View source for Royal Armouries Ms. I.33

{{Short description|European combat manual created c. 1300}}
[[Image:MS I33 32r.jpg|thumb|200px|fol. 32r showing the priest in first ward and in ''schutzen'', and Walpurgis remaining in her 'special ward' on the right shoulder]]
[[File:Ms I33 fol 04v.jpg|thumb|200px|fol. 4v showing the student first in ''krucke'' and then gripping the priest's arms with his shield arm]]

'''Royal Armouries Ms. I.33''' is the earliest known surviving European ''[[fechtbuch]]'' (combat manual), and one of the oldest surviving martial arts manuals dealing with armed combat worldwide. I.33 is also known as the Walpurgis manuscript, after a figure named Walpurgis shown in the last sequence of the manuscript,<ref name="Dr A. Kenner"/> and "the Tower manuscript" because it was kept in the [[Tower of London]] during 1950-1996; also referred to as [[British Museum]] No. 14 E iii, No. 20, D. vi.

It was created around 1300 in [[Franconia]] and is first mentioned by [[Henricus a Gunterrodt]] in his ''De veriis principiis artis dimicatoriae'' of 1579.

The manuscript is anonymous<ref name=MAotW244>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=FaTfuuIlmqcC&pg=PA244 |first1=Thomas A |last1=Green |first2=Joseph R |last2=Svinth |title=Martial Arts of the World: An Encyclopedia of History and Innovation |volume=2 |page=244 |publisher=ABC-CLIO 2010 |isbn=978-1598842432|year=2010 }}</ref> and is so titled through an association with the [[Royal Armouries Museum]].<ref name="Dr A. Kenner">{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=HIwlBgAAQBAJ |first=Andrew |last=Kenner |title=I33: Fencing in the Style of the Walpurgis Manuscript |publisher=Lulu Enterprises Incorporated |year=2014 |isbn=9781291649475 |page=11}}</ref>

==The manuscript==
The manuscript including the text date to about 1270-1320 AD<ref name="Rachel E Kellett">{{cite journal |first=Rachel E |last=Kellett |title=Royal Armouries MS I.33: The Judicial Combat And The Art Of Fencing In Thirteenth- And Fourteenth-Century German Literature |journal=Oxford German Studies |volume=41 |issue=1 |year=2012 |doi=10.1179/0078719112Z.0000000003 |pages=32–56|s2cid=161823139 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=TUDiCAAAQBAJ |first=Richard |last=Wadge |title=Verneuil 1424: The Second Agincourt: The Battle of Three Kingdoms |publisher=History Press |year=2015 |isbn=978-0750963350}}</ref><ref>The manuscript is dated to the "late 13th century" in the description by Royal Armouries. [[Alphonse Lhotsky]] in a handwritten note suggested the late 13th century and identified the scribe as a secretary to the bishop of [[Würzburg]].</ref><ref name="J. Hester">{{cite journal|first=James |last=Hester |title=A Few Leaves Short of a Quire: Is the 'Tower Fechtbuch' Incomplete? |journal= Arms & Armour|volume=9 |issue=1 |year=2012 |doi=10.1179/1741612411Z.0000000003 |pages=20–24|s2cid=161975656 }}</ref> It is first mentioned by [[Henricus a Gunterrodt]] in his ''De veriis principiis artis dimicatoriae'' of 1579, where he reports it to have been acquired (looted) by a friend of his, one Johannes Herbart of [[Würzburg]] when serving in the force of [[Albert Alcibiades, Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach]] in the campaigns of 1552/3. It remained in a Franconian monastery (presumably in [[Upper Franconia]]) until the mid-16th century. From the 17th century, the manuscript was part of the ducal library of [[Sachsen-Gotha|Gotha]] (signature ''Cod. Membr. I. no. 115'') until it disappeared in [[World War II]] and resurfaced at a [[Sotheby's]] auction in 1950, where it was purchased by the [[Royal Armouries]]. The author of the treatise may be a cleric called ''Lutegerus'' (viz. a Latinised form of the German proper name [[Liutger (disambiguation)|Liutger]]).

The treatise expounds a martial system of defensive and offensive techniques between a master and a pupil, referred to as ''sacerdos'' (priest) and ''scolaris'' (student), each armed with a sword and a buckler, drawn in ink and watercolour and accompanied with Latin text, interspersed with German fencing terms. On the last two pages, the pupil is replaced by a woman called Walpurgis.

The pages of the manuscript are [[vellum]],<ref name="M. Morgan">{{cite journal |first=Martin |last=Morgan |doi=10.1179/1741612414Z.00000000033 |title=Publishing Royal Armouries 1.33 - The Illuminated Fightbook |journal= Arms & Armour|volume=11 |number=1 |date=Spring 2014 |pages=68–70|s2cid=161204950 }}</ref> the 32 parchment folia (64 pages) of the manuscript show Latin text written in a clerical hand, using the various [[sigla]] which were standard at the time (but which fell out of use at the end of the medieval period; an image from the manuscript (the second image on fol 26r) was copied into ''Codex Guelf 125.16.Extrav.'' in the 1600s by a draughtsman who under his drawing stated that he could not decipher the Latin text).

