In 1410, the legendary Master of the Art of Arms, Fiore dei Liberi, wrote a complete manual of his fighting style, naming it Fior di Battaglia – the Flower of Battle.
Reproduced on three decks of flash cards, here are all the plays and posta of Fiores masterpiece, translated into English.
Elements of the cards
So as to comfortably fit the image and all text in a readable sized font, the cards are ‘tarot size.’ i.e. 12 x 7 cm.
Within a border inspired by the illuminated introduction page, each play is presented on a background matching the parchment it was originally drawn on.
Cards are grouped into chapters, with each play or posta being individually named. The title and translation is divided by a weapon relevant to the chapter. Translations are my own. Each play is numbered, counting off from the master they are associated with as being play 1. Each card is also marked with a folio reference.
Available card decks
These flash cards contain all plays and posta from Fior di Battaglia. The number involved means that the entire book divides into three decks of roughly the same size, containing several chapters each. I have also included a ‘Master cuts’ deck, which is an overview of armizare, which a play taken from each folio. Each deck is available packed in either an illustrated box or a plain white box. These decks are divided as follows.
Daggers – 94 cards
- Baton
- Dagger
- Sword vs dagger
Swords – 95 cards
- Sword in one hand
- Sword in two hands
- Sword in armour
Mixed weapons – 84 cards
- Grappling
- Mixed weapons
- Pollaxe
- Spear
- Horseback
- Horseback grappling
- Spear vs horseback
- Endpiece
Master cuts – 80 cards
- All chapters represented
Fight like Fiore 