]]</p>
 
! <p>[[Opus Amplissimum de Arte Athletica (MSS Dresd.C.93/C.94)|Dresden II Transcription]] (1540s){{edit index|Opus Amplissimum de Arte Athletica (MS Dresd.C.94)}}<br/>by [[Pierre-Henry Bas]]</p>
 
! <p>[[Opus Amplissimum de Arte Athletica (MSS Dresd.C.93/C.94)|Dresden II Transcription]] (1540s){{edit index|Opus Amplissimum de Arte Athletica (MS Dresd.C.94)}}<br/>by [[Pierre-Henry Bas]]</p>
 
! <p>[[Opus Amplissimum de Arte Athletica (Cod.10825/10826)|Vienna I Transcription]] [German] (1550s){{edit index|Opus Amplissimum de Arte Athletica (Cod.10825)}}<br/>by [[Per Magnus Haaland]]</p>
 
! <p>[[Opus Amplissimum de Arte Athletica (Cod.10825/10826)|Vienna I Transcription]] [German] (1550s){{edit index|Opus Amplissimum de Arte Athletica (Cod.10825)}}<br/>by [[Per Magnus Haaland]]</p>
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| [[file:Mair mixed 16.jpg|300x300px|center]]
 
| [[file:Mair mixed 16.jpg|300x300px|center]]
 
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'''[65] How to pin someone who's been thrown'''
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'''[65] How One Shall Hold Down a Thrown Opponent'''
  
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When wrestling with your opponent standing up, you advance upon him with crossed arms in the tong hold, then place your left foot in front of his own left foot, and out of the tong hold reach around with your left hand above around his waist, and your right reversed grab hold on the inside of his left leg. Then, if you lift up with your lower grip, and push back to the left with your upper grip, then you will throw him over the left hip. When you have thrown him accordingly, then place your right leg between his both legs by the groin, and fall with your left leg over the biceps of your opponent's right arm, and with your right hand on the biceps of his left arm. This way you will hold him down so that he cannot get up again, and is not able to do anything. Then you may stab him in the face or through the vizor with the dagger you hold in your left hand, or you may throw dirt or sand in his face, or whatever you what ever you seem fit with him.
+
When you go to the man upright in the wrestling with arms crossed in the scissors, then step in to him with your left leg and, out of the scissors, grab over and around his body with your left hand, and inside and around his left leg with your inverted right hand. Lift high upwards with your right while pushing away from you above toward your left side. Thus, you throw him over your left hip. If you have thrown him like this, then fall with your right leg between both of his by his crotch. With your left knee, kneel upon the muscle of his right arm, and grasp the muscle of his left arm with your right hand. Thus you are able to hold him down so that he cannot get away or free himself from you. As you do this, you may be able to stab him in the eyes or face with a dagger in your left hand. Or you may be able to throw dirt or sand in his face and deal with him as you wish.
 
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| {{section|page:Cod.10826 111v.png|German|lbl=111v}}
 
| {{section|page:Cod.10826 111v.png|German|lbl=111v}}
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| [[file:Mair mixed 27.jpg|300x300px|center]]
 
| [[file:Mair mixed 27.jpg|300x300px|center]]
 
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'''[66] '''
+
'''[66] A Catch against a Thrust'''
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 +
If your adversary is going in toward you, and he brings a high thrust with his dagger against you, then step in with your right leg and take his thrust away with the cross of your dagger on your left side. Now quickly let your dagger fall and take hold of him with your left hand inside on his right arm close to his hand and your right hand on the front left side of his neck. Next, quickly hit him in the ankle with your left foot around his right, pulling that strongly towards you; push him strongly away from you above. Thus, you throw him backwards.
 
