Michael Chidester
@mchidester.bsky.social
Editor-in-Chief of Wiktenauer, owner of HEMA Bookshelf, amateur codicologist, manuscript nerd, and meme enjoyer.
Are you ready to buy the biggest book you've ever seen?
This project has 2 goals:
1. To publish Thibault’s illustrations in as close to their original size as possible — to do this, we need 𝟏𝟎𝟎 𝙥𝙧𝙚-𝙤𝙧𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨.
2. To fund the digitization of complete, painted illustrations to release on Wiktenauer.
This project has 2 goals:
1. To publish Thibault’s illustrations in as close to their original size as possible — to do this, we need 𝟏𝟎𝟎 𝙥𝙧𝙚-𝙤𝙧𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨.
2. To fund the digitization of complete, painted illustrations to release on Wiktenauer.
The Thibault Project — HEMA Bookshelf
This project has two goals! 1) To publish Girard Thibault’s spectacular illustrations in as close to their original size as possible — to do this, we need at least 𝟏𝟎𝟎 𝐩𝐫𝐞-𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬. 2) To fund the purch...
www.hemabookshelf.com
November 18, 2025 at 5:35 AM
Are you ready to buy the biggest book you've ever seen?
This project has 2 goals:
1. To publish Thibault’s illustrations in as close to their original size as possible — to do this, we need 𝟏𝟎𝟎 𝙥𝙧𝙚-𝙤𝙧𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨.
2. To fund the digitization of complete, painted illustrations to release on Wiktenauer.
This project has 2 goals:
1. To publish Thibault’s illustrations in as close to their original size as possible — to do this, we need 𝟏𝟎𝟎 𝙥𝙧𝙚-𝙤𝙧𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨.
2. To fund the digitization of complete, painted illustrations to release on Wiktenauer.
So much Thibault...
November 8, 2025 at 4:14 AM
So much Thibault...
One original 1620s painted Thibault print has arrived, and nine more are on the way.
November 3, 2025 at 10:22 PM
One original 1620s painted Thibault print has arrived, and nine more are on the way.
Thibault is large
October 26, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Thibault is large
Preparing for a new project
October 26, 2025 at 12:40 AM
Preparing for a new project
The last post I made here was the rhyming translation, so here's a revised version! This is the version I added to the wiki, including 225 footnotes and a new transcription I did from the Rome ("Danzig") manuscript. If the footnotes are too distracting, you can go to page 29 for a clean copy. Enjoy!
wiktenauer.com
October 9, 2025 at 2:27 AM
The last post I made here was the rhyming translation, so here's a revised version! This is the version I added to the wiki, including 225 footnotes and a new transcription I did from the Rome ("Danzig") manuscript. If the footnotes are too distracting, you can go to page 29 for a clean copy. Enjoy!
I keep forgetting this platform exists. I was never really a Twitter-user, and apparently I'm not good at not-Twitter either.
October 7, 2025 at 4:26 PM
I keep forgetting this platform exists. I was never really a Twitter-user, and apparently I'm not good at not-Twitter either.
I spent April-June working on an English translation of Liechtenauer's Zettel written in verse like the original. You can read the results on Wiktenauer, along with a mountain of footnotes explaining choices:
wiktenauer.com/wiki/Johanne...
(My introduction to the project is in the discussion tab.)
wiktenauer.com/wiki/Johanne...
(My introduction to the project is in the discussion tab.)
July 18, 2025 at 3:32 PM
I spent April-June working on an English translation of Liechtenauer's Zettel written in verse like the original. You can read the results on Wiktenauer, along with a mountain of footnotes explaining choices:
wiktenauer.com/wiki/Johanne...
(My introduction to the project is in the discussion tab.)
wiktenauer.com/wiki/Johanne...
(My introduction to the project is in the discussion tab.)
More revisions to the Lignitzer article: new translations by Christian Trosclair and Per Magnus Haaland, more dagger thanks to Bart Walczak and Bartosz Starko, a timeline of contemporary research, and this provisional stemma. Enjoy!
wiktenauer.com/wiki/Andre_L...
wiktenauer.com/wiki/Andre_L...
April 29, 2025 at 3:18 PM
More revisions to the Lignitzer article: new translations by Christian Trosclair and Per Magnus Haaland, more dagger thanks to Bart Walczak and Bartosz Starko, a timeline of contemporary research, and this provisional stemma. Enjoy!
wiktenauer.com/wiki/Andre_L...
wiktenauer.com/wiki/Andre_L...
Today in updates no one asked for: Andre Lignitzer!
wiktenauer.com/wiki/Andre_L...
This page has received several new transcriptions and also the modular column upgrade for easier comparison between manuscripts.
Pictured: Short sword fencing from the Cluny, which has nothing to do with Lignitzer.
wiktenauer.com/wiki/Andre_L...
This page has received several new transcriptions and also the modular column upgrade for easier comparison between manuscripts.
Pictured: Short sword fencing from the Cluny, which has nothing to do with Lignitzer.
April 21, 2025 at 8:23 PM
Today in updates no one asked for: Andre Lignitzer!
wiktenauer.com/wiki/Andre_L...
This page has received several new transcriptions and also the modular column upgrade for easier comparison between manuscripts.
Pictured: Short sword fencing from the Cluny, which has nothing to do with Lignitzer.
wiktenauer.com/wiki/Andre_L...
This page has received several new transcriptions and also the modular column upgrade for easier comparison between manuscripts.
Pictured: Short sword fencing from the Cluny, which has nothing to do with Lignitzer.
