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The I.33 manuscript (also called Walpurgis (cf. fol. 32) or Tower Fechtbuch; Tower of London manuscript I.33, Royal library Museum, British Museum No. 14 E iii, No. 20, D. vi., ink and water colour on parchment) is the oldest Fechtbuch preserved. It was created in Germany around 1290; it may therefore be considered as still dating from the age of the crusades. The technique presented is one of two unarmoured opponents fencing with a one-handed sword and a buckler. This, together with the intriguing fact that the fencers depicted are a monk and a 'scholar'/pupil (and on the last two pages, a monk and a woman), seems to suggest that the subject matter treated is not one of warlike or knightly fighting, but rather an art of self-defense outside the warrior class. Also, the drawings are in an unbloody and relaxed style, giving the impression that already, we have here an art of fencing that is in no direct relation with serious fights to the death, but rather a kind of hobby of a monk. Repeatedly, the text makes mention of the pupils (scolaris; discipulus4r, 4v) - or the youths (iuvenis, fol. 9v) or clients (clientulum, fol. 4r, 12v, 13r) of the priest. It seems, therefore, that a monk, possibly a retired knight, was offering fencing lessons to young noblemen. The drawings appear to have been made by a different person (cf. fol. 23r), but the author of the text could be the instructor himself -- in any case, remarkably often in the text, when the priest appears in a position of disadvantage, it is stressed, that this happened purposedly for pedagogical reasons. (eg. fol. 10v; but the author could of course still be different from the actual scribe, possibly a secretary to the bishop of Würzburg, see below).