Musing on Mair

[jester]

Paulus Hector Mair, that is. I love the guy. A collector of fectbucher, he financed his hobby and his extravagant life style by embezzling public funds. For which crime he was executed. The fightbook he commissioned, using purloined money, is beautifully illustrated and, more importantly, has lots and lots of text. Yay. But that text is somewhat problematic. Consider this illustration (the top pair) from the Walpurgis Manuscript (Tower Armouries Manuscript I.33).

http://collections.royalarmouries.org/i ... =2&t=4&x=9

Then consider this illustration from Mair.

http://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/000 ... &seite=143

Similar? Yes? The problem, for me, is the I.33 illustration is part of a sequence of five images. You can see the sequence here (it's the first five images at the top of the document).

Mair's lovely text encapsulates these five images, and most of the information contained within the text, in his first two paragraphs. He then goes on for two more paragraphs which provide further information on what to do. You can see this over at Wiktenauer, specifically here (about a 1/4 of the way from the bottom of the document)

So Mair uses one image to encode what I.33 takes 5 images, 5 paragraphs, and two and half pages to illustrate. I have to wonder if the authors of I.33 believed their images conveyed the same depth of meaning as Mair apparently did. And since Mair both alters the content (by striking at the groin rather than the face) and then goes on to add content that doesn't appear in I.33 (stabbing from behind the head) I have to wonder if he is describing material descended from I.33 or if he and the authors of I.33 were describing a subset of the greater body of folk knowledge regarding fighting. His description of actions that are also described in I.33 may be independently arrived at and subject to variation.

In any event, I'm grateful to have access to the material so I can study it. But I'm not entirely sure what to make of it. And I really, really want to put I.33 aside for a couple of years and study Manciolino.

[Signo]

Mair lived probably 3 centuries after Lutegerus or how it was called, for sure teachings depicted in I.33 were not exclusive of one master, and I think it's quite normal that they were known later, known and probably affinated, evolved or slightly adapted to the weapons involved.