Actors, Roles, and Behaviours
Image of Personal Combat in Medieval Fightbooks
Abstract
This paper attempts to look at Fightbooks as literary sources and apply this reasoning to ADVISE reconstruction methodology. First the concepts of Real and Imaginary Worlds is introduced, followed by the distinction between Actors and Roles. Based on descriptions each Actor and Role can be assigned a set of Actions, Decisions, Intentions and Goals that constitute their Behaviours. Depending on Perspective, such Behaviours can be divided into Expected and Unexpected.
Reconstruction is then looked at as an effort to gain deeper insight into described Roles and Actors through enacting of their Behaviours. Applying these concepts to ADVISE methodology allows for more nuanced and stricter process by focusing on Actions in Phase 1 and Decisions in Phase 2. Phase 5 introduces formal set theory notation that allows for a consistent high-level reasoning about the content of recorded message. Discussion addresses potential criticisms and further applications of this approach, demonstrating how it can bring more clarity to the whole process, especially when it comes to properly defining future experiments.
References
New York, Morgan Library & Museum, MS M.383 (c. 1400s)
Nuremberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Hs 3227a (c. 1389)
Rome, Biblioteca dell’Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei e Corsiniana, Cod.44.A.8 (c. 1452)
Anglo, Sydney, The Martial Arts of Renaissance Europe (Yale University Press, 2000)
Burkart, Eric, ‘Limits of Understanding in the Study of Lost Martial Arts: Epistemological Reflections on the Mediality of Historical Records of Technique and the Status of Modern (Re-)Constructions’, Acta Periodica Duellatorum, 4 (2016)
Hils, Hans-Peter, ‘Gladiatoria: Über Drei Fechthandschriften Aus Der Ersten Hälfte Des 15. Jahrhunderts.’, Codices Manuscripti, 13 (1987), 1–54
Jaquet, Daniel, ‘9 Experimenting Historical European Martial Arts, a Scientific Method?’ (Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2016), pp. 216–43
Jaquet, Daniel, Alice Bonnefoy-Mazure, Stéphane Armand, Caecilia Charbonnier, Jean-Luc Ziltener, and Bengt Kayser, ‘Range of Motion and Energy Cost of Locomotion of the Late Medieval Armoured Fighter: Confronting the Medieval Technical Literature with Modern Movement Analysis’, Historical Methods A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History, 49 (2016), 1–18
Spatz, Ben, ‘What a Body Can Do: Technique as Knowledge, Practice as Research’, What a Body Can Do: Technique as Knowledge, Practice as Research, 2015, 1–280
Stuhler, Oscar, ‘What’s in a Category? A New Approach to Discourse Role Analysis’, Measure Mohr Culture, 88 (2021), 101568
Talaga, Maciej, and Szymon Talaga, ‘Do You Even Zornhaw? A Set-Theoretic Approach to HEMA Reconstruction’, Acta Periodica Duellatorum, 6 (2018), 151–81
Talaga, Maciej, ‘Crowdsourcing w Służbie Archeologii Wiedzy? Perspektywy Integracji Pracy Naukowców i Amatorów Na Przykładzie Rekonstrukcji Historycznych Sztuki Walki’, 2019, pp. 141–61
Talaga, Maciej, ‘Getting Medieval on the Body. Preliminary Results of an Autoethnographic Study on Late-Medieval Fitness’, The Past Has a Future! 2nd Scientific Conference of the Faculty of Archaeology, 2021, pp. 48–9
Talaga, Maciej, Krzysztof Janus, and Jakub Wrzalik, ‘Archaeology of Motion. Experiencing the Past through Embodiment’, Historyka : Studia Metodologiczne, 51 (2021), 157–81
Verelst, Karin, Timothy Dawson, and Daniel Jaquet, ‘2 Introduction’ (Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2016), pp. 7–27
Walczak, Bartłomiej, ‘Bringing Lost Teachings Back To Life – a Proposed Method for Interpretation of Medieval and Renaissance Fencint Manuals’, Ido Movement for Culture, Vol. 11 no. 2 (2011), pp. 47-54
Welle, Rainer, ‘...Und Wisse Das Alle Höbischeit Kompt von Deme Ringen’: Der Ringkampf Als Adelige Kunst Im 15. Und 16. Jahrhundert : Eine Sozialhistorische Und Bewegungsbiographische Interpretation Aufgrund Der Handschriftlichen Und Gedruckten Ringlehren Des Spätmittelalters, Forum Sozialgeschichte (Pfaffenweiler: Centaurus-Verlagsgesellschaft, 1993)
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Bartlomiej Walczak
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.