The title of this article contains the character ů. Where it is unavailable or not desired, the name may be represented as New Kuenstliches Fechtbuch (Jakob Sutor von Baden).
New Kůnstliches Fechtbuch ("New Illustrated Fencing Manual") is a German fencing manual written by Jakob Sutor von Baden and thought to have been initially printed in the 1600s.[citation needed] Copies of the 1612 edition rest in the holdings of the Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen in Göttingen, Germany and the Corble Collection of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Leuven, Belgium. This treatise is often dismissed as a mere inferior copy of Joachim Meÿer's 1570 treatise Gründtliche Beschreibung der Kunst des Fechtens, but while both Freifechter do seem to describe the same strand of Johannes Liechtenauer's tradition, Sutor's treatise includes extensive teachings on the rapier that are not present in the earlier work. The first edition was more extensive than later printings; it is also said to have featured detailed copper-plate illustrations (possibly by Jacob de Gheyn III),[citation needed] though all existing editions utilize fairly low-quality woodblocks.
Publication History
The first edition of New Kůnstliches Fechtbuch is thought to have been printed in the 1600s, possibly in Sutor's home of Baden, Germany.[citation needed] Unfortunately, no copies of this first edition are currently known to survive. A second edition of the treatise was printed in Frankfurt am Main by Wilhelm Hoffman in 1612. No additional editions are known until Johann Scheible's 1849 printing in Stuttgart, Germany.
A single manuscript fragment also exists which may represent the original archetype for Sutor's treatise or a later manuscript reproduction. Strangely, despite the similar art and text this fragment does not match any device in the 1612 edition, further evidence that the first edition was more extensive than the second.
Contents
Gallery
Additional Resources
References
