[20640404 - Acta Periodica Duellatorum] Economising Early Prints on Fight Books by Multiple Using Movable Half Page Woodcuts.pdf

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Acta Periodica Duellatorum, Research note
HEMA studies at the International Medieval Congress, Leeds, July 2016
Research note
99
DOI 10.1515/apd-2016-0013
Economising Early Prints on Fight Books by Multiple Using
Movable Half Page Woodcuts.
Insights into the layout work on the illustrations of Andre
Paurnfeindt’s Fight Book of 1516 published by Hieronymus Vietor
Matthias Johannes Bauer, University of Duisburg-Essen
I. INTRODUCTION
In 2016, this fight book has its 500-year-anniversary: Andre Paurnfeindt’s
Ergrundung
Ritterlicher kunst der Fechterey
[...] was published by the famous printing office of
Hieronymus Vietor in Vienna in the year 1516.
1
Except for three small wrestling early
prints, Paurnfeindts publication is the earliest known printed fight book;
2
in fact it is the
first published one containing several treatises on different weapons.
3
It is an unpaginated
40 folio quarto print (landscape format, ca. 19 cm x ca. 15 cm) and it was produced in
quite a handy size, thus. Only one single copy is known today;
4
for a long time it had been
missing
5
probably due to a typo on the back of the book until Henk Pardoel found it in
Glasgow.
6
Only very little is known about the life of Paurnfeindt: He was from Ernstbrunn, a village
in Lower Austria, about 40 kilometers north of Vienna. On October 13, 1512, he enrolled
at Vienna University. As a foot soldier (trabandt) he was serving Mathäus Lang, bishop of
For an introduction into Paurnfeindt’s fight book, cf. Bauer, “Paurnfeindt, Andre(as)” and Bauer,
“Paurnfeindts Fechtbuch: Nicht für die alten Fechter, sondern für die jungen Schüler”.
1
Wrestling books published by Hans Wurm in Landshut about 1507 [38.10], one presumably by
Matthias Hupfuff in Straßbourg, ca. 1510-12, and one by Hans Sittich in Augsburg, ca. 1512; cf.
Leng,
Fecht- und Ringbücher,
p. 139.
2
3
4
Cf. Leng,
Fecht- und Ringbücher,
p. 139-144.
Glasgow, Culture and Sports (Museums), E.1939.65.357. -- Reprint: Verband,
Paurnfeindts Fechtbuch
aus dem Jahr 1516.
Leng,
Fecht- und Ringbücher,
p. 141 (“Verbleib unbekannt”). His insufficient philological heuristic
on finding and cataloguing any illustrated fight books was critically reviewed by: Welle, “Ordnung
als Prinzip”; Bauer, “Rezension”.
5
Pardoel,
Fencing. A Bibliography,
p. 255 (there dated to 1561 as erroneously noted on the back of
the book).
6
100
Economising Early Prints on Fight Books by Multiple Using Movable Half Page Woodcuts
Gurk and later archbishop of Salzburg (born 1468 in Augsburg, died 1540 in Salzburg).
7
He calls himself a
Freifechter,
presumably meaning that he was a privileged fencer.
8
There are some features that make Paurnfeindt’s fight book very special amongst all other
Early New High German fight books:
Firstly, it was completely set in humanistic minuscule which is not known for any other
German fight book of that time period.
9
Secondly, it is written for explicitly young students of the sword not for old masters. Thus,
it was supposed to be a very basic introduction to fighting with the long sword, the
‘Messer’
(a specific single-handed single-edged melee weapon), and the quarterstaff. A short
foreword of one page is followed by
Zwoelff leren den angehnden Fechteren
(twelve teachings
to the novice fencer); the twelve
leren
(teachings) can be first found in this specific
compilation with Andre(as) Paurnfeindt’s Fight Book and might have been adopted from
there into the Egenolff Fight Book
10
and maybe also into Hans Czynner’s Fight Book
from 1538.
11
Thirdly, it is striking for the printer and publisher economised this early print of a fight
book by double using half page woodcuts and thereby reducing their number in total.
This paper focuses on how this was done and discusses how effectively this work was.
II. ECONOMISING WOODCUTS
Additionally to the title woodcut, Paurnfeindt’s fight book contains 34 full page woodcuts
in total.
12
They had been cut by an up to date still unidentified artist and artisan whose
monogramme is “WAM” (woodcut no. 29; unpag. fol. 31v).
13
For Paurnfeindt’s life, cf. Bauer, “Paurnfeindt, Andre(as)”, and Bauer, “Paurnfeindts Fechtbuch:
Nicht für die alten Fechter, sondern für die jungen Schüler”.
7
Wassmannsdorf, “Ueber die Marxbrüder und Federfechter und über das älteste -- bisher noch
unbekannte -- gedruckte deutsche Fechtbuch, p. 355, fn. 4”.
8
This is except for the term
Ergrundung
in the title which was set in a Gothic type. -- Around the
middle of the 16th century Paulus Hector Mair used humanistic minuscule in his double volume
fight books only for his Latin writing; cf. Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Cod. Icon. 393, 1 &
2 (manuscript only in Latin), and Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Cod. 10825/10826
(manuscript written bilingually in German and Latin).
