mair_longsword.pdf

Longsword Sequences from

Paulus Hector Mair’s

Longsword Treatise

(c. 1550)

Transcribed and translated by Lawrence Delaney

INTRODUCTION

J. L. Forgeng

Paulus Hector Mair (1517-79) was a municipal civil servant in the Bavarian city of Augsburg, active

during the mid-1500s (he was hanged in 1579 at the age of 62 for having misappropriated city funds).

Augsburg during the sixteenth century was perhaps the single greatest center for the study and production

of German martial arts treatises: Mair collected at least 8 manuscripts on the subject, and produced three

handsomely illustrated manuscripts of his Fechtbuch , currently in Dresden, Munich, and Vienna; a fourth,

partly by Mair, resides in Augsburg. The books cover a broad range of weapons forms, including

longsword, dusack, halberd, quarterstaff, dagger, wrestling, rapier, sickle, and flail. The Dresden and

Augsburg texts are in German; the Munich text is in Latin; the Vienna manuscript has both Latin and

German.

Mair’s longsword system is very much in the traditional German school; many of the techniques he

mentions for the longsword can be documented as far back as the earliest surviving longsword text,

Johannes Liechtenauer's verses (written sometime before 1389). Some new features have been added to

the system since the texts of the late 15 th century, but the older features are still very much present: for

example, thrusting remains a part of Mair’s system, where it has been largely abandoned by Meyer.

Mair’s longsword material consists of a series of about 120 devices, each with an illustration, followed by

a copy of the “Von Danzig Fechtbuch” commentary on Liechtenauer. The devices include a series of

“half-sword” techniques that appear to be an unarmored martial-arts derivative of earlier armored combat.

Overall, it is clear that the immediate context of his work is the martial arts schools of Augsburg, even

though many of the techniques clearly reflect the styles of life-and-death longsword combat of the Middle

Ages.

Mair is unusual among the German sources in giving both sides of each combat; this fact, combined with

his substantial text, Latin translation, illustrations, and martial-arts context, make him a particularly

promising source for the modern practitioner.

Page references are by leaf, and side (recto or verso) of the longsword section of the Vienna manuscript.

Note that places marked with an * indicate points where the digital image of the text is illegible.

[ 1r ]

[Vienna]

[Munich]

De ictu qui ex ira nomen fortitur contra mucronem

Hac ratione te ad hunc ictum adaptabis: sinistrum dextro pedi prepones, inque ipso ictu dextro

sequere, feriasque fortiter superius latus sinistrum versus. Verum si se opposuerit, ictuque tuo

restiterit, tum quam celerimme proximam nuditatem peto*. Si vero referiat iratus, tum ad ictum

eum qui ex ira fit, te prepara in mucronem pendentem et eum converte recta *in faciem vel

pectus adversarii. Sin autem animadverterit id, gladium supra caput elevabis, assiliesque pede

dextro in latus *eius sinistrum et petas ictu transversario caput eius. Si vero is hoc usus fuerit

contra te, brachiis crucis instar consituto, tum ictum longa acie excipe, et statim gladium averte,

tuumque mucronem ex sinistro latere contra ipsius *faciem flecte seu pectus

About the blow which acquires its name from Wrath against the tip

--In this manner you will conduct yourself in this blow: place the left foot before the right, and in

the blow itself follow with the right foot, and you strongly strike above toward the left side. But

if he opposes it, and resists your blow, at that time as fast as possible seek the nearest opening.

--But if he strikes a Wrath Blow, then position yourself in the Hanging Point against the Wrath

Blow and turn your sword into the face or chest of your enemy. But if he perceives it, you will

elevate your sword above your head, and spring toward his life side with your right foot and seek

his head with the Thwart Blow.

--But if he uses this against you, having your arms positioned in a cross, then parry the blow with

the long edge and at once turn [ German: pull] your sword and wind your tip from the left side

against his face or chest.

[ 1v ]

[Vienna]

[Munich]

Ictus qui curvus dicitur ex utroque latere

Si in adversarii conspectum gladiando prope accesseris, sinistrum prepones pedem fac

memineris, contineasque ensem tuum mucrone in dextro tuo latere constituto, et pedem siste

arrepte manibus ictum curvum, et si feriat e supernis versus nuditatem tuam adversarius tum

dextro tuo calce precede, illiusque ceu per ambages appropinquabis lateri dextro, feriasque

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