Il fior di battaglia / Fiore dei Liberi

Accession number: 
MS M.383
Title: 
Il fior di battaglia / Fiore dei Liberi
Created: 
Venice (or Padua), Italy, ca. 1410-20
Binding: 
Red morocco by J. Clark; lettered: Trattato della scherma.
Credit: 
Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) in 1909.
Description: 
20 leaves (2 columns, 39-40 lines), bound : vellum, ill. ; 277 x 195 mm
Provenance: 
According to Francesco Novati in his 1902 edition of the Flos duellatorum in armis, sine armis, equester, pedester, Pierpont Morgan Library MS M.383 is the lost codex MCCLXI of the Biblioteca Soranzo at Venice (Library of Jacopo Soranzo, Venetian senator, fl. 18th century) sold in 1780; Matteo Luigi Canonici (1727-1805); his sale London, Sotheby's, June 25, 1836, no. 40) to Rev. Walter Sneyd of Bagington Rectory, Coventry; his sale (London, Sotheby's, Dec. 19, 1903, no. 720) to Ellis; T. De Marinis, catalogue 8, 1908, plate 9); purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) from T. de Marinis in 1909; J.P. Morgan (1867-1943).
Notes: 

Ms. written, decorated, and illustrated in Venice or Padua, Italy, ca. 1410-20.
Artist: two Venetian or Veronese artists, followers of Altichiero.
Decoration: 124 pen drawings throughout the text; decorative title page.
The illustration of M.383 is unfinished. Several pen drawings have not been completed.
A manuscript of the same text, which also was executed in the Venetian region in the early 15th century, can be found in the J.Paul Getty Museum, MS Ludwig XV 13 (83.MR.183); see the Ludwig catalogue, v. 4, p. 282-288.

Variant Title: 

Trattato della scherma

Script: 
small humanistic script
Language: 
Venetian dialect of Italian
Century: 
Classification: