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Johannes Lecküchner

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Johannes Lecküchner
Born ca. 1430s
Nuremberg, Germany
Died December 31, 1482
Herzogenaurach, Germany
Occupation
Alma mater University of Leipzig
Influences Johannes Liechtenauer (?)
Genres Fencing manual
Language Early New High German
Notable work(s) Kunst des Messerfechtens
Archetype(s)
Manuscript(s)
Concordance by Michael Chidester
Translations
Signature Johannes Lecküchner Sig.jpg

Johannes Lecküchner (or Hans Lebkommer; ca. 1430s – 1482) was a 15th century German cleric and fencing master. He was born in the Nuremberg area, and in 1455 he was inscribed at the University of Leipzig. In 1457, he received the title of baccalaureus, and he was consecrated as a Catholic acolyte in 1459. At some point before creating his first manuscript in 1478, Lecküchner was consecrated as a priest. From 1480 until his death on December 31, 1482, he was employed as a communal priest in Herzogenaurach, Germany.[1] Lecküchner dedicated his fencing manual to Philip "the Upright" of Wittelsbach, Elector Palatine of the Rhine, but the nature of his connection to the duke remains unclear.[2]

Some 19th century scholars assumed that Lecküchner's name was a corruption of "Liechtenauer" and a reference to Johannes Liechtenauer, the grand master of the best-known German tradition. However, biographical information from historical records, as well as the colophon in the manuscript itself, thoroughly disproves this theory. Lecküchner's system of Messer fencing does, however, seem to be closely related to the long sword teachings of Liechtenauer from earlier in the century. His teachings are organized in a similar fashion using similar terminology, and often his Recital (Zettel) is nearly identical to that of Liechtenauer; he quotes or paraphrases the Lew gloss in many places, but it's unknown whether he had access to other teachings from the Liechtenauer tradition as well.

Two potential autograph copies of Lecküchner's treatise are preserved: the Cod. Pal. Germ. 430, completed between 1478 and 1482, and the Cgm 582, completed on 19 January 1482 (the year of his death).[3] The Cgm 582 mentions in the last paragraph that a previous draft had been produced which has sometimes been presumed to be a reference to the CPG 430, but since that is clearly a polished work for a client rather than a draft, it's more likely to be a lost third manuscript. This lost draft was probably the source for the shorter version included by Hans von Speyer in the MS M.I.29 in 1491, as well as those by Gregor Erhart in 1533, Paulus Hector Mair in the 1540s, and Lienhart Sollinger in 1556.

Preceding the treatises of Lew and Lecküchner in the MS M.I.29 are brief notes by a Magister Andreas explaining equivalences in concepts and terminology between the two,[4] perhaps indicating that by this time Lecküchner's teachings had been integrated into the Liechtenauer school of fencing. This notion is further supported by the appearance of Lecküchner's Recital alongside Liechtenauer's in Marxbrüder captain Peter Falkner's treatise of ca. 1495.

One final note of interest is that in 1531, printer Christian Egenolff published a fencing anthology entitled Der Allten Fechter gründtliche Kunst, and included a brief treatise on the Messer attributed to a certain Master Hans Lebkommer. This is either a misspelling or alternate rendering of "Lecküchner"; the text appears to be a brief summary of Lecküchner's teachings, intermingled with the Messer teachings of Andre Paurenfeyndt (uncredited). Since there is no indication that it was actually written by Lecküchner (who was long dead by that time), and in order to avoid confusion here, this otherwise anonymous treatise can be found on the Lebkommer page.

Treatise

The two manuscripts whose creation seems to have been personally overseen by Lecküchner contain a number of substantial differences, some of which can be interpreted as corrections in the later edition and others which are less explicable. In this compilation, they're treated as mutually-authoritative and translated separately; it's possible that a future version of this article will merge the translations together and describe the differences in footnotes. Both of these manuscripts were prepared late in Lecküchner's life based on one or more lost earlier versions. The Salzburg version seems likely to be a faithful copy of one of those versions, so it is presented in the first transcription column to illustrate how the text expanded over time.

The typical Wiktenauer style is to break up the Recital into verses in a standard fashion according to their rhyme scheme. In the case of Lecküchner, however, the Recital is already broken into discrete lines in most extant copies, but the precise separation varies from copy to copy. The format of the various copies has therefore been preserved in this table in order to allow comparison (even though that means leaving the Vienna version completely un-separated). In the translation, the verses that are common to multiple copies are rendered in red text, while the verses that are unique to Munich version Ⅰ appear in black text.

To view a version of this table without illustrations and including a transcription of the Augsburg version of the Lew long sword gloss for reference, see Johannes Lecküchner/No illustrations.