The Flos Duellatorum (1409) is an Italian fighting manual by the great Maestro Fiore dei Liberi.
The Flos Duellatorum is the name given to one of the editions of Fiore dei Liberi's fight book, written in 1409. There are two other surviving editions, under the title Fior di Battaglia . Both 'Flos Duellatorum' and 'Fior di Battaglia' translate into English roughly as "The Flower of Battle," from Latin and Italian respectively.
The original manuscript is now lost, and is sometimes referred to as the Pisani-Dossi manuscript for the last collection it was a part of before its disappearance. The information contained within survives in the form of a 1902 facsimile by the Italian historian Francesco Novati . Because of this, the Flos Duellatorum is also known as the Novati Manuscript, or the Novati Edition.
Other surviving manuscripts include the Getty-Luwig (distinguished by several categorizations added by its copyist and, according to Robert Charron, an expert on the manuscript, by the degree of comprehension of the master's teaching displayed) and the Pierpont Morgan. Both of these bear the title Fior di Battaglia .
The Novati consists of illustrated pictures of the plays accompanied by short, rhyming verses in Italian to describe them.
The Novati edition contains major sections on:
- Wrestling
- Dagger play (including defenses against a dagger when armed with a dagger and without one)
- Sword in one hand
- Spear and Staff (The weapons are treated identically in Fiore's system)
- Sword in two hands
- Sword in armour (Chiefly halfswording techniques)
- Pollaxe
- Mounted combat (including wrestling, swordplay, and the lance from horseback)
- Sword vs. Dagger
Fiore also mentions the use of:
- Bastoncello (The baton)
- Staff and dagger
- Pairs of clubs or cudgels
- The use of the chiavarina (spear) against a man on horseback
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