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(five more sword and buckler deviced added.)
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[32] ''''''
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[32] '''Two bindings with the sword'''
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Stand with your left foot forward and strike a hard strike from above toward your opponent's head with the long edge. If he does this to you, and you are standing with your left foot forward, thne turn your long edge forward and bind at the same time in the middle of his blade, pull back the blade above and thrust into his belly or groin. If your opponent should do this to you, then remove his thrust to your left with your buckler. If he then tries to thrust from below then lay your buckler over his sword and parry to your left. Then step with your right foot on your opponent's left side and thrust with a hanging point to his left side. If he sees this, then strike away his thrust with your buckler and step back with your left foot, that way his strike and his thrust too short to be able to hurt you.
 
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[33] ''''''
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[33] '''A strike from above and below'''
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Step forward with your left foot and raise the sword with your rihgt hand over your head for a strike from above, while holding your buckler outstretched before you somewhat pointing downward. From there, strike to your opponent's head. If your opponent does this, then move your buckler to the strike as you step forward with your right foot, and strike your opponent in the left leg. If he strikes to your forward left leg, however, then step back with your right foot, and you will evade the strike, and you can thrust him in the belly with a double thrust. If your opponent tries to thrust at you in the same manner, then parry with a thwart strike. If your opponent parries thus, then strike a double cross-strike to his belly and thrust him in the chest with a hanging point. Then move away from him with double strikes.
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[34] ''''''
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[34] '''Two strikes from below both left sides '''
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Step forward with your left foot and strike from above with your sword and make sure to wound your opponent's neck. If he does this, then parry with the buckler you are holding in your left hand and strike him in the head with your sword. If your opponent should strike toward your head on the other hand, then parry with your buckler and strike him in the leg. If he does the same, then pull back the sword from his buckler and strike a lower thwart strike inward, so that you bind with his sword and parry thus on your right side. Then you thrust him in the belly or groin. If he tries to do this to you, then parry with the short edge and move away from him with cross strikes and double thrusts.
 
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[35] ''''''
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[35] '''Strike to a buckler parry'''
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Step forward with your right foot and hold your sword by your right breast with the point toward the opponent and your buckler in front of your face, and when your opponent steps forward with the left foot and strikes from above to your head as he takes a step forward with his right foot, you move your buckler forward and parry it to your left, as you step forward with your left foot and thrust him in the belly or groin. If your opponent does this, then push the thrust down to your right with your buckler as you step back with your right foot and do cross strikes and double thrusts.
 
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[36] ''''''
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[36] '''A pull with the hilt in your opponent's arm along with a cut to his neck'''
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Step forward with your left foot and hold your sword in your right hand and your buckler in your left. Then step forward with your left foot and try to thrust your opponent in his right armpit. If he tries to do thus to you, as you are standing with your left foot forward, holding your sword in your right hand, then tip your point down slightly toward your opponent, and hold your buckler in your left hand over your chest as you step forward with your right foot and put it on the outside of your opponent's right and thus you parry his thrust with a hangning point from below to your right. Immediately then pull your opponent's hand with the hilt and cross of your sword just behind his own pommel, while you with the long edge lying on your opponent's neck, pull back your pommel and hilt as hard as you can, and you will slice his neck. But if he tries to do this, then put your left foot on his right side and raise your buckler to his left side, turn your sword so that your cross is on the outside of your opponent's arm and strike it back, thus you will evade his attack. 
 
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Revision as of 07:49, 24 March 2017

