[Matchlock]

Hi there,


I just found this booklet.

Please note that the illustration is NOT from the Late Gothic/Early Renaissance Age but was only done around 1900.

Thus it cannot be called a historic document (contemporary source of illustration; German: Bildquelle), but in fact is a historizing piece of artwork trying to picture Swiss mercenaries (German: Landsknechte), their costumes and weapons the way they most probably looked 500 years ago.
Still it is mere imagination, and of no real historic value to any serious student or scholar of arms and armor.

It is to put the record perfectly straight, for these two contraries, why I reattached the original and contemporary illustration done by Hans Burgkmair the Elder, in around 1525.

Keeping this difference in mind is important, and BASIC.

Just have a close look at the mercernaries' faces, they way are portrayed in both illustrations:

There is the cool striding 'idealized' hyper patriotic, though at the same time ridiculously proud look as cold as ice - characteristic of the super heroic self-awareness of the 19th through the early 20th centuries; remember it was exactly that state of mind which lead to dictatorships in Europe, and two World Wars.

Then, for contrast, study the weary wrinkled and mercilessly authentic portrayed face of the real, the actual old Landsknecht of the early 16th century: leaning on his footaxe, his right hand barely, and with no strength any more!, touching the grip of his Katzbalger - making us feel the burden of freedom (Kris Kristofferson!) too heavy for his shoulders, and his heart. He is completely consumpted, exhausted from his job: his hard life full of fights and wars finally brought him down. Imagine his body covered with scars - scars are lasting memories; nobody and nothing can ever erase, or heal them. They will be right there on his body, in his mind, in his soul, and in his heart. Until death will rescue, and save him.
The truth is that this mercenary is the personified and cruel outcome of what war is.
He is a winner, and he has proved it - by surviving.

Winners got scars, too - the title of the biography of Johnny Cash, by Christopher S. Wren.

This faded and torn paperback of 1971 has accompanied, and followed me.
Almost everywhere I went, or tried to go.
It's has been on my desk, and on my mind, and it has lived like a song in my soul.
Just like John's and Kris's songs.
For more than 40 years.
My left hand is resting on this book.
Right now.
It soothes the tremor.

And Kris's wonderful album Closer to the Bone of 2009 is on my HiFi system.


Please think about, and feel, the responsibility that all of us have - interested in, and living with/collecting historic arms.
ARMS ARE A HEAVY BURDEN, for reminding us of the real 'nature' of the greedy inhuman humans that we are, the self-acclaimed 'crown of creation' - though humble we should be.


Best as ever,

Michael Trömner
Rebenstr. 9
D-93326 Abensberg
Lower Bavaria, Germany

• Self-established Academic Medievalist
• Graduated from Regensburg University in 1982
• Stipendiary recipient and Member of the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes, Bonn
• Author of BEHÄLTNISSE FÜR KOSTBARES 1500-1700, Verden, 2005
• Member of vikingsword.com, with more than 4.100 threads and posts since 2008
• M. of the Arms & Armour Society, London since 1991 M. of the Gesellschaft für Historische Waffen- und Kostümkunde e.V., Berlin since 1987
• Expertises in European weapons, ironworks and furniture of the 14th through 17th centuries
• Preservation and scientific documentation of museum collections

• Mediävist, Redakteur und Fachjournalist
• Staatsexamen Universität Regensburg, 1982
• Stipendiat und Mitglied der Hochbegabtenförderung Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes, Bonn
• Testredakteur bei STEREO, HIFI exklusiv und FonoForum 1979-1984
• Autor der Monographie BEHÄLTNISSE FÜR KOSTBARES 1500-1700, Verden, 2005
• Mitglied von vikingsword.com mit über 4.100 wiss. Publikationen seit 2008
• M. Arms & Armour Society, London, seit 1991
• M. Gesellschaft für Historische Waffen- und Kostümkunde e.V., Berlin, seit 1987
• Sachverständiger für Waffen, Eisenarbeiten und Möbel des 14. bis 17. Jhs.
• Konservierung, Inventarisierung und wissenschaftliche Dokumentation musealer Sammlungen