The Flos Duellatorum is the name given to one of the manuscript versions of

Fiore dei Liberi Fiore Furlano de Cividale d'Austria, delli Liberi da Premariacco (Fiore dei Liberi, Fiore Furlano, Fiore de Cividale d'Austria; born ca. 1350; died after 1409) was a late 14th century knight, diplomat, and itinerant fencing master. He is the ear ...

illuminated manuscript An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared document where the text is often supplemented with flourishes such as borders and miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Church for prayers, liturgical services and psalms, the ...

fight book, written in 1410 (dated to 1409 in the old reckoning). There are five other surviving recensions, under the title Fior di Battaglia. Both ''Flos Duellatorum'' and ''Fior di Battaglia'' translate into English roughly as "The Flower of Battle," from Latin and Italian respectively.

Manuscripts

The manuscript dated to 1409 was considered lost, and is now known to be kept in a private collection. It is referred to as the Pisani-Dossi manuscript for the last collection it was a part of before its disappearance. The information contained within survives in the form of a 1902 facsimile by the Italian historian

Francesco Novati Francesco Novati ( Cremona, 1859 - Sanremo, 1915) was an Italian historian and philologist. Novati taught in the University of Palermo and Genoa, and in 1890 he became a professor of history and comparative literature at the Regia Accademia Scien ...

. Because of this, the Flos Duellatorum is also known as the Novati Manuscript, or the Novati Edition. The other two surviving manuscripts are the Getty-Ludwig ("Getty's copy", Los Angeles, MS Ludwig XV13) and the Pierpont Morgan Library ("Morgan's copy", New York, MS M 0.0383) copies. Both of these bear the title Fior di Battaglia, and both are undated. The Morgan copy unlike the other two versions does not contain a dedication to

Nicolò III d'Este Nicolò () is an Italian male given name. Another variation is Niccolò, most common in Tuscany. It may refer to: * Nicolò Albertini, statesman * Nicolò Amati, luthier * Nicolò Barella, Italian footballer * Nicolò Barattieri, Italian engineer * ...

, in whose service Fiore composed his treatise. Its prologue is similar to the Getty version. The Getty-Ludwig version is the most informative, being distinguished by several categorizations added by its copyist and, according to Robert Charron, an expert on the manuscript, by the degree of comprehension of the master's teaching displayed. Inventories of the Estense library in

Ferrara Ferrara (, ; egl, Fràra ) is a city and ''comune'' in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital of the Province of Ferrara. it had 132,009 inhabitants. It is situated northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream ...

indicate that there were at least five copies of Fiore's work. By 1508, the manuscripts cease to be mentioned in the inventories. Two versions of Fiore's manuscript re-surfaced in private collections in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

. The Morgan and Getty versions both were kept in England during the 19th century, before being moved to their present locations in America in the 20th century.

The Novati consists of illustrated pictures of the plays accompanied by short, rhyming verses in Italian to describe them. The Pisani-Dossi version contains major sections on: * Wrestling * Dagger play (including defenses against a dagger when armed with a dagger and without one) *

Sword A sword is an edged, bladed weapon intended for manual cutting or thrusting. Its blade, longer than a knife or dagger, is attached to a hilt and can be straight or curved. A thrusting sword tends to have a straighter blade with a pointed ti ...

in one hand * Spear and

staff Staff may refer to: Pole * Staff, a weapon used in stick-fighting ** Quarterstaff, a European pole weapon * Staff of office, a pole that indicates a position * Staff (railway signalling), a token authorizing a locomotive driver to use a particula ...

(The weapons are treated identically in Fiore's system) *

in two hands *Sword in

armour Armour (British English) or armor (American English; see spelling differences) is a covering used to protect an object, individual, or vehicle from physical injury or damage, especially direct contact weapons or projectiles during combat, or fr ...

(Chiefly

halfsword Half-sword, in 14th- to 16th-century fencing with longswords, refers to the technique of gripping the central part of the sword blade with the left hand in order to execute more forceful thrusts against armoured and unarmoured opponents. The term ...

ing techniques) * Poleaxe *Mounted combat (including wrestling, swordplay, and the lance from horseback) *Sword vs. Dagger Fiore also mentions the use of: *

Bastoncello ''Story Teller'' (sold as ''Story Time'' in Australia and New Zealand. In Italy ''Story Teller 1'' was sold as ''I Raccontastorie'' while ''Story Teller 2'' as ''C'era una volta'') was a magazine partwork published by Marshall Cavendish betwee ...

(The baton) *Staff and dagger *Pairs of clubs or cudgels *The use of the chiavarina (spear) against a man on horseback

Sette spade

The best known image from the Flos Duellatorum is the ''sette spade'' (seven swords) diagram at the beginning of the longsword section (fol. 17A), reminiscent of the first image of the

Codex Wallerstein The so-called Codex Wallerstein or ''Vonn Baumanns Fechtbuch'' (Oettingen-Wallerstein Cod. I.6.4o.2, Augsburg University library) is a 16th-century convolution of three 15th-century fechtbuch manuscripts, with a total of 221 pages. The inside o ...

. It is a figure of a man, divided by seven swords centered on the body, representing the ''poste'' or guard positions. This is surrounded by four animals, representing the main virtues of a fencer: *on top, the

lynx A lynx is a type of wild cat. Lynx may also refer to: Astronomy * Lynx (constellation) * Lynx (Chinese astronomy) * Lynx X-ray Observatory, a NASA-funded mission concept for a next-generation X-ray space observatory Places Canada * Lynx, Ontar ...

, holding a compass represents ''

prudentia Prudence ( la, prudentia, contracted from meaning "seeing ahead, sagacity") is the ability to govern and discipline oneself by the use of reason. It is classically considered to be a virtue, and in particular one of the four Cardinal virtue ...

'': *: *:"No other creature is able to look so clearly as me, the lynx / and by this I ever I ever reckon by compass and measure" *to the left, the tiger holding an arrow represents '' celeritas'' *: *:"I am the tiger, I am very quick to run and turn / That the arrow in the sky cannot approach me." *to the right, the

lion The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large Felidae, cat of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphi ...

holding a heart represents '' audatia'' *: *:"None bears a more ardent heart than me, a lion / And I challenge anyone to battle." *on the bottom, the elephant, carrying a tower, represents '' fortitudo'': *: *:"I am the elephant and I have a castle for a burden / And never do I kneel down nor do I lose my true place."

External links

Novati facsimile of the Pisani-Dossi MS
(

PDF Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...

file, 42M)
" The Flower of Battle"
(Getty's copy)

(text and translation)

* ttp://www.thearma.org/essays/FDL_studyguide.v3.htm Fiore Dei Liberi: 14th century Master of Defenceby John Clements (ARMA) * http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/1443/unknown-fiore-furlan-dei-liberi-da-premariacco-il-fior-di-battaglia-italian-about-1410/ - Versione digitale del manoscritto al P. Getty Museum

Manuscripts

Contents

Sette spade

See also

External links

Further reading