Gründtliche Beschreibung der…
Kunst des Fechtens |
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| A Thorough Description of the… Art of Fencing |
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| USTC ID |
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| Full title |
A Thorough Description of the Free,
Chivalric, and Noble Art of Fencing,
Showing Various Customary Defenses,
Affected and Put Forth with Many
Handsome and Useful Drawings |
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| Author(s) |
Joachim Meyer |
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| Illustrated by |
Tobias Stimmer |
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| Dedicated to |
Johann Casimir |
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| Place of origin |
Strasbourg, Germany |
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| Language |
Early New High German |
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| Genre(s) |
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| Sources |
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| Publisher |
Thiebolt Berger |
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| Publication date |
1570, 1600 |
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| Pages |
433 |
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| Treatise scans |
|
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The title of this article contains the character ü. Where it is unavailable or not desired, the name may be represented as Gruendtliche Beschreibung der Kunst des Fechtens (Joachim Meyer).
Gründtliche Beschreibung der… Kunst des Fechtens ("A Thorough Description of… the Art of Fencing") is a German fencing manual written by Joachim Meyer and printed in 1570. Building on his earlier 1560s works MS Bibl. 2465 and MS A.4°.2, it is a complex, sophisticated treatise purporting to teach the entire art of fencing (something that Meyer claimed had never been done before), and represents a significant evolution of the art that Johannes Liechtenauer taught 150 years earlier. It treats the sword, Dussack, rapier (both single and with secondary weapons), dagger and wrestling, and various pole weapons including the short staff, halberd, and long staff (pike).
Publication History
The first edition of Gründtliche Beschreibung der… Kunst des Fechtens was printed in Strasbourg by Thiebolt Berger in 1570, exactly one year before Meyer's death. A second edition was printed in Augsburg in 1600 by Michael Manger (under publisher Elte Millers), possibly arranged by his widow and her family; for this edition, the same woodblocks were used but the text was reset (and many small errors or variations were thus introduced). A third edition (based on the 1600) was prepared in 2011 by Wolfgang Landwehr, including digital reproductions of the illustrations and setting the text in a humanist font, and published in Herne by VS-Books under the title Joachim Meyer 1600: Transkription des Fechtbuchs 'Gründtliche Beschreibung der freyen Ritterlichen und Adelichen kunst des Fechtens'; this edition was reissued in 2018. A fourth edition was prepared in 2021 by Michael Chidester and published by HEMA Bookshelf; this edition was created from digital scans of the 1570, including the painted figures from the Leipzig University Library's copy and annotated pages from several other copies.
According to some sources, there were other editions printed in 1590, 1610, and 1660,[1][2] but no copies from these printings are known to exist and they are probably spurious (due perhaps to errors in cataloging the known editions or mistaken references to the works of Jakob Sutor (1612) and Theodori Verolini (1679)).
In 2006, Meyer's treatise was translated into English by Dr. Jeffrey L. Forgeng and published by Palgrave Macmillan in New York and London under the title The Art of Combat: A German Martial Arts Treatise of 1570. A second edition with minor corrections was published in 2015.
In 2012, Alex Kiermayer translated the treatise to modern German, and this was published by Arts Of Mars Books under the title Joachim Meyers Kunst Des Fechtens. Gründtliche Beschreibung des Fechtens, 1570.
In 2022, Rebecca Garber completed a new English translation, which was published in three separate editions in 2023 by HEMA Bookshelf in Boston under the title Foundational Description of the Art of Fencing, the 15770 Treatise of Joachim Meyer.
Contents
Gallery
Title pages
Illustrations
Additional Resources
The following is a list of publications containing scans, transcriptions, and translations relevant to this article, as well as published peer-reviewed research.
- Chidester, Michael (2020). The Illustrated Meyer: A Visual Reference for the 1570 Treatise of Joachim Meyer. Somerville, MA: HEMA Bookshelf. ISBN 978-1-953683-00-7.
- Kieffer, Fanny (2022). "Dessiner le geste technique à la Renaissance : le dialogue entre le peintre Tobias Stimmer et le maître d'armes Joachim Meyer." Arts, Civilisation et Histoire de l'Europe 20: 49-72.
- Meyer, Joachim (2006). The Art of Combat: A German Martial Arts Treatise of 1570. Trans. by Jeffrey L. Forgeng. London: Greenhill Books. ISBN 978-1-85367-643-7.
- Meyer, Joachim (2006). The Art of Combat: A German Martial Arts Treatise of 1570. Trans. by Jeffrey L. Forgeng. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. ISBN 978-1-40397-092-0.
- Meyer, Joachim (2011). Joachim Meyer 1600: Transkription des Fechtbuchs 'Gründtliche Beschreibung der freyen Ritterlichen und Adelichen kunst des Fechtens'. Ed. by Wolfgang Landwehr. Herne: VS-Books. ISBN 978-3-932077-37-1.
- Meyer, Joachim (2015). The Art of Combat: A German Martial Arts Treatise of 1570. Trans. by Jeffrey L. Forgeng. London: Frontline Books. ISBN 978-1-84832-778-8.
- Meyer, Joachim (2023). Foundational Description of the Art of Fencing: The 1570 Treatise of Joachim Meyer (Reading Edition). Trans. by Rebecca L. R. Garber. Ed. by Michael Chidester. Medford, MA: HEMA Bookshelf. ISBN 978-1-953683-34-2.
- Meyer, Joachim (2023). Foundational Description of the Art of Fencing: The 1570 Treatise of Joachim Meyer (Reference Edition) (2 vols.). Trans. by Rebecca L. R. Garber. Ed. by Michael Chidester. Medford, MA: HEMA Bookshelf. ISBN 978-1-953683-30-4 (Vol 1); 978-1-953683-32-8 (Vol 2).
- Naas, Laurent (2021). "L'exemplaire sélestadien de la Gründtliche Beschreibung der freyen Ritterlichen unnd Adelichen Kunst des Fechtens de Joachim Meyer (BHS., K.161)." Martial Culture in Medieval Town. http://martcult.hypotheses.org/1302
References
- ↑ Schaer, Alfred. Die altdeutschen fechter und spielleute: Ein beitrag zur deutschen culturgeschichte. K.J. Trübner, 1901. p 76.
- ↑ Pollock, W. H., Grove, F. C., and Prévost, C. Fencing. London and Bombay: Longmans, Green, and co, 1897. pp 267-268.
Copyright and License Summary
For further information, including transcription and translation notes, see the discussion page.
