Goliath Fechtbuch EN
The most richly illustrated manuscript of the Liechtenauer tradition — 578 pages and hundreds of coloured illustrations, now held in the Jagiellonian Library in Kraków. A complete edition of the entire codex: longsword, messer, staff, dagger, wrestling, mounted combat and judicial duel, in parallel layout of transcription and translation, with 1,302 notes, a glossary and appendices.
Goliath (Berol. Ms. Germ. Qu. 2020) is one of the largest and most richly produced compendia of the German fencing tradition. Written in the first half of the sixteenth century, it gathers material that survives elsewhere only scattered across dozens of fragments and copies, and accompanies it with hundreds of coloured illustrations. Originally a Berlin codex, it is today held in the Jagiellonian Library in Kraków.
It takes its name from the pair of images that open it: David with his sling and Goliath in armour, set before the teaching itself begins. That scene is not decoration — it is the argument of the whole book. The smaller man prevails by art, not by strength.
What makes this manuscript exceptional
Where other sources cover a single weapon or a single discipline, Goliath takes in the whole field. Longsword, messer, staff, dagger, wrestling, mounted combat and the judicial duel stand side by side — accompanied by illustration on such a scale that for a great many techniques the text can be compared directly with a picture of the stance and the bind. For the practitioner it is the most vivid source the tradition has to offer.
What the edition contains
- The complete manuscript, all 578 pages, without selection or abridgement
- Parallel layout: original wording and translation side by side, folio by folio
- An apparatus of 1,302 notes — readings of the manuscript, variants, connections with the other sources of the tradition
- Glossary of technical terminology with unified forms and variant spellings
- Appendices and indexes
- The illustrations from the original manuscript
Editorial principles
Terminology is neither supplemented nor supplied by conjecture. Uncertain passages are marked and explained in the apparatus, and the German term keeps precedence over a translated equivalent. The facsimiles are reproduced by permission of the Jagiellonian Library.
Who it is for
For practitioners who want to see the technique pictured, not merely described. For instructors looking for a source that covers more than a single weapon. And for researchers, for whom the scale of the apparatus makes it possible to set Goliath against the other witnesses of the tradition.
