Fiore dei Liberi fencing (Fior di Battaglia)
Fighting art from the manuscripts of Fiore dei Liberi, dated around 1400 to 1410. Wrestling, dagger, sword, armor, axe, spear and mounted combat in the first known Italian fencing text.
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About Fiore dei Liberi fencing (Fior di Battaglia)
According to the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Fiore dei Liberi was born between 1340 and 1350 in Premariacco or, more likely, in Cividale in Friuli. He learned the art of fighting from Italian and German masters, chiefly Giovanni called Sveno, a pupil of Nicola Toblem from the diocese of Metz, and by his own account practiced it for fifty years. Ken Mondschein (Acta Periodica Duellatorum, 2017) states that he died before 1425.
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His work, known as Flos Duellatorum in Latin and Fior di Battaglia in Italian, survives in four manuscripts: in the Getty Museum, the Morgan Library, the Pisani-Dossi family collection and the Bibliothèque nationale de France. The DBI calls it the first known Italian treatise on the art of fighting. The prologue of the Pisani-Dossi manuscript bears the date 10 February 1409, which is 1410 by today's calendar, and according to Mondschein the Getty Museum manuscript is about ten years older. We have not been able to establish the year in which Fiore's teaching itself arose. The DBI describes the work as hundreds of drawings with vernacular verse captions. It teaches wrestling, defense against the dagger and fighting with it, the sword in one and two hands, the spear and the axe, defense against various weapons and mounted combat. The master is marked in the images by a crown, the pupil by a golden garter. According to Mondschein, Fiore fought at least five times against jealous masters, taught in secret, and his work was meant to recall instruction given in person. Today, Mondschein notes, Fiore has a large following among historical martial arts enthusiasts seeking to revive chivalric fencing.
History
Ken Mondschein (Acta Periodica Duellatorum, 2017) reports from the Udine archive that on 3 August 1383 Fiore obtained permanent right of residence in Udine, in September 1383 was to inspect and repair the crossbows and siege engines of the city armory, and in May 1384 was entered among the 354 citizens charged with restoring order. According to the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, in the early 15th century he was fencing master to Marquis Niccolò III d'Este in Ferrara, to whom he dedicated Fior di Battaglia, and he composed the work within a few months from February to August 1409. Mondschein, by contrast, holds that Fiore was rather closer to the Visconti of Milan, and he did not find him in Niccolò's payment records.
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Four manuscripts survive. The Getty Museum lists its copy, Ms. Ludwig XV 13, as Il Fior di Battaglia from around 1410 from Venice, and the museum acquired it in 1983 from the collection of Peter and Irene Ludwig. The Morgan Library lists manuscript M.383 as Venetian from the early 15th century, and J. Pierpont Morgan bought it in 1909. The Paris manuscript Latin 11269 was, according to Mondschein, listed as Florius de arte luctandi, and scholars noticed it only in 2008. Mondschein identifies it with item 87 of the 1436 library catalog of Leonello d'Este and regards it as a humanist Latin reworking, almost an independent work. Another manuscript from the Este library is unknown today and is considered lost. According to Mondschein, the Getty Museum manuscript has 47 folios and 305 images, Pisani-Dossi 36 folios and 284 images, the Paris one 44 folios and 164 images, and Morgan's 19 folios and 124 images. In his view, Fiore's work also had an effect after his death, as the Vienna codex 5278 took images from it and Filippo Vadi was apparently inspired by it.
How it differs
Ken Mondschein (2017) calls Fiore's manuscripts the oldest comprehensive treatment of the knightly art of fighting, the first illustrated one and the first from Italy. He contrasts them with the older Nuremberg manuscript Hs. 3227a with notes on the sword and with manuscript I.33 from the Royal Armouries on civilian fencing with sword and buckler. Gassmann and colleagues (2017) state that the terminology of the German school after Liechtenauer describes fighting mainly in terms of time, whereas Fiore's does so mainly by distance, the close or long play, although both traditions refer to both.
