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Armizare: The Knightly Fighting Art of Medieval Italy(c) 2012, Gregory D. Mele, Chicago Swordplay Guild

"Fiore the Friulan from Cividale d’Austria, son of the late Sir Benedetto of the noble family of Dei Liberi

of Premariacco in the dioceses of the Patriarch of Aquileia, wanted in his youth to learn the arts of arms

and of combat in the lists. He wished to learn how to use the lance, the axe, the sword, the dagger and how

to wrestle; he wanted to learn combat on foot and on horseback, both with armor and without. He also

longed to learn of the temper of iron, of the nature of each weapon and of its aptness for the defense and

offense—and most of all, of prolonged combat and of other wondrous and secret things that are known by

 few men in the world. ....

"This whole art and expertise Fiore acquired from several German and Italian Masters, in many

 provinces and towns, with much labor and expense. And by the grace of God, Fiore learned so much from

so many Masters and students, and in the courts of such great lords, princes, dukes and marquises,

counts, knights and squires, that he was himself often asked to teach. Several lords, knights and squires

came to me, Fiore, for instruction on the art of arms and of prolonged combat in the lists; this art I taught

to many Italians and Germans who had to fight in the lists, as well as to countless others who did not."

- Fiore dei Liberi, Il Fior di Battaglia (1409) - Translation by Tom Leoni 

The last twenty years has seen a dramatic effort at the systematic study, translation and

recreation of the lost martial arts of Europe, with a particular emphasis on the traditions of the

medieval and Renaissance periods, which have survived only in the form of manuscripts and

printed books.

Of these, one of the most popular has been the combat system of Fiore dei Liberi, a mercenary

knight and master-at-arms, who flourished in the late 14th century. Known to 18th and 19th

century swordsmen as "the father of Italian fencing", dei Liberi taught a martial art that would

be at once familiar to students of the sogo bujutsu of traditional Japanese koryu: a diverse

fighting discipline that taught the entire arsenal of knightly weapons, combined with

sophisticated unarmed fighting methods.

After fifty years in arms, the aging master set about to record the sum of his martial knowledge

in a work he entitled Il Fior di Battaglia—the Flower of Battle. But before we can understand his

martial art, we must understand his world.

ITALY AT THE BIRTH OF THE RENAISSANCE

After the collapse of the Roman Empire, the Italian peninsula became an ever-changing

patchwork of petty kingdoms and free cities. There was no slow rebirth of town culture in

urbanized northern Italy, as there was in much ofEurope, because it had never truly perished.

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other sympathetic cities, drawing them into the conflict. The result was a continuously shifting

succession of alliances, conquests, and ephemeral truces, as city warred against city.

THE CAPTAINS OF FORTUNE

The unique culture of the Italian city-states produced an equally unique military structure.

Initially, each city gathered a local militia under the command of its aristocracy, in which the

lower classes from the city and its subject territories served as infantry, while the upper classes

served as knightly cavalry. The militia conducted regular training sessions and was well suited

to defending its domain or conducting short-term campaigns. However, by the early 1300s this

system was collapsing. Increased inter-state violence, a growing preference among wealthy

townsmen to hire others to fulfill their military duties, and the despots’ often-justified distrust

of arming their own subjects led to an almost complete reliance on paid mercenaries, the

condottieri. Named for the condotta, the contract specifying the terms of military service, the

condottiero was the consummate professional; well armed, highly trained, and able to remain in

the field indefinitely, or at least as long as his employer could make good on his payments; it

was quite common for a military captain to switch sides as soon as his contract was either

fulfilled or negated. The least savory captains sometimes simply shifted alliances if the tide

seemed to be turning.

Equally knight and bandit, the mercenary knights who fought the despots’ wars, had to be 

versed in a multitude of weapons including the sword, spear, and axe, in or out of armour, on

foot or horseback, and against any number of opponents. In the process, they developed a

martial art of a richness and complexity to stand beside any other in the world.

FIORE DEI LIBERI, THETRADITION’S FOUNDER

 Our knowledge of this martial art comes from the illustrated martial arts treatises of the

14th century Italian master-at-arms, Fiore dei Liberi. The son of a minor nobleman from Friuli in

northeastern Italy, who has been called “the father of Italian martial arts”, dei Liberi was born

about 1350 and lived as a wandering swordsman, soldier, and fencing master. Although the

precise details of his life are sketchy, throughout the late 14th century he can be traced to

several cities throughout northern Italy, serving as an artillery commander, a roving "marshal",

and as an instructor-at-arms for one of the participants at a number of duels, the most famous of

which was one fought in Padua between his student Galeazzo da Montova, and the Marshal

