Customer Reviews

Codex Wallerstein: A Medieval Fighting Book from the Fifteenth Century on the Longsword, Falchion, Dagger, and Wrestling

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is an excellent book. Grzegorz and Bart are to be commended for their fine work translating this important medieval fechtbuch. The book contains some of the most important material on medieval unarmed combat and is an absolute must for anyone working in that area. It also contains many plates on longsword, messer and a range of other weapons.

What this book is: An excellent translation of a significant and well illustrated medieval fechtbuch.

What this book isn't: It isn't a guide to medieval fencing. Wallerstein is primarily illustrations. With minimal text and no interpretation, it's up to you to work out what's being done in the plates. If you're like me, this is great. If you're beginner, expecting a book teaching you medieval swordsmanship, this is not that book.

Messrs. Zabinski and Walczak have made a great contribution to the study of Historic European Martial Arts with their translation and analysis of the 'Codex Wallerstein'. This fascinating 15th Century German manuscript contains illustrated fighting techniques for the hand and a half knightly sword (the longsword), close quarters combat both unarmed and with a dagger, combat with the messer (a falchion-like short sword), and for fighting in the full armour of the day. The original plates from the manuscript are presented side by side with both modern German and English translations. Definitely a must-have for the sword practitioner or student of the late Middle Ages - it certainly has served *this* researcher well in my own ongoing study of German fighting arts.

One of the great challenges of studying medieval forms of the martial arts is the fact that there is no school anywhere that preserves the actual fighting techniques of this era intact. While some of the techniques have survived, the decline of the necessity for a gentleman post Renaissance to be a man of arms as well as letters and learning has resulted in much knowledge being misplaced, lost and forgotten. As a result, modern schools of medieval martial arts can, and will, teach you basic techniques, but, as opposed to some of the better preserved Renaissance arts with the epée or rapier, most of the material tends to be appropriate for and focused on purely theatrical fighting. As such, this fighting manual of the late medieval period is invaluable, particularly due to the accessibility of the techniques contained therein.

While others may find this volume a bit advanced for the novice of medieval swordsmanship, I find the pictures and descriptions eminently understandable (and I'm certainly a novice). Frankly, learning any martial art through a book is a bit of a challenge, but, in this case, the manual is extremely easy to follow, which accounts in large part for its popularity in the 15th Century. The text focuses on the REAL art of the fighting man, centering on applications of the long sword, dagger, falchion and unarmed combat, and it's neither "chivalrous" in the modern sense of the word, nor pretty. The techniques within are designed for the professional fighting man, and the full emphasis is on surviving a fight, and not looking pretty while you do it. As such, in using the techniques, you will get cut, without a doubt - some of the holds, particularly in unarmed versus armed combat, and such put your bare skin on the edge of the opponents blade. However, they do increase the likelihood of being the one to walk (or stagger, or stumble) away from the encounter.

From the perspective of one only interested in the historical aspects, the book is fascinating in that it presents facsimiles of the original plates from the book, with a Latin alphabet version of the old German text on each plate, as well as modern German and English translations of the text. It's also fascinating, again, in that this was designed for the professional warrior, and the presumed context in which it would be read, and intent and value system of the reader of the day, is vastly different from what many hold as misconceptions of the period.

Highly recommended!

I have been involved in Chinese martial arts for close to 35 years. One day I received a book, in German; Talhoffers to be exact. Many things in their reminded me of things I saw in Chinese arts, and that to my purchase of Codex Wallerstein.
The methods shown in that book, as well as Arte Gladitoria Dimicandi, and Flos Duellatorum are just as effective as any other arts I have been exposed to over the decades.

So much was my interest in these books, that I decided to
write a few articles on the methods I had read about, and these were well received by the medieval martial arts community worldwide. I even got into contact with Grzegorz Zabinski, when I saw, and decoded several of the strange glyphs, or doodles; as I called them, that are shown in the Codex.

This book is for experienced people, and those with an explorer's
mind. If you have previous martial arts skill, you will no doubt
figure out many of the fine methods illustrated within this book.

Be warned however that the explanations accompanying some of the
drawings might be inaccurate, as I have some understanding of medieval German, and a great ability with modern Hoch Deutsch, I found a few gaffs in the manual. When in doubt, look to the pictures!!!!

I give this book a hearty and well deserved thumbs up!!

Anyone who is about to enter the world of historical European martial arts today are the most fortunate with respect to the increasing availability of English translated historical manuscripts that describe these fighting arts. Practitioners who currently study the historical manuscripts, slogging away at medieval German or medieval Italian or Latin now find relief with publications such as this. The Codex Wallerstein, one of the most comprehensive manuscripts depicting early European martial arts including longsword, dagger, wrestling, armoured combat, messer, hewing shield now has its "secrets" unlocked by the impressive work of Gregorz Zabinskik with Bartlomiej Walczak. A brilliant academic effort by Gregorz who enhances the credability of the work by including not only the English translated text, but the original middle high German text of the period and text of the transcription of middle high German to modern German. The publication also contains all of the original illustrations making this a must have, invaluable resource for any practitioner's reference library interested in the study and practice of historical European martial arts.

This is a fantastic resource. The format is like other manuals of German combat. It is a large compendium of pictures with explainatory captions. It takes work to understand what exactly is happening, but once you get it you can see that the Codex represents a complete and sophisticated system of combat. Straight from the battlefields of 15th century Germany, any martial arts practicioner can learn something useful from this book.

This is a marvelous book, the picture are clear and the moves easy to follow. Truely a must for anyone interested in high medieval martial arts.

Cool book on medieval swordsmanship. Nicely translated from an actual historical document. This is an accurate source for enthusiasts of the high Middle Ages. Good illustrations. As the title indicates it covers longsword, falchion, dagger, and wrestling techniques as they were taught in the 14th and 15th centuries. Could have been significantly improved with some more commentary and/or explanation.

Lawrence Kane
Author of Surviving Armed Assaults, The Way of Kata, and Martial Arts Instruction

This book offers a fascinating introduction to the worlds of longsword fighting, wrestling etc. As codices go, this is one of the very best, and almost certainly one of the best preserved of its type. I was somewhat surprised to find the originals behind my sofa the other day, though, in with the newspapers for recycling, and I daresay that these are more valuable than any facsimile. Even so, an interesting read.

Just a bunch of old illustrations with no meaningful text or instructions. I bought it and returned it 5 minutes after it arrived. I used another review to guide my decision and it was a mistake. Making me pay for return shipping seems like stealing when a product is so mis-represented.