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| {{section|page:Cod.10826 117r.png|German|lbl=117r}}
 
| {{section|page:Cod.10826 117r.png|German|lbl=117r}}
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| [[file:Mair mixed 28.jpg|300x300px|center]]
 
| [[file:Mair mixed 28.jpg|300x300px|center]]
 
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'''[67] '''
+
'''[67] Stripping a Dagger, Which Comes from a Grapple'''
 +
 
 +
Follow this piece like so: Step in with your left leg and stab toward his face or chest from above with your dagger. If he goes to you like this with a thrust, and you are standing with your left leg toward him, then follow in after with your right leg and go to his dagger with your dagger’s cross, taking away his thrust on your left side. If he has taken away your thrust like this, then reach your left hand under and through your right arm and catch his dagger by the point. Pull strongly downwards so that he must give the dagger to you. If he has stripped your dagger like this and wishes to skewer you, then fall upon the inside of his right arm with your left hand and push that down hard so that you take away his thrust. In the same instant fall to his throat with your right hand. If he wants to pounce upon you like this, then grab him under his right elbow with your left hand and lift upwards so that you take away his strike. Now hit him in the ankle with your right foot around his left and pull strongly with it towards you; push strongly away from you above so that you throw him backwards.
 
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| {{section|page:Cod.10826 117v.png|German|lbl=117v}}
 
| {{section|page:Cod.10826 117v.png|German|lbl=117v}}
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| [[file:Mair mixed 29.jpg|300x300px|center]]
 
| [[file:Mair mixed 29.jpg|300x300px|center]]
 
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'''[68] '''
+
'''[68] A Grapple that Proceeds Out of a Reverse'''
 +
 
 +
Since you both have gone against one another with high thrusts and have mutually wrenched each other’s daggers away, conduct yourself like so: Step with in toward him with your right leg and grab his right hand with your left. Twist his arm around as you turn yourself around so that you bring his right arm upon your left shoulder. In the same instant, grab him with your right hand all the way through between both of his thighs. Lift him forcefully upward and pull forward on his right arm. Thus, you carry him wherever you wish him to go, and you are also able to break his arm.
 
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| {{section|page:Cod.10826 118r.png|German|lbl=118r}}
 
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| [[file:Mair mixed 30.jpg|300x300px|center]]
 
| [[file:Mair mixed 30.jpg|300x300px|center]]
 
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'''[69] '''
+
'''[69] Another Grapple out of the Dagger'''
 +
 
 +
Hold yourself like so in this piece in the approach: Step in with your left leg and stab him with a high thrust toward his face. If he stabs at you like this, then take it away with the cross of your dagger of your left side. At the same moment, grab the point of his dagger from below, with your left hand over your right arm, and turn it downwards so that he must give it to you. If he has wrenched away your dagger like this, then grab his right hand with your left hand inside and close by his hand while you duck your head down low so that you bring his right arm solidly upon your left shoulder. In the same moment, go inside between both of his legs by his nuts with your right hand. Lift strongly upwards while you pull his arm downwards toward you, thus you are able to throw him or carry him wherever you wish.
 
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| {{section|page:Cod.10826 118v.png|German|lbl=118v}}
 
| {{section|page:Cod.10826 118v.png|German|lbl=118v}}
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| [[file:Mair mixed 31.jpg|300x300px|center]]
 
| [[file:Mair mixed 31.jpg|300x300px|center]]
 
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'''[70] '''
+
'''[70] A Reverse with a Throw'''
 +
 
 +
Present yourself with the approach like so in this piece: Step in with your right leg and stab at his face or chest with a high thrust. If he stabs from above at you like this, then put the cross of your dagger upon his dagger and take away his thrust. Now, wind out from below on top of his dagger. Once you have wound his dagger away, then grab him by the left arm, going inside with your inverted left hand close by his hand. Next, turn yourself so that you bring his left arm firmly upon your right shoulder and stab back into his privates with your dagger in your right hand. If he stabs at you like this, then fall upon his right arm with your right hand close by his hand. Pull that strongly to you and with your left arm which he has taken hold of you, push strongly away from you on your left side. Thus you throw him backwards over your left leg.
 