==Contents==
The pages are thought possibly or very likely from an earlier larger work, which have later been subsequently bound together separated from the other pages.<ref name="J. Hester"/><ref name="M. Morgan"/> The text provides guidance on the use of a [[Classification of swords#Classification by Hilt Type|single-handed sword]].<ref>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=TfOvBAAAQBAJ&pg=PP33 |first=Guy |last=Windsor |title=The Swordsman's Companion: A Modern Training Manual for Medieval Longsword |publisher=Guy Windsor |year=2013 |isbn=978-9526793429}}</ref> The fencing system is based on a number of [[ward (fencing)|wards]] (''custodie'') which are answered by defensive postures (''obsessiones''). The wards are numbered 1 to 7 on the first two pages and supplemented by various 'special' wards later in the text. The seven basic wards are:

# under the arm (''sub brach'')
# right shoulder (''humero dextrali'')
# left shoulder (''humero sinistro'')
# head (''capiti'')
# right side (''latere dextro'')
# breast (''pectori'')
# 'long-point' ([[langort]])

The German terms appearing in the Latin text are the following:
* ''albersleiben'' (possibly the [[fool's guard]] position)
* ''durchtreten'', ''durchtritt'' ('stepping through')
* ''halpschilt'' ('half shield', one of the ''obsessiones'')
* ''krucke'' ('crutch', a defensive position)
* ''[[langort]]'' ('long-point', may be either a ''custodia'' or an ''obsessio'')
* ''nucken'' ('nudge', a specific attack)
* ''schiltslac'' ('shield-blow')
* ''schutzen'' ('protect')
* ''stich'' ('stab')
* ''stichschlac'' ('stab-blow')
* ''vidilpoge'' ('fiddle-bow', a specific ''custodia'')

Sporadic dialectal elements in these terms (notably ''nucken'' and ''halpschilt'') suggest a location of composition consistent with the reported discovery in a [[Franconia]]n monastery in the wider area of [[Würzburg]].

==References==
{{reflist}}

*Jeffrey L. Singman (now Forgeng), "The medieval swordsman: a 13th century German fencing manuscript", in ''Royal Armouries Yearbook 2'', pp.&nbsp;129–136, 1997.
*Jeffrey L. Forgeng, ''The Medieval Art of Swordsmanship, A Facsimile & Translation of the World's Oldest Personal Combat Treatise'', published jointly with the Royal Armouries at Leeds, [[Brian R. Price#Writing, editing and publishing|The Chivalry Bookshelf]], 2003; {{ISBN|1-891448-38-2}}
*Paul Wagner & Stephen Hand, ''Medieval Sword And Shield: The Combat System of Royal Armouries MS I.33'', The Chivalry Bookshelf, 2003; {{ISBN|1-891448-43-9}}
*Stephen Hand, "Re-Interpreting Aspects of the Sword & Buckler System in Royal Armouries MS I.33", in ''Spada 2: Anthology of Swordsmanship'', pp.&nbsp;91–109, The Chivalry Bookshelf, 2005; {{ISBN|1-891448-35-8}}
*Franck Cinato & André Surprenant, ''Le livre de l’art du combat. Liber de arte dimicatoria. Édition critique du Royal Armouries MS. I.33, collection Sources d'Histoire Médiévale n°39'', CNRS Editions, Paris, 2009. {{ISBN|978-2-271-06757-9}}

==External links==
{{commons category}}
* [https://collections.royalarmouries.org/archive/rac-archive-391002.html Official Royal Armouries collection catalogue record of manuscript I.33], (collections.royalarmouries.org)
* [http://www.illuminatedfightbook.co.uk The Illuminated Fight Book], facsimile project
* [http://wiktenauer.com/wiki/I.33 Walpurgis Fechtbuch (MS I.33)] (wiktenauer.com)
* [http://schwertfechten.ch/html/i33/i33en.html Full text of I.33 and translation (schwertfechten.ch)]
* David Rawlings, [http://www.londonlongsword.com Obsesseo: The Art of Sword and Buckler] training DVD (London Longsword Academy/Boar's Tooth) 
* [http://home.armourarchive.org/members/jester/I33/A_Possible_Interpretation.html A Partial, Possible Interpretation of the I.33 Manuscript] by John Jordan
* [http://www.higginssword.org/guild/demo/muse/buckler/index.html Demonstration of basic attacks] includes slow-motion video clips (Higgins Armory Sword Guild)
* [http://www.thearma.org/Manuals/i33/i33.htm Anonymous Fechtbuch: Manuscript I.33] (The [[Association for Renaissance Martial Arts]])
* [http://www.thearma.org/essays/I33-guards-footwork.html The Guards of I.33 and Their Footwork and Cuts] by Randall Pleasant (The Association for Renaissance Martial Arts)
* [http://www.thearma.org/essays/falling-under-sword-and-shield.html Fall Under the Sword and Shield: An Examination of the First Play of MS I.33] by Randall Pleasant (The Association for Renaissance Martial Arts)
* [http://www.thearma.org/Manuals/I33-guards.html A comparative pictorial study of the Wards and techniques of the I.33 or Tower Fechtbuch] by Brian Hunt (The Association for Renaissance Martial Arts)

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:14th-century illuminated manuscripts]]
[[Category:Combat treatises]]
[[Category:Historical European martial arts]]
[[Category:Swordsmanship]]