Flowers of Battle The Complete Martial Works of Fiore dei Liberi Vol 1

The `Getty Manuscript’ (Il Fior di Battaglia/The Flower of Battle) by the greatest fencing-master of the late 1300s, Fiore Furlan dei Liberi, instructs the reader in the intricacies of combat. Lively illustrations of charging horses and armoured knights accompany the text; through words and pictures, the manuscript teaches a variety of fighting techniques including single combat on foot with sword, dagger and axe, and mounted combat in all its variations. Fiore’s magnum opus, The Flower of Battle, composed in 1409, is one of the oldest, most extensive and most clearly elucidated martial arts treatises from the medieval period. It is a record of a complete medieval martial tradition, and provides unique insights into the life and milieu of the professional fighting man at the birth of the Italian Renaissance. Fiore preserved his teachings in a series of illustrated manuscripts, four of which have survived to the present day. The first volume in this new five-part series (see SERIES