The training regimen of the Ottawa Medieval Sword Guild is based primarily on the writings of Fiore dei Liberi, an Italian weapons master from the second half of the fourteenth century. Written in 1410, his treatise, Flos Duellatorum, or "The Flower of Battle", is a description of fighting techniques he had learned and developed in over 50 years as a warrior. |  |  |
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 The Ottawa Medieval Sword Guild is not currently accepting new members. Should OMSG desire to take on new members an announcement will be posted here.  The training regimen of the Ottawa Medieval Sword Guild is based primarily on the writings of Fiore dei Liberi, an Italian weapons master from the second half of the fourteenth century. Written in 1410, his treatise, Flos Duellatorum, or "The Flower of Battle", is a description of fighting techniques he had learned and developed in over 50 years as a warrior.Flos Duellatorum features drawings of Masters and Schollers demonstrating a system of techniques and countertechniques, accompanied by explanatory captions. There are several versions of the manuscript surviving. The most complete is the version owned by the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California, USA. Known as the "Getty Version", it contains fairly lengthy explanatory notes and descriptions for each plate. This version is not publicly available at this time.
 The current training program as it is being devised by OMSG Schollers is based on the Pisani-Dossi version, a manuscript which contains virtually identical plates to the Getty version, but with shorter rhyming couplets explaining each plate.
Flos Duellatorum is divided into several sections, including grappling, dagger, single-handed sword, two-handed sword, half-sword, spear, pole-axe, and even mounted combat. These different sections combine to form a comprehensive fighting system- patterns and techniques in one section closely mirror corresponding techniques in others.
Our knowledge of Fiore dei Liberi is supplemented by the treatise of Fillipo Vadi, an Italian master some years after Fiore dei Liberi. His manuscript, Arte Gladiatoria, covers a system virtually identical to Flos Duellatorum, but includes several chapters of discussions concerning the theory of swordsmanship which provide a valuable additional resource for students of Italian medieval fighting.
 As an Associate Group of the Academy of European Medieval Martial Arts (AEMMA), we have studied and trained under their general guidance. For OMSG beginners, the training program had been based on The Art of Longsword Combat, Book 1. Click here for an overview of the current AEMMA training program.
The Ottawa Medieval Sword Guild was formed to be primarily an armoured fighting group. Although we try to devote a significant amount of training to armoured swordplay, we also take time to study other aspects of medieval martial arts, including sword and buckler fighting based on the I-33 manuscript, German dagger and shirt-fighting, based on Talhoffer, Lichtenauer and others, and medieval archery, including mounted archery.
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