Beschreibung:

[Schmidt, Johann Andreas]. [Leib-beschirmende und Feinden trotz-bietende Fecht-Kunst, oder, Leicht und getreue Anweisung auf Stoss und Hieb zierlich und sicher zu fechten : nebst einem curieusen Unterricht vom Voltigiren und Ringen, deutlich und gründlich beschrieben..., 1st edition, Nuremberg: Johann Christoph Weigel 1713], [12], 376pp., initial 10 pages lacking (i.e. without portrait frontispiece, title, and preliminary leaves), 72 full-page engraved illustrations and 12 engraved plates, some show-through, occasional spotting and minor marks, tips of upper outer blank corners to few leaves slightly trimmed (where previously frayed?), pencil scribbles to fore-edge blank margin of page 272, upper blank margins of rear third of leaves with single & double worm holes, modern brown morocco, oblong 8vo (9.6 x 16.7 cm) (Qty: 1) Provenance: The Leon Paul Library of Fencing. Thimm p.260; Pardoel 2365. The collation of a complete example is [22],376pp. Besides fencing, the engravings show gymnastic training on the horse and various wrestling techniques. Johann Andreas Schmidt was a German fencing master born circa 1650 in Marienberg, Germany. Sometime after 1671 (or after 1675), he studied fencing under the fencing master Johann Georg and Johannes Georgius Bruchius in Amsterdam. Schmidt's impressive fencing abilities were illustrated by a story that in 1712, as a result of a bet of 10 ducats, armed only with a stick, he took on "six strong farmers" in Altdorf in the area of Nuremberg and defeated them all, thus winning the bet. The following year, in 1713, he established his own fencing school in Nuremberg. In 1721 Georg Wilhelm von Brandenburg-Bayreuth (1678-1726) the ruler of Bayreuth appointed Schmidt as a Page Fencing Master following the successful defeat and disarming of two fencing masters. He was awarded the appointment as a Page Fencing Master with a wage of 1,000 guilders. After the death of his patron probably after 1726, Schmidt returned to Nuremberg to continue his teachings. He then moved to teach in both Stuttgart and finally in Tübingen, where he died.