Studying Fiore dei Liberi's 15th century "Flower of Battle"

In about 1409, a comprehensive system of medieval combat was devised by Fiore dei Liberi.

His Fiore dei Battaglia, or Flower of Battle comprises techniques in dagger, longsword, speara and other weapons including armored combat and combat from horseback.

Since both drawings and descriptions of techniques exist side by side, this is one of the most complete systems of medieval combat that we know about. Fiore's system is a popular component of the burgeoning Western Martial Arts (WMA) movement.

We will focus on the longsword, or two-handed sword.