Fiore di Libri - 02/18/02

In February, my buddy Mitch asked me if I wanted to go to a see a demonstration of Fiore di Libri's "Flos Duellatorum". Well, what the heck is "Flos Duellatorum"? Turns out that Fiore di Libri is a 14th century Italian combat instructor. He had travelled across Europe learning combat styles from the masters of the time, then distilled out the best practices. Wound up working in one of the high Italian courts of the time. He taught to the well-to-do of the time. He resisted publishing his methods, but as he grew old, his sponsor requested that he write a book on the subject. "Flos Duellatorum" is a set of 4 extant manuscripts. The fighting technique is comprehensive, starting with unarmed wrestling, including blocks, throws, locks and dirty tricks. With this as a base, he branches out into dagger combat, swordfighting, armored swordfighting, mounted combat and use of other weapons.

The Midwest Historical Fencers' Association sponsored a seminar by Bob Charron at Gibson's Martial Arts school in Tulsa, OK. Bob Charron is a long time SCA fighter who has taken it upon himself to translate "Flos Duellatorum". Bob has had to teach himself an obscure Italian dialect to do the translation. Also, he has spent several years studying the manual and attempting to translate the pictures and text into a likely representation of the actual fighting style. He travels all over the country hosting the seminar. He's a good instructor, made it easy to learn the concepts and techniques involved. He says he's still in the process of learning the style, and gets some new insight out of each seminar. His translation is expected to be published by the end of '02.

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