A Beautiful Mess: The Florius Manuscript of Knightly Arts
Fri, Nov 20
|Online Event
Only three copies of the "Flower of Battle" were known to exist until quite recently. What does the existence of the Florius, the fourth and only full color manuscript, tell us about Fiore, the patron who commissioned it, and the changing world between the original and this posthumous copy?
Time & Location
Nov 20, 2020, 7:00 PM CST
Online Event
About the Event
At a time when manuscripts where hand written and costly to duplicate, the existence of four surviving copies of one work is a true gift. In the Flower of Battle, the famous Fiore dei Liberi, acclaimed “Father of Italian Martial Arts” left us a written record of his teaching. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, only three copies were known to exist, until Dr. Ken Mondschein stumbled upon a fourth manuscript, hidden in plain sight, in France's most prestigious library.
But one of these books is not like the others. Sometimes in surprising ways.
What does the existence of the Florius, the only full color manuscript, tell us about Fiore, the patron who commissioned it, and the changing world between the original and this posthumous copy?