| Albrecht Duerer's Fechtbuch
Art - c. 1520
In its continuing quest to promote the authentic skills of legitimate Medieval martial
arts, ARMA is pleased to present material from the rare Fecthbuch of famed Renaissance
artist Albrecht Düerer. Düerer's drawings present some of the clearest and most precise
representations of Medieval long-sword use. Düerer was not a Fechtmeister and his book
was never completed or published, but he evidently was a student and his sketches are
among the best on the subject. As both a practicing Marxbrueder and a talented
artist with a tremendous sense for detail, Düerer's illustrations surely depict some of
the most realsitic examples of period fighting techniques available. His work
contains only 13 illustrations on Langenschwert, approximately 50 on the
falchion-like Messerfechten, 30 or so on dagger and more than 100 on unarmed
combat.
Some reasonable observations can be made from his artwork that aid the modern
practitioner. Rather than being simply depictions of hypothetical combat results it is
clearly evident the participants are practicing safely together and training in techniques
(presumably with blunts). The body positions are clearer than those in any other period
source and convey a great sense of balance and inertia. Note the placement and distance of
feet in the stances, and the wide range between the combatants. The actions are smooth and
graceful and the movements clean. They also show energy and reflect speed. What is most
useful from his many clear and detailed poses is how it can clearly be seen that defensive
actions and counters are made as deflecting movements and never edge-on-edge blocks (not
to be confused with pressing betas or closing starke-to-starke). Many Halb-Schwert
techniques and Schwertnemen are shown as well as the standard Drey Wünder of the
German schools. Many of the techniques are standard familiar ones from other Fecthbucher,
but most interesting are the techniques of combination of Messer and dagger. More
material including translated text of the sword techniques will soon be added in the
future.
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