‘Icy commenche ung très beau livret, contenant la chevalereuse science des joueurs d’espée.’

I INTRODUCTION

La Noble Science des Joueurs d’Espée (abridged as La Noble Science in this article), a Middle- French fight book printed by Willem Vorsterman in Antwerp in 1538, is an example of the numerous re-uses of Andre Paurnfeindt’s fighting treatise, Ergrundung Ritterlicher Kunst der Fechterei (abridged here as Ergrundung), itself first printed in Vienna in 1516.¹ Some re- uses of the Ergrundunghave already been studied by Matthias Johannes Bauer, who has reconstructed the relationship between the prints of Christian Egenolff (a printer from Frankfurt) and the treatise of Paurnfeindt.² Even if the four editions of Egenolff’s work feature printing errors, changes, and misuses of technical terms, these publications were popular among the Frankfurt practitioners of the art of fencing.³ Thus, Bauer concludes that Egenolff saw, in re-using Paurnfeindt’s work, a commercial opportunity from which he could profit. La Noble Science seems to follow the same pattern as Egenolff’s treatise, as Vorsterman translated and printed his own version of Paurnfeindt’s book. The following article considers the modifications made by Vorsterman in his translation of the original text and what the purpose of the book was in regard to the local printing and martial contexts.

II THE PRINTS OF LA NOBLE SCIENCE DES JOUEURS D’ESPÉE

Five prints of La Noble Science have been identified: London, British Library (General Reference Collection C.97.b.32); Oxford, Bodleian Library (MS. Douce E 247); Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France (Rothschild 291); Rotterdam, Maritiem Museum (WAE 2 C 24); and Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek (HN-236). The prints from London, Paris, and Rotterdam are cited in the Nijhoff-Kronenberg bibliography of Dutch printers,⁴ and the Rotterdam and Wolfenbüttel exemplars are also mentioned in the USTC catalogue.⁵ One of the prints mentioned in the latter (preserved in Leuven’s Katolieke Universiteit), however, is in fact a collection of photographs from the British Library’s copy; these photographs were ordered by Archibald Corble.⁶ The treatises in Paris, London, and Oxford were also the subject of an article by Willy Braekman, although this article suffered from problems with authorial identification.⁷ Indeed, although La Noble Science has been identified as a translation of Andre Paurnfeindt’s Ergrundung since at least 1923 – when it was mentioned in the aforementioned Nijhoff-Kronenberg catalogue – Willy Braekman has argued, based on a comparison of image and text, that La Noble Science is instead a translation of Christian Egenolff’s Der allten Fechtergründtliche Kunst. Braekman’s argument is somewhat problematic: he states that he did not locate or see a print of the Ergrundung, and that he was thus unable to analyse the pictorial and organisational resemblances between Vorsterman’s and Paurnfeindt’s prints. Even if the xylographies in the Antwerp print were newly carved, they are undoubtedly similar to those of the 1516 Ergrundung. Furthermore, the organisation of the text in La Noble Science and the Ergrundung is remarkably similar, contrary to the missing parts and textual additions in Egenolff’s prints.

One of the prints, preserved in Paris, is a little booklet with a paginal dimension of 20 x 14.8 cm. As with the other prints, it is composed of nine quires in-quarto, each one made of four folia. La Noble Science claims to teach the reader how to fight (jouer) with two- handed swords, braquemares, courtes espees de suysses, la demy lance, hallebardes, guysarmes, daggers, and shields. The treatise also broadens the range of taught weapons, with the formulas et aultres semblables or et aultres (‘and other similar’ and ‘and other’) used in sections on the two-handed sword, single-handed swords and staff weapons.

Figure 1
Iconography associated with the first techniques, La Noble Science des Joueursd’Espée, fol. 1v, (Rotschild 291, Bibliothèque Nationale de France).