Technique
According to Ken Mondschein (2017), the Getty Museum and Pisani-Dossi manuscripts begin with the shortest distance, wrestling, and continue with the dagger, short staff (bastoncello), one- and two-handed sword, armored fighting, and finally mounted combat. The Paris manuscript begins instead with mounted lances and ends with unarmed defense against the dagger. The Morgan manuscript is only part of a larger whole, and its surviving sections concern mounted combat and the sword and dagger. Each section begins with masters marked by a crown, who show the stances (poste) and guards (guardie). Students with a golden garter demonstrate offensive actions after a defense, and a counter-master with crown and garter shows the counter-technique. According to Mondschein, Fiore does not explicitly explain basics such as covering, deception or strike, nor attempt a general theory of fencing. The mnemonic figure segno shows the qualities a fencer should have. According to a study by Gassmann and colleagues (Acta Periodica Duellatorum, 2017), four animals surround the figure in the Seven Swords image: a lynx with compass as prudence, an elephant with castle as strength, a tiger with arrow as speed, a lion with heart as courage.
Training
According to Ken Mondschein (2017), Fiore always taught in secret. Only a close friend or relative of the student could watch, and only after an oath of secrecy. Students imitated model sequences of actions meant to instill correct techniques and tactical reactions into muscle memory. According to Mondschein, his work is a reminder of in-person teaching. According to the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Fiore wanted the knowledge in the treatise to stay reserved for nobles and knights and not spread among the common people.
Competition
Fiore names students he prepared for duels. The oldest one Ken Mondschein (2017) can date is the German mercenary Piero del Verde, who fought Pierro della Corona near Perugia between 1379 and 1381. The most famous student, Galeazzo da Mantova of the Gonzaga family, was to fight on horseback in Padua in 1395 against the French knight Jean le Meingre called Boucicault. The duel did not take place because Boucicault attacked before Galeazzo mounted, and they met again with lances on horseback in 1406, when Galeazzo won. Fiore also mentions the preparation of Giovannino da Baggio for a duel in Pavia in 1399. According to Mondschein, Fiore himself fought in at least five duels with jealous masters with whom he refused to share his secrets. According to the translation of the prologue on Wiktenauer, these were duels with sharp swords in only a padded jerkin and deerskin gloves.
Today
Ken Mondschein (2017) writes that Fiore gained a numerous non-academic audience among enthusiasts of historical martial arts and reenactors who want to revive knightly fencing. Green (2001) calls his work a primary source for the practice of medieval Italian longsword. According to the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Fiore's treatise has appeared in a number of editions, from the facsimile of the Pisani-Dossi manuscript published by F. Novati in Bergamo in 1902 to the editions by Rapisardi (1998), Galvani (2002) and Rubboli and Cesari (2002) with a comparative study of the three manuscripts then known. English Wikipedia lists modern books with the term armizare in the title, for example Charrette's Fiore dei Liberi's Armizare from 2011.
Did you know
According to the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, the drawings of Fior di Battaglia are so technically accomplished that collaboration with a skilled draftsman is assumed, hypothetically Altichiero of Verona. The Pisani-Dossi manuscript belonged to the writer Carlo Dossi. According to the English Wikipedia, it was considered lost in the Second World War and appeared in a private collection in Italy in 2005. According to Ken Mondschein, the Paris manuscript renames the guard once called the bastard cross the true cross, and the true cross the leopard. Mondschein links this to the leopard coat of arms the House of Este received in 1432. According to the Wiktenauer translation, Fiore himself uses the term armizare in L'Arte d'Armizare and La Scientia d'Armizare.
Frequently asked questions
Who was Fiore dei Liberi?
A fencing master from Friuli, born according to the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani between 1340 and 1350. He learned from Italian and German masters and is the author of Fior di Battaglia, which the DBI calls the first known Italian treatise on the art of combat.
How many manuscripts of Fior di Battaglia survive?
Four. They are in the Getty Museum, the Morgan Library, the Bibliothèque nationale de France and a private collection of the Pisani-Dossi family. According to Ken Mondschein, another manuscript from the Este library is considered lost.
What did Fiore teach?
According to the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, wrestling, defense against the dagger and fighting with it, the sword in one and two hands, spear and axe, defense against various weapons and fighting on horseback.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.