The Italian Wars Volume 2

The League of Cambrai was an alliance stipulated in December 1508 between the main European powers with the purpose of halting the expansion of the Republic of Venice. The war that followed was one of the major conflicts in the Italian wars: it lasted from 1508 to 1516, and saw several stages. The major States involved were the Kingdom of France, the Pontifical State, and the Republic of Venice. They were sided by the European powers of Spain, England, Scotland, the Holy Roman Empire, and the Kingdom of Hungary, other than several minor States, such as the Dukedom of Milan, the Republic of Florence, the Dukedom of Ferrara, the city of Mantua, and the Swiss cantons.

The authors describe the three phases that followed one another during the conflict, and the alternating alliances among the States involved - the League against Venice in the Battle of Agnadello; the following League against France, declared by Pope Julius II, in the Battle of Ravenna; finally, the last phase of the conflict with the alliance between Venice and France in the Battle of Marignano, also known as the Battle of the Giants.

In this volume, the structure of the armies, the weapons, the battles and their death toll are described. Chronicles, reports, and studies on the subject were compared and contrasted with one another to render a picture as true as possible to the reality of facts, highlighting the often contrasting versions of the chroniclers. Finally, military heraldry, armies’ identification marks, and captains’ emblems displayed on garments, harnesses, and insignias are analyzed. Also in this case, documentary sources were studied and compared with the iconographical sources.

Massimo Predonzani was born in Piran (Slovenia) in 1959 and currently lives in Trieste (Italy). He is an illustrator and researcher. He is specialised in military heraldry during the Italian and European Renaissance. He wrote “Anghiari 29 giugno 1440” (2010), printed by “Il Cerchio” (Rimini), “Ceresole 14 aprile 1544” (2012) distributed in French and Italian by French publisher “Historic'one”. In 2014 he wrote "Caravaggio 1448. L'assedio, le battaglie, l'araldica” published by “Acies Editions” (Milan). His articles “The taking of Pisa based on the painting on the front of a chest preserved in the National Gallery in Dublin,” (2013) and “Les drapeaux de Venise pris par les Suisses à la Bataille d'Agnadel et conservés au Musée d' Appenzell” (2015) have been published by the Swiss Journal “Archivum Heraldicum”. Since 2006 he has been providing the magazine “Soldatini” with texts and illustrations. He also has a website where he shares his research and his painted illustrations (www.stemmieimprese.it.).

Vincenzo Alberici was born in 1977 in Italy, near Cremona. Since his young age he has shown great interest in history, namely military history. He has therefore applied his documentary knowledge by building miniature models, some of which are unique models and also by teaching classes for specialized firms. Since 2010 he has been writing history articles, some of them focusing on military uniforms (such as “L’armatura tedesca tra il XIV e il XV secolo and “ussaro ungherese”) for the Italian magazine “Notiziario de Gruppo Modellistico Trentino”. He occasionally writes for other magazines of the same branch (e.g. “Soldatini” and “Tutto soldatini”). Some of his articles are published on Predonzani’s website (www.stemmieimprese.it.).