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Ott Jud

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Ott Jud
Born date of birth unknown
Died 1448-52 (?)
Occupation Wrestling master
Ethnicity Jewish
Patron princes of Austria
Movement Fellowship of Liechtenauer
Genres Wrestling manual
Language Early New High German
Manuscript(s)
First printed
english edition		 Tobler, 2010
Concordance by Michael Chidester
Translations

Ott Jud was a 15th century German wrestling master. His name signifies that he was a Jew, and several versions of his treatise (including the oldest one) state that he was baptized Christian.[1] In 1470, Paulus Kal described him as the wrestling master to the princes of Austria, and included him in the membership of the Fellowship of Liechtenauer.[2] While Ott's precise lifetime is uncertain, he may have still been alive when Hans Talhoffer included the Gotha version in his fencing manual in ca. 1448, but seems to have died some time before the creation of the Rome version in 1452.[3]

Ott's treatise on grappling is repeated throughout all of the early German treatise compilations and seems to have become the dominant work on the subject within the Liechtenauer tradition.

Textual History

Manuscripts

It is difficult to say when Ott's treatise was written, and the original is certainly lost at present. It is also unclear how much of the material in the existing versions should be attributed to him directly. Jessica Finley has pointed out that the first 31 plays form a coherent progression, whereas the subsequent 38 plays are disorganized. Furthermore, there are a number of copies that are limited to one half or the other, including Vienna and the prose Wassmannsdorff for the first part and Dresden and the poetic Wassmannsdorff for the second; these copies of only the second part make no mention of Ott in their introductions. It's possible that these two halves of the text had separate origins, with the first being written by Ott and the second mistakenly attributed to him early on, a mistake that persisted in the tradition ever after.

The oldest extant copy is the Gotha version, which was included in a manuscript in the 1440s alongside works by Johannes Hartlieb, Hans Talhoffer, and others. The Gotha version appears incomplete compared to other early renditions, which may suggest that Ott was not directly involved despite its proximity to his career. Gotha was copied into several further manuscripts along with the other contents of the manuscript, including the New York (16th century), the Göttingen (17th century), and the third Munich (ca. 1820) versions; since these are all direct copies, they offer little additional help in understanding Ott's work (apart from being evidence of its continued transmission).

Two copies of Ott's work date to the mid-15th century, the Rome (1452) and Augsburg (1460s) versions. These both contain plays not found in Gotha but also show differences from each other, indicating that the textual tradition had already diverged into two branches (though Augsburg is only a fragment of its branch). Of the later 15th century copies, Vienna Ⅰ (1480s) and Ortenburg (late 1400s) follow Rome, and Salzburg (1491) is a complete version of the text appearing in Augsburg—indeed, Rainer Welle describes Salzburg as the most detailed version of the treatise up to that time.[4] Likewise, in the 16th century, Dresden (1504-19), Glasgow (1508), and Kraków (1535-40) follow Rome, while Vienna Ⅱ (1512), Wassmannsdorff (1539), Munich Ⅱ (1556), and the works of Paulus Hector Mair follow Augsburg (Mayr's manuscripts and Munich Ⅱ even have the same gaps as the Augsburg fragment).

Establishing the relationships between these versions is very problematic. The pattern of which plays are present in each of the early versions and which plays are missing doesn't match the later versions in each branch—for example, Vienna Ⅰ has plays not present in Rome, Salzburg has far more than the fragmentary Augsburg, and there are a few plays present in both Vienna and Salzburg that are in neither one of those first versions. Either some later versions were created by combining multiple earlier ones, or there are many missing links in this chain. Furthermore, certain plays have descriptions that gain extra pieces of clarifying text as time passes, especially in the Rome branch.[5] This is especially apparent in Kraków, which has expanded versions of more than half of the plays (and was also intended to be augmented with illustrations for the first time). This expanding text might be evidence that the early copies are all incomplete fragments and the expanded versions are the correct ones, but it may equally suggest that Ott's treatise received additional input and clarifications from other knowledgeable wrestlers over the course of time.

Finally, there were two notable transformations of Ott's treatise in the 16th century. First, Wassmannsdorff's now-lost 1539 manuscript contains two versions of Ott: one a fragment of the first 24 plays, the other covering the final 20 plays (49-69) but also including plays 50-55 recomposed as poems. This rewriting of a core text is otherwise unprecedented in the Liechtenauer tradition, and the author appears to be anonymous. The second transformation of the text occurred in the 1540s, when Mayr had it translated into Latin.

Most texts in the Liechtenauer corpus seem to have ossified immediately and been preserved without any intentional changes after they were initially written. The expansions to Ott's core plays and the poetic rewrite of part of the text both buck this trend, and make his treatise a unique example of a living textual tradition that may mirror a living teaching tradition.

