The first known reference to Talhoffer is in 1433, when he represented
Johann II von Reisberg,
archbishop of Salzburg, before the
Vehmic court. Shortly thereafter in 1434, Talhoffer was arrested and questioned by order of
Wilhelm von Villach (a footman to
Albrecht III von Wittelsbach, duke of Bavaria) in connection to the trial of a
Nuremberg aristocrat named
Jacob Auer, accused of murdering of his brother. Auer's trial was quite controversial and proved a major source of contention and regional strife for the subsequent two years. Talhoffer himself remained in the service of the archbishop for at least a few more years, and in 1437 is mentioned as serving as a
bursary officer (
Kastner) in
Hohenburg. The 1440s saw the start of Talhoffer's career as a professional fencing master. His first fencing manuscript, the Ms. Chart.A.558, was a personal reference book created in ca. 1443. The fencing manual portion is largely text-less and it may have been designed as a visual aid for use in teaching; in addition to these illustrations, it also contains an astrological treatise and a version of
Konrad Kyeser's famous war book
Bellifortis. Most significant among the noble clients that Talhoffer served in this period was the
Königsegg family of southern Germany, and some time between 1446 and 1459 he produced the Ms. XIX.17-3 for this family. This work depicts a judicial duel being fought by
Luithold von Königsegg as well as the training that Talhoffer gave him in preparation, but it seems that this duel never actually took place. Talhoffer's name appears again in the records of the city of
Zürich in 1454, where he was chartered to teach fencing in some capacity and to adjudicate judicial duels. The account notes that a fight broke out among his students and had to be settled in front of the
city council, resulting in various fines. He seems to have passed through
Emerkingen later in the 1450s, where he was contracted to train the brothers David and Buppellin vom Stain; he also produced the Ms. 78.A.15 for them, a significantly expanded version of the Königsegg manuscript. In 1459, Talhoffer commissioned the Ms. Thott.290.2º, a new personal fencing manual along the same lines as his 1443 work but expanded with additional content and captioned throughout. He appears to have continued instructing throughout the 1460s, and in 1467 he produced his final manuscript, the Cod. icon. 394a, for another of his noble clients,
Eberhardt I von Württemberg. This would be his most comprehensive work, and the count paid 10
Guilder as well as quantities of rye and oats for the finished work. While only a few facts are known about Talhoffer's life, this has not stopped authors from conjecture. The presence of the
Lion of St. Mark in Talhoffer's 1459 coat of arms (right) has given rise to speculation that he may have been an early member or even a founder of the
Frankfurt-am-Main-based
Marxbrüder fencing guild, though there is no record of their existence prior to 1474. Additionally, much has been made of the fact that Talhoffer's name doesn't appear in
Paulus Kal's list of members of the
Society of Liechtenauer. While some have speculated that this indicates rivalry or ill-will between the two contemporaries, Kal's list seems to be a memorial to masters who were already deceased, so it is more likely that Talhoffer was simply still alive in ca. 1470 (just three years after writing his final treatise). == Works ==