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Hans Talhoffer

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Hans Talhoffer
Born ca. 1410-15
Swabia
Died after 1482
Occupation
Patron
Movement Marxbrüder (?)
Genres
Language Early New High German
Archetype(s)
Manuscript(s)
Concordance by Michael Chidester
Translations
Signature Hans Talhoffer Sig.jpg
Talhoffer's heraldry, including the Lion of St. Mark

Hans Talhoffer (Dalhover, Talhouer, Thalhoffer, Talhofer) was a 15th century German fencing master. His martial lineage is unknown, but his writings make it clear that he had some connection to the tradition of Johannes Liechtenauer, the grand master of the German school of fencing. Talhoffer was a well educated man, who took interest in astrology, mathematics, onomastics, and the auctoritas and the ratio. He authored at least five fencing manuals during the course of his career, and appears to have made his living teaching, including training people for trial by combat.

The first historical reference to Talhoffer is in 1433, when he represented Johann II von Reisberg, archbishop of Salzburg, before the Vehmic court. Shortly thereafter in 1434, Talhoffer was arrested and questioned by order of Wilhelm von Villach (a footman to Albrecht III von Wittelsbach, duke of Bavaria) in connection to the trial of a Nuremberg aristocrat named Jacob Auer, accused of murdering of his brother Hans. Talhoffer subsequently confessed to being hired to abduct Hans von Villach, and offered testimony that others hired by Auer performed the murder.[1] Auer's trial was quite controversial and proved a major source of contention and regional strife for the subsequent two years. Talhoffer himself remained in the service of the archbishop for at least a few more years, and in 1437 is mentioned as serving as a bursary officer (Kastner) in Hohenburg.[2]

The 1440s saw the launch of Talhoffer's career as a professional fencing master. He purchased (and perhaps contributed to) the MS Chart.A.558, an anthology created in ca. 1448. The fencing portion is largely text-less and it may have been designed as a visual aid for use in teaching; in addition to these illustrations, the manuscript also contains a treatise on name magic and a warbook that might be related to Konrad Kyeser's Bellifortis. While Talhoffer's owner's mark appears in this manuscript,[3] his level of involvement with its creation is unclear. It contains many works by other authors, in addition to plays that are somewhat similar to his later works, and shows evidence of multiple scribes and multiple artists. It is possible that he purchased the manuscript after it was completed (or partially completed), and used it as a basis for his later teachings.[4]

Most notable among the noble clients that Talhoffer served in this period was the Königsegg family of southern Germany, and some time between 1446 and 1459[5] he produced the MS XIX.17-3 for this family. This work depicts a judicial duel being fought by Luithold von Königsegg and the training that Talhoffer gave him in preparation, but it seems that this duel never actually took place.[6] He seems to have passed through Emerkingen later in the 1450s, where he was contracted to train the brothers David and Buppellin vom Stain; he also produced the MS 78.A.15 for them, a significantly expanded version of the Königsegg manuscript.[7]

In 1459,[8] Talhoffer commissioned the MS Thott.290.2º, a new personal fencing manual along the same lines as the 1448 work but expanded with additional content and captioned throughout. He appears to have continued instructing throughout the 1460s, and in 1467 he produced his final manuscript, Cod.icon 394a, for another of his noble clients, Eberhardt I von Württemberg.[9] This would be his most extensive work, and the graf paid 10 Guilder as well as quantities of rye and oats for the finished work.[10]

While only a few facts are known about Talhoffer's life, this has not stopped authors from conjecture. The presence of the Lion of St. Mark in Talhoffer's 1459 coat of arms (right) has given rise to speculation that he may have been an early or even founding member of the Frankfurt-am-Main-based Marxbrüder fencing guild, though there is no record of their existence prior to 1474.[citation needed] Additionally, much has been made of the fact that Talhoffer's name doesn't appear in Paulus Kal's list of members of the Fellowship of Liechtenauer.[11] While some have speculated that this indicates rivalry or ill-will between the two contemporaries, it is more likely that Talhoffer simply didn't participate in whatever venture the fellowship was organized for.

