Wygand Brack's Chronic Illness
A decade of sickness for Meyer's top student
Wygand Brack the tailor and fechtmeister was Joachim Meyer’s protegé and most prolific student, requesting over 35 fechtschul during a 20 year career in Strasbourg. His life was a turbulent one, however, and many of his notes in the historical record reference a chronic illness that impacted not only his health, but his profession and finances. In this article I will outline all of the records from the Strasbourg Council of XXI and XV notes that mention his sickness, with some explanation if needed, in chronological order to show a timeline of his mysterious disease.
Most translations are completed by myself and/or Platy, with any partial or WIP translation marked with **. You can review all transcriptions and translations here.
1561: Citizenship in Strasbourg and marriage
1563: Mentioned as a student of Meyer, first fencing-related note
December, 1572: First mention of illness
Wygand Brack lets bring forth by way of Dr Johann Michel, according to this he was allowed a fechtschul a year ago, which he had to cancel because of dire coinciding illness. So he requests to graciously allow him to hold one until next future Monday.
Recognized. One should permit his request.
This first reference to sickness seems to be retrospective, asking for a do-over concerning a fechtschul he petitioned at the start of 1572, a request where he was chewed out for twisting the arms of young noblemen to advocate for him and his fencing.
April 16th, 1575: Sickness impacts his livelihood
Wiegand Brack gives notice, he brings forth his humble request in this supplication, asks to hear it and to be his gracious masters. Asks in it also to allow him a fechtschul.
Recognized[.] The supplication has been read, in it he bemoans that he asked my master too often for permission to hold fechtschul which alarmed my master, and he would have preferred to do it differently because of my master's other dealings. But he has been forced and it has been caused in an extraordinary manner by his negligible livelihood.
He has been made to do this for a long time, also due to his long-lasting illness, in his weakened state he has not been able to get by. He asks afterwards to give him the service as ratsbote, for a different [livelihood]. He would like to render it to my master's satisfaction, he is able to do it better for he was occupied in his youth by the language and writing of the laity.
Recognized. The requested fechtschul is approved and concerning the other reason he may write.
Brack has been requesting so many fechtschul (this is his 7th in just over a year) that the council seems irked with him, with Wygand using fencing to supplement his income. He says he is unable to work as a tailor (“negligible livelihood”) and needed to do all this fencing to pay the bills. Thus he asks for a new job, something less tasking than tailoring, and applies to be a council messenger (ratsbote), for which he is accepted later that year.
May 26th, 1576: Loans for healthcare weighing down
… Meanwhile he has very much been impoverished by illnesses, went into debt, additionally the doctors advise him to take more loans for the procurance of his bodily health. So his humble request is to waive the remaining ten pounds, thereafter allow him four or five weeks during the end-holidays.
Recognized. One will not follow him in this right away, one shall take it into consideration, bring it forth again in one or three days that one waives it. Otherwise it shall be allowed for him to travel to the bath, but that he lets his service be done by the others. (Confirmed by) Herr Geörg Münch
Brack had incurred a fine with the council 14 years before this note, and asked that some of that fine be waived in lieu of his building debts due to medical care (very American). This is also the first mention of him asking time off for a trip to healing baths -- a request that will become more common.
April 10th, 1577: Lameness in the hand
Wigand Brack came and requests to allow him to go on a bathing trip for his hand, by which to cure his disease and lameness. Recognized. He is allowed to do so, he should also be informed that he [needs] to bargain with his colleagues so they will fill in for him.
Although his specific disease is not mentioned, this note does at least mention a symptom and could hint towards why his work as a tailor would be more difficult. A chronic illness of the hands would definitely make fiddly work more challenging! Brack would’ve likely sought therapy in one of the many spa towns around the Rhine, which still exist to this day. You can read more about healing baths as a cultural practice here and here.
July 26th, 1577: Debts from all the baths
Wygand Brack, council messenger, through Doctor Krebs: my gentlemen have been talking about how many of his fellow servants do their work, that they work a bit less during the fair and he does not (at all). Furthermore he was ill for a long time and hence had to travel to a bath and incurred great costs - which he hopes to recoup if he is allowed to hold a fechtschul.
Because of this he requests to allow him a fechtschul at the fair, before the others. For this he wishes to fulfill his service in such a way that my gentlemen will not be able to complain.
Recognized and allowed to him.
Baths racking up costs, requesting fencing events to get some cash (this time at a fair, a larger city-wide event), and promising to not let his job duties slide. This impact of sickness and fencing on his nice new messenger job will continue for years to come.
July 6th, 1579**: Mention of a bath
This note is hard to read and so I’m plugging away at it every few months, but it does mention a bath and Wygand…
June, 1580: More time off work…
Wygand Brack requests to allow him during the holidays a bath for sake of his body, he wishes to bargain with his colleagues, so that the service will be carried out to the pleasure and satisfaction of the gentlemen, for another thing he requests to be allowed a fechtschul on St. John's Day, he wishes to behave himself with good manners. Recognized, in both matters to be complied.
Again, fencing for money, time off work for a bathing trip, make sure work is covered! Wygand Brack would request a couple more fechtschul after this, but his fencing career was coming to an end, likely due to his infirmity.
May 23, 1582: Bath request after a long legal dispute
Weigand Brack requests to allow him a bath, because of his body's infirmity.
Recognized. It is allowed to him, and this should be reported to the others, they should be commanded to do his work - on his request - diligently in his stead. H. Hahenburg
From May of 1581 until this note, Wygand Brack was engaged in a long legal dispute over property with Hans Klein, a bookbinder. After this year-long affair he seems to need a break, and asks for another set of time off to go bathe.