Modern HEMA

Several books related to Ott were published in the 19th century which would be influential once HEMA was established, including Wassmannsdorf's transcription of the Augsburg version (and his own manuscript) in 1870, published as Die Ringkunst des deutschen Mittelalters, and Hergsell's transcription and modernization of the Gotha version in 1889, titled Talhoffers Fechtbuch (Gothaer Codex) aus dem Jahre 1443 (which was then translated to French and published in 1893 and 1901 as Livre d'escrime de Talhoffer (codex Gotha) de l'an 1443.

Ott was likewise represented at the very beginning of HEMA in Martin Wierschin's 1965 opus Meister Johann Liechtenauers Kunst des Fechtens, which included a transcription of the the Dresden manuscript (attributed entirely to Sigmund ain Ringeck, an error that would then persist in HEMA thought for half a century). Wierschin's catalog also includes more than half of the currently-known copies of Ott: Gotha, Rome, Augsburg, Vienna Ⅰ, Salzburg, Dresden, Dresden Ⅱ, Vienna Ⅲ, Munich Ⅱ, and Munich Ⅲ. Of those that were left out, Vienna Ⅱ, Kraków, Munich Ⅰ, and Göttingen were added by Hans-Peter Hils in his 1985 update Meister Johann Liechtenauers Kunst des langen Schwertes.

Of the remaining three known copies, the Glasgow Fechtbuch was identified in Sydney Anglo's 2000 opus as merely "[R. L.] Scott's Liechtenauer MS",[6] but had been fully profiled by 2008 when Rainer Leng published his catalog. The New York version has mostly been left out of scholarly literature, though it was known by many HEMA researchers and was even the subject of an essay by Daniel Jaquet published by the Met in 2018.[7] Finally, the Ortenburg Fechtbuch was discovered by Hils in the 80s, only to be lost again ever after; microfilm scans that Hils bought at the time were finally the subject of an extensive book by Dierk Hagedorn published in 2023 as Das Ortenburger Fechtbuch, including the first transcription, modernization, and other analysis.

The earliest work on Ott is inseparable from work on Ringeck, because of the previously-mentioned attribution of the Dresden manuscript to Ringeck. Thus, the first transcription of any part of the text would be Wierschin's transcription of the Dresden version in 1965, the first German modernization was made by Christoph Kaindel in the 1990s, and the first English translation was authored in 1999 by Alex Kiermayer. Another English translation was produced by Christian Tobler and published in 2001 by Chivalry Bookshelf in Secrets of German Medieval Swordsmanship, and a third English translation was produced by David Lindholm and published in 2005 by Paladin Press as part of Sigmund Ringeck's Knightly Arts of Combat: Sword-and-Buckler Fighting, Wrestling, and Fighting in Armor.

Possibly the first dedicated work on Ott (under his own name) was done by Monika Maziarz, who transcribed the Rome, Augsburg, Salzburg, and Kraków versions between 2002 and 2004 and posted them on the ARMA-PL site.

The first English and Solvenian translations of a complete version of Ott (rather than the Dresden fragment) were created by Gregor Medvešek in 2010.

In 2015, Kendra Brown, Nicole Brynes, Michael Chidester, Rebecca Garber, Mark Millman, members of the Cambridge HEMA Society (CHEMAS), transcribed and translated the German and Latin versions of Ott in Paulus Hector Mair's Vienna Ⅲ. The transcriptions were donated to Wiktenauer but the translation was saved until it could be edited and refined.

In 2017, Laurent Ott completed a new transcription of the Rome version and a French translation, posting it on the Gagschola site.

However, most work on Ott has been done as part of larger projects processing an entire manuscript. In 2006, Carsten Lorbeer, Julia Lorbeer, Andreas Meier, Marita Wiedner, and Johann Heim, working as part of the Gesellschaft für pragmatische Schriftlichkeit, authored a complete transcription of the Vienna Ⅰ manuscript as part of their Paulus Kal project (which was eventually posted on that site). Also in 2006, Dierk Hagedorn authored a new transcription of the entire Rome manuscript as well as a German modernization, posting both on the Hammaborg site. These were subsequently published by VS-Books in Transkription und Übersetzung der Handschrift 44 A 8 in 2008. Over the subsequent decade, Dierk would go on to likewise transcribe the entirety of the manuscripts containing the Gotha, Augsburg, Vienna Ⅰ, Dresden Ⅰ, Glasgow Ⅰ, and Vienna Ⅱ, all of which were likewise released on Hammaborg. In 2012, Pierre-Henry Bas transcribed large sections of the Dresden version of Mair's work for his dissertation and released them on his blog REGHT, including Ott.