Boucicault of France in 1399, which drew over 10,000 spectators. The duel was fought with

spears in full armour, but was halted by the judges before there was any clear victor

Far more clandestine were the five duels that Fiore himself fought against rival masters:

“Out of envy, some Masters challenged me to combat with sharp swords in a gambeson and without any

other defensive weapon besides a pair of chamois gloves. The reason was that I had refused to associate

with them or to reveal to them any parts of my art. This happened no less than five times, and all five

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times I was compelled by honor to fight in strange places, far away from relatives or friends and without

anything to rely upon besides God, the Art, myself, Fiore, and my sword. By the grace of God, I

came through each time with my honor intact and without any physical injuries. “ 

Translation: Tom Leoni 

THE ART OF ARMS

Fig 2: Techniques of Arbaraze

Maestro Fiore gave no formal name to his school or his martial art, simply calling

it Armizare (are-mee-TZAR-ay), which means “the art of arms”. He divided Armizare into three

principle sections: close quarter combat, long weapon combat, and mounted combat.

Abrazare ( “embracing”) is an unarmed system of arm and body wrestling. The goal of the

system is to get the opponent onto the ground as swiftly and effectively as possible withoutgoing there yourself. Abrazare uses a diverse range of techniques, including throws, holds, joint

locks, breaks, binds, and disarms. As a system of armoured wrestling, strikes in abrazare are

minimal, and dei Liberi's plays begin with the combatants having come to grips. Due to the

nature of European armour, chokes and wrist locks are notably absent in the system.

Abrazare also forms the basis for fighting both unarmed and when wielding or confronted by

the dagger. The medieval dagger was a large weapon, often the length of a man’s forearm, and

designed for both self-defense, and as the call of last resort on the battlefield, where its sharp

point could puncture the weak points in armour. Dei Liberi's instructions on the dagger form

the single largest section of the Flower of Battle, with nearly eighty distinctive plays, grouped

into nine Remedy Masters. Each of these "remedies" is a class of attack. For example, the FirstRemedy classifies techniques, counters, and counter-counters to a forehand, reverse grip blow,

while the Fifth Remedy deals with an opponent who has grabbed your collar and is brandishing

his dagger—a familiar setup in martial arts instruction to this day.

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Dagger fighting and unarmed combat are closely intertwined in Armizare, and together form

the basis of close fighting with all other weapons, especially in armoured combat, where the

sword's edge is rendered useless.

In total, dei Liberi's teachings on close quarter combat include:

   Abrazare (striking, throwing and

grapping techniques)— 20 plays

  Bastoncello (a short stick, approximately

12” long)—4 plays

  Daga (the rondel dagger)—76 plays 

  Daga contra spada (dagger vs. sword)—9

plays

Scrimia (literally "fencing", i.e. "swordplay") begins with the sword, but forms the technical,

mechanical and tactical basis for fighting with all other long weapons in Armizare, such as the

spear and poleaxe. The system also includes the use of several unusual weapons, such as

monstrous, specialized swords for judicial combat, a slashing, winged-spear called a ghiavarina,and special polehammers ending in a weighted rope or chain to entangle the opponent's

weapon or legs and fitted with hollow-heads filled with an acidic powder to blind the

opponent. Fiore dryly notes that this last weapon is "cruel and deceitful" and that a man so

noble as the Marquise would never use such a thing, but "since it has been asked that I record

all I know," he is nevertheless recording the recipe for the blinding powder.

Scrimia includes: 

Spada d’un mano (one-handed swordtechniques)—9 plays

  Spada a dui mani (two-handed swordtechniques)—40 plays

  Daga e bastone (staff anddagger)—2 plays

  Lanza (spear)—7 plays  Spada en arme (sword in

full armour)—18 plays 

 Azza (poleaxe - a 4–6'long hammer-headedweapon capped oneither end with aspike.)—8 plays

Fig 3: ScrimiaFour swordplay techniques from the il Fior di Battaglia of Fiore dei Liberi.

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Fig 4: Ghiavarina vs. a HorsemanA pair of techniques from the mounted combat portion from the il Fior di Battaglia of Fiore dei Liberi

A Cavallo ("On Horse") Finally, the knight was first and foremost a cavalryman, and his

fighting art was equally adapted for combat on foot or horseback. The mounted combat sectionis almost a summary of the entire manuscript, returning to common themes and plays, now

adapted for two armoured horsemen moving past one another. This section includes:

   Abrazare 

  Lanza (lance)

  Spada d’un mano contra lanza (sword vs.

lance)

  Spada contra spada 

  Ghiavarina

(a partisan-like weapon wielded on

foot against mounted opponents)

THE FLOWER OF BATTLE

Dei Liberi's written record, Il Fior di Battaglia ("The Flower of Battle"), was completed in 1409and dedicated to Niccolo d'Este, the powerful young Marquise of Ferrara, Modena and Parma.

