Talk:Starhemberg Fechtbuch (Cod.44.A.8)

Work	Author(s)	Source	License
Images	Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei	WikiMedia Commons
Translation	Michael Chidester	Wiktenauer
Transcription	Dierk Hagedorn	Index:Starhemberg Fechtbuch (Cod.44.A.8)

Catalog quotes

Wierschin 35:

All masters included in the manuscript stand in the Liechtenauer tradition (cf. the list of names in Cgm 1507, sheet 2r and below, p. 45 ff.). With the exception of Peter von Danzig, the masters are referred to as deceased with the formula 'God be gracious. It should therefore be a compilation of Liechtenauer's fencing tradition by Peter von Danzig.

Hils 111-12

The manuscript is a compilation of Liechtenauer's teachings, set pieces from the teachings of the masters Andreas Liegnitzer and Martin Hundfeld, as well as a copy of Ott's wrestling art, who 'was the wrestler of the high-born princes of Austria' (100v). Peter's own contribution is limited to 'the summary and the interpretation of the art of combat fencing that Peter von Danckgs zu Ingelstat made about the text that Iohannes Liechtenstein said about the art of combat fencing' (108r).

For quoting Liechtenauer's teachings, Peter von Danzig uses the (or a) text assigned to Siegmund Ringeck (HK 16), but also goes so far as to copy Ringeck's glosses and pass them off as his own. But also extensive parts of the teachings of Liegnitzer and Hundfeld, which are listed for the first time in this manuscript, seem to have been copied after Ringeck, so that they stand as a kind of missing link in the tradition between Peter and Ringeck. Both masters are already marked as deceased with the Christian blessing 'dem god be gracious', just as Ott is not given the insinuating 'jud' (like e.g. with the Jew Lew, with Kal and Talhoffer), but also with the blessing.

The handwriting clearly shows the great effectiveness and assertiveness of Liechtenauer's teachings, which prove to be relatively persistent in substance even when edited by other masters, but also the working methods of the fencing masters when creating their own handwriting: the written (or other) fixation existing teaching material is exploited regardless of the "copyrights or property rights" of the other masters to their property.

It is only too understandable that in this way Peter's handwriting also becomes a template for others. One of the first copyists must have been the Jew Lew (HK 5), whose adaptation of the doctrine was circulated in numerous copies for the following hundred years.

Hils 151:

Manuscript 44 A 8 (HK 42) has survived from the 'Maister peter von tanczk (= Danzig; own note)', which is itself reintegrated into the line of transmission originating from Sigmund Ringeck.