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| {{section|page:Cod.10826 119r.png|German|lbl=119r}}
 
| {{section|page:Cod.10826 119r.png|German|lbl=119r}}

Revision as of 21:54, 15 January 2015

Paulus Hector Mair

"Mair", Cod.icon. 312b f 64r
Born 1517
Augsburg, Germany
Died 10 Dec 1579 (age 62)
Augsburg, Germany
Occupation
  • Civil servant
  • Historian
Movement
Influences
Genres
Language
Manuscript(s)
First printed
english edition		 Knight and Hunt, 2008
Concordance by Michael Chidester
Translations Traduction française
Signature Paulus Hector Mair Sig.png

Paulus Hector Mair (Paulsen Hektor Mair, Paulus Hector Meyer; 1517 – 1579) was a 16th century German aristocrat, civil servant, and fencer. He was born in 1517 to a wealthy and influential Augsburg patrician family. In his youth, he likely received training in fencing and grappling from the masters of Augsburg fencing guild, and early on developed a deep fascination with fencing treatises. He began his civil service as a secretary to the Augsburg City Council; by 1541, Mair was the City Treasurer, and in 1545 he also took on the office of Master of Rations.

Mair's martial background is unknown, but as a citizen of a free city he would have had military obligations whenever the city went to war, and as a member of a patrician family he likely served in the cavalry. He was also an avid collector of fencing treatises and other literature on military history. Like his contemporary Joachim Meÿer, Mair believed that the Medieval martial arts were being forgotten, and he saw this as a tragedy, idealizing the arts of fencing as a civilizing and character-building influence on men. Where Meÿer sought to update the traditional fencing systems and apply them to contemporary weapons of war and defense, Mair was more interested in preserving historical teachings intact. Thus, some time in the latter part of the 1540s he commissioned what would become the most extensive compendium of German fencing treatises ever made, a massive two-volume manuscript compiling virtually every fencing treatise he could access. He retained famed artist Jörg Breu the Younger to create the illustrations for the text,[1] and hired two Augsburg fencers to pose for the illustrations.[2] This project was extraordinarily expensive and took at least four years to complete. Ultimately, three copies of this compendium were produced, each more extensive than the last; the first (MSS Dresden C.93/C.94) was written in Early New High German, the second and most artistically ambitious (Cod.icon. 393) in New Latin, and the third and final version (Cod. 10825/10826) incorporated both languages.

Beginning in the 1540s, Mair began purchasing older fencing manuscripts, some from fellow collector Lienhart Sollinger (a Freifechter who lived in Augsburg for many years) and others from auctions. Perhaps most significant of all of his acquisitions was the partially-completed treatise of Antonius Rast, a Master of the Long Sword and three-time captain of the Marxbrüder fencing guild. The venerable master left in incomplete when he died in 1549, and Mair ultimately produced a complete fencing manual (Reichsstadt "Schätze" Nr. 82) based on his notes. Ultimately, he owned over a dozen fencing manuscripts over the course of his life, including the following:

He also used several printed books as source material for his compendia, and presumably owned copies, including Der Altenn Fechter anfengliche kunst (compiled by Christian Egenolff), Opera Nova by Achille Marozzo, and Ringer Kunst by Fabian von Auerswald.

Mair not only spent incredible sums of money on his fencing interests, but generally lead a lavish lifestyle and maintained his political influence with expensive parties and other entertainments for the burghers and patricians of Augsburg. This habit of living far beyond his means for decades exhausted his family's wealth, eventually leading him to sell the Latin version of his fencing manuscript (netting the princely sum of 800 florins) and finally to begin embezzling money from the Augsburg city coffers. This embezzlement was not discovered for many years (or perhaps was overlooked due to the favor his parties garnered), until finally in 1579 a disgruntled assistant reported him to the Augsburg City Council and provoked an audit of his books. Mair was arrested, tried, and hanged as a thief at the age of 62. After Mair's death, his effects (including his library) were sold at auction to recoup some of the funds he had embezzled.

