So much Thibault...

One original 1620s painted Thibault print has arrived, and nine more are on the way.

Thibault is large

Preparing for a new project

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.)

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...

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.

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.

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...

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.

So where does this fit into the Getty manuscript's structure of nine masters? Is it a play of the 7th master, but now defending a rising thrust instead of descending? Is it a play of the 8th master, but now crossed rather than uncrossed?

Paris text (character count limit means no translation, but it was translated from something like that Italian text):

Praevalet iste motus cruce dagam nempe tenentj.
Supra nanque potuit operarj & subter in armis.
Vadit ad extremam nexuram hic ludus aperte
Inferior. Mediana iacet sub forte supermo.

In arme aquesto e un fortissimo incrosar
Che desopra e desota se'po ligar
Aquesto va ala ligadura sotana
E quello de'sopra va ala meçana

In armor, this is a very strong crossing
Because it can bind from above and below:
This goes to the low bind,
And the one from above goes to the middle.

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.

Christmas came late this year, but the first copies of _Pieces of Ringeck_ are here!