Four copies of the Flower of Battle survive today, each with important similarities and

differences to its brethren. The key similarity is the organization of the material, which uses

captioned illustrations to instruct through a series of zoghi, or "plays"—short, paired sequences

that are exemplars of both tactics and techniques; analogous to the kata of classical Japanese

budo.

Throughout his book, dei Liberi organizes his instructions in a rather ingenious manner. Each

weapon is introduced by a series of "Masters" who explain the basic principles of fighting with

that weapon. These Masters stand in the various poste ("positions") or guards, used with that

weapon.

The illustration is accompanied by a short caption explaining how the weapon is used both

offensively and defensively from that posture, the guards which best counter it, and so forth.

After these Masters come another set of Masters called Remedio or "Remedies". Each Remedy

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Master explains how to make aspecific kind of defense, and is thenfollowed by a series of plays, whichshow two figures fighting. The playsare always won by a figure wearing a

gold garter beneath his knee. Thisfigure is the Scholaro ("scholar" or"student") of the Remedy Master, anddemonstrates the lesson of thatRemedy, used in various applications.The loser in each play is called theZugadore ("player"). Together, thesefigures are analogous to the respectiveshidachi and uchidachi of Japaneseswordsmanship.

Periodically, the Zugadore turns thetable on the Scholar. This figure wearsboth a crown and a gold garter, and isin reality a third Master, called theContrario ("Contrary"). This CounterMaster shows how he and his ownstudents can defeat all of the actionsof the Remedy that preceded him.Once the Contrary and his studentshave taught their lessons, dei Liberithen introduces his next Remedy,with his students, and so forth. The

overall affect is that the art ispresented in a highly analyticalmethod, as can be seen in the blowflow chart of the First Remedy Masterof the Dagger. (See Fig 4.)

Fig 5. The Sign of the SwordFrom the copy of il Fior di Battaglia, held by the BibliothèqueNational in Paris, France. The Segno is a symbolic diagram thatshows four animals, each corresponding to one of the cardinaldirections, four elements and important qualities of the masterswordsman. The elements are the Elephant (Fortitude), Tiger(Speed), Lynx (Prudence) and Lion (Courage).

Dei Liberi also presents his plays in a highly cross-referenced format, so that a grapple at the

sword might refer back to a dagger play to illustrate its actions, or a sword technique can be

referenced to explain how to use the spear. This allows the master to show the integration of the

techniques of his art, and also means that each succeeding section of his manuscript can focus

on the properties and actions unique to that particular weapon. For example, by the time wecome to the poleaxe at the end of the section on foot combat, only the guards of the axe and

eight plays are detailed, each of those plays beginning when the axe heads have locked and

been born to the ground. While this leaves the casual reader with the impression that dei Liberi

either did not favor the poleaxe or understand its use, this is belied by a careful read of the

manuscript, particularly his instructions in the section on the poste, where he first writes:

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Fig 6: The First Remedy of the DaggerNote that the Masters are in boxes, a solid line connects the Remedy to his Scholars, whereas a

diamond line connects him to his Counters, and a branched line demonstrates multiple

possibilities. (From Fiore dei Liberi's Armizare: The Chivalric Martial Arts System of il Fior di Battaglia ,

by Robert Charrette. Used with permission of Freelance Academy Press.)

We have faced each other many times in the Art of Arms, and know well each other's plays.

and then at the end of the section on guards:

These are the plays through which these guards fight. Each guard wants to try them, certain to win. If

you can beat the opponent’s axe to the ground as shown, by all means do it. Also do the others as long as

the opponent does not stop you with a counter.

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The take-away lesson is that the axe has the qualities of both the sword and dagger, in and out

of armour, and therefore is able to use all of their plays, which have already been illustrated and

explained. However, unlike those weapons, it also has the potential for the heavy hammer

heads to lock and be born to the ground, which requires the series of additional, specialized

plays that follow. Thus, in a very real sense, rather than a book with only eight techniques for

poleaxe combat, it can be argued that the entire book is an axe manual!

But the larger lesson is that the Art of Arms is a single, integrated combat system to be used in

arme, sine arme, equester et pedester  ("in arms and without, on horse and on foot"); a true knightly

art of battle. Six hundred years later, we are fortunate that Fiore dei Liberi has left us his legacy,

providing a window into the warrior culture of a distant world that gave birth to our own.