Fiore de'i Liberi

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Fiore Furlano de’i Liberi
Born 1340s
Cividale del Friuli, Friuli (Italy)
Died after 1420
France (?)
Occupation Diplomat
Fencing master
Mercenary
Nationality Friulian
Relatives Benedetto de’i Liberi
Patron Gian Galeazzo Visconti (?)
Niccolò III d’Este (?)
Influences Johannes Suevi
Nicholai von Toblem
Influenced Philippo di Vadi

Fiore Furlano de’i Liberi de Cividale d’Austria (Fiore delli Liberi, Fiore Furlano, Fiore de Cividale d’Austria; ca. 1340s - 1420s) was a late 14th century knight, diplomat, and fencing master. He was born in Cividale del Friuli, a town in the Patriarchal State of Aquileia in the Friuli region of modern-day Italy, and was the son of Benedetto delli Liberi of Premariacco. His surname indicates his status as a member of the milites liberi, the Germanic unindentured knightly class which formed the lowest tier of nobility; this is significant because the liberi had in this period nearly vanished, replaced by the indentured milites ministeriale.[1][2]

Liberi wrote that he had a natural inclination to the martial arts and began training at a young age, ultimately studying with “countless” masters from both Italy and Germany.[3][4][5] He had ample opportunity to interact with both, as Friuli was a possession of the Holy Roman Empire in this period and under heavy Germanic influence. Unfortunately, not all of these encounters were friendly: Liberi wrote of meeting many false masters in his travels, most of whom lacked even the limited skill he'd expect in a good student.[5] He further mentions that on five separate occasions he was forced to fight duels for his honor against certain of these masters who he described as envious because he refused to teach them his art; the duels were all fought with sharp longswords, unarmored except for gambesons and leather gloves, and he won each without injury.[3][4]

Writing very little on his own career as a commander and master at arms, Liberi instead attempted to establish his credentials for his readers through other means. He stated that foremost among the masters who trained him was one Johannes Suevi, who he notes was a disciple of Nicholai von Toblem.[5] Though the identities of these masters are currently uncertain, we may assume that one or both were well-known in Liberi's time. He further offered an extensive list of his famous students, including Piero Paolo del Verde,[6] Nikolo von Urslingen,[7] Galeazzo Cattaneo dei Grumelli,[8] Lancillotto Beccaria di Pavia,[9] Giovannino da Baggio di Milano,[10] and Guglielmo Azzone Francesco di Castelbarco,[11] and also highlights some of their martial exploits.[3][4]

Based on Liberi's autobiographical account, he can tentatively be placed in Perugia in 1381 when Piero Paolo del Verde likely fought a duel with Pietro Cornuald della Corona.[12] That same year, a minor civil war broke out in Friuli as an alliance of towns lead by Udine opposed the appointment of Filippo d’Alençon to the position of Patriarch. Liberi fought on the side of Udine, and in 1383 there is record of him being given command of an artillery unit (including large crossbows and catapults) in defense of the city.[1][13][14] He also worked as a diplomat and magistrate during this conflict, and though his name is not mentioned in municipal records after 1384, it seems likely that he remained involved until the war’s conclusion in 1389.[1][15]

In 1395, Liberi can be placed in Padua training the mercenary captain Galeazzo Cattaneo dei Grumelli for a duel with the French Marshal Jean II Le Maingre (also known as “Boucicaut”). Cattaneo made the challenge when Boucicaut called into question the valor of Italians at the royal court of France, and the duel was ultimately set for Padua on 15 August. Both Francesco Novello da Carrara, Lord of Padua, and Francesco Gonzaga, Lord of Mantua, were in attendance. The duel was to begin with spears on horseback, but Boucicaut became impatient and dismounted, attacking his opponent before he could mount his own horse. Cattaneo landed a solid blow on the Frenchman’s helmet, but was subsequently disarmed. At this point, Boucicaut reached for his poleaxe but the lords intervened to end the duel.[16][14][8]

