A Second Flowering?: Filippo Vadi and the Dei Liberi Tradition

Filippo Vadi lived during the second half of the 15th century and sometime in the early 1480s dedicated a painted manuscript, De Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi (Of the Art of Swordsmanship) to the child-duke of Urbino. This work clearly derives from the earlier il Fior di Battaglia of Fiore dei Liberi, but the exact connection is unclear. Many modern scholars and practitioners dismiss the work as derivative, others seek to elevate it to something wholly new. In this lecture, Greg argues that the truth is really somewhere in between, and far more interesting thereby. Join us to find out why.