Sigmund Ringeck
Sigmund Ringeck was a 15th century German fencing master, and the author of a fechtbuch, MS Dresd. C 487 preserved in Dresden.
The manuscript consists of 148 folia (22 of them empty). The text is written in two hands. Ringeck is mentioned as schirmaister (fencing master) of the time of Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria, most probably corresponding to Albert III (1401–1460), who carried the title Duke of Bavaria from 1438. The "Peter von Danzig Fechtbuch" of 1452 draws on Ringeck's text, so that the most likely date of composition of Ringeck's fechtbuch is sometime in the 1440s.
Ringeck's manuscript is dependent on Johannes Liechtenauer, and the first testimony following MS 3227a (ca. 1389) after a gap of some 50 years.
An illustrated copy of the manuscript dating to ca. 1539 is also preserved (Sigmund Schining, Cod. I.6.2°.5) The copy may have been commissioned by Paulus Hector Mair, whose hand appears on the first page.
Literature
- David Lindholm & Peter Svard, Sigmund Ringeck's Knightly Art of the Longsword, ISBN 978-1-58160-410-8 (2003).
- David Lindholm & Peter Svard, Sigmund Ringeck's Knightly Art of Combat, ISBN 978-1-58160-499-3 (2006).
- Christian Henry Tobler, Secrets of German Medieval Swordsmanship (2001), ISBN 1-891448-07-2