Talk:Codex Speyer (MS M.I.29)

Work	Author(s)	Source	License
Images	Universitätsbibliothek Salzburg	Universitätsbibliothek Salzburg
Translation
Transcription	Dierk Hagedorn	Index:Codex Speyer (MS M.I.29)

Annotations

This is the transcription of an Early High German manuscript from 1491 which mentions the name of the author, Hans von Speyer, a couple of times (foll. 44r, 117r, 158r). The original with the number M.I.29 belongs to the Universitätsbibliothek Salzburg.

The transcription

The transcription follows the original as closely as possible. I have not dissolved the letter "v" in either "u" or "v". Abbreviations, duplication characters or other special characters remain mostly intact - considering the restraints of internet typography. Therefore I have reproduced the two most common abbreviations – a tailed "e" and an overlined "e" (short for "en") in both cases as "e~". A specific peculiarity is the scribe's habit to write almost every single time "lb" instead of "w", so he writes rather "haulb" than "hauw" which one might expect. Additionally, there are several initial lines written in a much smaller size before the the actual verses by Liechtenauer and Lecküchner (written in red) start. Possibly the rubrication was done afterwards and the small lines helped to identify the correct spot to insert them into.

Capitalization according to modern standards (particularly in the German language) is rather vague, to say the least. Occasionally, a single word is capitalized for emphasis in mid-sentence, frequently words with an initial "i". In many cases it is very hard to make out the difference between small and capital letters so one could only guess sometimes.

Like various other manuscripts from the similar timeframe this one represents a collection of different authors about different aspects of fighting and fencing. The present codex is in essential parts very similar to the Jude Lew manuscript (Codex I 6 4° 3, Universitätsbibliothek Augsburg). Like that manuscript, Hans von Speyer shows basically the same deviations and similarities in comparison to the vast codex 44 A 8 (so-called Peter von Danzig manuscript). In contrast to the Jude Lew manuscript however the present codex offers no sword and buckler fighting at all but instead features a complete version of Ott's wrestling. Additionally, it contains an edition of Johannes Lecküchner's techniques with the "langes messer". This increases the extent of the manuscript enormeously; almost half of the 158 leaves (of which some are empty) covers master Lecküchner's art (foll. 46r – 117r). Consequently M.I.29 – together with the afore-mentioned codex 44 A 8 – belongs to the most substantial text-only fencing treatises.

Dierk Hagedorn, June 2009