09/03/2025
Today in updates no one asked for: Christian Egenolff.
https://wiktenauer.com/wiki/Der_Allten_Fechter_gr%C3%BCndtliche_Kunst_(Christian_Egenolff)
A few years ago, I received a copy of Matthias Johannes Bauer's dissertation _"Der Allten Fechter gründtliche Kunst" – Das Frankfurter oder Egenolffsche Fechtbuch_. This work exhaustively examines the 1530s fencing treatise published by Egenolff.
Egenolff was a printer, not a writer, and since the idea of copyright hadn't been invented yet, the job of a printer was to find copies of texts that they thought would sell and print them—no need to consult the previous printers or the authors (the idea of authorship was still a little squishy, too).
For this book, Egenolff combined the 1516 treatise of Andre Paurnfeyndt with a short summary of the Messer teachings of Hans Lecküchner and some anonymous dagger and wrestling plays. Only Lecküchner received any kind of authorship credit, though he's referred to as Lebkommer (both names refer to a baker of Lebkuchen, German gingerbread). Before you get indignant on Paurnfeyndt's behalf, he himself included the sword & buckler and dagger teachings of Andre Lignitzer in his book, equally uncredited (and Egenolff also passed those along).
Four editions of the book, illustrated by Hans Weiditz, were published: one soon after Egenolff set up shop in Frankfurt am Main in 1530, two more prior to his death in 1555, and a final posthumous edition from his workshop in 1558.
Until reading Bauer's work, I had assumed that the first edition was the one seen in the upper right of this quadriptych. Every library that owns a copy of this edition likewise seems to assume it is the first edition. Wiktenauer used the title of this edition as the proper title of the work, and I transcribed this book and included the text in every article that includes Egenolff's material.
However, Bauer demonstrates that this is false, and it's actually the edition in the upper left that's the original. So we had to go back and redo all of it—renaming articles, changing links, transcribing this edition, and then adding it to all the articles all over again—which is a project I've just now completed. The differences between editions are usually minor but occasionally significant; the biggest difference might be the inclusion of three poems in the long sword section that don't appear in any later edition. The page numbers are also different because the text was laid out from scratch each time.
You can read this revised transcription in these articles:
https://wiktenauer.com/wiki/Andre_Paurenfeyndt
https://wiktenauer.com/wiki/Andre_Lignitzer
https://wiktenauer.com/wiki/Kunstlicher_stuck_K%C3%A4mpffens_Ringens_und_Werffens
https://wiktenauer.com/wiki/Stuck_im_aufstreichen
I've also taken the opportunity to add scans of a painted copy of the first edition provided to me by Rainer Köbelin, who owns the only painted copy I've been able to locate.
Enjoy!
