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

The Codex Wallerstein is one of the best known of the late medieval fencing treatises still in existence. Though perhaps not as widely known as Talhoffer 1467 or Flos Duellatorum, it is just as important to students of the Western martial arts. Originally written in Middle High German during the late 14th and early 15th centuries, the Codex Wallerstein has long been available to scholars in microfilm format from Augusburg University. Now with the publication of this book, the text and drawings are available to scholars and martial artists in the original Middle High German, as well as in Modern German and English translations. The translations were provided by Grzegorz Zabinski, with assistance from Bartlomiej Walczak, two of the most esteemed interpreters of medieval combat in the world. The codex offers a series of fundamental counters to common attacks, using the longsword, falchion and dagger, as well as the complete system of wrestling techniques. In this work the reader will find a great deal of instruction on thrusting at or closing in against an opponent, expanding Master Johannes Liechtenauer's art of longsword combat. For martial artists, medievalists, historians or anyone with an interest in historical arms or self-defense, Codex Wallerstein is sure to become an invaluable reference.

Grzegorz Zabinski is a medievalist from Upper Silesia in Poland. Apart from medieval and early Renaissance military history and martial arts, his fields of interest include problems of medieval social and economic history, with special reference to the Cistercian order. He is currently working on a Ph.D. dissertation on early 16th-century comments on the swordsmanship treatise of Johannes Liechtenauer.