RÜXNER, Georg.

Thurnier Buch. Von Anfang, Ursachen, Ursprung, und Herkommen, der Thurnier im heyligen Römischen Reich teutscher Nation. Frankfurt on the Main, Georg Rab for S. Feyerabend and S. Hüter, 1566. 3 parts in 1 volume. Folio (31 x 20 cm). With 3 printed title-pages, first title-page printed in red and black with large woodcut; 2 double-page woodcuts (versos blank), 79 woodcut illustrations in the text, woodcut coats of arms on 78 pages, and woodcut printer's device on last leaf. Contemporary pigskin over wooden boards, richly blind-stamped in blind.

      (6), 243, (3); (4), 81 ll. Adams R-877; FairMur (G) 374. Third edition with new cuts throughout and enlarged with a second and third part. The tournament, as it is properly called, appears in Europe in the eleventh century. From its introduction, participation in a tournament was considered to be a sport for men of noble birth, and the participants' lists were jealously closed to all combatants but the members of the privileged classes. The first part of Rüxner's book describes tournaments in Germany and Switzerland from 938 to 1487. Some of these, including the Magdeburg tournament of 938, are fictitious. The author provides information on the tournament laws, the names of the participating nobility, the names and arms of the winners, the prizes, etc. In the German countries, questions about purity of lineage of candidates who applied for admission to a noble chapter, were often settled by an appeal to the fact that an ancestor had taken part in a tournament. The second and third part, both published here for the first time, describe tournaments and games held at Vienna from May 2 to June 24, 1565, and the ceremonial entrance into Bintz of Charles V and his sons on August 22, 1549.The woodcut illustrations in this edition are all new. Some of these are signed I.A. (Jost Amman) including the fine large cut of the tournament of 1565, printed on E4 and repeated on DD6. Other cuts are signed "H.B." and attributed to Hans Bocksperger.Slightly discoloured in places; annotation in ink on first title, partly erased; final blank leaf and flyleaf at the end missing; clasps of binding missing, a bit stained and worn, lower margin of rear cover repaired). A very good copy in a contemporary binding.