De Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi

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Amongst the medieval fighting manuals remaining to us, Ars Gladitoria written by Filippo Vadi, represents not only a fine late 15th century extension of Fiore de Liberi's Flos Duellatorum, upon which it appears to have been based. It addresses not only fighting in and out of harness, probably reflecting the spectrum of combatants medieval fencing masters dealt with, but also with the philosophy of fighting, of the moral strength required by the man at arms. The manuscript itself, which resides at the Biblioteca Nazionale in Rome, consists of 78 leaves that illustrate the techniques included in the text that follows. While Vadi's system is not as complete as Liberi's (c. 1410), it possesses a measure of maturity and a clarity of sentiment with a beauty of its own, an elegance reflective of the proto-Renaissance Italian culture upon which it is based.