Whether viewed as an unwise scholar who paid the ultimate price for his art or an ignoble thief who violated his city's trust, Mair remains one of the most influential figures in the history of Kunst des Fechtens. By completing the fencing manual of Antonius Rast, Mair gave us valuable insight into the Nuremberg fencing tradition; his own works are impressive on both an artistic and practical level, and his extensive commentary on the uncaptioned treatises in his collection serves to make potentially useful training aids out of what would otherwise be mere curiosities. Finally, in purchasing so many important fencing treatises he succeeded in preserving them for future generations; they were purchased by the fabulously wealthy Fugger family after his death and ultimately passed to the Augsburg University Library, where they remain to this day.

Treatise

Much of Mair's content represents his revision and expansion of the older treatises listed above, including adding descriptive content to uncaptioned images. Where available, these images are displayed in the left-most column, labeled "Source Images", for comparison purposes. Mair's own illustrations appear in the second image column.

Additional Resources

  • Hunt, Brian. "Paulus Hector Mair: Peasant Staff and Flail." Masters of Medieval and Renaissance Martial Arts. Ed. Jeffrey Hull. Boulder, CO: Paladin Press, 2008. ISBN 978-1-58160-668-3
  • Knight, David James, and Hunt, Brian. The Polearms of Paulus Hector Mair. Boulder, CO: Paladin Press, 2008. ISBN 978-1-58160-644-7