Figure 2
Prologue and first techniques La Noble Science des Joueurs d’Espée fol 2r Rotschild 291 Bibliothèque Nationale de France

II.1 Construction and comparison of the prints

To understand Willem Vorsterman’s influence in creating his own edition of the print, we need to establish the exact construction of the treatise and observe the differences between La Noble Science and the Ergrundung. Indeed, the main differences are the omission of Liechtenauer’s verses, the twelve lessons for the novice fencer, the introduction, and the conclusion.⁸La Noble Science also has a divergent iconographical organisation and several plates are either exchanged or omitted. Paurnfeindt introduces his treatise with a short biographical paragraph, followed by an indication as to what kind of audience this treatise is aimed at; then come the twelve lessons – short pieces of advice to the novice fencer. Each subsequent section (two-handed sword, shortened sword⁹, messer, staff, dagger, and shield) begins with a short paragraph, except for shortened sword, which has a longer introduction. In his conclusion Paurnfeindt dedicates his treatise to his students. On the other hand, La Noble Science begins with a brief section on the two-handed sword, with only a paragraph for introduction.¹⁰ Even if the didactic goal is still announced (apprendre a iouer), any form of contextualisation or auctorial reference is missing. The translator did, however, keep the original name of each weapon.

In order to understand the differences in the physical construction between La Noble Science and the Ergrundung I have established a series of comparison tables which indicate the beginnings of each section and use the iconography notation system established by Bauer.¹¹ Andre Pauerfeindt’s treatise includes thirty-four woodcuts, of which twenty-one are composed of two half woodcuts (creating a full picture when assembled). Bauer’s notation is based on the first appearance of a half or full woodcut in the print and its position on the page (for example “1lx1r” for 1 left . 1 right). As the same system was used in Vorsterman’s prints, I use Bauer’s method to help in the comparison between Vorsterman’s work and Paurnfeindt’s treatise. To develop my arguments, I used a numeration system for the folia based on the quires’ signature marks (A, B, C, etc.) and the folio number in each quire (for example A1 = first folio in the quire). Each row of the table is dedicated to a folio, the text generally being on the folio’s recto and the images on its verso (see for example tables 4.1 and 4.2); each page of text is linked with the preceding folio’s image (for example, iconography 1lx1r on A1 verso is connected to A2 recto Icy commenche).

The only difference in the manuscript’s assembly observed between Vorsterman’s prints lies between the one conserved in the British Library and all of the others. Indeed, the British Library version presents a major inversion between folia B1 and B4 (Table 1), which can be explained by a binding error in the bifolio. The signature mark and the inversion between text and iconography are the signs of this error. Apart from this binding error, all versions are similar.

Several major structural errors appear when comparing Vorsterman’s and Paurnfeindt’s prints. These errors are to be found in the exchange of image and text in the Antwerpese prints’ construction. Concerning the plate exchanges, they appear for the major part in the two-handed sword section, except for one appearing – along with the image omissions- in the messer part (Tables 4.1 and 4.2). For example, folia A4 to B3 present an iconographical and textual exchange, without breaking the text-image connection (Table 2, and with textual details in Table 5). In quire C, only the text has been inverted, causing mismatches with the image (Table 3). The exchanges in the two-handed sword part are enigmatic, as they happen every time with an interval of one bifolio between the exchanged plates (for an example see Table 2). One might argue that this is a binding error, but more than likely it is not as the error is systematic in all of the analysed prints of La Noble Science.

The error and omissions in the plates between folia G2 and G4 are also intriguing, but seem to be something other than copying or construction errors made by the translator or the printer. Text and image in the Ergrundung effectively show a man with a messer fencing against a man with a two-handed sword (H1, Wan dir ainer begegendt mit ainem schwert […]). La Noble Science translates the text correctly (G2, Si aulcunvous rencontre avec une espee a deux mains) while showing two men with a messer in the iconography. Thus, the image has been “revised” to fit with the other images displaying fighters with messern. The text is also correctly translated (if we do not count the titles) in the following folia, but two images are missing. This might be explained by the regularity of the print’s construction, as adding two plates would have broken the scheme of nine quires in quarto. To avoid the problem of adding two new folia, Vorsterman may have preferred to strip the two images from his version.