It's time! Announcing our next facsimile project: Philippo di Vadi! In addition to the "standard" facsimile, you can choose the "metallic ink" add-on to get a version that restores the gold and silver illumination of the manuscript (which has been partly lost to the ravages of time).
Medieval manuscript facsimile project: Philippo di Vadi
We're making replicas of "De Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi", an illuminated manuscript by a fencing master named Philippo di Vadi.
kck.st
April 15, 2025 at 6:44 PM
It's time! Announcing our next facsimile project: Philippo di Vadi! In addition to the "standard" facsimile, you can choose the "metallic ink" add-on to get a version that restores the gold and silver illumination of the manuscript (which has been partly lost to the ravages of time).
While I know people always judge books by their covers, I didn't consider that in-person, when they can't see a plaintext title, people would glance at the cover, see a word they don't recognize, and move on. So I'm working on an alternative for in-person sales to leverage the name Ringeck properly.
March 22, 2025 at 3:49 PM
While I know people always judge books by their covers, I didn't consider that in-person, when they can't see a plaintext title, people would glance at the cover, see a word they don't recognize, and move on. So I'm working on an alternative for in-person sales to leverage the name Ringeck properly.
Now on Wiktenauer: BnF ms. Arabe 2824 is an Egyptian fencing treatise written in 1470 in Arabic, containing teachings of the Mamluks, the elite--but indentured or enslaved--warrior class of many Islamic nations in the medieval and modern periods. It was written by Pseudo-Ibn Akḥī Ḥizām.
March 11, 2025 at 2:34 AM
Now on Wiktenauer: BnF ms. Arabe 2824 is an Egyptian fencing treatise written in 1470 in Arabic, containing teachings of the Mamluks, the elite--but indentured or enslaved--warrior class of many Islamic nations in the medieval and modern periods. It was written by Pseudo-Ibn Akḥī Ḥizām.
Prepping for the next facsimile campaign. I guess now we find out the extent to which paper prices have gone insane.
What's coming up next? Here's a *tiny* hint...
What's coming up next? Here's a *tiny* hint...
March 6, 2025 at 11:10 PM
Prepping for the next facsimile campaign. I guess now we find out the extent to which paper prices have gone insane.
What's coming up next? Here's a *tiny* hint...
What's coming up next? Here's a *tiny* hint...
One of the things I researched a bit but didn't end up including in the introductory chapters to my new book *Pieces of Ringeck* was a duel between Heinrich von Ramstein and Juan de Merlo in 1428.
This is a free public post on Patreon, so please share with all your friends!
This is a free public post on Patreon, so please share with all your friends!
A duel in Basel in 1428 (free public post) | Michael Chidester
Get more from Michael Chidester on Patreon
www.patreon.com
March 4, 2025 at 5:21 AM
One of the things I researched a bit but didn't end up including in the introductory chapters to my new book *Pieces of Ringeck* was a duel between Heinrich von Ramstein and Juan de Merlo in 1428.
This is a free public post on Patreon, so please share with all your friends!
This is a free public post on Patreon, so please share with all your friends!
Not to distract from *gestures vaguely all around*, but at some point we, the people who trust science and research, probably need to deal with how utterly broken the system of peer review and publication has become. "The science" seems to become less trustable year by year.
As a nonsense phrase of shady provenance makes the rounds, Elsevier defends its use
The origin of the phrase? The phrase was so strange it would have stood out even to a non-scientist. Yet “vegetative electron microscopy” had already made it past reviewers and editors at several j…
retractionwatch.com
February 21, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Not to distract from *gestures vaguely all around*, but at some point we, the people who trust science and research, probably need to deal with how utterly broken the system of peer review and publication has become. "The science" seems to become less trustable year by year.
A while ago, I created this visualization page to show the relative sizes of various fencing manuscripts.
wiktenauer.com/wiki/Wiktena...
I was tinkering with this page recently, and to make it more useful, I also created a few subsections that only cover related manuscripts for easier comparison.
wiktenauer.com/wiki/Wiktena...
I was tinkering with this page recently, and to make it more useful, I also created a few subsections that only cover related manuscripts for easier comparison.
February 17, 2025 at 4:07 PM
A while ago, I created this visualization page to show the relative sizes of various fencing manuscripts.
wiktenauer.com/wiki/Wiktena...
I was tinkering with this page recently, and to make it more useful, I also created a few subsections that only cover related manuscripts for easier comparison.
wiktenauer.com/wiki/Wiktena...
I was tinkering with this page recently, and to make it more useful, I also created a few subsections that only cover related manuscripts for easier comparison.
Still not sure the extent to which I'll be using this thing, but FYI, if I can't tell who you are then I probably won't be following you back. I'm generally disinclined to talk to people if I don't know who they are.
February 2, 2025 at 8:36 PM
Still not sure the extent to which I'll be using this thing, but FYI, if I can't tell who you are then I probably won't be following you back. I'm generally disinclined to talk to people if I don't know who they are.
In the 3rd position on c. 12a of the Novati Facsimile and the lower register of f. 37r of the Paris manuscript--right before the plays of the final master of dagger, there's an interesting play.
January 28, 2025 at 4:19 PM
In the 3rd position on c. 12a of the Novati Facsimile and the lower register of f. 37r of the Paris manuscript--right before the plays of the final master of dagger, there's an interesting play.
Together at last.
January 25, 2025 at 5:47 PM
Together at last.
Christmas came late this year, but the first copies of _Pieces of Ringeck_ are here!
January 10, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Christmas came late this year, but the first copies of _Pieces of Ringeck_ are here!