Period manuscripts that contain images and instruction in the fighting arts of Europe exist from the 1300’s onward. These manuscripts show armored and unarmored fighting with bare hands as well as a variety of weapons, both mounted and on foot. Besides time of authorship, these sources can be broken down into region and language, with sources being broadly categorized as “German”, “Italian”, “Spanish”, “English”, etc. In many cases a variety of dialects within these categories was used.

The “Kunst des Fechtens” (Art of Fencing/KdF) is the tradition commonly called “German” fencing.

The father of the Kunst des Fechtens tradition is considered to be Johannes Lichtenauer, who may or may not have been a singular historical fighting master of the 14th or 15th century. He is attributed with a “Zettel” (poem) about fighting both mounted and on foot. Later masters of this tradition wrote “glosses”, which are texts that explain and expand on the lessons in Lichtenaur’s zettel.

Masters of the KdF that were (or claimed to be) working from Lichtenaur’s teachings are named in a “Fellowship of Lichtenauer” by Paulus Kal, a mid-to-late 15th century fencing master, and Lichtenauer’s teaching continued to be influential in these later masters as well as the fencing guilds that arose around Germany in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Contained within the greater KdF tradition is a sub-form called rossfecten (ridden fighting) covering mounted techniques in the manuscripts. Various details of the specific combat movements or “plays” occupy both the mounted and unmounted portions of the manuscripts.
Ridden techniques must account for the horse’s head and neck, the use of quadripedal (four-legged) foot work, man-horse communication, and stability/power generation alterations for the combatants. Mair’s work lacks detail on the training and control of mounts, but the mid-16th century Italian maneggiare tradition provides foundational horsemanship knowledge for rossfecten in Augsburg.

The tradition of artful riding flourished in Italy in the 16th century and spread from there throughout Europe. Englishman Thomas Blundville states ”“This Italian word Maneggiare is as much to say in English as to handle with skill, as when we say he can handle his horse or weapon very well…”(1560). The riding culture of the Italian city states spread first as an oral tradition carried scholars who studied in Italy and returned home to share the tradition in their home countries. Later as Italian riding masters created manuscripts, the scholars could translate and adapt the written Italian treatises (Tomasini, 2014).

Federico Grisone (1507-1570) started a riding academy in Naples in 1523. There he trained riders from across Europe. In 1550 he published Gli Ordini de cavelcare. Between 1550 and 1620 there were 23 editions published in Italian. His treatise also spread across Europe with translations produced in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and German. There were 3 German language translations produced between 1553 and 1570 (Tobey, 2014).

Joseph Hochstetter of Augsburg wrote Des edlen hochberumbten rittermassigen Manns Friderici Grissoni Neapolitanus berchreibung rutterlichen tugennt der Reutterey wahre gerechte ordnungen vnd lehren die Pferdt in 1560 (Michigan State University Library Collection) and is attributed with a 1563 version of the manuscript in the holdings of Heidelburg University. These two manuscripts predate any printed copies. The 1560 version is said to be the basis for the first printed German edition (Tobey, 2014)

Matthaus Frank, also of Augsburg, published the first printed German language translation Ordini, Des Edlen Hochberumblen and Rittermessigen Friderici Grisonis Kunstliche beschreibung die Pferdt geschickt and volklkommen zumachen in 1566. Vait Tuft and Hans Froehlich prepared the work which included Grissone’s four books and an additional fifth book discussing breeding farm managment and addessing veterinary subjects (Cuneo, 2008).