[7][8][9] It has been suggested by various historians that Fiore and Benedetto were descended from Cristallo dei Liberi of Premariacco, who was granted immediacy in 1110 by Emperor Henry V,[10][11][12] but this has yet to be confirmed.
[13] Fiore wrote that he had a natural inclination to the martial arts and began training at a young age, ultimately studying with "countless" masters from both the Italian and German parts of the Holy Roman Empire.
[14] He also writes of meeting many "false" or unworthy masters who lacked even the limited skill he'd expect in a good student,[6] and mentions that on five separate occasions he was forced to fight duels for his honor against certain of these masters whom he described as envious because he refused to teach them his art; the duels were all fought with sharp longswords, unarmored except for gambesons and chamois gloves, and he stated that he won each without injury.
[4][5] Based on Fiore's autobiographical account, he can tentatively be placed in Perosa (Perugia) in 1381 when Piero del Verde likely fought a duel with Pietro della Corona (Peter Kornwald).
[21] That same year, the Aquileian War of Succession erupted as a coalition of secular nobles from Udine and surrounding cities sought to remove the newly appointed Patriarch, Philippe II d'Alençon.
Fiore seems to have sided with the secular nobility against the cardinal as in 1383 there is record of him being tasked by the grand council with inspection and maintenance on the artillery pieces defending Udine (including large crossbows and catapults).
In 1395, Fiore can be placed in Padua training the mercenary captain Galeazzo Gonzaga of Mantua for a duel with the French Marshal Jean II Le Maingre (who used the war name "Boucicaut").
Galeazzo made the challenge when Boucicaut called into question the valor of Italians at the royal court of France, and the duel was ultimately set for Padua on 15 August.
They fought the other nine bouts as scheduled, and due to the strength of their armor (and the fact that all of the weapons were blunted), both combatants reportedly emerged from these exchanges unharmed.
[19][26] Fiore was likely involved in at least one other duel that year, between his final named student Azzone di Castelbarco and Giovanni degli Ordelaffi, as the latter is known to have died in 1399.
[29] However, while two surviving copies of "the Flower of Battle" are dedicated to the marquis, it seems more likely that the manuscripts were written as a diplomatic gift to Ferrara from Milan when they made peace in 1404.
Even so, there are a number of later treatises which bear strong resemblance to his work, including the writings of Philippo di Vadi and Ludwig VI von Eyb of Hartenstein.
Novati described it as a small, thin, vellum folio, pen and ink with gold highlights, and illustrations of sword and lance combat on foot and horseback.
The known provenance of the Ms. M.383 is:[31] The contents of the Ms. M.383 are as follows: The Ms. Ludwig XV 13, also titled Fior di Battaglia, is currently in the holdings of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, CA.
The Pisani Dossi Ms. was published in facsimile by Francesco Novati in 1902, including the only reproductions of a copy of the Flower of Battle that are clearly in the public domain.
However, it is unclear how accurate this facsimile is as evidence suggests that Novati may have hired an artist to create a tracing of the original manuscript rather than reproducing it directly.
[citation needed] This would have provided ample opportunity for errors to creep into the images, and might also account for the significant divergences from the artistic style of the Getty and the Morgan.
[23][34] Any preface it once possessed is missing from the current form of the manuscript; it consists of 44 folios with two pairings per page, and is the only copy of Fiore's treatise whose illustrations are fully painted.
Unlike Fiore's other works, this manuscript is written entirely in Latin; its descriptions are cast in couplets and quatrains similar to the Pisani Dossi Ms.