Joachim Meyer — Fechtbuch 1561 EN
Nine years before Joachim Meyer published his famous printed treatise, he wrote this book by hand. It remained a manuscript and still rests in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum in Munich. Our edition opens it up in full and in its original shape: one folio on every double page — the facsimile on the left, the diplomatic transcription and English translation on the right. 487 pages, eight weapons, from the sword to combat in armour.
The manuscript that comes before the printed Meyer
Joachim Meyer is known chiefly for his printed book of 1570. The Munich manuscript was written nine years earlier and is a different thing: shorter, tighter, unencumbered by a publisher. In it Meyer sets down his teaching as he taught it at the time — and in several places he says openly what never reached print. He complains that no one has ever expounded the old verses. He records what is permitted at the fencing schools and what is not. He notes how the fighting of his own day differs from what came before.
What the book contains
The whole manuscript, folios 1r to 112v, in eight sections: the sword, the dusack, the rapier, the dagger and wrestling, the staff, the halberd, the long spear and combat in armour. Nothing is missing and nothing is abridged.
How the edition works
Each double page shows a single folio. The facsimile is on the left; on the right stands the diplomatic transcription of the German text with the English translation beneath it. The reader always has the original and its reading side by side, and can check at any moment what the manuscript actually says.
The reproductions come from the digitisation of the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum and are used by its permission. The diplomatic transcription was made by Olivier Dupuis and is used by his kind leave.
Apparatus
A glossary of 131 fencing terms with their English equivalents, arranged by section — cuts, guards and positions, handwork, thrusts, weapons and armour.
The section Notable Passages gathers those places where Meyer speaks of his craft, of the fencing school, of his own time, and of the tradition he inherits. Each with the original wording, a translation and a commentary.
Appendix: full openings
In the staff section the drawing runs across the gutter — the staves of the two fencers cross only on the facing leaf. Since the layout gives every folio its own page, that composition would be lost. Ten photographs of the complete openings, taken by the museum in addition to the single leaves, are therefore included as a separate appendix.
Technical details
487 pages · 250 × 176 mm · facsimiles at 300 dpi · electronic book, PDF · ISBN 978-80-88578-09-3
