The manuscript now kept in Leeds as Royal Armouries Record 0033 (currently Fecht 1 and formerly – and here in the following – MS I.33) contains not only the oldest known German but also the oldest extant European fight book. It may therefore come as a surprise that until now, a physical edition of the book with a professional translation into modern German had never been published. Admittedly, an edition plus translation provided by Dieter Bachmann has existed online since 2003, but this version is now considered outdated by its author, though it remains accessible for the time being.¹ The situation is only slightly better with regard to German-language scholarship on MS I.33.² The first ever edition of the book in English was published by Jeffrey Forgeng in 2003 (only to be quickly out of print and subsequently sought-after for years) with an introduction, translation and facsimile pages.³ It was followed by a high-grade facsimile edition by the same editor in 2013, and an affordable new edition that was published directly by the Royal Armouries in 2018.⁴ Franck Cinato’s and André Surprenant’s edition and translation of the text into modern French was published in 2008, together with an introduction of around one-hundred pages (not counting the extensive appendices).⁵ Its scholarly depth is unrivalled so far, and Forgeng drew on it a lot, especially for the 2018 edition. Besides these printed editions, several other translations of the text can be found online.

Forgeng’s 2018 edition is also the basis of the German edition under review here. Published in March 2021 by the Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft (wbg) in cooperation with the Royal Armouries Museum, it preserves most of the appearance of the English original, including the book’s dimensions (the German one is slightly thinner due to a different paper variety that is also smoother), its layout, and even the decoration on the endpapers. The different design of the dust jacket is probably the greatest visual deviation from the 2018 edition. The page breaks are completely identical in the edition part of the book, where a full-page facsimile image faces the Latin edition and German translation. The facsimile images are slightly brighter than in the 2018 edition and have more contrast, but without a side-by-side-comparison with MS I.33 itself, it is impossible for me to evaluate which comes closer to the original. Regarding these ‘physical’ features, the German edition is a well-made book, nice to the touch and with a decent print quality.

All of Forgeng’s texts have been translated into German by Gisella Vorderobermeier: the introduction (twenty-six pages), his English translation of the Latin glosses of the manuscript (the Latin edition itself is preserved without changes except for editorial comments), the glossaries, appendices, and the bibliography. The decision to have the entire book translated from the English original makes sense from a practical point of view, and in general, the quality of the translation is high. In the introduction, there are a few unfortunate choices in terminology and very few omissions (perhaps to make the page breaks match?) and grammatical mistakes when compared to the original (pp. 22– 23).⁶ Only in a few places does the unfamiliarity with fight books and fencing in general result in misleading translations. Examples are Forgeng’s ‘Liechtenauer manuscript of 1389’, which was turned into the ‘Liechtenauer-Handschrift (1389)’ (p. 8 in both), as if there was only one manuscript that could be described as such. The buckler plays of Andre Liegnitzer (p. 11) became ‘Schwert-und-Buckler-Kampfzüge’ (p. 10), perhaps under the assumption that the ‘plays’ were martial displays at a pageant and not fight lessons.⁷

One could assume that the most problematic part of this edition was the translation into German of Forgeng’s English translation of the, in turn, Latin glosses. Assuming that even the Latin text can be considered a translation of the author’s or scribes’ Middle High German thoughts on buckler fighting, this would make the 2021 edition a translation not of the third but even fourth degree. In this respect, it may be regarded as questionable that the publisher opted to preserve and even translate the blurbs on the dust jacket, including a quote by Sydney Anglo about the accurate translation, even though they refer to the original English edition of 2018. It might come as a relief that Vorderobermeier’s translation is largely accurate. The English model remains noticeable in the capitalisation of the numbered guards (custodiae), for example, which is not as common for foreign or technical terms in German as it might be in English. Some of the medieval German terms have been adapted to their modern spellings (e.g. ‘Schildschlag’ or ‘Durchtritt’), but others were left transliterated (e.g. ‘schutzen’ instead of the modern ‘schützen’). There are also a few downright misleading translations where the meaning has shifted significantly from the Latin original, such as the consistent rendering of Forgeng’s ‘to set to sb.’ as ‘auf jmd. losgehen’ (literally ‘to slash/charge at sb.’, see pp. 114, 118 and 129). A look at the corresponding Latin verb ponere would have clarified the matter, as it means the positioning of a fighter or their weapon in relation to the opponent.⁸ With regard to the binding actions, which are crucial for the fighting system reflected in MS I.33, to establish a bind (ligare) above or below the opponent’s sword is translated with the German verbs ‘überbinden’ and ‘unterbinden’, respectively. The former is somewhat unfortunate as it implies a manipulation of the bind (and thus overlaps with the term religare); the latter, because it also means ‘to prevent’ in modern German. Sticking closer to the English original (‘to bind above/below the sword’) would have been the better choice here. Curiously, the recurring term for a counter-posture, obsessio, is translated with the German ‘Versatz’ – as known from the later Liechtenauer tradition where it appears to designate a somewhat different concept – just as in Dieter Bachmann’s old rendition. It is hard to believe that it came from Forgeng, who translated it more adequately as ‘opposition’ throughout.⁹ Besides these examples, there are a few other less important words or phrases that could be improved.¹⁰ On the whole, however, the translation is fairly accurate with only very few distortions of the text. Whoever wishes to know its exact meaning will eventually have to turn to the Latin edition or the photographs of the actual handwriting, both of which are provided by the 2021 publication.

In conclusion, the German edition published by wbg is a great choice for those fluent in German who are less comfortable with the English version. It is a well-made publication with a few drawbacks that become obvious only at a closer look, when one has already familiarised oneself with the material and is probably working with the original text anyway.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bachmann, Dieter, ‘I.33. Übersetzung mit Kommentar’, 2003, [accessed 30 March 2021

Bodemer, Heidemarie, ‘Das Fechtbuch. Untersuchungen zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der bildkünstlerischen Darstellung der Fechtkunst in den Fechtbüchern des mediterranen und westeuropäischen Raumes vom Mittelalter bis Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts’ (unpublished doctoral thesis, Stuttgart University, 2008), [accessed 30 March 2021]

Cinato, Franck and André Surprenant, Le Livre de l’Art du Combat (Liber de arte dimicatoria). Commentaires et exemples. Édition critique du Royal Armouries MS. I.33 (Paris: CNRS Éditions, 2008)

Forgeng, Jeffrey L., The Medieval Art of Swordsmanship. A Facsimile & Translation of Europe’s Oldest Personal Combat Treatise, Royal Armouries MS I.33 (Union City: Chivalry Bookshelf, 2003)

Forgeng, Jeffrey L., The Medieval Art of Swordsmanship. Royal Armouries MS I.33 (Leeds: Royal Armouries Museum, 2018)

Gehrt, Daniel, Mit Schwert und Degen. Zweikampf in historischen Fechtbüchern (Gotha, 2021)

Leng Rainer [et al.], Katalog der deutschsprachigen illustrierten Handschriften des Mittelalters 4,2/1,2, 38. Fecht- und Ringbücher (München: C. H. Beck, 2008)

Notes