In Europe from the fourteenth century onward, the art of fighting was recorded in words or images, or a combination of both. These handwritten manuscripts and printed books are today known as “fight books.” A rare manuscript in The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection is a prime example of this genre (26.236): a sixteenth-century copy of a fight book ascribed to Hans Talhoffer, a renowned fifteenth-century master at arms—an expert in the art of combat. The manuscript contains lively and colorful depictions of martial techniques demonstrated by paired fighters in various disciplines, ranging from unarmored wrestling (26.236, fols. 117v–118r) to armored combat on foot (04.3.274) with pollaxes (26.236, fols. 76v–77r; 14.25.465). It also includes a rare treatise on onomancy (26.236, fols. 13v–14r), the art of foreseeing the outcome of a duel. The original leather binding (26.236, manuscript cover) holds 128 leaves of paper in excellent condition. Aside from the written text, which includes martial treatises from other fifteenth-century masters in addition to Talhoffer, the largest part of the manuscript consists of 143 drawings rendered in pen and ink and watercolors.
The Met’s example is one of a dozen copies of the works of Hans Talhoffer and is based on the first manuscript he made in his lifetime, kept today in the Forschungsbibliothek in Erfurt. Although commonly dated to 1443—the date attributed to it in the influential facsimile edition published by Gustav Hergsell in 1893—1448 is a more likely date for most of the content in the original manuscript.
The Most Famous Master at Arms of the Fifteenth Century
Little is known about Talhoffer’s life. What we do know can be gleaned from historical documents dating from 1431 to 1467, which show that he served the members of the lower and higher aristocracy of the Upper Rhine region in the south of the Holy Roman Empire (the region encompassed by Bavaria in modern Germany). Among those he served were the brothers Vom Stain and Luithold von Königsegg, all of whom are depicted and named in his works, including in examples at the Königsegg-Aulendorf Collection in Königseggwald and the Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz in Berlin. His last employer was Eberhard I, duke of Württemberg. The last version of the five manuscripts attributed to him (at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich) bears the coat of arms of Duke Eberhard. The accounting records of the duke’s household include an entry indicating that the master was likely paid for his services and delivered the parchment manuscript.
Talhoffer’s writings drew scholarly attention as early as the eighteenth century. By the early nineteenth century, copies of his works were made for study and exhibition in imperial libraries. Hergsell’s facsimile edition of 1893 made Talhoffer the most well-known fifteenth-century master to students of historical European martial arts and fencing historians. Of particular interest is the portrait of Talhoffer in the Kongelige Bibliotek version of the manuscript (1459), where it is stated that he posed for the illustration. In addition to giving us a reliable likeness of Talhoffer, this represents a very early example of a portrait drawn from nature, which is of great interest for the history of art.
Also intriguing is the depiction of the collar worn by the master, which incorporates the emblem of the lion of Saint Mark, a patron saint of fencers’ guilds. The collar is similar to those worn by members of the various knightly orders that were popular among the nobility of the time. Although Talhoffer was no knight, his depiction with a knightly collar reveals much about the status accorded to martial culture and the art of combat, even when its masters were members of lower social strata.
The beauty of the illustrations of fighting techniques in Talhoffer’s book, and the details of the depictions of arms and armor, led Bashford Dean, the curator of The Met’s Department of Arms and Armor (1904–27), to purchase a splendid copy in Paris in 1926 from Georges Pauilhac, a French industrialist and arms and armor collector. The scribe and the artists who created the manuscript in the Museum’s collection remain anonymous, and at this time nothing else is known that sheds further light on its creation or its provenance.
Hans Talhoffer’s Art of Fighting
In medieval and Renaissance Europe, the art of fighting was usually divided into three main categories: armored fighting on foot, unarmored fighting on foot, and fighting on horseback. This threefold categorization mirrors the organization of the verses in Zedel, a text attributed to Johannes Liechtenauer, the father of the German art of fighting. The text is a compendium of his teachings, which are compiled in The Met’s manuscript as well as the Erfurt version. These books are highly relevant, since they are the second known rendering of the Zedel, which does not appear in any other versions of Talhoffer’s writings. (In the Copenhagen version, the master even claimed authorship of the slightly reworked verses.)
