Detail, Indian Dagger. Early 17th Century. Courtesy of the Wallace Collection.
London’s Wallace Collection is one of the world’s premiere museum collections. Research Assistant, Francesca Levey, has the enviable task of cataloging the Oriental Armoury and has shared some of her experiences and insights in a blog post. Get a sense of museum collections work and a glimpse at some historical weapons research via her post here.
Reminder: due to the holiday, fencing has been cancelled for both Thursday and Saturday. Happy Thanksgiving!
Paulus Hector Mair
A wonderful primary source has been published online by the library of Dresden — Opus Amplissimum de Arte Athletica v.I & II by Paulus Hector Mair. Although not French, the treatises offer over 1200 pages of brilliantly illustrated European physical combat techniques from the 1550’s.
Mair (1517-1579) was a German civil servant born into a wealthy family. He eventually became the City Treasurer and Quartermaster in Augsburg. Mair was apparently obsessed with fencing and combat since his youth, and witnessed the disappearance of Medieval combat techniques in his lifetime. Given his obsession, he compiled a
…massive fencing compendium titled Opus Amplissimum de Arte Athletica (“The Greatest Work on the Athletic Arts”), and in it he compiled all of the fencing lore that he could access. He retained famed Augsburg painter Jörg Breu the Younger to create the art for the text, and according to Hils Mair also hired two fencing masters to pose for the illustrations. This project was extraordinarily expensive and took at least four years to complete. Ultimately, three copies of the massive fencing manual—six volumes in all—were produced, the first entirely in Early New High German, another entirely in New Latin, and a third including both languages.
–Wiktenauer
Pertinent to our study are the incredible color illustrations created by Jörg Breu the Younger for Mair’s treatises. Several illustrations show 16th Century techniques for baton, including the pronated hand positions that later became integral to Baton Federale.
16th Century baton technique implementing the pronated grip that later became integral to French Baton Federale.
Our French brethren at savate-canne.com have conducted a practical investigation into use of the baton techniques as presented by Mair. You can read the results of their systematic study of Mair, Baton de Mair, here (via Google Translate).
There are two more items that I find of interest about Mair and his magnum opus. Mair covers a vast array of weapon techniques in his voluminous study. The reader will find instruction on everything from the use of two-handed swords to farm implements such as sickles and scythes — reminders of the brutal roots of physical combat that are somewhat cleansed from classical French techniques.
Mair’s treatises cover a wide range of physical combat techniques, ranging from two-handed sword to sickles and scythes.
Lastly, Mair paid for his fencing obsession with his life, although not by the sword. Mair’s Arte Athletica was a major endeavor to create, and very expensive. Although he was born into wealth, Mair apparently lived well beyond his means. In combination with the expense of creating Arte Athletica, Mair resorted to embezzling funds from the Augsburg coffers. He was convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to death by hanging in 1579.
You can find Mair’s Arte Athletica Vol. I here, and Vol. II here. A translated view of savate-canne.com’s exploration of Mair’s techniques can be found here. More information about the life of Paulus Hector Mair can be found at Wiktenauer here.
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Given some CCF members’ recent foray into Baton de Joinville, I thought this image would be appropriate. As is the case with other diagrams previously posted on CCF, this appears to be from an illustrated dictionary or encyclopedia, circa 1915. However, the source was not cited when it was republished to the web.
The salute for la canne is interesting, as is the use of the cane for defense from street thugs (Apaches de Paris?) in illustration 25. I have found a dearth of information on baton, especially published in English; the bottom series are the best illustrations I have located to date.
Fort Ticonderoga smallsword made by Bostonian Silversmith, William Cowell Jr., ca. 1750.
Given the rather esoteric nature of classical fencing, it is not very common to find a close examination of a weapon from another age. However, historic Fort Ticonderoga has provided a detailed look at the craftsmanship and components of an American smallsword dating from about the time of the French and Indian War.
In 2012, the staff at the historic site was preparing for an exhibit Bullets & Blades: The Weapons of America’s Colonial War and Revolution. Exhibit preparations provide the opportunity to carefully clean, examine the condition of artifacts, update records, and photograph selected accessions. This process enabled collections staff to disassemble and examine a circa 1750 smallsword made by the Bostonian silversmith William Cowell, Junior.
In addition to a total disassembly of the weapon, the staff at the Fort captured nicely detailed photographs of the sword’s components and its construction details. They then published a short article about the smallsword on their blog for all the world to see, including links to high resolution photographs — something rarely provided by most museums and historic sites.
If you are the least bit interested in historic weapons, take a few moments to examine Fort Ticonderoga’s post, and this rather sturdy American weapon from another age.
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