Short Summary
My name is Michael Chidester. I started with HEMA in 2001, and since 2009 I've been working on a project that should be familiar to all of you, the Wiktenauer (you can blame that name on Jake Norwood). Over the past five years and change we've become the unofficial library of historical European martial arts treatises from the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries, and we're currently making inroads into the 17th. If you've missed out so far, check out that link before going further.
Maintaining and expanding this project is a volunteer effort that consumes many hundreds of hours a year, both from me and sysadmin Christian Trosclair, but hosting it is also quite expensive—and the costs increase each year. We initially funded it out of pocket, and then in 2011 convinced the HEMA Alliance to cover our costs.
Last year, we decided to try something new and held a fundraising drive. I hoped to raise $500 to cover hosting and registration, but the response was overwhelming. Ultimately we raised $3,611.93, over seven times what we asked for. We were completely unprepared for this level of funding, but I quickly started drawing up battle plans.
Where once paying for the digitization of manuscripts and books involved either finding a wealthy benefactor or passing the hat around and convincing HEMA researchers to pool funds, for the first time in 2014 we were able to begin unilaterally commissioning scans and getting permission to host them directly on the wiki.
Our acquisitions over the course of the last year included:
This year we're hoping to see an even greater outpouring of support because we have a number of very interesting projects lined up.
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Rapiers with secondary weapons from Michael Hundt's Ein new Kůnstliches Fechtbuch im Rappier (1611).
What We Need & What You Get
In addition to our manuscripts acquisitions, funds from last year's drive allowed us to double our server resources. This year we'd like to double them again, and also add other server functionality that Christian assures me is necessary. That's going to come out to about $1500. If we exceed this goal, we lay out what we plan to do in the next section. (Spoiler alert: it ends with purchasing scans of the manuscript that Salvator Fabris prepared for Duke Johan Frederik of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp in 1601.)
To encourage donations, I've talked with a lot of people about what sorts of perks we might offer (since all of the fruits of our labor are typically given away for free). We've come up with a number of ideas, including the following:
Patches and shirts: We just got a great new logo last month, so it's time we put it to use. John Harmston is playing with designs as we speak.
Digital scans: People often ask for easier ways to download the scans we host on the Wiktenauer, since wikis don't really have easy export options. Choose a funding level with this perk and I will prepare a bundle of scans that you can download (or, if you prefer, I'll send you a DVD). You can request the list of scans that we acquired in 2014 (see above), you can defer your order until we've purchased all of the promised 2015 scans and have them all sent to you in a nice package, or you can order off the menu and receive up to 2 GB of scans from any that are hosted on the Wiktenauer (or that indicate that they will be hosted in the future).
E-books: The huge compilation tables that you see on Wiktenauer got their start long before the wiki was a twinkle in Ben Michels' eye. I created the first of them in an effort to build the most complete versions of treatises possible for my students to study. To make them easier to work from, I arranged them into study books where each page presented the chief variations of a single play—the training guides that I wished I had but that no one had published (and which still haven't been published to this day).
I will take both of these documents, update them with the current translations on the wiki (including some being prepared specifically for this project) and the superior images available now, check the associations and sequence of the compilation against the current articles, and release them in three PDFs—one of Liechtenauer, two of Fiore (preface, grappling, baton, and dagger in one; sword, axe, spear, and mounted in the other).
- The Liechtenauer book is 336 pages long and includes translations by Michael Chidester, Mike Rasmusson, David Rawlings, Thomas Stoeppler, Christian Tobler, Christian Trosclair, and Cory Winslow. Here is the description from the book jacket:
"Drawing on the manuscript scans, transcriptions, and translations hosted by Wiktenauer, this book offers the first ever compilation of the 15th century glosses of Johannes Liechtenauer's famous Recital. Each page contains a single play of the long sword or short sword, carefully laid out with the relevant glosses of Sigmund ain Ringeck, Peter von Danzig, Pseudo-Peter von Danzig, and Pseudo-Hans Döbringer side by side, and where applicable illustrated with gorgeous full-color scans from the Goliath Fechtbuch, the Glasgow Fechtbuch, and the treatises of Paulus Kal and Hans Talhoffer. In this way, it offers the most complete perspective possible on the tradition of Johannes Liechtenauer as it was recorded in the mid 15th century."
