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Pseudo-Peter von Danzig
Textual History
Manuscript Stemma
Early on in its history, the prototype of the Pseudo-Peter von Danzig gloss seems to have split into at least three branches, and no definite copies of the unaltered original are known to survive. The gloss of Sigmund ain Ringeck also seems to be related to this work, due to the considerable overlap in text and contents, but it is currently unclear if Ringeck's gloss is based on that of pseudo-Danzig or if they both derive from an even earlier original gloss (or even if Ringeck and pseudo-Danzig are the same author and the "Ringeck" gloss should be considered Branch D).
Branch A, first attested in the Augsburg version (1450s) and comprising the majority of extant copies, has more plays overall than Branch B but generally shorter descriptions in areas of overlap. It also glosses only Liechtenauer's Recital on long sword and mounted fencing; in lieu of a gloss of Liechtenauer's short sword, it is generally accompanied by the short sword teachings of Andre Lignitzer and Martin Huntsfeld (or, in the case of the 1512 Vienna II, Ringeck's short sword gloss). Branch A is sometimes called the Lew gloss, based on a potential attribution at the end of the mounted gloss in a few copies. Apart from the Augsburg, the other principal text in Branch A is the Salzburg version (1491), which was copied independently[1] and also incorporates twelve paragraphs from Ringeck's gloss and nineteen paragraphs from an unidentified third source. Branch A was redacted by Paulus Hector Mair (three mss., 1540s), Lienhart Sollinger (1556), and Joachim Meyer (1570), which despite being the latest is the cleanest extant version and was likely either copied directly from the original or created by comparing multiple versions to correct their errors. It was also one of the bases for Johannes Lecküchner's gloss on the Messer in the late 1470s.
Branch B, attested first in the Rome version (1452), is found in only five manuscripts; it tends to feature slightly longer descriptions than Branch A, but includes fewer plays overall. Branch B glosses Liechtenauer's entire Recital, including the short sword section, and may therefore be considered more complete than Branch A; it also differs in that three of the four known copies are illustrated to some extent, where none in the other branches are. Branch B is the one most commonly identified with pseudo-Danzig, because it is entirely anonymous and lacks any clues for other attribution. The Krakow version (1535-40) seems to be an incomplete (though extensively illustrated) copy taken from the Rome,[2] while Augsburg II (1564) collects only the six illustrated wrestling plays from the Krakow. The other substantial version of Branch B is the Vienna, which includes the mounted and short sword sections but omits the long sword in favor of Branch C. Most anomalous are the Glasgow version (1508), consisting solely of a nearly-complete redaction of the short sword gloss which begins with seven paragraphs of unknown origin, and the Dresden version, consisting of a redaction of the first half of the mounted fencing gloss which begins with four paragraphs from Ringeck. A final manuscript, the Falkner Turnierbuch, is known to have once existed but seems to have been destroyed in the Siege of Strasbourg.
Branch C is first attested in the Vienna version (1480s). It is unclear whether it was derived independently from the original, represents an intermediate evolutionary step between Branches A and B, or was created by simply merging copies of those two branches together. The structure and contents of this branch align closely with Branch B, lacking most of the unique plays of Branch A, but the actual text is more consistent with that of Branch A (though not identical). The other mostly-complete copy of Branch C is the Augsburg version II (1553), which was created by Paulus Hector Mair based on the writings of Antonius Rast, and which segues into the text of Ringeck's gloss for the final eighteen paragraphs. A substantial fragment of Branch C is present in five additional 16th century manuscripts alongside the illustrated treatise of Jörg Wilhalm Hutter; one of these, Glasgow II (1533) assigns the text a much earlier origin, stating that it was devised by Nicolaüs in 1489. This branch has received the least attention and is currently the least well understood.
(A final text of interest is the gloss of Hans Medel von Salzburg, which was acquired by Mair in 1539[3] and bound into the Cod. I.6.2º.5 after 1566.[4] Medel demonstrates familiarity with the teachings of a variety of 15th century Liechtenauer masters, and his text often takes the form of a revision and expansion of the long sword glosses of Ringeck and Branch C. Because of the extent of original and modified content, no attempt has been made on either of those pages to associate Medel's gloss with the sources he was copying from.)
