Codex Wallerstein


The so-called Codex Wallerstein or Vonn Baumanns Fechtbuch is a 16th-century convolution of three 15th-century fechtbuch manuscripts, with a total of 221 pages.
The inside of the cover is inscribed 1549. Vom baumanns 108, suggesting that the manuscript belonged to one Michael Baumann, listed as a mercenary by profession in the tax registers of Augsburg between 1471 and 1495. The manuscript came in the possession of Paulus Hector Mair in 1556.
After Mair's execution in 1579, the ms. may have passed to the library of Marcus Fugger, whose library was sold by his grandson in 1653, passing into the Oettingen-Wallerstein library.

Contents

Part A treats fighting with the longsword, dagger and messer. Part B is inserted in two parts, interrupting the first part, treating grappling.
Parts A and B were made in c. 1470; the paper is dated to 1464/5 based on its watermark.
Part A is considered a source for the fechtbuch of Albrecht Dürer of 1512.
Part C is somewhat older, made in the first half of the 15th century. The paper is dated to 1420 based on its watermark.
It treats longsword, armored combat, stechschild and grappling.
The final page, fol. 109r, has a register, written in the hand of Paulus Hector Mair.

Part A

Part C