Nuremberg Tournament Book

Tournaments were the classical spectator sport of the Middle Ages. Participation was reserved for knights and in time it became a jealously guarded privilege to be considered 'turnierfahig', i.e. a member of a noble family that could prove to have participated in tournaments for generations. Lists of participants and score records were kept by heralds, the professional organizers of a tournament. Excerpts from these official records were often, as expressions of family pride, adapted in luxuriously illuminated manuscripts such as this fine sixteenth century German 'Turnierbuch' at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Illustrated manuscripts recording tournaments and other festivals were quite popular as means of preserving for posterity the pageantry and prowess displayed in celebrated events. This manuscript comprises over 126 illustrations in watercolour of tournaments and parades held in Nuremberg in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. General Introduction followed by extensive page-by-page commentary.Nickel, Helmut is the author of 'Nuremberg Tournament Book' with ISBN 9782503512402 and ISBN 2503512402.