Talhoffer specialized in a specific type of combat, referred to as judicial dueling (Kampffechten). The largest part of his works involves the whole process, from the entry of the contestants into the field of combat (26.236, fols. 36v–37r) to the death of one of the participants (26.236, fols. 68v–69r), while illustrating a broad range of martial techniques. Interestingly, in addition to a duel on foot between two armored knights with swords, there is a depiction of ordinary citizens—burghers—without armor fighting with shields and maces (26.236, fols. 39v–40r). Another artist added an iconographical cycle (left unfinished) on the verso of the folia of the Erfurt fight book, illustrating the “training days”—that is, the legal period of training (six weeks) accorded to the combatants prior to the judicial duel. The whole procedure is narrated (probably by the same later artist), from the hiring of the master outside the city walls (26.236, fols. 22v–23r) to the actual training and leisure—eating, listening to music, hunting, and bathing (26.236, fols. 30v–31r)—through the rituals and Christian rites (26.236, fols. 38v–39r) performed before and after the duel.
The fight book also contains several sections on other martial disciplines beyond the judicial context, including dagger (26.236, fols. 88v–89r; 26.145.15; 25.188.5a, b; 26.145.10), pollaxe (26.236, fols. 76v–77r; 04.3.49; 14.25.1336), and wrestling (26.236, fols. 117v–118r), the last of which is augmented by the first appearance of what later became a well-known treatise by Ott the Jew, wrestling master of the princes of Austria. The differences between the various texts—the Zedel, the treatises on onomancy and wrestling—and their relationships as part of a compilation are not readily apparent in the Met’s version because it follows the order of the original manuscript but without the material organization (quires), the decoration (layout), and the different hands involved in the realization of the manuscript.
The works of Hans Talhoffer—and of his rival Paulus Kal, a contemporaneous master at arms who made similar fight books—and the ways he put martial knowledge into writing and images stand out from other fight books. Images are the main media used to record fighting techniques, and the text is mainly reduced to cryptic labeling of techniques and, in some cases, a few technical remarks (26.236, fols. 117v–118r). In other words, the martial knowledge behind words and images is not readily accessible to the untrained reader.
Special Types of Arms and Armor
The manuscript is a treasure trove for arms and armor scholars. Some of the armors depicted are of rare types, such as the Kastenbrust (tetrahedral cuirass) (26.236, fols. 46v–47r) or head defenses like the great bascinets (14.25.591). Important details offer insights into how these complex suits of armor function when in motion. They also shed light on the undergarments or civil clothing designed for fighting. Most peculiar are the special garments and weapons designed for judicial duels between non-nobles, according to Franconian or Swabian customs. Some complex shields receive full-page representations (26.236, fols. 21v–22r). Also interesting are specific weapons for judicial duels (26.236, fols. 52v–53r): lances (for throwing); daggers with complex pommels and hilts (26.145.10; 25.188.5a, b); and swords (1988.26; 14.25.1196) for armored fighting with a handle on the blade, complex hilts, and pommels incorporating hooks.
Onomancy and War Machines
The Erfurt version contains a compilation of two other treatises. The first is the Onomantia of Hans (Johannes) Hartlieb. In short, by analyzing the names of fighters and the dates of their duels, the practitioner of onomancy may determine the winner. This represents the Western reception of the magical art of divination from the Orient, documented in the East as early as the tenth century.
The second compilation is a fragmentary copy of one of the manuscripts belonging to the tradition of the Bellifortis of Konrad Kyeser. This technical treatise about military engineering depicts actual and imaginary war machines. The latter is present as the last part of the miscellany of Erfurt, and is not included in the New York version.
Scholars have argued that the Erfurt version was the personal manuscript of Hans Talhoffer, encompassing different martial knowledge—from war engineering to magical arts, through an anthology of fighting techniques—that allowed him to best prepare his champions (aristocratic trainees) for judicial dueling. It is, however, doubtful that the master would actually possess such miscellany, and it is more likely that it was made for an unknown wealthy owner. At the very least, we know for sure that Talhoffer did not author most of the content. The New York version is a copy that took from and reworked at least four different sources. As a whole, it nonetheless represents a very complete anthology of the different martial disciplines of the late Middle Ages.