In 2010, Christian Henry Tobler's complete English translation of the Rome manuscript was published by Freelance Academy Press as In Saint George's Name: An Anthology of Medieval German Fighting Arts; this translation was also used by Jessica Finley in her 2014 book on Ott, also published by Freelance. In 2017, Rainer Welle published a complete transcription of the Kraków manuscript in Codices manuscripti & impressi (Supp. 12) as "Ein unvollendetes Meisterwerk der Fecht- und Ringkampfliteratur des 16. Jahrhunderts sucht seinen Autor: der Landshuter Holzschneider und Maler Georg Lemberger als Fecht- und Ringbuchillustrator?"

Several of Dierk Hagedorn's transcriptions also turned into books. His Augsburg transcription was published in 2017 by VS-Books in Jude Lew: Das Fechtbuch along with modernizations and English translations by various others; Ott's section was modernized and translated by Anneka Fleischhauer. He combined his Rome transcription with Tobler's English translation to create The Peter von Danzig Fight Book, published by Freelance Academy Press in 2021. His Vienna Ⅱ transcription and German modernization was published by VS-Books as Albrecht Dürer. Das Fechtbuch in 2021, and was published by Greenhill Books along with his English translation as Dürer's Fight Book: The Genius of the German Renaissance and his Combat Treatise in 2022.

Treatise

Select one or more fencing styles using the checkboxes below to view the associated treatises.

The number in brackets at the beginning of each translation box is a paragraph number assigned by Wiktenauer; clicking it will take you to the translation page. The numbers in brackets in the transcriptions with an "r" or "v" are manuscript folio numbers; clicking them will take you to original page scan with the transcription alongside for comparison. If you want to sort a column by number, click the black triangles in the table headers.

The text of the Krakow version frequently refers to intended illustrations that were never added to the manuscript. The appropriate blank pages are included in the illustration column for reference. It's possible (though not likely, given what we know about its origins) that this manuscript was replicating another one with a complete set of illustrations; if this ever surfaces, the blank pages will be replaced.

Original Teaching

16th Century Poetic Rendering

Teachings of Ott Jud

16th century poetic rendering

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.

