Florius de Arte Luctandi (MS Latin 11269)

Florius de Arte Luctandi
MS Latin 11269, Bibliothèque nationale de France Paris, France
Title page, folio Ir
Hagedorn Leng —
Wierschin — Hils —
Type	Fencing manual Wrestling manual
Date	ca. 1410s or 20s
Language(s)	Renaissance Latin
Author(s)	Fiore de'i Liberi
Translator	Unknown
Scribe(s)	Unknown
Illustrator(s)	Unknown
Material	Parchment, with a pasteboard leather cover
Size	44 folia (195 mm × 255 mm)
Format	Double-sided; two illustrations per side, with text above
Script	Semigothic
Identified	Ken Mondschein (2008) Fabrice Cognot (2008)
External data	Library catalog entry
Treatise scans	Digital scans (3000x4500) Digital scans (450x600)

Florius de Arte Luctandi ("The Flower of Battle", MS Latin 11269) is an Italian fencing manual translated from a treatise authored by Fiore de'i Liberi and probably created in the 1410s or 20s. The original currently rests in the holdings of the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris, France. MS Latin 11269 is written in a semigothic script on parchment in a pasteboard leather binding; the illustrations are inked and painted, with gold leafing on the crowns and garters. This manuscript is generally referred to as either the Florius or the Paris.

Any preface MS Latin 11269 once possessed is missing from the current form of the manuscript, and its current title was added much later in a 17th century hand. It consists of 44 folios with two pairings per page, and is the only copy of Fiore's treatise whose illustrations are fully painted. Unlike the other versions of his work, this manuscript is written entirely in Latin.

Determining the derivation of this manuscript is difficult. Its descriptions are cast in couplets and quatrains that closely resemble those of the Pisani Dossi version, though often in a jumbled and semi-coherent fashion. The sequence is comparable to that of the Morgan version, beginning with mounted fighting and ending with wrestling on foot. The illustrations, though painted, often resemble those of the Getty version. Finally, in terms of content it contains plays otherwise unique to each of the other three manuscripts.

Provenance

The known provenance of the MS Latin 11269 is:

• Written in the early 15th century, probably after the completion of Flos Duellatorum in 1409.
• ca. 1635 – rebound by a master papermaker who worked at the Puy-moyen mill for Sieur Janssen.
• before 1727 – in the collection of Louis Phélypeaux, marquis de Phélypeaux. Donated to the Bibliothèque du Roi, where it was labeled Florius de Art Luctandi.
• 1712-present – held by the Bibliothèque du Roi/Bibliothèque nationale de France.

Contents

1v	The Seven Swords by Fiore de'i Liberi
2r - 5v	Mounted fencing by Fiore de'i Liberi
6r - 6v	Spear vs. cavalry by Fiore de'i Liberi
6v - 8v	Spear by Fiore de'i Liberi
8v - 10r	Axe in armor by Fiore de'i Liberi
10r - 12r	Sword in one hand by Fiore de'i Liberi
12v - 15v, 26r - 30v	Sword in two hands by Fiore de'i Liberi
16r - 19v	Sword in armor by Fiore de'i Liberi
20r - 20v	Sword vs. dagger by Fiore de'i Liberi
21r - 25v, 31r - 38r, 43r - 44r	Dagger by Fiore de'i Liberi
38v - 42v	Grappling by Fiore de'i Liberi
44r	Closing

Gallery

Images hosted by the Bibliothèque nationale de France.

Front Cover

Inside Cover

Folio Ⅰr

Folio Ⅰv

Folio 1r

Folio 1v

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Inside Cover

Back Cover

Additional Resources

• Lodà, Francesco (in Italian). Florius. De arte luctandi. Traduzione e cura del testo di Francesco Lodà. Rome: Bonanno Editore, 2014. ISBN 978-88-96950-86-9
• Marsden, Richard. The Flower of Battle: MS Latin 11269. Trans. Benjamin Winnick. Tyrant Industries, 2019. ISBN 978-0-9847716-3-9
• Mondschein, Ken. "Notes on Bibliothèque Nationale MS Lat. 11269, Florius de Arte Luctandi". Arms & Armour 8(2):117-22. October 2011. doi:10.1179/174962611X13097916223163
• Mondschein, Ken. "On the Art of Fighting: A Humanist Translation of Fiore dei Liberi’s Flower of Battle Owned by Leonello D’Este". Acta Periodica Duellatorum 6(1): 99-135. 2018. doi:10.2478/apd-2018-0004
• Mondschein, Ken and Mele, Greg. Flowers of Battle, Volume 3: Florius de Arte Luctandi. Wheaton, IL: Freelance Academy Press, 2017. ISBN 978-1-937439-19-4
• Палій, Людмила Іванівна (in Ukrainian). "Витоки художнього стилю ілюстрацій «Квітки Битви» майстра Фіоре Фріулано деі Лібері". Науковий вісник Ужгородського університету 2(43): 84-102, 2020. doi:10.24144/2523-4498.2(43).2020.217366

Copyright and License Summary

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

Work	Author(s)	Source	License
Images	Bibliothèque nationale de France	Bibliothèque nationale de France
Transcription	Kendra Brown and Rebecca Garber	Index:Florius de Arte Luctandi (MS Latin 11269)