November 24th, 1582: First complaint about Wygand
The gentlemen XV [have been] informed. Stoffel Heuser the ratsbote complains about his colleague Weigand Brack. That the same has not been doing his work for a long time. Has been out for a while on a bathing trip, this summer on the marksmen's festival in Frankfurt.
When he is available, he is easily ill or will be[?]. So he stays at home when he is burdened with what is bothering him. So he seldomly seeks out his superiors, so it usually needs the mint official or jailer, yesterday the mint official forgot and sought out the same superiors only today and informed the council and 21.
Despite this, Weigand takes his part of the service weekly-daily and does nothing, which [unclear] the others so they have the work and this one shall take the payment.
Recognized. One should send (a messenger) to him, make it clear to him that it concerns my superiors (that) he is negligent in his service, doesn't understand it, is a burden to his colleagues. If it isn't abandoned, he will be sent away or he shall himself request leave.
It seems that Wygand’s repeated time off has drawn some ire from his coworkers, dissatisfied with his constant trips to the baths. Additionally, it seems that Brack may have taken a little…detour…and gone to a shooting festival in Frankfurt rather than just hanging out at the spa. He is told to shape up, quit, or risk being fired.
The “mint official” mentioned is none other than Bechtold Kolb -- a city official who was in service of the council for almost 50 years, and who had a habit of constantly popping up during my research whenever I would look for fencing masters. He would eventually get a pension and retire from his duties, a sharp contrast to so many fencing masters who died young.
February 25th, 1583: Giving up the post
The Herr Ammeister reports that Mathebs the council messenger requests to make available an additional servant who can help him with the large council.
Following this, a note from Wygand Brack addressed to the Ammeister was read, in which he requests to allow him (this) because of his illness: that my gentlemen shall hire another for the office in his stead until the Good Lord helps him recover.
Recognized. The gentlemen shall consider if Stoffel is to be assigned to the large council and a substitute in his stead for the small council, or if something different is to be done.
Finally Brack asks to take a back seat with his job, just a few months before his death. This note also gives clues towards which council he supported in his job as messenger -- likely the large Council of XXI where most of the notes about fencing are located.
May 1st, 1583: A request to be transferred
Wygand Brack submits a supplication by himself in which he thanks my gentlemen that they retain him in his office as long as he has to live with his bodily illness.
But because it is not possible for him because of his body and a burden to his peers, he requests to show him the mercy of being assigned to the Wickhäuslein, and to accept Michel, the former bailiff, as a council messenger until he is better.
Recognized. One shall consider it. My gentlemen, the XV.
He asks for Michel Meyer, a tollkeeper and former bailiff, to take over his job as council messenger. This date marks a steep decline in Brack’s health.
May 11th, 1583: To be released from the job
And because Wygand Brack cannot fulfill his service because of his body and because he has heard that the tollkeeper at the Wickhäuslein desires the same, he asks to allow him to trade (jobs).
Recognized. Keep it with them as in previous years[?]. Meanwhile it was ordered to my gentlemen XV, they shall facilitate it.
May 11th, 1583 XV: More details on who has been picking up his work
Wygand Brack the ratsbote has, on the first of May, supplicated the council and 21 that my masters [shall transfer] him to the toll [booth?] at the Wickhäuslein because of his body's infirmity. The current tollkeeper Michel Meyer, formerly a bailiff, shall succeed to the office of ratsbote in his stead and thus they want to switch. Which my masters have determined to consider and have been reminded to "get on with it" this morning.
They have now done so and they proclaim that many masters had doubts concerning it. Currently, Amandus Moll the old stablemaster goes around like a blind rooster, he gets 14 shillings each week and does nothing. Thus he (Brack) shall tell him to do the ratsboten service, like the mint official and the jailer have had to do it, until someone else does it with Wygand.
Recognized, because of Wygand one shall consider if and how he can be assisted, or if he should be instructed to forgo his service. Meanwhile both gentlemen of the 15 shall tell Amandus, that he shall do the service of ratsbote, until it has been [fully] considered, and it shall be passed along.
Harsh words. Bechtold is mentioned again, but Wygand’s job duties have officially been handed off to one of his peers.
May 29th, 1583: Dead.
Wygand Brack dead.
The Ammeister reports that the Almighty took the late Weigand Brack from here. Necessity requires that someone else gets ordered to replace him. Especially since this service has been done in an awful manner, due to his infirmity. The Ammeister and the council members shall inform the guilds, that one should apply for it.
Alas, the sickness which was first noted over a decade before has taken its toll, and Wygand Brack has died. His post would be taken up by a Michel Ziegler, who ironically competed with Brack for the same position back in 1575, and whose daughter’s marriage record would be on the exact same page as Brack’s son’s in the 1590s. I am not totally confident in Wygand Brack’s age, but he may have been born around the same time as Meyer due to Brack getting married in 1561 (Meyer in 1560). Thus he could’ve been around 40-45 years old at the time of death. He was survived by a son, Wygand Brack the Second, who would work as a scribe and have a grandson, Wigandus Brack. Sadly, his son also died young, croaking only around 7 years after his marriage to Barbara Kraucher around 1597/98.
We may never know the exact nature of Brack’s illness, but having chronic sickness and disability so well documented in a fechtmeister is an interesting tidbit of history, and is another facet in trying to paint a picture of the life and times of Joachim Meyer’s more prolific student. Perhaps examining records of some of the local spa towns will give some insight into the types of conditions they purported to heal, and give us a smaller set of diagnoses to choose from.