Differences between the two editions are not only visible in the prints’ constructions, but also in the translations of the titles: for example, the title Schleudern (B1) becomes Tranier du long coup (A4, see Table 2). The technical vocabulary has also been altered, as eisrenporten becomes serrure de fer. Some technical terms are translated in more general terms: for example, sprechfenster in the Ergrundung becomes la croix (a general term for the sword’s hilts) in La Noble Science. The translation sprechfenster . croix occurs four times, but croix is also used on one occasion to translate the guard named phflug. This shows a simplification of a technical term into a more common one, probably for comprehension purposes.

II.2 Printing and Martial Contexts of La Noble Science des Joueurs d’Espée

II.2.1 Printing Context

How expensive is the printing process involved in the construction of La Noble Science? Printing was a costly process and only a few cities were big enough to concentrate the resources demanded by such an industry.¹² In the case of Antwerp, it had the necessary financial resources and sufficient market opportunities for exportation, and could also produce woodcuts at relatively low cost.¹³ Between 1495 and 1520, the city was also a major transit place for goods from Central Europe and Southern Germany.¹⁴ Antwerp was, furthermore, renowned for the global reach of its print shops from 1520 onward. It was not uncommon for those in other countries to order prints from Antwerp for one’s local market.¹⁵

Export was necessary for a printer to make his press flourish; the local literary elite was not big enough to absorb all of the local book production. To access new markets the printers had to use vernacular language to let anyone with enough money buy and read a book in a more standardised language.¹⁶ This evolution of written language is one of the fundamental elements that the printing press brought into the book culture after 1480. Making the language more comprehensible was a necessity, as regionalism could hinder the understanding of the text. The text was then organised into short paragraphs and less compact writing, and the images supported the comprehension of the content, for those who did not have a perfect skill level of reading. In this way, the book slowly became a product of “mass consumption”.¹⁷ In term of page organisation and language, La Noble Science is in accordance with its time. The typography is typical of the one developed by Henri de Lettersnider, which is close to the gothic scripta and met with great success in sixteenth-century Antwerp.¹⁸

Willem Vorsterman’s career is a prime example of Antwerp’s dynamism. He was – between 1505 and 1543 – one of the city’s most prolific printers, and was involved with more than 400 editions. Vorsterman is also known for using woodcuts in his books, for example in Bibles that were illustrated by Jan Swart and Lucas van Leyden, printed in 1528 and 1529 respectively.¹⁹Vorsterman was also known, as stated by Myra J. Heerspink Scholz, for his “habit of choosing best-selling titles of other printers for pirate editions of his own”²⁰; one example is Vosterman’s edition of Van heer frederick van Jenuen in Lombaerdien (Of Sir Frederick of Genua in Lombardy, printed in 1531), a translation of a comical story previously written in German and Italian which had proved very popular in Northern Europe. Scholz also mentions Vorsterman’s strategy to accentuate the story’s comical aspect on the print’s cover, and catch the customer’s eye, by displaying a common woman in full armour.²¹

La Noble Science has been described by Maurice Sabbe as a technical book on par with another of Vosterman’s prints: the Tractat de la noble art de l’eguille (Treatise of the noble art of sewing)²², which was also translated for an English-speaking audience.²³ This could be an indication that Vorsterman considered printing a fight book to follow the same process as producing another work of technical literature; he was also used to printing books that describe technical gestures, such as his 1532 treatise on surgery.²⁴

The identity of the translator of La Noble Science is unknown. Their identity could be an important factor regarding the relationship between the treatise and an actual martial practice; the translator, for example, could have been a fencing guild member who had translated the text for the use of his comrades and gave it to Willem Vorsterman for printing. Another hypothesis is that the treatise was translated by a professional translator, hired by Vorsterman. These hypotheses, however, are hard to prove, as anonymous translations were not uncommon during this period. It was also a collective enterprise and most translators produced only one work in their lives. As for the social condition of translators, it was not rare for young scholars to try and gain some money by translating texts alongside their main occupation.²⁵

