A New Acquisition !

[John_Clements]

We are excited to present here an image from a previously unknown anonymous 16th century German Fechtbuch. Interestingly, it includes longsword with dagger, something not seem before in the manuals. We will know more about it in time, but so far it seems to have Italian influences. The work will be featured on the site soon.

JC

[TimSheetz]

JOhn,

Most excellent! Great Job! Great to see the weapon systems documented historically!

Tim Sheetz

[Bart Walczak]

Interersting...

Although as far as the costumes go, I'd say it's the middle to late 1500s.

[Guest]

Do the other plates show the reamaing part of the grip of the long sword, that should protrude from the little finger side, not shown in this plate? Judging from this plate it does not look like they're handling long swords, Germans generally like to draw very long grips.
Regards
Carlo

[Guest]

<img src="/forum/images/icons/grin.gif" alt="" /> Excellent! Will this manual also be featured in the member's area? Can we make this available at the International Event? Can't wait to study it. Thanks for the hard work John.

Cheers,

[Randall Pleasant]

John

Great work! How much text is in this new manual? Does it follow the Liechtenauer tradition?

[John_Clements]

We know very little so far, but it does include some interesting diagrams on footwork and some sort of numbered lessons.
It very likely now appears to be a FOURTH work by Joachim Meyer ---yes, that's right, a fourth work.

Interestingly, it looks like he's using the dagger's flat to block with.

Some of this will be on the public site, other portions in the member area with new stuff. These costs us several hundred dollars to acquire. We are just hemoraging manuals right now and working at distributing the work on them. More to come.

JC

[Guest]

Great going John! Can't wait to see what you've dug up. But I agree with Carlo. I'm not convinced that those are intended to be longswords. They look like a wooden waster version of the early German rapier to me.

Keith

[Tony_Indurante]

While the picture doesn't look much like a long sword to me either, it may be from a section of the manual titled "fighting with longsword and dagger" or something like that. We can't base to much off the pictures alone.

[Shane Smith]

They look like plain "swords" to me(based on this ONE picture).There is no apparent hilt projecting beyond the grasping hand to suggest they are "Longswords". How have you determined them to truly be longswords? Thanks <img src="/forum/images/icons/smile.gif" alt="" />

[Stuart McDermid]

Hi all,

I am not sure that these are longswords either. Why would one attempt a seconde (might be prima) thrust with a longsword held in one hand?

This picture is very interesting. The guy on the left is parrying in a hanging fashion with his dagger at a height where most masters would recommend a point up parry.

The swords (assuming they are in proportion) look to be of a good length for a longsword as by my calculation the quillions would be at about navel level. This of course proves little as a rapier is often measured in the same way.In any case, these ARE weapons capable of a single time defence.

Correct me if I am wrong but I thought that all the German masters we know about taught a "rapier" style for the Spada da Filo rather than the Spada di Striscia didn't they? If this is a true rapier manual, then it is the first German one that we have.
Please keep us posted John,
Cheers,
Stu.

[Mike Cartier]

What about the Rapier sections of the Meyer fechtbuch?
Tops on my list of things i want to see translated.

[John_Clements]

Hmmm...you guys make good sense, maybe they are not longswords. This one is clearer. We'll know soon enough.

[Tony_Indurante]

With the bigger picture you posted you can not only clearly see that the parry is done with the flat of the dagger but that he is bracing the flat with his thumb, much like the hengen.