Up is down: some hypotheses on how to interpret perspective in MS I.33’s illustrations

Abstract

The oldest known European fight book, Royal Armouries MS I.33 has puzzled scholars and sword fighting enthusiasts alike with its occasionally strange looking illustrations. This paper argues that some of them contain multiple view planes or perspectives ‘folded’ into one, as it also occurs elsewhere in contemporary Gothic manuscript painting. To the modern observer who has no first-hand experience of the type of sword fighting depicted, these specialised drawing conventions are difficult to identify and, consequently, to decode. By comparing ostensibly similar situations as they are illustrated in later fight books that employ different artistic means, this paper suggests a new way of looking at I.33’s illustrations that could be relevant beyond the examples discussed here.