One should also consider the possibility that La Noble Science was a product for exportation. Even if there is no known sponsor for La Noble Science, it is still possible to link the exemplar preserved in Wolfenbüttel to a possible owner: Hans Jakob Reyhing, a burger from Augsburg who wrote a note on the cover page on 15 August 1547 as well as his name at the beginning and the end of the treatise.²⁶ Reyhing also indicates his place of domicile, Lille. This could be an indication of the treatise’s circulation in the north of the French-speaking area. This would not be a surprise, as Antwerp was an important centre of printing and trade. Willem Vorsterman is also known for printing works in Dutch, French, Latin, English, Spanish, and Danish, all of which could be exported (for example, Danish bibles for Christian Pedersen in Lund).27 Another example is present in the aforementioned book about needlework, which was printed both in Dutch and English. During the first decades of the sixteenth century, Antwerp also printed books for exportation, as both booksellers and publishers (especially from the Netherlands) sent their works to the city for printing.²⁸

II.2.2 Martial Context

The question of a specific martial tradition in the Low Countries during the sixteenth century has been discussed by Bert Gevaert and Reinier van Noort, albeit without a definitive conclusion about the use of fight books in the common practice of the fighting guilds.²⁹ While archers’ guilds looked to Saint Sebastian and Saint George as their patron, fencers’ guilds in the Low Countries were dedicated to Saint Michael.

The Antwerp Guild of Saint Michael was founded in 1488. The case of the Bruges’ guild is interesting, as it has already been thoroughly studied and is described in city records as a school (schole) practicing the two-handed sword; the case of Tournai, also cited by Gevaert and van Noort, mentions a group of joueurs de l’espée à deux mains who wanted to participate in a fencing event in Bruges in July 1430. The importance of fencing guilds in conflicts, however, decreased at the end of the fifteenth century, as their members were not as efficient as professional mercenaries; their military involvement was, furthermore, potentially dangerous for the prince, as the burghers were more inclined to ask for more privileges in exchange for their military service. Their role became merely ‘ornamental’, and the highlight of the guilds’ activities became the internal tournaments.³⁰

Could La Noble Science be linked to a guild’s activities? The term joueurs de l’espée à deux mains can, without a doubt, be connected to the title of the treatise − La Noble Science des Joueurs d’Espée – and its purpose – aprendre a jouer de l’espée a deux mains. But because of the lack of a dedication to a person or a group, we can suppose that the treatise was more aimed at the general book market; the names used by the treatise for the different weapons it prescribes to teach could be common terms for the time. It is not impossible, however, that fencers bought the treatise. The translation of Paurnfeindt’s work appears as if it was a good commercial opportunity to make a product available to a large audience that included fencers and fencing guilds.

Gevaert and van Noort claim that the production of La Noble Science is a sign of the Liechtenauer tradition’s presence in the Low Countries.³¹ The absence of Liechtenauer’s verses and the modification of the original material, however, make it difficult to identify a real influence. In addition to this, it is important to note that the function of the treatise as a practical manual for actual training is not attested.

III CONCLUSION

As a fight book, La Noble Science is the product of a heavy editing process with numerous modifications in the placement of plates and text. These processes created a new object -a commercial product – closer in its nature to other prints or technical treatises produced for the print market. The favourable printing context in the city of Antwerp and the presence of fencing guilds in the region may have created good conditions for the diffusion of a fight book, regardless of its quality. The fact that one of the prints reached the city of Lille further shows that some of the exemplars may have been distributed in northern France, although we do not know how this may have occurred. La Noble Science’s real commercial success is still unknown, but it is possible that it had a similar level of success as Egenolff’s version of Paurnfeindt’s work, which itself saw several editions and was popular in the city of Frankfurt. More research on the place of fight books in sixteenth-century print markets could create new insights into the commercial successes of these products and on the spread of the specific kind of technical knowledge that is fencing.