Liberi appears again in Pavia 1399, this time training Giovannino da Baggio di Milano for a duel with a German squire named Sirano. It was fought on the 24th of June and attended by Gian Galeazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan, as well as the Duchess and other nobles. The duel was to consist of three bouts each of mounted lance, poleaxe, estoc, and dagger (accounts vary on whether the weapons were sharp or blunted). They ultimately rode two additional passes and on the fifth, Baggio impaled Sirano’s horse through the chest, slaying the horse but losing his lance in the process. They fought the other nine bouts as scheduled, and due to the strength of their armor, both combatants reportedly emerged from these exchanges unharmed.[10][17]

Liberi was likely involved in at least one other duel that year, that of his final student Guglielmo Azzone Francesco di Castelbarco and Giovanni degli Ordelaffi, as the latter is known to have died in 1399.[18] After Castelbarco’s duels, Liberi’s activities are unclear. At some point in the first decade of the 1400s, he may have become associated with Niccolò III d’Este, Marquis of Ferrara, Modena, and Parma. Francesco Novati and D. Luigi Zanutto both assumed that he served as fencing master to the court of Ferrara, and Zanutto went so far as to speculate that he trained Niccolò for his 1399 passage at arms.[19] However, all that is certain is that two of the manuscripts of The Flower of Battle bear a dedication to the Marquis.[4][5] Indeed, based on the allegiances of the various knights Liberi trained later in his career he seems more likely to have been associated with the court of Milan than that of Ferrara; the treatises dedicated to Niccolò might then have been written as a diplomatic gift.[17][14]

In 1409, Liberi noted in a version of his treatise that he had studied the arts of combat for 50 years.[5] (This statement is the basis of his estimated birth date, as nobility generally began instruction in the martial arts around the age of ten.)[1] As two other versions state that he had studied for “forty years and more”,[3][4] they are presumed to have been written some years earlier; combined with his statement that the briefest of his works was a labor of six months and great personal effort,[5] we may assume that he devoted a great deal of time to writing during this decade. There is evidence suggesting that at some point after the completion of his manuscripts he made his way to Paris, France, where he may be placed teaching fencing in 1418 and creating a copy of a fencing manual located there in 1420.[20]

Liberi’s own treatise survives in at least four manuscript copies, and these are generally distinguished by the names of the museums or collectors that currently hold them: the Getty Version held by the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the Morgan Version held by the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City, the Paris Version held by the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris, and the Pisani-Dossi Version owned by the Pisani-Dossi family in Italy. Two other manuscripts are mentioned in the 1436 and 1508 catalogs of the Biblioteca Estense in Ferrara, but have since vanished. According to Novati, the Codex LXXXIV (or MS 84) consisted of 58 folia, and was bound in leather with a clasp; the first page showed a white eagle and two helmets. The Codex CX (or MS 110) was a small, unbound volume consisting of only 15 folia.[21] It is conceivable that one of the four extant versions is the MS 84, but no evidence in support of this proposition has yet surfaced.

Fiore de’i Liberi’s teachings seem to have influenced many of the Italian masters who came after him and most notably Philippo di Vadi, a master from Pisa who copied large sections of Flos Duellatorum when formulating his own treatise, De Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi. Ultimately, though, his tradition was swept away in Italy by that of Lippo Bartolomeo Dardi. His techniques also seem to be preserved in a few German manuscripts, such as the anonymous Codex 5278 and Ludwig VI von Eyb’s manuscript. This has generally been seen as evidence of Liberi’s influence outside of Italy, but it these manuscripts may instead be an unrelated example of the earlier tradition of Suevi and Toblem of which he was himself an initiate.

Contents

Treatise

This composite utilizes two image columns. Generally only the right-side image column will contain images. The left-side column will contain a secondary image when when the text describes an image that spans a full page in the manuscript, or when there are significant discrepancies between the five manuscripts (in such cases, they typically display two stages of the same technique and will be placed in chronological order).

