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Wiktenauer:Main page/Featured
| Sigmund Schining ain Ringeck | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Period | 15th century |
| Occupation | Fencing master |
| Nationality | German |
| Patron | Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria |
| Movement | Society of Liechtenauer |
| Influences | Johannes Liechtenauer |
| Influenced | |
| Genres | Fencing manual |
| Language | Early New High German |
| Archetype(s) | Hypothetical |
| Manuscript(s) |
MS E.1939.65.341 (1508)
|
| First printed english edition |
Tobler, 2001 |
| Concordance by | Michael Chidester |
Sigmund Schining ain Ringeck (Sigmund ain Ringeck, Sigmund Amring, Sigmund Einring, Sigmund Schining) was a 15th century German fencing master. While the meaning of the surname "Schining" is uncertain, the suffix "ein Ringeck" may indicate that he came from the Rhineland region of south-eastern Germany. He is named in the text as Schirmaister to Albrecht, Count Palatine of Rhine and Duke of Bavaria. This may signify Schirrmeister, a logistical officer charged with oversseing the wagons and horse-drawn artillery pieces, or potentially Schirmmeister, a title used by lower-class itinerant fencing masters in the Medieval period. Apart from his service to the duke, the only thing that can be determined about his life is that his renown as a master was sufficient for Paulus Kal to include him on his memorial to the masters of the Society of Liechtenauer in 1470.
The identity of Ringeck's patron remains unclear, as four men named Albrecht ruled Bavaria during the fifteenth century; assuming that Ringeck was a personal student of Liechtenauer, further narrows the list down to just two. If the MS 3227a is correctly dated to 1389, then Liechtenauer was a 14th century master and Ringeck's patron was Albrecht I, who reigned from 1353 to 1404. If, as increasingly seems likely, Liechtenauer was an early 15th century master (an associate or student of H. Beringer) and the Society of Liechtenauer was assembled to fight in the Hussite Wars of the 1420s and 30s, then Ringeck's patron would have been Albrecht III, who carried the title from 1438 to 1460. Albrecht IV claimed the title in 1460 and thus also could have been Ringeck's patron; this would probably signify that Ringeck was not a direct student of Liechtenauer at all, but a later inheritor of the tradition. That said, Albrecht IV lived until 1508 and so the Dresden, Glasgow, and Salzburg manuscripts were likely created during his reign.
Ringeck is often erroneously credited as the author of the MS Dresd.C.487. Ringeck was indeed the author of one of the core texts, a complete gloss of Liechtenauer's Recital on unarmored long sword fencing, and he may also have authored a set of teachings that sometimes accompany the gloss on fencing from a low guard called side guard or iron gate; the glosses of Liechtenauer's short sword and mounted fencing found therein are generally assumed to also be Ringeck's, though they don't mention his name. However, the remainder of the manuscript contains an assortment of treatises by several different masters in the tradition, and it is currently thought to have been composed in the early 16th century (putting it after the master's presumed lifetime). Regardless, the fact that he authored one of the few glosses of the Recital makes Ringeck one of the most important masters of the Liechtenauer tradition.
While it was not duplicated nearly as often as the more famous gloss of Pseudo-Peter von Danzig, Ringeck's work nevertheless seems to have had a lasting influence. Not only was it reproduced by Joachim Meÿer in his final manuscript (left unifinished at his death in 1571), but in 1539 Hans Medel von Salzburg took it upon himself to create an update and revision of Ringeck's Bloßfechten gloss, integrating his own commentary in many places.
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