Modern HEMA
1965: Rome, Vienna, Dresden, and Augsburg included in Wierschin
1985: Those plus Kraków included in Hils.
2000: The Glasgow was identified in Sydney Anglo's 2000 opus as merely "[R. L.] Scott's Liechtenauer MS",[5] but had been associated with Ringeck by 2008 when Rainer Leng published his catalog.
2001: Grzegorz Żabiński transcribes Rome long and short sword and Krakow long sword and posts on ARMA-PL
2001: Mounted included unknowingly in Tobler, Christian Henry. Secrets of German Medieval Swordsmanship. Highland Village, TX: Chivalry Bookshelf, 2001. ISBN 1-891448-07-2
2004: Monika Maziarz transcribes Rome horse fighting and posts on ARMA-PL
2004: Krakow long sword translated by Mike Rasmusson and posted on Schielhau.org
2006: Transcription of Rome by Dierk Hagedorn and posted on Hammaborg
2006: Vienna transcribed by Carsten Lorbeer, Julia Lorbeer, Andreas Meier, Marita Wiedner, and Johann Heim as part of their Kal project and posted on Gesellschaft für pragmatische Schriftlichkeit
2008: Individual French translations of the Augsburg and Salzburg versions of the long sword (along with the Rome Ps-Danzig and the Dresden Ringeck) were produced by Philippe Errard, Didier de Grenier, and Michaël Huber and posted on the ARDAMHE site
2007: Mounted and short sword translation in 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
2008: Glasgow included in Leng
2008: Transcription and German translation of Rome in Hagedorn, Dierk. Transkription und Übersetzung der Handschrift 44 A 8. Herne: VS-Books, 2008. ISBN 978-3-932077-34-0
2009: Transcription of Augsburg and Glasgow by Dierk Hagedorn and posted on Hammaborg
2010: English translation of Rome in Tobler, Christian Henry. In Saint George's Name: An Anthology of Medieval German Fighting Arts. Wheaton, IL: Freelance Academy Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0-9825911-1-6
2010: Translation of long sword from Krakow in Żabiński, Grzegorz. The Longsword Teachings of Master Liechtenauer. The Early Sixteenth Century Swordsmanship Comments in the "Goliath" Manuscript. Poland: Adam Marshall, 2010. ISBN 978-83-7611-662-4
2011: Spanish translation of Rome long sword by Eugenio Garcia Salmones
2012: Gábor Erényi translates Rome and Krakow long sword to Hungarian and posts on Schola Artis Gladii et Armorum
2015: In 2015, Cory Winslow authored a new translation of the long sword section for Wiktenauer, which was the first that incorporated all known versions; this translation was also published by Wiktenauer that year in The Recital of the Chivalric Art of Fencing of the Grand Master Johannes Liechtenauer.
2015: Christian Trosclair discovers Falkner Turnierbuch in Scherz
2017: Transcription of Krakow in Welle, Rainer. "Ein unvollendetes Meisterwerk der Fecht- und Ringkampfliteratur des 16. Jahrhunderts sucht seinen Autor: der Landshuter Holzschneider und Maler Georg Lemberger als Fecht- und Ringbuchillustrator?" Codices manuscripti & impressi. Supplementum 12. Purkersdorf: Verlag Brüder Hollinek, 2017.
2018: Translation of short sword and mounted by Stephen Cheney
2019: English translation of Rome in R., Harry. Peter von Danzig. Self-published, 2019. ISBN 978-0-36-870245-7
2020: English translation of long sword from Rome Cheney, Stephen. Ringeck · Danzig · Lew Longsword. Self-published, 2020. ISBN 978-8649845441
2021: Transcription and translation of Rome in Hagedorn, Dierk and Christian Henry Tobler. The Peter von Danzig Fight Book. Freelance Academy Press, 2021. ISBN 978-1-937439-53-8
- ↑ Both Augsburg and Salzburg contain significant scribal errors of omission that allow us to identify manuscripts copied from them.
- ↑ Zabinski, pp 82-83
- ↑ Medel's section of the Cod. I.6.2º.5 is internally dated on folio 21r.
- ↑ The record of the Marxbrüder in the manuscript ends on folio 20r with the year 1566, so Mair couldn't have compiled it before then.
- ↑ Sydney Anglo. The Martial Arts of Renaissance Europe. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2000. pp 312-315.
