«Il Fior di Battaglia» symbols: iconography of early XV century fencing treatise by Fiore dei Liberi

Purpose. This article's purpose is the reconstruction of the creation context of the fencing treatise «The Flower of Battle» and renew some fragments from the Italian fencing master's life in the late 14th century - early 15th centuries with visual sources. Methods. We have looked into three Italian manuscripts, using comparative, hermeneutic and prosopographic methods. Results. The Renaissance fencing treatises is the popular research object for twenty years. The Italian material arts studies are based on the treatise of Fiore dei Liberi «The Flower of Battle». This source is an important part of modern European martial arts research and 15th century combat practices. An analysis of the sources (text, iconographic elements and archival materials) allows us to present several versions of the Italian master Fiore dei Liberi’s private and professional life. First of all, our attention pays on the ideas that contributed to the combat system structure in the treatise «Il Fior di Battaglia». The careful work with the symbols which are inside of manuscript structure allowed us to identify new details. It will help to better understand both the context of the text writing and its creation motivation for the author. Conclusions. It is important to note the attempt to fill in the blanks only with help of visual sources requires additional reinforcement with writing sources. However, the investigation of such a plan allows us to expand the field for the successor fencing treatises. Also it introduces a new perspective on the well known facts and highlights those ones, which have been lost by attention of the previous researchers. The study about fencing masters personalities and the formation concept of martial arts allows us to better understand its place among 15th century military communities. It is possible to follow both the paths of all combat practices and the relations between the users of such an intellectual product as a fencing treatise through the social connections of the fencing master.