Italian Medieval Armies 1300–1500 (Men-at-Arms, 136)

There is a reason I'm trying to learn Italian. The reason is that as an armchair historian, I've discovered that few English titles are able to do justice to anything Italian. This is especially true with Renaissance era literary works as the Italian language is far less vulgar then that of English - which is considered a "power language". Although David Nicolle does a descent job, I feel the book is too small to really go into detail as the Italian political and social climate of the day was incredibly treacherous and even small aspects would cover volumes. Also some of his viewpoints lack credibility. One such viewpoint is that the French and English invaders were bigger in physical size. Perhaps Mr. Nicolle has seen one too many Joe Pesci movies? From the Armour pieces I've studied, there's certainly nothing to indicate Italians of the day were smaller in size. Today, if you look at the sports teams in Europe, Italians are among the tallest. Goes for both Rugby, Football(soccer), and fencing. Anyway I can't imagine why someone would make such a broad assumption. It's hard to imagine the Romans - the greatest empire known to man - being smaller people then the rest of Europe. Unless the Italians shrank during the Middle Ages? Hmmm not likely. Although it did remind me of Time Bandits when Napoleon says with great disappointment, "I wanted to invade Italy because I thought they were all small people". :)Anyway decent book if you want some nice pics and a summary of events from the period.

'Italian Medieval Armies' is a detailed look at the endemic and savage warfare of late medieval Italy. Here the political scene was dominated by fierce mercenary generals, while the battlefield was ruled by the condottiere mercenaries. Indeed, while early medieval Italian armies were populated largely by patriotic citizens fighting for their homes and families, those of this period were known for their cruel and flamboyant mercenaries from Central Europe and England.Towards the close of his book Nicolle looks at 8 important battles and campaigns of this era to give a summary of Italian battle tactics and leadership. All throughout the book are black-and-white photos of suits of armor, castles, and contemporary artwork that help flesh out some of these events and those that lived them. Gerry Embleton's color plates in this book are among his betters; they are pretty much on par with his great artwork in the 'Armies of Medieval Burgundy' title.Shortly, this is a nice men-at-arms title and a good companion to the recently published 'Condottiere 1300-1500'.

"Italian Medieval Armies" is a typical Osprey Publishing book from the mid 1980's. The text by David Nicolle is mediocre at best. Nicolle's writing reminds me of reading someone's master's thesis. It is all very earnest but nevertheless clumsy and not very deep. The illustrations by G.A. Embleton are competent but appear flat and dull by comparison with the improved quality of illustration in recent Osprey publications. My advice is to avoid this book and instead purchase "Condottiere 1300-1500" by David Murphy. It is part of Osprey's Warrior Series and is a much better book.

Got this along with "Condottiere 1300-1500" and I feel like I've learned a lot, despite how tiny the book is.

Pretty good book to use as a reference for the time period.

Although published in 1983, this Men-at-Arms title on Italian Medieval armies remains a valuable resource and introduction, especially if used together with “Condottiere 1300-1500” in Osprey’s Warrior series.To some extent, the two titles are even complementary. While the later one is more recent and includes more up to date references, this title has a least three major items going for it. One is that it has a section containing short summaries of a selection of eight of the main battles fought during the period and some of them have useful schematics illustrating how the battles were fought (for Castagnero and Fornovo).Another is that the plates and illustrations – which I all found to be good - provide different and additional information on armour, helmets, equipment and fortifications than what can be found in the more recent title. One example is the plan of the fortress of Sarzanello, built around 1377, held for a time by John Hawkwood in the name of Florence, and one of the first fortresses built to withstand gunpowder artillery,A third difference is that it is a high level summary of the evolution of Italian armies over the period, and not only the forces of the condottiere, even if these, their most prominent captains and the battles that they fought make up a significant chunk of the narrative.Another strength of this title is that it discusses, even if very briefly the theoretical debates between the two main schools of warfare. It also does list some of the main points of Italian warfare, such as the fact that armies on campaign tended to avoid battles where possible. When battle could not be avoided, it was rarely fought to the finish. Prisoners were taken in large numbers but only the wealthy were held for ransom with others being most frequently stripped of all valuable equipment and released.As the author acknowledges, elsewhere in Europe the rank and file was not allowed to surrender but would be butchered by the victorious army. However, contrary to what the author seems to believe, this had little to do with being “more humane” and everything to do with self-interest, especially when armies on both sides were mainly up of professional mercenaries and where today’s victor and capturer could be defeated and captured a few months or even a few weeks later.Four stars.

This is a great book which reflects the way the various Italian armies looked at the time of the French involvement in the northern Italian affairs. David Nicolle has written a number of books for the Osprey Publishing Company and this book on Italy during the Middle Ages and I love all of them and have collected a great number of them.

Another excellent Osprey book. Informative and well illustrated with colour plates and photos. Just what I needed as an introduction into this period of history.

Excellent

Libretto interessante, molto breve.

Il libro e' carino, ben scritto e con tante illustrazioni nella migliore tradizione Osprey. Nulla di particolarmente profondo e la discussione di alcuni eserciti si riduce ad esercizi compilatori. Nel complesso, piu' che gradevole.