Additional Resources

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Mondschein, p 11.
  2. Howe, Russ. “Fiore dei Liberi: Origins and Motivations”. Journal of Western Martial Art. Electronic Journals of Martial Arts and Sciences, 2008. Retrieved 2012-02-08.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Liberi, Fiore de’i . Fior di Battaglia [manuscript]. MS M.383. New York City: Morgan Library & Museum, ca. 1400. ff 1r-2r.
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Liberi, Fiore de’i . Fior di Battaglia [manuscript]. MS Ludwig XV 13 (ACNO 83.MR.183). Las Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, ca. 1400. ff 1r-2r.
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 Liberi, Fiore de’i . Flos Duellatorum [manuscript]. Pisani-Dossi MS. Italy: Private Collection, 1410. f 1rv.
  6. “PIERO DEL VERDE (Paolo del Verde) Tedesco. Signore di Colle di Val d’Elsa.”. Note biografiche di Capitani di Guerra e di Condottieri di Ventura operanti in Italia nel 1330 - 1550. Retrieved 2012-02-08.
  7. Leoni, p 7.
  8. 8.0 8.1 “GALEAZZO DA MANTOVA (Galeazzo Cattaneo dei Grumelli, Galeazzo Gonzaga) Di Mantova. Secondo alcune fonti, di Grumello nel pavese.”. Note biografiche di Capitani di Guerra e di Condottieri di Ventura operanti in Italia nel 1330 - 1550. Retrieved 2012-02-08.
  9. “LANCILLOTTO BECCARIA (Lanciarotto Beccaria) Di Pavia. Ghibellino. Signore di Serravalle Scrivia, Casei Gerola, Bassignana, Novi Ligure, Voghera, Broni.”. Note biografiche di Capitani di Guerra e di Condottieri di Ventura operanti in Italia nel 1330 - 1550. Retrieved 2012-02-08.
  10. 10.0 10.1 Malipiero, pp 94-96.
  11. Guglielmo Azzone Castelbarco. Wikipedia. L'enciclopedia libera. Retrieved 2012-02-08.
  12. This is the only point when both men are known to have been in Perugia at the same time; Verde died soon after this in 1384. See “PIERO DEL VERDE (Paolo del Verde) Tedesco. Signore di Colle di Val d’Elsa.”. and “PIETRO DELLA CORONA (Pietro Cornuald) Tedesco. Signore di Angri.”. Note biografiche di Capitani di Guerra e di Condottieri di Ventura operanti in Italia nel 1330 - 1550. Retrieved 2012-02-08.
  13. Malipiero, p 85.
  14. 14.0 14.1 14.2 Easton, Matt. “Fiore dei Liberi - Fiore di Battaglia - Flos Duellatorum”. London: Schola Gladiatoria, 2009. Retrieved 2012-02-08.
  15. Malipiero, pp 85-88.
  16. Malipiero, pp 55-58.
  17. 17.0 17.1 Mondschein, p 12.
  18. Malipiero, p 97.
  19. Zanutto, pp 211-212.
  20. In 1907, fencing master C. A. Blengini di Torricella mentioned that “In 1904, a historical work by Francesco Novati, Director of the Academy in Milano and Gaffuri, Director of the graphical institute in Bergamo was published… These two prominent scholars uncovered documents, found in different archives, …Rules for Fencing were printed by Fiore dei Liberi in 1420… And how could then dei Liberi have taught fencing lessons in Paris in 1418?” (translated from Norwegian by Roger Norling). Until the original statement by Novati is located, this should only be treated as anecdotal evidence. For additional information, see Blengini, di Torricella C. A. Haandbog i Fægtning med Floret, Kaarde, Sabel, Forsvar med Sabel mod Bajonet og Sabelhugning tilhest: Med forklarende Tegninger og en Oversigt over Fægtekunstens Historie og Udvikling. 1907. p 28.[Full citation needed]
  21. Novati, pp 29-30.


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