Life
Fiore dei Liberi records in his book that he was the son of Benedetto delli Liberi of Premariacco, from the Friuli region of modern-day Italy, and was born in Cividale del Friuli Patriarchal State of Aquileia. There are few records of his life beyond his own brief autobiographical account, but in 1383 a "Master Fiore" was recorded at Udine, where he was listed as a commander in the civil war on the side of the alliance of towns. In 1395 he can be placed at a duel fought in Padua, and in 1399 he was recorded in Pavia. At some point thereafter, he became associated with Niccolò III d'Este, Marquis of Ferrara, Modena, and Parma, though the nature of this association is unclear.
Fiore dei Liberi wrote that he had a natural inclination to the martial arts and began at a young age. Later he studied under many masters of arms from both Italy and Germany. He named only one of these, a Master Johannes "called Suueno" (possibly 'the Swebian' or 'of Swabia'), who was himself a scholar of Master Nicholai of Toblem. Though he tells us little of his own career as a commander and master at arms, he offers an extensive list of his more famous students, including Piero del Verde, Nicolò Borialino, Galeazzo di Mantua, and Azzone Francesco di Castelbarco, and details their martial exploits. He also mentions that on five separate occasions he was forced to fight lethal duels for his honor against other masters, whom he described as envious because he refused to teach them, and survived each without taking any wounds.
He states that he began writing Flos Duellatorum (the Pisani-Dossi MS) on February 10, 1410, and noted in its prologue that he had studied the arts of combat for more than 50 years. Based on the customary age of martial arts instruction for the nobility, it is estimated that Fiore was born around 1350. His death date is also an estimate as there are no known records of his life after he completed his book.
Fiore's teachings greatly influenced many of the Italian masters who came after him, most notably Filippo Vadi, as well as certain of the later German masters including Ludwig von Eyb. There is some evidence leading researchers to speculate that Johannes ditto Suueno may have been the German grand master Johannes Liechtenauer.
Read more about this topic: Fiore Dei Liberi
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“It is a conquest when we can lift ourselves above the annoyances of circumstances over which we have no control; but it is a greater victory when we can make those circumstances our helpers,—when we can appreciate the good there is in them. It has often seemed to me as if Life stood beside me, looking me in the face, and saying, “Child, you must learn to like me in the form in which you see me, before I can offer myself to you in any other aspect.””
—Lucy Larcom (1824–1893)
“I can never get people to understand that poetry is the expression of excited passion, and that there is no such thing as a life of passion any more than a continuous earthquake, or an eternal fever. Besides, who would ever shave themselves in such a state?”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“The closer a man approaches tragedy the more intense is his concentration of emotion upon the fixed point of his commitment, which is to say the closer he approaches what in life we call fanaticism.”
—Arthur Miller (b. 1915)