The Bavarian State Library Manuscript Cgm 582

The Kunst und Zettel im Messer of Hans Lecküchner

The Cgm 582 is a German fencing manual commissioned by Hans Lecküchner in 1482. The original currently rests in the holdings of Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in München, Germany.

The original binding and covers were discarded in the 1960s; they are reconstructed here based on library descriptions, using a half-pigskin binding with beechwood boards and a blind tooling pattern based on a contemporary half-leather binding from Nürnberg.

This facsimile is printed on cotton rag paper to simulate the texture and handling of Medieval paper, and bound according to the current quire structure. A lower-cost edition with a simplified quire structure and linen-covered pasteboard covers was also produced.

The 275-page Companion Volume can be purchased at a discount when bundled with the facsimile.

Edition size: 300 copies (beech), 50 copies (linen)

linen edition (sold out)
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Funded 1 March 2021.

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Description

Reverend Hans Lecküchner (or Lebkommer; ✝ 1482) was a 15th century German cleric and fencing master. He was born in the Nürnberg area, and in 1455 he was inscribed at the University of Leipzig. In 1457, he received the title of baccalaureus, and he was consecrated as a Catholic acolyte in 1459. At some point before creating his first manuscript in 1478, Lecküchner was consecrated as a priest. From 1480 until his death on December 31, 1482, he was employed as a communal priest in Herzogenaurach, Germany. Lecküchner dedicated his fencing manual to Philip “the Upright” von Wittelsbach, Count Palatine of the Rhine, but the nature of his connection to the elector remains unclear.

Two potential autograph copies of Lecküchner’s treatise are preserved: Heidelberg Cod. Pal. germ. 430, completed in 1478, and this manuscript, completed on 19 January 1482 (less than a year before his death). The latter mentions in the last paragraph that a previous draft had been produced, which was likely the source for the shorter version included by Hans von Speyer in the Salzburg ms. M.Ⅰ.29 in 1491.

Cgm 582 excels these other two contemporary copies of Lecküchner's teachings both in its length—it is half again as long as CPG 430—and in that nearly every page includes a lavish watercolor illustration by an artist from the circle of Michel Wolgemut. Indeed, there is no other 15th century fencing treatise comparable to this manuscript, and it would not be equaled until the writings of Paul Hektor Mayer in the 1540s and Joachim Meyer in the 1560s.

The Bavarian State Library Manuscript Cgm 582

The Kunst und Zettel im Messer of Hans Lecküchner

linen edition (sold out)beech facsimilecompanion volume

$200 $375+$60

Gallery

linen edition (sold out)
beech facsimile
companion volume

$200
$375
+$60