Postby Brian Hunt » Sat Feb 19, 2005 1:48 pm
Hi Justin,
There is no evidence that Mair was a Master. He was definetly a fencing enthusiast, and a collector of manuals. He once owned the codex wallerstein, and the tower manuscript, plus many others. He had a burning desire to create the greatest fight manual of all, as a result he ended up being hanged for stealing money from the city of Ausburg, to fuel his voracious appetites (he was apparently also well known for the great parties that he threw, plus he had a lavious lifestyle), at the age of 62 in 1579. He hired a proffessional artist, Jorg Breu the younger (whose father the Elder was a well known artist), to do the art work in his manuscripts. He also consulted with other fencers, and I assume some masters in the creation of his manuscripts. There is a second part of his Vienna manuscript that is supposed to have wrestling and armoured combat in it. I am trying to get my hands on a copy of all the parts of all three of his manucscripts. They are amazingly clear in their instructions, right down to the foot work. This is one of the only manuals that says things like this is how to do a zornhau, if he does a zornhau to you, then do this, if he does this to you, then you do this, etc.
hope this helps.
Brian Hunt
GFS.
