| Trattato della scherma |
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B1.370.A MS M.0383, Morgan Library & Museum
New York City, New York |
Title page, fol. 1r |
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| Type |
|
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| Date |
1400s |
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| Place of origin |
Venezia, Italy |
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| Language(s) |
Venetian (Italian) |
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| Author(s) |
Fiore de'i Liberi |
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| Scribe(s) |
Unknown |
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| Illustrator(s) |
Altichiero da Zevio (or follower) |
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| Material |
Vellum, in a modern binding |
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| Size |
20 folia (195 mm × 277 mm) |
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| Format |
Double-sided; four illustrations per side,
with text above |
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| External data |
Library catalog entry |
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| Treatise scans |
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Trattato della scherma[1] ("Treatise on Fencing", B1.370.A MS M.383) is an Italian fencing manual authored by Fiore de'i Liberi, created at the turn of the 15th century. The original currently rests in the holdings of the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City, New York. MS M.383 is written on vellum in a neat semigothic script; the illustrations are inked sketches with gold leafing on the crowns and garters and silver leafing on the metallic elements of some weapons (this has oxidized to a very dark grey over the centuries). This manuscript is typically referred to as the Morgan (or sometimes the Pierpont Morgan or PML); it is the only copy of the works of Fiore that doesn't contain some version of the title "the Flower of Battle".
The treatise itself is the briefest known version of Fiore's work, containing only 20 folia (all individual leaves). It has a preface in Italian and one to four illustrated figures per page in the main body; the figures are accompanied by descriptive paragraphs set in poor Italian verse which are nevertheless fairly clear and informative, and generally comparable to that of the MS Ludwig ⅩⅤ 13 (FLG), though at times they include additional explanation. 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 (or a manuscript produced fairly early in Fiore's career).
The MS M.383 was almost certainly longer when it was first written; its text makes reference to sections on poleaxe, dagger, and grappling which are not present in the book's current state, as well as a certain play of the sword in one hand which is likewise missing from that section. Furthermore, the manuscript is composed of individual cut leaves rather than quires of bifolia, which means that there is no indicator of the original order of the surviving pages.[2]
Provenance
The known provenance of the MS M.383 is:[3]
- Probably written between some time in the first decade of the 1400s.
- before 1474 – owned by Niccolò Marcello di Santa Marina of Venice.
- ca. 1699 – gifted to Apostolo Zeno (1668-1750), who created a copy of the preface(FLZ).
- before 1780 – it occupied ff 241-259 of a larger collective binding titled, Arte di armeggiare a piedi ed acavallo (codex Soranzo MCCLXI) in the Biblioteca Soranzo in Venice (Library of Jacopo Soranzo, Venetian senator, 18th century). The other contents of this codex are unknown.
- 1780-1835 – the collection of the Venetian former Jesuit Matteo Luigi Canonici (1727-c.1806) (sold London, Sotheby's, June 15, 1836, no. 40).
- 1835-1903 – owned by Rev. Walter Sneyd of Bagington Rectory, Coventry (sold London, Sotheby's, Dec. 19, 1903, no. 720).
- 1903-1909 – owned by Tammaro de Marinis (catalog 8, 1908, plate 9).
- 1909-1913 – owned by John Pierpont Morgan.
- 1913-1924 – owned by John Pierpont Morgan, Jr. (donated 1924).
- 1924-present – held by the Morgan Library & Museum. Current binding by J. Clarke.
Contents
Gallery
Current manuscript
MS M.383 consists of twenty individual cut leaves rather than quires of bifolia, and the current sequence of leaves is probably not original; for a speculative reconstruction of its original state, see Trattato della scherma (MS M.383)/Reconstruction. While it seems likely that there are at least two missing leaves, there's no evidence upon which to speculate meaningfully about the original quire structure (the Getty manuscript, for example, has a wildly variable structure).
This manuscript was unbound in 2016 for photography and conservation, and it has not yet been rebound.
Previous binding
As indicated above, the original binding of the manuscript was lost by the 18th century. It was most recently rebound in the early 20th century after being acquired by J. P. Morgan, as pictured here, but this cover was subsequently discarded in 2016.
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.
References
Copyright and License Summary
For further information, including transcription and translation notes, see the discussion page.
