De Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi (MS Vitt.Em.1324)

De Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi
MS Vitt.Em.1324, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale Rome, Italy
Frontispiece and folio 1r
Hagedorn Leng —
Wierschin — Hils —
Type	Fencing manual Wrestling manual
Date	between 1482 and 1487
Place of origin	Urbino, Italy (?)
Language(s)	Middle Italian
Author(s)	Philippo di Vadi
Scribe(s)	Unknown
Illustrator(s)	Unknown
Dedicated to	Duke Guidobaldo da Montefeltro
Material	Paper, with a leather binding
Size	42 folia (235 mm x 150 mm)
Format	Double-sided; two illustrations per side, with text above
Exemplar(s)	Fior di Battaglia
External data	Library catalog entry
Treatise scans	Digital scans Digital scans (1600x2400) Digital scans (1600x2400) Microfilm scans

The De Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi ("On the Art of Swordsmanship", MS Vitt. Em. 1324), is an Italian fencing manual by Philippo di Vadi of Pisa, probably created between 1482 and 1487. The original currently rests in the Vittorio Emanuele II collection of the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Roma in Rome, Italy. The main body of text is largely a redaction of the writings of Fiore de'i Liberi, generally repeating the text of Liberi's Flos Duellatorum; the layout is likewise very similar to that of his later Florius de Arte Luctandi. It seems almost certain that Vadi stood in the tradition of Liberi, or at the very least possessed a copy of his fencing manual. However, this manuscript cannot be written off as a mere plagiarism of Liberi, as it augments his offering with a lengthy, sixteen chapter introduction that illuminates many of the subtleties of Medieval Italian fencing.

Provenance

The known provenance of the MS Vitt. Em. 1324 is:

• Written in the late 1400s. Gifted by Philippo di Vadi to Duke Guidobaldo da Montefeltro between 1482 and 1487.
• 1480s-1502 – Held in the Ducal Library at Urbino (disappeared during Cesare Borgia's conquest in 1502).
• 1500s – "Di Francescho a leoni battiloro e de sua amici" inscribed inside the cover in a 16th century hand.
• before 1838 – Acquired by British book dealer JT Payne (sold London, JT Payne, 1838).
• 1838-1872 – Owned by Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872), mistakenly listed twice as Mss. Ph. 11725 and 13545 (purchased London, JT Payne, 1838).
• 1885-1938 – Owned by Thomas FitzRoy Fenwick (1856-1938), who took control of Phillipps Library in 1885 after a protracted legal dispute (sold London, 1946).
• 1946-1967 – Owned by book dealers Phillip and Lionel Robinson, who purchased the "residue" of Phillipps Library, including Mss. Ph. 11725&13545, for £100,000 (sold London, Sotheby's, 1967).
• 1967-present – Purchased by the Italian Ministry of Education, stored at Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Roma.

Contents

IIv - 3v	Preface by Philippo di Vadi
3v - 14v	Introduction by Philippo di Vadi
15r - 23v	Sword by Philippo di Vadi
24r - 25r	Axe by Philippo di Vadi
26r - 27v	Sword in Armor by Philippo di Vadi
28r - 28v 38r - 38v	Staff Weapons by Philippo di Vadi
29r - 37v	Dagger by Philippo di Vadi
29r	Grappling by Philippo di Vadi
39r - 42v	Dagger by Philippo di Vadi

Gallery

Images hosted by WikiMedia Commons.

Front Cover

Inside Cover

Ir

Iv

IIr

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Folio 1r

Folio 1v

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Inside Cover

Back Cover

Additional Resources

• Vadi, Filippo. Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi: 15th Century Swordsmanship of Master Filippo Vadi. Trans. Luca Porzio and Gregory Mele. Union City, CA: Chivalry Bookshelf, 2002. ISBN 978-1891448164
• Vadi, Filippo; Rubboli, Marco; and Cesari, Luca. L'arte Cavalleresca del Combattimento. Rome: Il Cerchio Iniziative Editoriali, 2005. ISBN 88-8474-079-7
• Windsor, Guy. Veni Vadi Vici. A Transcription, Translation and Commentary of Philippo Vadi's De Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi. The School of European Swordsmanship, 2013. ISBN 978-952-93-1686-1
• Windsor, Guy. The Art of Sword Fighting in Earnest. Spada Press, 2018. ISBN 978-952-7157-37-4

Copyright and License Summary

For further information, including transcription and translation notes, see the discussion page.

Work	Author(s)	Source	License
Images	Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Roma	WikiMedia Commons
Translation	Guy Windsor	The School of European Swordsmanship
Transcription	Marco Rubboli and Luca Cesari	Index:De Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi (MS Vitt.Em.1324)