I.33 (at least the images) can be found here: Walpurgis Fechtbuch (MS I.33) ~ Wiktenauer, the world's largest library of HEMA books and manuscripts ~☞ Insquequo omnes gratuiti fiant
A copy of the book can be purchased from the Royal Armouries (I.33 collection – Royal Armouries) but a free translation has been bandying around for years. Here is one (Microsoft Word - I.33 Text.doc (aemma.org)). The version I'm working from is from Joey Nitti: NEW Translation of MS I.33 | HEMA Study (wordpress.com). Thanks Joey!
I.33 contains around 60 pages of images with accompanying text. The images were drawn first and the text added later. The text explains what is happening in the images, but also talks about other actions not shown in the images (occasionally saying things like 'this is not depicted in the image because of an error by the artist').
The basic structure of i.33 is as follows:
The first few pages describe the 7 possible wards that a trained or untrained person using a sword and buckler can make. These include positions with the sword under the buckler arm, over the left shoulder, over the right shoulder, over the head, etc. Most of these wards are open-wards, i.e. with sword held back ready to make a strike or thrust.
Then, for each of these 7 wards (plus a few 'bonus' wards at the end), one or more counter-wards are presented, either being performed by the 'priest' or by the 'student'. Various images are presented in sequence and these broadly follow the 6 stages of the fight I described in my last post: Home | Hema 101 (stuartking84.wixsite.com) . However, the images do not follow these 6 stages perfectly or in totality, i.e. some stages are depicted later, and some wards have less content than others. For example, many grappling actions are depicted towards the end, and some sequences are repeated.
To the left of some images is a cross. This cross depicts the start of a new sequence. Therefore, a sequence of images that follow a cross should be seen like a 'comic strip' of actions.
We don't know why i.33 was written, who it was for, or what it's purpose was. It is likely that it is a training manual, as the fighters in the images are smiling and never seem to hurt each other (thrusts often pass to the side of the opponent, and strikes end before they hit the opponent). Therefore, actions depicted in the book may depict simulated attacks rather than real attacks.
When learning the i.33 system, there are two approaches.
Learn one ward and one counter-ward at a time, then learn all (up to) 6 parts for that combination.
Learn one ward and one counter-ward, and just the first 1 or 2 parts of the fight, then do the same for the other wards. Then go back and learn other parts of the fight for that ward/counter-ward, then the next, and so on.
My approach will likely be a combination of the two, focusing firstly on two similar wards and similar counter-wards (one for the left, one for the right), before exploring other counter-wards and wards. This should demonstrate the asymmetrical nature of i.33 - i.e. because the buckler is always in one hand and the sword in the other, there are differences in the fight depending on which side of your opponent you are attacking.
In the next post, we will look at the basics of i.33 - the stance and footwork (i.e. how to hold yourself and the weapons), the 7 wards, what you can do from them.
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