Various otherwise-unidentified fencing masters named Hans have also been associated by some authors with Talhoffer. The 1454 records of the city of Zürich note that a master (presumed by some authors to be Hans Talhoffer) was chartered to teach fencing in some capacity and to adjudicate judicial duels; the account further notes that a fight broke out among his students and had to be settled in front of the city council, resulting in various fines.[12] In 1455, a master named Hans was retained by Mahiot Coquel to train him for his duel with Jacotin Plouvier in Valencienne; if this were Talhoffer, his training did little good as Coquel lost the duel and died in brutal fashion.[citation needed]

Treatises

Not only did Talhoffer produce at least three distinct treatises in his lifetime, but his writings have been reproduced in every century up to the present. They exist in well over a dozen manuscripts created in the fifteenth through nineteenth centuries; they have also been published a number of times in facsimiles beginning in 1887, including translations into English and French.

Talhoffer's writings cover a wide assortment of weapons, including the buckler, crossbow, dagger, flail, Messer, longshield, mace, poleaxe, spear, sword, and unarmed grappling, often both armored and unarmored, on horse and on foot, and in scenarios including tournaments, formal duels, and unequal encounters implying urban self-defense. Despite the obvious care and detail that went into the artwork, the manuscripts generally have only a few words captioning each page (and in many cases none at all); some were likely teaching aids and would need no detailed explanation, while the treatises for Königsegg, Stain, and Württemberg were probably intended as memory aids to review his teachings after he left.

Though there is considerable overlap in the specific plays Talhoffer teaches, the organization and exact contents differ in each of the main treatises. For this reason, they are listed separately below (along with their derivative copies) rather than being combined into one giant mixed concordance that fails to capture the organization of any of them. Though his authorship of his first manuscript, the Gotha, cannot be proven, it is included below because it is a useful reference to compare to his authenticated works.

Additional Resources

  • Zwei junge Männer kämpfen mit Schwertern und ringen miteinander, von einem älteren Mann beaufsichtigt. 1826 - 1850.
  • Der Königsegger Codex. Die Fechthandschrift des Hauses Königsegg. Ed. André Schulze and Johannes Graf zu Königsegg-Aulendorf. Geschichte Neu Erleben: Philipp von Zabern, 2010. ISBN 978-3-8053-3753-3
  • Burkart, Eric. "Body Techniques Of Combat: The Depiction of a Personal Fighting System in the Fight Books of Hans Talhofer (1443-1467 CE)". Killing and Being Killed: Bodies in Battle. 2018. pp 109-130. doi:10.14361/9783839437834-008
  • Elema, Ariella. "Tradition, Innovation, Re-enactment: Hans Talhoffer’s Unusual Weapons." Acta Periodica Duellatorum 7(1): 3-25. August 2019. doi:10.2478/apd-2019-0001
  • Hergsell, Gustav, and Talhoffer, Hans. Livre d'escrime de Talhoffer (manuscrit d'Ambras) de l'an 1459. Prague: Chez L'Auteur, 1890.
  • Hergsell, Gustav, and Talhoffer, Hans. Livre d'escrime de Talhoffer (codex Gotha) de l'an 1443. Prague: Chez L'Auteur, 1893.
  • Hergsell, Gustav, and Talhoffer, Hans. Livre d'escrime de Talhoffer de l'an 1467. Prague: Chez L'Auteur, 1894.
  • Hergsell, Gustav, and Talhoffer, Hans. Talhoffers Fechtbuch (Ambraner Codex) aus dem Jahre 1459: gerichtliche und andere Zweikämpfe darstellend. Prague: J.G. Calve, 1887.
  • Hergsell, Gustav, and Talhoffer, Hans. Talhoffers Fechtbuch (Gothaer Codex) aus dem Jahre 1443: gerichtliche und andere Zweikämpfe darstellend. Prague: Selbstverlag, 1889.
  • Hergsell, Gustav, and Talhoffer, Hans. Talhoffers Fechtbuch aus dem jahre 1467: Gerichtliche und andere zweikämpfe darstellend. Prague: J.G. Calve, 1887.
  • Hull, Jeffrey, with Maziarz, Monika and Żabiński, Grzegorz. Knightly Dueling: The Fighting Arts of German Chivalry. Boulder, CO: Paladin Press, 2007. ISBN 1-58160-674-4
  • Knight, Hugh T., Jr. The Ambraser Codex by Master Hans Talhoffer. Lulu.com, 2009. ISBN 978-0-557-38531-7
  • Jaquet, Daniel. "Six Weeks to Prepare for Combat: Instruction and Practices from the Fight Books at the End of the Middle Ages, a Note on Ritualised Single Combats: Perspectives on Fighters in the Middle Ages". Killing and Being Killed: Bodies in Battle. 2018. pp 131-164. doi:10.14361/9783839437834-009
  • Rector, Mark, and Talhoffer, Hans. Medieval Combat: A Fifteenth-Century Illustrated Manual of Swordfighting and Close-Quarter Combat. Barnsley, UK: Greenhill Books, 2000. ISBN 978-1853674181
  • Talhoffer, Hans. Medieval Combat in Colour: Hans Talhoffer's Illustrated Manual of Swordfighting and Close-Quarter Combat from 1467. Ed. Dierk Hagedorn. Barnsley, UK: Greenhill Books, 2018. ISBN 978-1-78438-285-8
  • Welle, Rainer. "...und wisse das alle höbischeit kompt von deme ringen". Der Ringkampf als adelige Kunst im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert. Pfaffenweiler: Centaurus-Verlagsgesellschaft, 1993. ISBN 3-89085-755-8

