i.33, The Tower Fechtbuch, the Walpurgis Fechtbuch - whatever you want to call it - is a fascinating if misunderstood fencing book. Dating to around 1300 AD (+ or - 20 years), it predates other texts we use in HEMA by 100 years or more. For comparison, Fiore di Libre's Flower of Battle dates from around 1405(ish), and Joachim Meyer's works date to the 1560s and 1570s.
I.33 (one-thirty three, it's former library reference number in the Royal Armouries) is a beautiful book containing several dozen illustrations of a priest/cleric (a fight master) and his student training in the use of sword and buckler. The text that accompanies these images describes what is going on. However, the images (being from the early 14th Century) are not drawn in perspective or anatomically correct, and the text can be cryptic unless you know the system of fighting it is trying to describe. There seem to be as many interpretations of i.33 as there are practitioners of it. Contrast that to Joachim Meyer's Longsword, where there seems to be much more agreement among practitioners.
I created a complete (more or less) guide to each of the i33 plays. I released these as 20-something blog posts in 2023 and early 2024. This guide was based on my own interpretation, which itself was heavily influenced by the works of Andrew Kenner (I33 Fencing in the Style of the Walpurgis Manuscript 2nd edition: Amazon.co.uk: Kenner, Andrew: 9781326642044: Books), Guy Windsor (I33 Sword and Buckler - Swordschool) and Federico Malagutti (Andre Lignitzer - 1st Buckler Play - YouTube, Sword and Buckler playlist). I've also watched other i.33 videos on YouTube, including those from Roland Warzecha, Dave Rawlings and various older videos. My interpretation varied from other practitioners, but I mean no disrespect, and at the end of the day we will never know whose interpretation is right or wrong - do what works for you.
My thanks to these, and many other, HEMA practitioners and scholars who worked to translate and interpret i.33.
Download it here:
In 2025 I decided to remove the individual blog posts and to simply provide a PDF containing the complete interpretation. Thanks to Jonathan Allen (Grauenwolf) for taking the time to compile my blog posts into a single document:
Disclaimer
I do not believe that my interpretation of i33 in this guide is correct. I wrote this to teach me i33. I think it provides a lot of information that will help people to understand how the plays in i33 can be performed (as it did for me) and will help people to understand the manuscript, however I do not expect the method of fencing described to be highly practical or martial. In short, I think we can do better, and I hope to create a new interpretation in future.
I have opted to remove the majority of my blog posts and release this as a single guide because my posts were being picked up by search engines quite heavily. I do not want to 'clog up' the search engines unless I am happy that the interpretation I have provided is of high enough quality.
So cool, I already got a manual about I.33 but this will be very helpful for further explanation/interpretation
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