Il Fior di Battaglia

Unknown; Fiore Furlan dei Liberi da Premariacco

about 1410

Tempera colors, gold leaf, silver leaf, and ink, Tempera Colors, Ink

J. Paul Getty Museum

An open book displays pages with handwritten text and numerous small illustrations of knights on horseback engaged in combat or jousting. Like people today, people of the medieval and Renaissance periods read how-to books. This manuscript by the greatest fencing-master of the late 1300s, Fiore Furlan dei Liberi da Premariacco, instructs the reader in the intricacies of combat. Lively illustrations of charging horses and armored 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 ax, and also mounted combat in all its variations. Nicolò III d'Este, ruler of Ferrara, ordered at least three copies of this text, including this one. Nicolò's interest in such