References

  1. ↑ Jens P. Kleinau. "1434 March 20th – Talhoffer’s confession in Salzburg". Hans Talhoffer ~ A Historical Martial Arts blog by Jens P. Kleinau, 18 May 2016. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
  2. ↑ Jens P. Kleinau. "Hans Talhoffer’s life". Hans Talhoffer ~ as seen by Jens P. Kleinau. Retrieved 17 March 2012.
  3. ↑ See folio 1r.
  4. ↑ The only other evidence that he was involved in the creation of the manuscript is the charge on the shield on folio 28r, which matches his presumptive heraldry on folio 102r of MS Thott.290.2º (1459); on the other hand, the escutcheon and the mantling are quite different between the two, so they cannot be said to be the same arms.
  5. ↑ Hans-Peter Hils. Meister Johann Liechtenauers Kunst des langen Schwertes. Peter Lang, 1985. p 73.
  6. ↑ Jens P. Kleinau. "Who was Luithold of Königsegg?". Hans Talhoffer ~ as seen by Jens P. Kleinau. Retrieved 17 March 2012.
  7. ↑ Hans-Peter Hils. Meister Johann Liechtenauers Kunst des langen Schwertes. Peter Lang, 1985. p42.
  8. ↑ Internally dated on folio 103v.
  9. ↑ Internally dated and dedicated on folio 16v.
  10. ↑ Jens P. Kleinau. "1467 The price of a fencing master". Hans Talhoffer ~ as seen by Jens P. Kleinau. Retrieved 17 March 2012.
  11. ↑ The Fellowship of Liechtenauer is recorded in three versions of Paulus Kal's treatise: MS 1825 (1460s), Cgm 1570 (ca. 1470), and MS KK5126 (1480s).
  12. ↑ Hans-Peter Hils. Meister Johann Liechtenauers Kunst des langen Schwertes. Peter Lang, 1985. p176.
  13. ↑ Illustration is traced from bleed-through from the other side, and then painted.
  14. ↑ Unleserliche Streichung. Illegible deletion.
  15. ↑ Verblasst oder übermalt, ergänzt nach Wolfenbüttel. Faded or painted over, completed according to Wolfenbüttel.
  16. ↑ Illustration is traced from bleed-through from the other side.
  17. ↑ Partly cut off.
  18. ↑ Or possibly kend.
  19. ↑ Difficult to decipher because of damage.
  20. ↑ Difficult to decipher because of damage.
  21. ↑ The right margin is lost due to clipping; the page seems to have been glued in subsequently.
  22. ↑ Rest cut off.
  23. ↑ Prefaced by "Der stat in der vndern hut vn dem dritten stich"
  24. ↑ Prefaced by "Hie hat er verseczt Im die schäre"
  25. ↑ A portion of the page is missing.
  26. ↑ Parts of the text are illegible in my present copy since they are written on a dark background.
  27. ↑ Preceded by a version of the Recital.
  28. ↑ Mair's note?
  29. ↑ In a banner
  30. ↑ In a banner.
  31. ↑ Pentecost in 1459 fell on May 14th.
  32. ↑ Literally "burn-shears".
  33. ↑ Or lemen?
  34. ↑ Literally "hand-shoe".
  35. ↑ opposition
  36. ↑ 36.0 36.1 36.2 "Bochen" is a guard.
  37. ↑ guard
  38. ↑ Or possibly "wirg"
  39. ↑ Korrigiert aus »ihm«. Corrected from “ihm”.
  40. ↑ Over-hasty, miss-the-mark
Early Germanic Traditions
Common Fencing Johannes Liechtenauer reversed.jpg
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Liechtenauer
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Beringer Verse
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