English translation of one of the most significant medieval texts on
fighting with swords.
Completed in 1482, Johannes Lecküchner's Art of Combat with the "Langes
Messer" (Messerfechtkunst) is among the most important documents on the
combat arts of the Middle Ages. The Messer was a single-edged,
one-handed utility sword peculiar to central Europe, but Lecküchner's
techniques apply to cut-and-thrust swords in general: not only is this
treatise the single most substantial work on the use of one-handed
swords to survive from this period, but it is the most detailed
explanation of the two-handed sword techniques of the German
"Liechtenauer" school dating back to the 1300s. Lecküchner's lavish
manuscript consists of over four hundred illustrations with explanatory
text, in which the author, a parish priest, rings the changes on
bladework, deceits, and grappling, with techniques ranging from
life-or-death escapes from an armed assailant to slapstick moves
designed to please the crowd in public fencing matches.
This translation, complete with all illustrations from the manuscript,
makes the treatise accessible for the first time since the author's
untimely death less than a year after its completion left his major work
to be lost for generations. An extensive introduction, notes, and
glossary analyze and contextualize the work and clarify its technical
content.
JEFFREY L. FORGENG is curator of Arms and Armor and Medieval Art at the
Worcester Art Museum, and teaches as Adjunct Professor of History at
Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