References

  1. ↑ Breu is not listed in the Augsburg tax registers in 1542-3; given Mair's youth, he most likely hired Breu between his return in 1544 and his death in 1547.
  2. ↑ Hils 1985, pp 197-201.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Chronicon Abbatis Urspergensis, the Chronicle of Burchard of Ursberg (13th century), printed in Augsburg 1515.
  4. ↑ The amphitheatre of Fidenae (the modern Borgata Fidena, a suburb of Rome), endowed by a freed slave named Atilius, collapsed in 27 BC under the weight of a large crowd of spectators, apparently due to faults in construction. According to the (likely exaggerated) account by Tacitus (Annales, 4.63), a total of 50,000 people died in the collapse.
  5. ↑ wohl Gaius Sallustius Crispus Passienus (starb 47 n. Chr.)
  6. ↑ The preceding three paragraphs are missing in the Dresden version.
  7. ↑ Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (ca. 71 – ca. 135), author of De vita Caesarum (ca. AD 120).
  8. ↑ Dresden version: four hundred.
  9. ↑ Marcus Antonius Gordianus Pius (225 – 244), Marcus Iulius Philippus (ca. 204 - 249)
  10. ↑ Claudius Galenus of Pergamum (AD 131 – 201)
  11. ↑ This may be in reference to 2 Timothy 2:4, rendered by Luther (1522) as: Niemant streyttet vnnd flicht sich ynn der narung geschefft, auff das er gefalle dem, der yhn zum streytter auffgenomen hat "None who would fight does meddle in the business of sustenance, so that he may please him who employed him as a fighter". Now Luthers narung "sustenance, nutrition, food" offers itself to an interpretation of "gluttony; carnal pleasure", but it translates pragmateiai biou, meaning "the pragmatics of life", i.e. "everyday business". c.f. Tyndale (1526), who has "No man that warreth, entangleth himself with worldly business, and that because he would please him that hath chosen him to be a soldier"; Dresden has "temporal" (zeitlich) rather than "transient" (zergenglich).
  12. ↑ This is a reference to Pliny, Nat. Hist. 30.32: "When a freedman of Nero was giving a gladiatorial show at Antium, the public porticoes were covered with paintings, so we are told, containing life-like portraits of all the gladiators and assistants. This portraiture of gladiators has been the highest interest in art for many centuries now, but it was Gaius Terentius who began the practice of having pictures made of gladiatorial shows and exhibited in public; in honour of his grandfather who had adopted him he provided thirty pairs of Gladiators in the Forum for three consecutive days, and exhibited a picture of the matches in the Grove of Diana."
  13. ↑ Anacharsis the Scythian, according to Herodotus (4.46, 76 f.) brother of the Scythian king Saulinos; attributed to him are inventions such as the anchor, bellows and pottery wheel. He was slain by his brother after he returned from a journey to Greece and began to advocate Greek culture to his countrymen. He is sometimes counted as one of the Seven Sages of Athens. Among a number of letters attributed to him is one addressed to the Lydian king Croesus.
  14. ↑ Johannes Aventinus (Johann Georg Turmair von Abensberg, 1477–1534), historiographer at the Bavarian court.
  15. ↑ Gampar is the seventh king in the (fictional) genealogy of the kings of the ancient Germans going back to the Great Flood in Aventinus' Annales (1522). Aventinus gives Gampar's regnal years as 1711–1667 BC.
  16. ↑ Eusebius of Caesarea (ca. 275 – 339)
  17. ↑ Pittakos of Mitylene (Lesbos), 7th c. BC, one of the Seven Sages. He led the Mitylenians against the Athenians and arranged a duel with Phrynon, an Olympic champion in pankration, by which to settle the war. He defeated Phrynon by trapping him in a net. The greater Ajay met Hector in place of Achilles (Iliad 7.181), the fight lasted the entire day and Hector was lightly wounded, and the heroes then parted with mutual respect. Porus, "king of India" was defeated by Alexander in the battle of Hydaspes in 326 BC. I have so far failed to identify Pyrechmen and Degmemnus.
  18. ↑ Mair gives more detail on this judicial duel of 1409 in the second volume. According to this account, the combatants were Wilhelm Marschalk von Dornsberg and Theodor Haschenacker, and the shields of the combatants were preserved in St. Leonard's church outside of the city until the tower of this church was demolished on 3 November 1542.
  19. ↑ Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata ("Sayings of kings and emperors") in Plutarch's Moralia.
  20. ↑ Vienna: mit schaden "with damage", Dresden: mit schanden "with dishonour/ignominy".
  21. ↑ Tacitus' Germania was unknown during the medieval period; rediscovered in 1455, the text was popularized in German humanism only from c. 1500; it is summarized by Aventinus, who is Mair's source, in his Annales ducum Boiariae (1522), the German-language edition of which (Bairische Chronik 1533) was just about ten years old when Mair wrote his text.
  22. ↑ pafese read for gafese (i.e. pavese, the infantry shields comparable to the Roman rectangular shields of the early imperial period)