References

  1. ↑ The Gotha version, as well as the Augsburg, Vienna, and Glasgow versions, all use the term tauffter Jud, "baptized Jew".
  2. ↑ The Fellowship of Liechtenauer is recorded in three versions of Paulus Kal's treatise: MS 1825 (1460s), Cgm 1507 (ca. 1470), and MS KK5126 (1480s).
  3. ↑ His name lacks the traditional blessing on the dead in Talhoffer, but receives it in the Rome (see folio 100v).
  4. ↑ Welle 1993, p 44.
  5. ↑ See, for example, play 4, which has an additional segment added beginning in Rome, and a second additional segment exclusive to Kraków.
  6. ↑ Sydney Anglo. The Martial Arts of Renaissance Europe. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2000. pp 312-315.
  7. ↑ Daniel Jaquet. "Hans Talhoffer’s Fight Book, a Sixteenth-Century Manuscript about the Art of Fighting." Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/fight/hd_fight.htm. Retrieved 02 MAY 2023.
  8. ↑ vor ringen
  9. ↑ mit ringen
  10. ↑ nach ringen
  11. ↑ This column is not a true transcription of the first fragment of Ott in Wassmannsdorff's manuscript. It is, instead, Wassmannsdorff's transcription of the Augsburg version, modified according to the differences he notes in his apparatus. It is placed here to offer a rough idea of the contents of this section in the absence of the actual manuscript or complete transcription. After the 22nd play, the footnotes stop except for
  12. ↑ das Wort »auf« ist nachträglich in anderer Handschrift klein über der Zeile zwischen den Wörtern eingefügt worden.
  13. ↑ Corrected from »deinem«.
  14. ↑ Corrected from »dein«.
  15. ↑ Korrigiert aus »rechtenn«.
  16. ↑ Korrigiert aus »rechtz«.
  17. ↑ Corrected from »dein«.
  18. ↑ There is obviously a mistake in the text. This is evident from the von Speyer version of the Ott text, which says to hold his left arm with your right. In the Goliath manuscript the relevant text says: "grab his right arm with your left hand firmly and come with your right hand to help your left". Taking into consideration the subsequent instruction on the direction of the turning through, the last record of Ott’s teaching seems to be the most logical and credible.
  19. ↑ wendt dich durch
  20. ↑ German has vallen - may be intended as "speciem".
  21. ↑ This play is placed before the previous counter in Rome and Krakow, but following Augsburg, it appears to be a second counter to the same action.
  22. ↑ This is clearly a scribal error for unndter. However, it is also clear that the text reads “vindter”. In this case, note that the following title “Unndten durchfarn” is spelled correctly.
  23. ↑ The phrase "seinen linngen arm auß, mit deiner rechten hannd, von oben nider, vnnd begreif ime damit" is struck through on MS Dresd.C.94 118r, but this manuscript's scribe seems to have not recognized that.
  24. ↑ corrected from »sein«
  25. ↑ nym Im das gewicht
  26. ↑ The Rome version places this text before the previous play.
  27. ↑ This is clearly a scribal error for unndter. However, it is also clear that the text reads “vindter”.
  28. ↑ Ribs.
  29. ↑ This is the title given in Dresden. Gotha and Rome have Ein pruch wider das schrencken or "a counter to the barrier", while Glasgow gives Ein pruch wider Sterck, "a counter against strength".
  30. ↑ The words "In sein" are transposed, with marking indicating that they should be reversed.
  31. ↑ Schranck
  32. ↑ Should be "his right side" (against your left), which follows the preceding rhyme.
  33. ↑ Corrected from »seinem«
  34. ↑ The manuscript only says “vnd”.
  35. ↑ The above word “reiben” (rub, as in “drehen”, ‘turn’, ‘twist’) is clarified by the word “prechen”.
  36. ↑ Append: “linken Bein”.
  37. ↑ “deine”.
  38. ↑ An dieser Stelle bricht der Text ab.
  39. ↑ “klein (groβ).”
  40. ↑ Missing word, error: “Seite”.
  41. ↑ Dresden differs here
  42. ↑ Should be "Goller"
  43. ↑ “kannst du”.
  44. ↑ Possibly “und erfahe”, or simply “und fahe”.
  45. ↑ The words "seitten oder" are probably because of carelessness of the scribe.
  46. ↑ Interpret as “ihn”.
  47. ↑ Interpret as “Linken”.
  48. ↑ Read: “oberhalb des”.
  49. ↑ “Eile ihm”.
  50. ↑ play
  51. ↑ Talhoffer mentions “stainwerffen vnd stainschüben” in his list of exercises within his own Vorrede.
  52. ↑ Possibly: für was (wofür)?
  53. ↑ ‘ohne’.
  54. ↑ ‘Stangenwerfen (== schieben) und Steinstoβen’.
  55. ↑ Could this be a reference to the oldest printed Fightbook, Paurnfeindt’s Ergrundung Ritterlicher kunst der Fechterey (Vienna 1516), whose author concludes with ‘auszug dizer Ritterlichen kunst’?
  56. ↑ ‘beiwohnt’.
  57. ↑ Paurenfeindt offers his students his Fechtbuch in the same hope, that “von tag czu tag czu merren vnd bessern” (from day to day, to increase and improve).
  58. ↑ Auerswald and the Berlin and Munich Ringbücher all begin with this affirmation: “In Sant Jorgen namen heb an. Und schaw zum ersten ob der man hoch oder nider gange das ist des ringens anefang.”
  59. ↑ Should be "his right side" (against your left), which follows the preceding rhyme.
  60. ↑ Compare play 50.
  61. ↑ Missing “umb”, as in “Dich umfangen ist – dich umfängt.”
  62. ↑ The manuscript only says “vnd”.
  63. ↑ Compare play 51.
  64. ↑ Should be read as “Aber”.
  65. ↑ The above word “reiben” (rub, as in “drehen”, ‘turn’, ‘twist’) is clarified by the word “prechen”.
  66. ↑ Compare play 52.
  67. ↑ Should be read as “gan”.
  68. ↑ Append: “linken Bein”.
  69. ↑ “deine”.
  70. ↑ Compare play 53.
  71. ↑ Compare play 54.
  72. ↑ That is: ‘durch die seitten’.
  73. ↑ “Beiten”, is the dialect of the text for “warten”. In Rückert’s Makamen, the Schoolmaster from Hims (Schulmeister von Hims) states “beaten ist ein Wort für weilen, alt und gut; wähle nach Gefallen zwischen beiden”.
  74. ↑ “können”.
  75. ↑ “klein (groβ).”
  76. ↑ Missing word, error: “Seite”.
  77. ↑ Compare play 55.
  78. ↑ In the manuscript, the remaining plays of Ott are included without a poetic rendering before this concluding section. It cannot be determined from the transcription whether space was left for those paragraphs to be rendered into verse.
  79. ↑ Lit: ‘lie down’
  80. ↑ Should be “denn”.
  81. ↑ Should be “euch”.
  82. ↑ “Wollen”.
Early Germanic Traditions
Common Fencing Johannes Liechtenauer reversed.jpg
Wrestling
Liechtenauer
Tradition
Beringer Verse
Augsburg Tradition
Other Works
Fabris Tradition
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