Fiore Furlano de'i Liberi | |
|---|---|
.jpg) This master with a forked beard appears sporadically throughout both the Getty and Pisani Dossi mss., and may be a representation of Fiore himself. | |
| Born | c. 1350 Cividale del Friuli, Friuli (now Italy) |
| Died | after 1409 |
| Occupation | Diplomat, Fencing master, Mercenary |
| Language | Friulian, Italian, Renaissance Latin |
| Nationality | Friulian |
| Employers | |
| Notable works | The Flower of Battle List of manuscripts
|
| Relatives | Benedetto de'i Liberi (father) |
Fiore Furlano de Cividale d'Austria, delli Liberi da Premariacco (Fiore dei Liberi, Fiore Furlano, Fiore de Cividale d'Austria; born ca. 1350;[1] died after 1409[2]) was a late 14th century knight, diplomat, and itinerant fencing master.
He is the earliest Italian master from whom an extant[update] martial arts manual has survived. His Flower of Battle (Fior di Battaglia, Flos Duellatorum) is among the oldest surviving fencing manuals.[3]
- ^ This estimated birth date is derived from Fiore's statement that in 1404 he had been studying the art of arms for "a good 40 years and more", assuming that he would have begun being instructed in martial arts at about the age of ten as was general practice among the nobility at the time; see Mondschein (2011), p 11. MS M.383 fol. 2r has: Che io fiore sapiando legere e scrivere e disignare e abiando libri in questa arte e in lei ò studiado ben XL anni e più, anchora non son ben perfecto magistro in questa arte. "So that I, Fiore, knowing how to read and write and draw and having books about this art which I have studied for a good 40 years and more, even now I am not a perfected master in this art." (the same statement incidentally illustrates that Fiore owned a collection of "books in this art" made in the 14th century which have not come down to us)
- ^ See below for the claim by Blengini di Torricella that he was alive until at least 1420.
- ^ after the early-14th-century RA Ms. I.33 and the late-14th-century GNM Ms. 3227a, and roughly contemporary with the French Le jeu de la hache; comparable texts from the Asian traditions of swordsmanshipt do not appear prior to the 16th century, e.g. Jixiao Xinshu, Muyejebo.