  23. ↑ Tuisto is the primeval god of the Germanic peoples according to Tacitus. Aventinus euhemerizes him as the grandson of Noah and first king of the Germans (r. 2214–2038 BC). Herman here is not the historical Arminius, but the fifth king in Aventinus' list (r. 1820–1757 BC), founder of the Herminones or continental Germans.
  24. ↑ Mair's source is the Turnierbuch of Georg Rüxner (c. 1490), edited in Augsburg by Marx Würsung (1518). Rüxner describes a series of 36 "imperial tournaments" (Reichs-Turniere) between 938 and 1487, beginning with a legendary tournament held in Magdeburg during what Rüxner makes out as the reign of Henry I the Fowler.
  25. ↑ the successive Habsburg emperors Frederick III, Maximilian I and Charles V, spanning the period since the supposed disestablishment of the knightly tournament and the establishment of the Brotherhood of St. Mark or Marxbrüder. The Freifechter denounced by Mair seem to represent an early form of the guild later known as Federfechter (unless the term still has a generic meaning, frei as in "unincorporated").
  26. ↑ Schlaraffenland is the German adaptation of Coquaigne (Cucania), first encountered in the 15th century (as schlauraff, schluderaffe) and popularised by Hans Sachs (1558). The name seems to originate as an (unattested) medieval slur meaning "lazy idler", schlu(de)r-affe, lit. "drooping ape".
  27. ↑ Ninus: the legendary founder of Nineveh according to Ctesias (Persica, ca. 400 BC); Ctesias' Sardanapolus corresponds to Ashurbanipal (669 - 627 BC); Ctesias is a rather unreliable source by comparison with Herodotus and the Ptolemaic king list; but in any case knowledge on the Assyrian empire was very limited before the decipherment of cuneiform in the 1850s.
  28. ↑ Gideon: Judges 7:4-7; David: Psalm 144:1: "Blessed be the LORD my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight" (KJV).
  29. ↑ 'Long edge' is not listed in ty.
  30. ↑ sic : beide
  31. ↑ Marginalie unleserlich
  32. ↑ ”streck dein leyb und deine armen wol”
  33. ↑ sic : seinem ?
  34. ↑ The words are marked with numbers above. Probably it is to keep track of word order.
  35. ↑ sic : hinndersich
  36. ↑ sic : widerumb
  37. ↑ sic : seinem
  38. ↑ sic : schniten
  39. ↑ sic : seinnen ?
  40. ↑ 21r
  41. ↑ 41.0 41.1 Choosing to read this as equivalent to modern German einengen. “Trapped” as a translation for eineinden follows from this choice. Buyer beware.
  42. ↑ Corrections indicate it should be zu Im hinein
  43. ↑ The illustration suggests that this action should be done to your left side, rather than to your right.
  44. ↑ "Not the lower point". Why the awkward construction here? Why not say superiorem mucronem (or proper Latin equivalent)?
  45. ↑ Literally: put
  46. ↑ Literally: pull back the left foot
  47. ↑ German: his
  48. ↑ German: grab with your left hand from below outside over his right arm
  49. ↑ rechten
  50. ↑ Barred, or bolted.
  51. ↑ Pliers, or fire-tongs.
  52. ↑ Wrestlers wear a leather collar? Hmmm...
  53. ↑ Comb, carder?
  54. ↑ A variant on the o-goshi in judo.
  55. ↑ sic : Im mit
  56. ↑ »sst« oberhalb der Zeile korrigiert aus »fft«
  57. ↑ A technique for putting the opponent down head first with his feet in the air.
  58. ↑ Dagger pommel?! I have actually no idea what he is thinking here. My only guess is that it was late on Friday afternoon, and must have mistaken ”kopff” with ”knopff”.
  59. ↑ Which is what?
  60. ↑ Note: Change of grip required, or the illustration does not match.
  61. ↑ Dagger transfer necessary at this point.
  62. ↑ Note: person on left side starts with the dagger in the left hand according to the illustration.
  63. ↑ Note: push down, not out
  64. ↑ Arbait - technical term: work, force, struggle
  65. ↑ Vienna and Munich MS Latin: right.
  66. ↑ read: locitur
  67. ↑ Latin: snatch up.
  68. ↑ Note: the illustration shows ice-pick grip.
  69. ↑ "You will lick it!" Not pleasant if the dagger is lying on it. Especially in cold weather.
  70. ↑ May not represent the changing though described.
  71. ↑ Note illustration shows ice-pick grip.
  72. ↑ Note: left is corrected from a right. Left is correct.
  73. ↑ This seems to imply both parallel action and simultaneity.
  74. ↑ Reib - strong twisting, bending, rotating motion.
  75. ↑ Image shows left.
  76. ↑ From the inner side.
  77. ↑ From the Latin text
  78. ↑ Correct from underich.
  79. ↑ Could also mean immediately
  80. ↑ Only in the Latin.
  81. ↑ Inn - unclear whether directional or locational.
  82. ↑ The one in the left hand?
  83. ↑ Only in the Latin.
  84. ↑ Possible abbreviation of gegen – geg.
  85. ↑ Odd squiggle in the middle—f from previous line?
  86. ↑ Scribal error for pungito?
  87. ↑ Strange squiggle above the c.
  88. ↑ Squiggle – looks like the Munich MS symbol for us?
  89. ↑ Error for interim?
  90. ↑ Written as “in Clinando”
  91. ↑ NB, likely scribal error for “laevam”
  92. ↑ Second u has three dots almost like ǜ.
  93. ↑ Error for dextrum?
  94. ↑ sic : verborgnen
Early Germanic Traditions
Common Fencing Johannes Liechtenauer reversed.jpg
Wrestling
Liechtenauer
Tradition
Beringer Verse
Augsburg Tradition
Other Works
Fabris Tradition
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