Hans Medel’s Fencing (EN)

Several dozen original fencing books and many copies have survived from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. A large number of them deal with the legacy of the famous master Hans Lichtenauer; the authors, often anonymous, present and comment on his teachings in an almost identical way. In this book, however, we find a specific and unique interpretation of Lichtenauer's art. Hans Medel's heretical interpretation is completely his own, in a way that makes one's head spin. In the end, however, he prefers only a slightly different system and techniques (which we also find in Lichtenauer or other books). Our ideas about medieval and Renaissance fencing are not always completely accurate, and works like this, which break the norm, help us to understand the complex reality and the direction in which fencing has developed over time. The book also contains transcripts of extremely rare chronicles of fencing guilds, which are a truly unique source and witness to how fencers organized themselves in the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

Content:

• Introduction
• Cod. I.6.2º.5
• Additional Codices
• Paulus Hector Mair
• On the Marxbrüder and Fencing Guilds
• Notes on this Book
• Book of the Masters of the Longsword from Frankfurt
• Augsburg Fencing Regulations
• Frankfurt Fencing Regulations
• Hans Medel: Commentary on Lichtenauer
• Hans Medel: Seven Stances
• Martin Heemskerk: Fencers and Wrestlers
• Glossary