Codex Wallerstein

The so-called Codex Wallerstein or Vonn Baumanns Fechtbuch (Oettingen-Wallerstein Cod. I.6.4^o.2, Augsburg University library^[1]) is a 16th-century convolution of three 15th-century fechtbuch manuscripts, with a total of 221 pages.

The first page shows a fencer with various arms.

Illustration of a half-sword thrust against a mordhau in armoured longsword combat. (Plate 214)

The inside of the cover is inscribed 1549. Vom baumanns 108, suggesting that the manuscript belonged to one Michael Baumann, listed as a mercenary by profession in the tax registers of Augsburg between 1471 and 1495.^[2] The manuscript came in the possession of Paulus Hector Mair in 1556.^[3] After Mair's execution in 1579, the manuscript may have passed to the library of Marcus Fugger, whose library was sold by his grandson in 1653, passing into the Oettingen-Wallerstein library.

Contents

Part A treats fighting with the longsword, dagger and messer. Part B is inserted in two parts, interrupting the first part, treating grappling. Parts A and B were made in c. 1470; the paper is dated to 1464/5 based on its watermark.^[4] Part A is considered a source for the fechtbuch of Albrecht Dürer of 1512.

Part C is somewhat older, made in the first half of the 15th century. The paper is dated to 1420 based on its watermark.^[5] It treats longsword, armored combat, stechschild and grappling.

The final page, fol. 109r, has a register, written in the hand of Paulus Hector Mair (foll. 109v and 110 are empty).

Part A

• 3r-14v, 21r, 21v longsword techniques
• 22r-28v dagger
• 29r-32v messer

Part B

• 15r-20v, 33r-74r grappling
• 74v drawing of an armed robbery (with instructions for the robber to draw blood from the victim's neck for intimidation)

[fol. 75 empty]

Part C

• 1r, a drawing of a fencer with various arms, still used as a title page in the convoluted ms. and inscribed with Paulus Hector's name.
• 1v-2r, a double page illustration showing a fighting arena with spectators
• 76r-80v, 101r-102v longsword
• 81r-91v, [fol. 92 empty] 93r-95v, 103r-108r armoured combat
• 96r-96v, 98v judicial combat, Swabian law (with swords)
• 97r-98r judicial combat, Franconian law (with clubs)
• 98v-100v grappling (fol. 98v combines a grappling image with a judicial combat one)
• 108v, image of a wedding ceremony.^[6]

See also

• Fechtbuch
• Historical European martial arts