| De Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi |
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MS Vitt.Em.1324, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale
Rome, Italy |
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Frontispiece and folio 1r
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| Type |
|
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| Date |
between 1482 and 1487 |
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| Place of origin |
Urbino, Italy (?) |
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| Language(s) |
Middle Italian |
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| Author(s) |
Philippo di Vadi |
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| Scribe(s) |
Unknown |
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| Illustrator(s) |
Unknown |
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| Dedicated to |
Duke Guidobaldo da Montefeltro |
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| Material |
Paper, with a leather binding |
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| Size |
42 folia (235 mm x 150 mm) |
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| Format |
Double-sided; two illustrations per side,
with text above |
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| Exemplar(s) |
Fior di Battaglia |
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| External data |
Library catalog entry |
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| Treatise scans |
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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.[1] 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:[2][3]
- 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
Gallery
A collation diagram for this manuscript is available on the
index page.
Additional Resources
The following is a list of publications containing scans, transcriptions, and translations relevant to this article, as well as published peer-reviewed research.
- Deacon, Jacob Henry (2016). "Prologues, Poetry, Prose and Portrayals: The Purposes of Fifteenth Century Fight Books According to the Diplomatic Evidence." Acta Periodica Duellatorum 4(2): 69-90. doi:10.36950/apd-2016-014.
- Vadi, Filippo (2002). Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi: 15th Century Swordsmanship of Master Filippo Vadi. Trans. by Gregory Mele; Luca Porzio. Union City, CA: Chivalry Bookshelf. ISBN 978-1891448164.
- Vadi, Filippo (2005). L'arte Cavalleresca del Combattimento. Ed. by Marco Rubboli; Luca Cesari. Rome: Il Cerchio Iniziative Editoriali. ISBN 88-8474-079-7.
- Vadi, Philippo; Connor Kemp-Cowell (2021). Wielding the Light of Mars: A Translation and Guide to De Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi. Trans. by Ian Davis. Self-published.
- Windsor, Guy (2013). Veni Vadi Vici. A Transcription, Translation and Commentary of Philippo Vadi's De Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi. Self-published. ISBN 978-952-93-1686-1.
- Windsor, Guy (2018). The Art of Sword Fighting in Earnest. Spada Press. ISBN 978-952-7157-37-4.
References
Copyright and License Summary
For further information, including transcription and translation notes, see the discussion page.
