Meister Hans Talhoffer is one of the pivotal figures of German sword arts. Steeped into traditions that are as well documented
as they remain inaccessible to full comprehension, his art (and showmanship?) belongs to the few medieval systems that have survived not in
one but
a few manuscripts.
The 1467 Codex, of what became known as Talhoffer's
Fechtbuch, was first revived for reproduction and re-publication
by the
Viennese fencing master Gustav Hergsell.
Hergsell's transcription and interpretation of the instructions may not have remained without vocal critics. (The 19th-century fencing
historian Dr. Karl Wassmannsdorff found so much wrong with him that he devoted an entire book to Hergsell's philological misdeeds.) But
his leather-bound 1887 editions (both self-published and, later that year, by Calve) still command prices of between $500 and $900 that
are
eagerly paid by collectors.
Mark Rector has exercised restraint and competence in
his endeavor of making Talhoffer accessible to the Anglophile
market. He
places the manuscript into its appropriate cultural and combative context that has as much to offer to the history buff as it has to the
combative practitioner. Its only drawback: Wassmannsdorff's valid objections have not been acknowledged or taken into consideration
for the transcription.
Still, Rector's work should find a well deserved place in the canon of combative arts source literature. The quality of the production
is solid and well worth the price. This book has earned an unconditional seal of approval! Go buy it now.
-J. Christoph Amberger
By Hans Talhoffer and Mark Rector (ed.)
Greenhill Books/Lionel Leventhal, London, England
Hardcover, 2000, 304 pages, US $23.96
ISBN: 1853674184
Medieval Combat: A Fifteenth - Century Illustrated Manual of Sword fighting and Close - Quarter Combat
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