Flos Duellatorum (Pisani Dossi MS)

Flos Duellatorum
Pisani Dossi MS, Pisani Dossi Collection Italy
Title page, fol. 1r
Hagedorn Leng —
Wierschin — Hils —
Type	Fencing manual Wrestling manual
Date	10 February 1409
Place of origin	Milan, Italy
Language(s)	Renaissance Latin Middle Italian
Author(s)	Fiore de'i Liberi
Scribe(s)	Unknown
Illustrator(s)	Altichiero da Zevio (?)
Dedicated to	Niccolò III Marquis d'Este
Material	Parchment, in a cardboard folder
Size	36 folia
Format	Double-sided; four illustrations per side, with text above
Script	Humanist
Treatise scans	Color facsimile (3500x5000) Color facsimile B&W facsimile

Flos Duellatorum ("The Flower of Battle", Pisani Dossi MS) is a contemporary copy of an Italian fencing manual authored by Fiore de'i Liberi and dated 10 February 1409. The original was long believed to have been lost during World War II, but it is now known that it remained in the collection of the Pisani Dossi family in Italy. Novati described the Pisani Dossi MS as an unbound collection of leaves, covered in a cardboard folder with a marbled paper cover. This manuscript is often referred to as the Novati (for the facsimile) or Pisani Dossi (for the original).

Like the MS Ludwig XV 13, it is dedicated to Niccolò III, Marquis d'Este. It consists of approximately 35 leaves and includes two different prefaces, one in Renaissance Latin and a second in Middle Italian. The body of the text includes four to six illustrations per page, with gold leafing on the crowns and garters, each with only a brief couplet or quatrain in a neat Humanist hand to caption it. The artwork is reminiscent of the work of Altichiero da Zevio, but given the timeline it would more likely be the work of an artist influenced by him.

The Pisani Dossi MS was published in facsimile by Francesco Novati in 1902, making it the only version of Fiore de'i Liberi's manual whose images are considered public domain. However, it is unclear how accurate this facsimile is, as evidence suggests that Novati may have hired an artist to create a tracing of the original manuscript rather than reproducing it directly. While this method of producing facsimiles generally resulted in copies that were virtually indistinguishable from the originals, certain divergences from the other extant versions of the treatise could be explained by efforts on the part of the artist to reconstruct damaged portions of the original.

Provenance

The known provenance of the Pisani Dossi MS is:

• Completed by Fiore de'i Liberi on 10 February, 1409. Though it was dedicated to Niccolò III d'Este, there is no evidence that it ever passed into his library.
• before 1663 – belonged to Schier de' Prevosti da Valbregaglia, passed into the library of the Sacchi da Bucinigo family (purchased before 1902, Carlo Alberto Pisani Dossi).
• before 1902-present – owned by the Pisani Dossi family.

Contents

As the foliation of the manuscript is not known, the carta numeration from Novati's facsimile will be used instead.

2a	Latin Preface by Fiore de'i Liberi
2a - 2b	Italian Preface by Fiore de'i Liberi
3a - 5b	Grappling by Fiore de'i Liberi
5b	Baton by Fiore de'i Liberi
6a - 12b	Dagger by Fiore de'i Liberi
12b - 13a	Four strikes of the sword by Fiore de'i Liberi
13a - 14b	Sword in one hand by Fiore de'i Liberi
15a - 16b	Spear by Fiore de'i Liberi
16b	Seven Swords diagram by Fiore de'i Liberi
17a - 24b	Sword in two hands by Fiore de'i Liberi
25a - 26b	Sword in armor by Fiore de'i Liberi
27a - 28a, 36a	Axe in armor by Fiore de'i Liberi
29a - 33b, 34b	Mounted fencing by Fiore de'i Liberi
34a	Spear vs. cavalry by Fiore de'i Liberi
35a - 36a	Sword vs. dagger by Fiore de'i Liberi
36b	Closing

Gallery

These images are sourced from Francesco Novati's 1902 facsimile of the manuscript. The manuscript itself is in the private collection of the Pisani Dossi family in Italy, but is not available for study.

Carta 1a

Carta 1b

Carta 2a

Carta 2b

Carta 3a

Carta 3b

Carta 4a

Carta 4b

Carta 5a

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Carta 35a

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Carta 36a

Carta 36b

Additional Resources

• dei Liberi, Fiore; Rubboli, Marco; Cesari, Luca. Flos Duellatorum. Manuale di Arte del Combattimento del XV secolo. Rome: Il Cerchio Iniziative Editoriali, 2002. ISBN 88-8474-023-1
• Novati, Francesco. Flos Duellatorum, Il Fior di Battaglia di Maestro Fiore dei Liberi da Premariacco. Bergamo: 1902.
• Rapisardi, Giovani. Fiore de' Liberi Flos Duellatorum - in armis, sine armis equester et pedesta. Gladitoria Press, 1998.
• Zanutto, D. Luigi. Fiore di Premariacco ed I Ludi e Le Feste Marziali e Civili in Friuli. Udine: D. Del Bianco, 1907.

Copyright and License Summary

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

Work	Author(s)	Source	License
Images	Francesco Novati	Flos Dvellatorvm in Armis, sine Armis, Eqvester, Pedester
Transcription	Francesco Novati	Index:Flos Duellatorum (Pisani Dossi MS)