This post is mainly meant to summarize the current state of my research on the link between medieval martial practice and esotericism. I want to use it for both selfish and generally informative purposes. Selfish, because I can use it to get my current lines of thought in a little more coherent shape, and maybe build a base to springboard my thesis off of. Generally informative, because I believe my topic is a genuinely interesting side of HEMA research, and underdeveloped topic within a deeply underdeveloped academic genre.
My interest in the link between HEMA and esotericism began when I had to pick a topic for my Bachelor's Thesis in Religious Studies. I figured I'd pick a topic that involves something you like investing large amounts of time in, so swordfighting wasn't that far around the corner. The main guideline for the thesis topic was that it had to have some kind of connection to magic and/or witchcraft. I happened to recall an online discussion that mentioned the swordfighting instructor Hans Talhoffer had some kind of connection to Kabbalah, so I thought that was as close as I was going to get. Some research got me scans, photocopies and transcriptions of most of Talhoffer's manuscripts, and while looking through them I got two surprises. First, there was no real Kabbalah in there to speak of. One of the two manuscripts had a Hebrew alphabet, yes, and some other Hebrew scribbles, but that was about it. However, there was quite a bit of other very interesting material there to work with. One of the manuscripts, for instance, contained all sorts of devices for predicting the outcome of a duel through combing the letter-value of the names of the combatants with the date and time of the fight, a particularly rare kind of divination called onomancy. Another manuscript was filled with strange illustrations of all sorts of machinery, semi-alchemistic recipes, and, on top of that, a whole chapter devoted to astrology and physiology, complete with Medieval humoral teachings. In short, I had more than enough material to devote a thesis to.
My main working question revolved around trying to figure out why, exactly, Hans Talhoffer decided to combine these esoteric elements with his seemingly more down-to-earth fighting arts instruction. While I never quite came up with a conclusive answer to that, the work did serve as a gateway to other manuals combining esotericism and swordsmanship in similar ways. For instance, along the way I discovered that another swordfighting manual, the Hs. 3227a, also called the Codex Döbringer, contained what a catalog entry called "astrological texts, magical and medicinal recipes, onomatomancy". Here was another manuscript combining onomancy and swordfighting! I would have loved to include an analysis of the particular kind of onomancy contained within the Döbringer manuscript, but unfortunately, as opposed to the Talhoffer manuscripts, no transcription or translation of the relevant folio's could be found. In fact, I had quite a bit of trouble getting a hold of good quality scans of the relevant folio's, let alone a transcription. This meant I would have to do the painstaking work of transcribing and translating a particularly tricky passage of a hard to read manuscript myself, with no experience in such matters. Did I mention that, while the sections of the manuscript were in German, the esoteric bits were in Latin? Clearly, a compare and contrast of Talhoffer and Döbringer were quite beyond the scope of a Bachelor's thesis.
So, I figured I'd continue my research during my Master's program. I have now had roughly two years of a Research Master behind me, and this is what I have so far. After quite a bit more work than I anticipated, I was able to transcribe the section containing the onomancy. I wasn't exactly sure which folio contained the relevant information, so I had to transcribe around fifteen pages. Then, after taking a course in Medieval Latin, I attempted to sort through the raw data. Besides the onomancy, which turned out to be roughly two paragraphs of quite a bit more primitive devices than the ones contained in the Talhoffer manual, the pages contained a great variety of other hugely interesting material. A brief overview should give an idea of the nature of the texts. For instance, a table connecting the four humors, the four seasons, the four elements, and the four stages of a man's life, in various ways. Or, a poem describing the different months, with their nature or the activities one undertakes during that time. A few medicinal recipes, for instance a drink that purportedly gets rid of a tapeworm. The previously mentioned onomancy. My personal favorite section, however, is a copy of an alchemical manual called the Liber Vaccae, or the Book of the Cow. This rare and historically quite demonized book contains a variety of what can only be described as scientific experiments of a generally quite gruesome, visceral nature. For instance, one experiment describes an application of the Medieval scientific principle of spontaneous generation by transforming a dead calf into a swarm of bees, or vice versa. The procedure is quite complex, and involves beating the calf to a pulp with a black dog's penis and I am not even kidding. Another experiment describes the creation of a homunculus by impregnating an unidentified animal with various herbs and stones, sealing up all its bodily orifices, and storing it in a dark place. After this, it's stomach is cut open, and the resulting product can be used to produce all sorts of miraculous effects, among which control over the weather, invincibility and invisibility.
So, with this material in hand, my plan for this year is to finally compare and contrast Talhoffer and Döbringer. there are a number of questions I would like to have answered. Who were these men who wrote these books? What was their education like, or their social context? What caused them to be interested in both martial arts and esoteric topics. Were these interests related in any way? Did Talhoffer, perhaps, have entirely different reasons for including the material than Döbringer? Of course, perhaps not all of these questions are answerable, and new questions might arise during the coming months. This is, however, where I stand right now. It's kind of exciting, really, as I believe no one has ever done this kind of research, at least, not that I'm aware of. It can also be kind of lonely though, so if anyone is working on the same kind of thing I'd very much like to hear about it.
Future posts will probably go into more detail, but I hope this was of interest to those already involved in HEMA, but perhaps unaware of this side of it.
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