IV:1 Primary sources

Bauer, Matthias Johannes, Paurnfeindts Fechtbuch aus dem Jahr 1516, [s. l.]: Verband für Moderne Schwerkunst in Bayern, 2014

Willem Vorsterman, La Noble Science des Ioueurs Despee, 1538 (London, British Library, C.97.b.32; Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Douce E 247; Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Rothschild 291; Rotterdam, Maritiem Museum, WAE 2 C 24; Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, HN-236)

IV.2 Secondary sources

Anglo, Sydney, The Martial Arts of Renaissance Europe (New Haven, London: Yale University Press, 2000)

Bauer, Matthias Johannes, ‘Economising Early Prints on Fight Books by Multiple Using Movable Half Page Woodcuts. Insights into the layout work on the illustrations of Andre Paurnfeindt’s Fight Book of 1516 published by Hieronymus Vietor’, Acta Periodica Duellatorum, 4/2 (2016): 99-112

Blendinger, Friedrich, ‘Meuting’, in Neue Deutsche Biographie 17, 1994, pp. 275-77, online at https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd12896894X.html, last consulted on 28.03.2019.

Braekman, Willy L., ‘Hetoudstevechtboeckuit de Nederlanden: La Noble Science des ioueurs despee (1538)’, in E Codicibus Impressique. Opstellen over het boek in de Lage Landen voor Elly Cockx-Indestege, vol. 2 (Leuven: Peeters, 2004), pp. 49-65

Gevaert, Bert, van Noort, Reinier, ‘Evolution of Martial Tradition in the Low Countries: Fencing Guilds and Treatises’, in Late Medieval and Early Modern Fight Books. Transmission and Tradition of Martial Arts in Europe (14th-17th Centuries) (Leiden: Brill, 2016), pp. 376-409

Heerspink Scholz, Myra J., A Merchant’s Wife on Knight’s Adventure. Permutations of a Medival Tale in German, Dutch, and English Chapbooks around 1500 (New York: Peter Lang, 1999)

Kammerer, Elsa, Müller, Jan-Dirk, ‘Le choix du vernaculaire: de la nécessité commerciale à l’ambition programmatique’, in Imprimeurs et libraires de la Renaissance. Le travail de la langue. Sprachpolitik der Drucker, Verlegerund Buchhändler der Renaissance, ed. by Elsa kammerer and Jan-Dirk müller (Genève: Droz, 2015), pp. 107-23

Müller, Jan-Dirk, ‘Bild – Vers –Prosakommentar am Beispiel von Fechtbüchern. Probleme der Verschriftlichung einer schriftlosen Praxis’, in Pragmatische Schriftlichkeit im Mittelalter. Erscheinungsformen und Entwicklungsstufen, ed. by Hagen Keller, Klaus Grubmüller and Nikolaus Staubach (München: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 1992), pp. 251- 282.

Nijhoff, Wouter, Kronenberg, M. E., NederlandseBibliographie van 1500 tot 1540 (’s- Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1923)

Pettegree, Andrew, Walsby, Malcolm, ‘Introduction’, in Netherlandish Books. Books Published in the Low Countries and Dutch Books Printed Abroad before 1601 (Leiden: Brill, 2011), pp. vii-xxiv

Rouzet, Anne, ‘Vorsterman’, in Dictionnaire des imprimeurs, libraires et éditeurs des XVe et XVIe siècles dans les limites de la Belgique actuelle (Nieuwkoop: B. de Graaf, 1975), pp. 239-240

Sabbe, Maurice, ‘La typographie anversoise au XVIe siècle’, in Histoire du livre et de l’imprimerie en Belgique. Des origines à nos jours, vol. 3 (Bruxelles: Musée du Livre, 1924- 1925), pp. 9-63

Uetani, Toshinori, ‘La naissance d’un métier: traducteur. Jalons chronologiques’, in Gens du livre & gens des lettres à la Renaissance, ed. by Christine Bénévent, Isabelle Diu and Chiara Lastraioli (Turnhout: Brepols, 2014), pp. 34-61

Vervliet, Hendrik D. L. (ed.), ‘Het Nieuw Testament. Antwerpen, Willem Vorsterman, 20 sept. 1529’, Post-Incunabula and their publishers in the Low Countries (den Haag: Nijhoff, 1978), p. 32

Voet, Leon, ‘Antwerp, the Metropolis and its History’, in Antwerp. Story of a Metropolis. 16th-17th century (Gent: Martial &Snoeck, 1993), pp. 13-31

Notes