Bio-mechanical Analysis of Meyers Fechtbucher

Rainald · Post by **Rainald** » Wed Mar 27, 2002 1:55 am

I'm sure this is fairly common knowledge, but for those who have not seen it yet:

http://www.wpi.edu/~jforgeng/MeyerIQP/

An interesting bio-mechanical analysis of Joachim Meyers work; " A Thorough Description of the Free, Knightly and Noble Art of Fencing, Showing Various Customary Defenses, Adorned and Put Forth with Many Handsome and Useful Drawings by Joachim Meyer"

[This message has been edited by Rainald (edited 03-27-2002).]

jester · Post by **jester** » Wed Mar 27, 2002 9:59 am

*I* didn't know about it. Thanks, Rainald.

Russ Mitchell · Post by **Russ Mitchell** » Wed Mar 27, 2002 10:03 am

Wasn't familiar with this guy's work... I have some quibbles, but it's a nice beginning of an analysis. Now he just needs to work with the plates themselves online some... do you know who did this, or what his email is? I'd love to bend his ear a little...

Rainald · Post by **Rainald** » Wed Mar 27, 2002 5:10 pm

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Russ Mitchell:
... do you know who did this, or what his email is? I'd love to bend his ear a little...</font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Probably a good place to start would be here:

http://www.higgins.org/About/staff.shtml

I'm sure you could get some info with one or two phone calls.

[This message has been edited by Rainald (edited 03-27-2002).]

Friedrich · Post by **Friedrich** » Wed Mar 27, 2002 10:45 pm

Jeffrey Forgeng (Higgins Curator) has been focussing on Jachim Meyer's work in the Interpretation/Research group and the Medieval/Longsword group for a couple of years now with some very interesting interpretations.

BTW, a full reprint of Meyer's work (in German) is a couple of hundred pages long much of it in descriptive text. For those that have actively studied with the period manuals (or tried to!), some strong differences do come out between Meyer (as a german system), and Fiore (as an italian system). And the thought processes are different. Keeping also in mind that the german vs italian historical armour was different as well (such as pauldrons) which dictated some of what you could and could not do.

Keep also in mind that this was a tretise made for the wealthy and not the common person. The group also concluded that there were a few moves shown in the manual that were possibly more for flash and would not have been used (at least not with common sense) on the battlefield. There are also a couple in there that I'm convinced were meant to bait the reader to contact and solicit Meyer's expertise (aka advertising) to come teach and explain it.

Part of what also transpired is that the Higgins group has had made a pair of similar swords (blunts) to help with learning to interpret what was being depicted.

Russ Mitchell · Post by **Russ Mitchell** » Thu Mar 28, 2002 12:37 am

Thanks for the info and the leads... Meyer has a couple of odd stances that pretty much don't show up anywhere else, and I have really wanted to get a specialist's opinions on them...