Interpreting Fiore dei Liberi
This page is the index for our interpretive work on Fiore dei Liberi.
Note: this page is a work in progress
The Getty Manuscript
Academic Resources
The Wiktenauer page on Fiore dei Liberi includes everything we know about the man himself, and access to all four versions of his treatise.
Facsimile: The Spada Press facsimile of Il Fior di Battaglia includes a complete reproduction of the Getty Manuscript, and a second reproduction of the manuscript with the Italian text replaced by Dr. Guy Windsor's translation.
Books:
The Wrestling Techniques of Fiore dei Liberi
From Medieval Manuscript to Modern Practice: the Dagger Techniques of Fiore dei Liberi
From Medieval Manuscript to Modern Practice: The Longsword Techniques of Fiore dei Liberi
Training Resources
For training in Armizare, Fiore's Art of Arms, start with the Fiore basic syllabus
Books:
The Armizare Workbook: Part One: The Beginner's Course, Right-Handed Version
Advanced Longsword: Form and Function
Online Courses: The following courses are all relevant, and all available in the Mastering the Art of Arms membership package:
The Complete Medieval Longsword Course
Who was Fiore dei Liberi?
Fiore dei Liberi was a master of the art of arms (which he called armizare). He was born some time around 1350 and died some time after 1410. Most of what we know about his life comes from the introduction to his manuscripts, and from research done by Francesco Novati (who published the Pisani-Dossi manuscript in facsimile in 1902) and Luigi Zanutto (who published Fiore dei Liberi da Premariacco e i ludi e le festi marziali in Friuli nel Medio-evo in 1907). Dr Ken Mondschein has published an excellent summary of Fiore’s life based on the manuscripts and these two early 20th century sources in his book The Knightly Art of Battle and his open source (i.e. free!) article ‘On the Art of Fighting: A Humanist Translation of Fiore dei Liberi’s Flower of Battle Owned by Leonello D’Este’. You can find the article at [guywindsor.net/mondschein].
Glossary of Italian Terms
You can find our glossary of terms like zogho largo, and mandritto fendente here: Glossary of Italian Fencing Terms
Interpretation: the Manuscript by Sections
The Plays of the Longsword on Foot out of Armour
Note: we have yet to video the armoured combat and mounted combat sections, but all of the plays on foot out of armour have been shot, and we are updating the wiki with the relevant 100+ links section by section. Currently all of the Abrazare plays can be found on one page here: The Plays of Abrazare. We are also in the process of creating a proper page-per-play format to apply to this content.