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 records 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. Further, incidentally.
  4. 4.0 4.1 Chronicon Abbatis Urspergensis, the Chronicle of Burchard of Ursberg (13th century), printed in Augsburg 1515.
  5. 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.
  6. wohl Gaius Sallustius Crispus Passienus (starb 47 n. Chr.)
  7. The preceding three paragraphs are missing in the Dresden version.
  8. Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (ca. 71 – ca. 135), author of De vita Caesarum (ca. AD 120).
  9. Dresden version: four hundred.
  10. Marcus Antonius Gordianus Pius (225 – 244), Marcus Iulius Philippus (ca. 204 - 249)
  11. Claudius Galenus of Pergamum (AD 131 – 201)
  12. 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).
  13. 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."
  14. 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.
  15. Johannes Aventinus (Johann Georg Turmair von Abensberg, 1477–1534), historiographer at the Bavarian court.
  16. 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.
  17. Eusebius of Caesarea (ca. 275 – 339)
  18. 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.
  19. 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.
  20. Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata ("Sayings of kings and emperors") in Plutarch's Moralia.
  21. Vienna: mit schaden "with damage", Dresden: mit schanden "with dishonour/ignominy".
  22. 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.
  23. pafese read for gafese (i.e. pavese, the infantry shields comparable to the Roman rectangular shields of the early imperial period)
  24. 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.
  25. 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.
  26. 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").
  27. 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".
  28. Ligatura non sequitur.
  29. Non sequitur.
  30. 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.
  31. 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).
  32. Mair writes “Kunstfechtbuch”; “art of fencing” would be “Fechtkunst”. It is not clear whether this is just a question of usage or a deliberate difference.
  33. Welsch” refers to neighbouring peoples speaking a romance language, so it could mean French, Italian, Spanish or Romansh. The Cod. icon. 393 text translates to “Fencing on foot, in which we use round shields and Spanish swords, in the fashion of the Italians, is 56 plays”).
  34. Mair here uses “die Wag” (pl. “Wagen”), which I am assuming refers to “balance scale” (die Waage, pl. Waagen), and by extension the structure providing for the balance. It could also be derived from “wagen” (to dare), but the derivation is not convincing. A derivation from “der Wagen” (cart, carriage) is linguistically not supported. The other two MS do not contain this passage, so a comparison is not possible.
  35. 'Long edge' is not listed in ty.
  36. sic : beide
  37. Marginalie unleserlich
  38. ”streck dein leyb und deine armen wol”
  39. sic : seinem ?
  40. The words are marked with numbers above. Probably it is to keep track of word order.
  41. sic : hinndersich
  42. sic : widerumb
  43. sic : seinem
  44. sic : schniten
  45. sic : seinnen ?
  46. 21r
  47. 47.0 47.1 Choosing to read this as equivalent to modern German einengen. “Trapped” as a translation for eineinden follows from this choice. Buyer beware.
  48. Corrections indicate it should be zu Im hinein
  49. The illustration suggests that this action should be done to your left side, rather than to your right.
  50. "Not the lower point". Why the awkward construction here? Why not say superiorem mucronem (or proper Latin equivalent)?
  51. Literally: put
  52. Literally: pull back the left foot
  53. German: his
  54. German: grab with your left hand from below outside over his right arm
  55. rechten
  56. Barred, or bolted.
  57. Pliers, or fire-tongs.
  58. Wrestlers wear a leather collar? Hmmm...
  59. Comb, carder?
  60. A variant on the o-goshi in judo.
  61. sic : Im mit
  62. »sst« oberhalb der Zeile korrigiert aus »fft«
  63. A technique for putting the opponent down head first with his feet in the air.
  64. 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”.
  65. Which is what?
  66. Note: Change of grip required, or the illustration does not match.
  67. Dagger transfer necessary at this point.
  68. Note: person on left side starts with the dagger in the left hand according to the illustration.
  69. Note: push down, not out
  70. Arbait - technical term: work, force, struggle
  71. Vienna and Munich MS Latin: right.
  72. read: locitur
  73. Latin: snatch up.
  74. Note: the illustration shows ice-pick grip.
  75. "You will lick it!" Not pleasant if the dagger is lying on it. Especially in cold weather.
  76. May not represent the changing though described.
  77. Note illustration shows ice-pick grip.
  78. Note: left is corrected from a right. Left is correct.
  79. This seems to imply both parallel action and simultaneity.
  80. Reib - strong twisting, bending, rotating motion.
  81. Image shows left.
  82. From the inner side.
  83. From the Latin text
  84. Correct from underich.
  85. Could also mean immediately
  86. Only in the Latin.
  87. Inn - unclear whether directional or locational.
  88. The one in the left hand?
  89. Only in the Latin.
  90. Possible abbreviation of gegen – geg.
  91. Odd squiggle in the middle—f from previous line?
  92. Scribal error for pungito?
  93. Strange squiggle above the c.
  94. Squiggle – looks like the Munich MS symbol for us?
  95. Error for interim?
  96. Written as “in Clinando”
  97. NB, likely scribal error for “laevam”
  98. Second u has three dots almost like ǜ.
  99. Error for dextrum?
  100. sic : verborgnen