9
10
11
Bauer,
‘Der Allten Fechter gründtliche Kunst’ – Das Frankfurter oder Egenolffsche Fechtbuch.
Graz, Universitätsbibliothek, M. 963, ed. by Bergner/Giessauf,
Würgegriff und Mordschlag.
An
introduction to Hans Czynner in Bauer, “Czynner, Hans”.
12
13
Leng,
Fecht- und Ringbücher,
p. 140. See the appendix in this paper for an overview.
For exchange of ideas on the monogramme I thank Dr. Ulrike Bayer (Munich), Dr. Dieter
Beaujean (Berlin), and Dr. Rainer Welle (Ehrenkirchen-Norsingen).
Acta Periodica Duellatorum, Research note
HEMA studies at the International Medieval Congress, Leeds, July 2016
101
Usually a double page shows one woodcut on the left (verso folio) and the descriptive
text on the right (recto folio). Eighteen of these woodcuts illustrate the first part about
long sword fighting, twelve of them are placed in the ‘Messer’ fighting part and four show
how to handle the quarterstaff.
Moreover, the woodcuts can be differentiated by two main characteristics. Either they
show two fencers in fighting distance to each other before they will make a step or
movement or they already moved in standing next to each other without any more
distance. In the first case, both the fencers always stand near to the margins (21 non
centered woodcuts; here henceforth designated type A) while in the second case they are
placed in the middle of the woodcut (13 centered woodcuts; here henceforth designated
type B). Two woodcut motifs were used twice, namely no. 5 (type B; same as no. 15) and
no. 18 (type A; same as no. 20).
14
But it seems, that in many instances only one half of a
woodcut is repeating again and again in this early print. How is that?
On a close look, one will see that in fact not all of these illustrations are real full page
woodcuts. Only the ones belonging to type B are made of one single printing plate,
namely woodcuts no. 5 (= 15), 8, 10, 12, 13, 15 (= 5), 22, and 29 to 34; all other woodcuts
were assembled by two movable half page printing plates put together to one single
illustration (type A): movable woodcut printing plates like letters used in the mechanical
movable type printing invented by Johannes Gutenberg. In some cases the junction
points are even clear to see (no. 4, 6, 7, 9, 11, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 26, 27) and in
some cases horizon is only lined in one half of the illustration (no. 9, 11, 16, 19). This is
a little irritating … (see fig. 2).
14
Cf. Appendix.
102
Economising Early Prints on Fight Books by Multiple Using Movable Half Page Woodcuts
Fig. 1 Paurnfeindt’s fight book from 1516: Both halves of woodcut no. 2 repeat three times
within the entire fight book, yet in different combinations. (courtesy of Culture and Sports
Glasgow (Museums), E.1939.65.357, unpaginated fol. 3v).
Fig. 2 Paurnfeindt’s fight book from 1516: In woodcut no. 9 the junction points of the two
half page printing plates are clear to see and horizon is only lined in one half of the illustration
(courtesy of Culture and Sports Glasgow (Museums), E.1939.65.357, unpaginated fol. 10v).
Acta Periodica Duellatorum, Research note
HEMA studies at the International Medieval Congress, Leeds, July 2016
103
However, with this method it was possible to cleverly combine fewer available woodcut
printing plates to more illustrations as such. Thus, some half plates were used up to four
times:
15
Number of Usage
4 times
3 times
2 times
1 times
Woodcut Number (only half plates)
1 left, 3 left
1 right, 2 left, 2 right, 3 right, 4 right, 6 right, 7 left
9 left, 23 left, 23 right, 25 right
24 left, 24 right, 25 left, 28 left, 28 right
Table 1: Number of usage of the half plates
Sum (total: 18)
2
7
4
5
This method of combining motifs which repeat several times opened possibilities of
economising the application of the woodcuts in Paurnfeindt’s fight book. Instead of
creating 32 individual woodcuts (i.e. 34 in sum minus two that repeat) the woodblock
engraver only had to work twelve full page woodcut plates (i.e. 13 minus one that repeats)
and 18 half page woodcut plates. That is much economy of effort, time and material.
16
Only woodcuts no. 24 and 28 could have been alternatively worked from one full page
printing plate either. And it is even not so clear whether they in fact are; they are the very
only ambiguous types in the entire book that can not be matched with the one or the
other type without doubt. If so, then there would be counted 14 half page and 15 full
page woodcut printing plates.
17
Still economically -- even when reducing the costs of
illustrations by about one third must be seen in relation to all the remaining costs of the
entire production.
18
III. CONCLUSION
When Hieronymus Vietor printed and published Andre Paurnfeindt’s fight book in the
year 1516, it seems this project was economically well-thought-out -- particularly for the
For this paper, I could not take a look into the original print. Therefore, I do not know whether
the arrangement of the quires of the book had any influence on the repeating motifs: There always
would be only one half plate available for both woodcut illustration on the very paper sheet.
15
This would come up to calculated 21 full page printing plate equivalents (12/1 + 18/2 = 21)
instead of creating 32 individual full page woodprints.
16
This would come up to calculated 22 full page printing plate equivalents (15/1 + 14/2 = 22)
instead of creating 32 individual full page woodprints.
17
18
Cf. Seelig, “Inkunabelillustration mit beweglichen Bildteilen”, p. 123.

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