- The Fiore books are 282 and 288 pages long (respectively) and include translations by Kendra Brown, Michael Chidester, Rebecca Garber, Colin Hatcher, and Guy Windsor—including the first-ever English translation of the Paris manuscript. Here is the description from the book jacket:
"Drawing on the manuscript scans, transcriptions, and translations hosted by Wiktenauer, this book offers the first ever compilation of the four known copies of the treatise of Fiore de'i Liberi. Each page contains a single play—of grappling, baton, dagger, or sword vs. dagger in volume I, and of sword, axe, spear, or mounted fencing in volume II—carefully laid out with the relevant translations and high-resolution scans from the Morgan Ms. M.303, the Getty Ms. Ludwig XV 13, the BnF Ms. Latin 11269, and Novati's 1902 facsimile of the Pisani Dossi Ms. In this way, it offers the most complete version possible of Fiore's teachings."
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Printed books: I will take the three e-books I just described, have them printed up in color and spiral bound (so they lay flat), and ship them out. If you get a printed book, you will also receive the e-book version for use on computers.
To be clear, these books (in digital and print form) are a repackaging of content currently on the Wiktenauer, no more, no less. The e-book you receive will match the text of the Wiktenauer articles, just organized in a way that may facilitate study (and any corrections I make in finishing the books will also be made in said articles).
Also to be clear, neither the print book nor the e-book will ever go on sale anywhere else. Wiktenauer is not, at this time, in the publishing industry and we don't have a store. The number of books we're planning to make is capped at 94, and we'll only increase that number if demand is overwhelming. If you don't pick one up in this fundraiser, you'll have to hope that we offer a similar deal next year.
Wiktenauer Sponsor: We will place your club or school logo and a link to your website on the front page of the wiki. We will also help you promote any activities of your group over the next year that are within the scope of our mission (historical research and manual study).
Stretch Goals
If we exceed our initial goal, and I hope we will, then we've lined up ten
manuscripts that we'd like to purchase in the coming year. (These are all digital scans, except for Pozzo which is scanned from microfilm.) Here they are with their funding thresholds:
$1500 - Success! Server costs covered for 2015
$1600 - The Nuremberg ("Döbringer") Hausbuch (MS. 3227a)
$1800 - Girolamo Cavalcabo's original Italian manuscript (Ms. Italien 1527)
$2100 - 1580 English translation of Paride del Pozzo (Ms. V.b.104)
$2500 - The Jud Lew manuscript (Cod. I.6.4º.3)
$3000 - Giovanni Antonio Lovino's manuscript (Ms. Italien 959)
$3700 - Angelo Viggiani's manuscript (Cod. 10723)
$4800 - Captain Peloquin's manuscript (Ms. KB.73.J.39)
$6400 - The 1443/Gotha version of Talhoffer (Ms. Chart. A. 558)
$8500 - Choose your own adventure:
$11500 - The Copenhagen manuscript of Salvator Fabris (Ms. GKS 1868/r)
These are all important and significant treatises, but the last one is a treasure that all students of Fabris (and anyone who loves manuscripts) would love to see. The presentation copy of his famous book is a beautiful illuminated manuscript fit for a king—though it was, in fact, made for the king's cousin Duke Johan Frederik—and might also contain content not found in the printed version. Unfortunately, the Royal Library is asking a king's ransom to have it scanned, so we have to save it for last. (If we wildly exceed all expectations, the figure they quoted for archival-quality digital scans of the manuscript converts to roughly $16,000.)
We've calculated these numbers to not only cover the cost of the scans, but to also pay for the boons we're offering as well as leaving us some extra funding at the end of the day for other projects (and possibly even more wiggle room if the Euro stays depressed through the end of February, since these figures are based on the currency value at the start of the year); new manuscripts are being discovered all the time and the last thing we want is to have a pivotal treatise come to light only when we've exhausted our funds and can't bring it to the community.
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Risks & Challenges
Wiktenauer is a well-established project at this stage and has a proven track record of delivering content to the community. I've personally been organizing the purchase of manuscript scans for the community since I started the Gladiatoria Project in 2008.
The only real risk is that the libraries and museums we've contacted will fail to honor the price quotes they sent us, in which case we might come up short of money on the last purchases.
The other risk is that I could be plowed down by a bus tomorrow or killed in a blizzard in today, but in that case I hope you fine people will carry on the work in my stead.
Other Ways You Can Help
The fundraiser will run for three weeks, until the middle of February. If you don't have money to donate right now, we understand; times are hard all around. You can still help by getting the word out and sending others our way. Post the link everywhere links get posted (like... social media... places), tell the members of your club, share it with your loved ones, and so on.
And above all, keep reading and keep training. The Wiktenauer isn't an end in itself, so whether you donate or not, we hope you're making use of this resource in every way you can think of. HEMA runs on manuals, and we're just here to provide the fuel.
