The Cologne Fechtbuch is a historical martial arts manual, formerly kept at the Historical Archive of the City of Cologne (Best. 7020, 150; formerly W* 8 150, still earlier W. IX 16, from the collection of Ferdinand Franz Wallraf).
It was lost, presumably destroyed, in the collapse of the building on 3 March 2009.

The manuscript was on paper, bound in page of vellum taken from a 13th century evangeliary.
On 23 folia, it contains combat insctructions in five parts, loosely associated with the German school of fencing

German school of fencing

The German school of fencing is the historical system of combat taught in the Holy Roman Empire in the Late Medieval, Renaissance and Early Modern periods , as described in the Fechtbücher written at the time...

. The language shows influence of the Ripuarian dialect, and it is likely that the manuscript was written in the area of Cologne

Cologne

Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...

 during the early 16th century.

The five parts of the manual deal with the long sword (langes sweerd), unarmed grappling

Grappling

Grappling refers to techniques, maneuvers, and counters applied to an opponent in order to gain a physical advantage, such as improving relative position, escaping, submitting, or injury to the opponent. Grappling is a general term that covers techniques used in many disciplines, styles and martial...

 (ryngen), the messer and dagger

Dagger

A dagger is a fighting knife with a sharp point designed or capable of being used as a thrusting or stabbing weapon. The design dates to human prehistory, and daggers have been used throughout human experience to the modern day in close combat confrontations...

 (degen), the boar spear

Boar spear

A boar spear is a spear used for boar hunting. It is relatively short and heavy and has two "lugs" or "wings" on the spearsocket behind the blade, which act as a barrier to prevent an injured and furious boar from working its way up the shaft of the spear to attack the hunter.The boar spear also...

 (swynspeyß) and the staff

Stick fighting

Stick fighting is a generic term for martial arts which use simple long slender, blunt, hand-held, generally wooden 'sticks' for fighting such as a staff, cane, walking stick, baton or similar....

(stangh), respectively.

The manuscript was edited in facsimile and transcription by Bauer (2009).

Literature

• Matthias Johannes Bauer, Langes Schwert und Schweinespieß. Die Fechthandschrift aus den verschütteten Beständen des Historischen Archivs der Stadt Köln, ADEVA, Graz, 2009.