Johannes Liechtenauer

9v): The Zettel were apparently intended as a list of mnemonic aids to help the student remember concepts he had been taught orally.

The Zettel are organized as follows: The general introduction is ethical as well as practical and begins as follows: Jung Ritter lere / got lip haben / frawen io ere / So wechst dein ere / Uebe ritterschaft und lere / Kunst dy dich czyret / vnd in krigen sere hofiret / Young knight, learn to love God and honour women, so grows your honour; practice chivalry and learn art which adorns you and will glorify you in battle.

[5] In addition to the Zettel on mounted fencing, several treatises in the Liechtenauer tradition include a group of twenty-six "figures"—single line abbreviations of select couplets and quatrains that seem to summarize them.

Thus, it may be that the figures are a mnemonic that represent the initial stage of mounted fencing instruction, and that the full verse was learned only afterward.

It is unclear if this was ever a formal organization or what its nature might have been; however, it is commonly speculated that the list is a memorial to deceased students and associates of the grand master.

[8] Of particular interest is the international nature of the list, including masters from present-day Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, and Poland, which parallels the statement in the MS 3227a that Liechtenauer himself traveled to many lands to learn the art.

Candidate locations called Lichtenau (in red) and places of origin of members of the Society of Liechtenauer (in yellow) in 14th-century Central Europe (following Massmann 1844).