Johann Andreas Schmidt

Johann Andreas Schmidt
Born	ca. 1713 Uncertain, probably Germany
Died	date of death unknown Unknown
Occupation	Fencing master
Influences	Johannes Georgius Bruchius
Genres	Fencing manual
Language	Early New High German
Principal manuscript(s)	oder leichte und getreue Anweisung auf Stoss und Hieb zierlich und sicher zu fechten. (1780)

Johann Andreas Schmidt was a 17th century and 18th century German fencing master who ran his own fencing school in the Free State of Nuremburg, Bavaria, Germany. It is not known where he was born, though it was probably in Germany in ca. 1650. Sometime after 1671 (or perhaps after 1675), Schmidt studied fencing under Johannes Georgius Bruchius at the latter's school in Amsterdam. Sometime prior to 1713, Schmidt opened his own fencing school in Nuremberg..

In Sometime prior to 1713, perhaps while teaching at his fencing school, Schmidt published a very extensive fencing manual entitled oder leichte und getreue Anweisung auf Stoss und Hieb zierlich und sicher zu fechten. Nebst einem curiusen Unterriche vom Boltigiren und Ringen ("Johann Andreas Schmidts Fencing and Retreat Masters Fencing Arts, or an easy and accurate statement on the shock and small strikes and about safety in fencing."). The original publication date of the book and publisher is not known, but the book was republished in Nuremberg after Schmidt's death by Christoph Weigelischen Runsthandlung in 1780, and it discusses the use and fencing arts with the single rapier after the German manner, which he had learned through Bruchius, which was itself heavily influenced by the teachings of the Italian master Salvator Fabris.

He died probably around 1730 to 1740, probably in Nuremberg.

Treatise

A copy of the treatise is available at the New York Public Library, where it was uncovered by modern day fencing student and instructor Thomas Van Hare. Being 374 pages long, it has been scanned and published in Google Docs and is available online at Johann Andreas Schmidts, Fecht- und Exercitienmeisters Fecht-Kunst, Nurnberg, 1780.