"Italian Wars reading material." Topic

Hello all

I'm currently looking for some reading material for the Italian wars. Specifically first hand accounts of soldiers/civilian's written experiences relating to warfare or its effects. It can also include artwork or anything like that, as all I tend to find are the broader pictures and material written by historians afterwards, and not a lot of direct material from the time.
I ask here, as I've seen a lot of wargammers who put an extraordinary amount of research into their armies or projects. An example: stuartsworkbench.blogspot.co.uk

Regards

This also relates to Mercenaries and the artwork and firsthand accounts around them!

How's your French? The memoirs of the Marechal de Florange are online at link (volume 1) and link (v2). It includes accounts of his participation at Ravenna, Novara, and Marignano, for instance.

And you've got to love 16th-century French spelling…
"Et furent constrainct les dicts Suysses d'abbandonner iiij c hallebardiers qui'ils avoient, et allerent donner sur les hacquebutiers lantskenecht qui estiont huyt cens, tellement que les rompirent, et adoncque les hallebardiers qui donnerent sur les flans des dicts lantskenecht."

In English, there is not much out there that I've found.

Here's my book list, though you've probably already read most of these:

link

"Et furent constrainct les dicts Suysses d'abbandonner iiij c hallebardiers qui'ils avoient, et allerent donner sur les hacquebutiers lantskenecht qui estiont huyt cens, tellement que les rompirent, et adoncque les hallebardiers qui donnerent sur les flans des dicts lantskenecht"

:)) I love these old texts! but certainly they can look strange to foreigners.

James has loads of good ones in his list above, for an overview the Shaw and Mallet "Italian Wars 1494-1559" is a must and the J R Hale book, "War and Society in Renaissance Europe" is also great for some ideas of what renaissance warfare was like and why men joined up.

With regard to the first hand accounts or contemporary artwork try some of these.

Blaise De Monlucs memoires (there may well be a better translation but I enjoyed this and its cheap second hand): link

This one is odd, the author compares WW2 and Vietnam Memoires with those of Renaissance Soliders. It's actually really interesting and provides a fascinating look at how renaissance soliders thought of themselves: link

For art work this is brilliant, its a big A4 hardback full of contemporary images: link

While not exactly first hand, this is contemporary. This is an edited version which annoyingly has some of the siege and battle accounts shortened or omitted but you may find it useful: link

It seems that the Sacco di Roma catches the attention of historians, so you will find a comparatively good selection of books upon it – these do use accounts.

A "must know" is Arfaiolis "Black Bands of Giovanni" – which set in after Giovanni di Medici died and puts up the story of his unit as the contribution of Florence to the coalition army during the Imperials sack of Rome to their siege of Naples and the destruction of the army in 1528/29.

Actual first hand accounts of soldiers are rare in the extreme, and mainly hidden in other works. Cellini brags about his part in the defense of Rome in 27, and Schertlin mentions the whole campaign from Marseilles over Pavia to Rome on a meagre page. Its a major mosaic – which will perhaps enable you to find informations that are yet unconnected. :-)

A second vote for De Monluc; in English and accessible affordably second hand or through libraries.

This also relates to Mercenaries and the artwork and firsthand accounts around them!

Prints of Swiss Soldiers by Urs Graf, himself a mercenary.
Swiss mercenaries in the 1522 ed. of Breydenbach's Peregrinationes in Terram Sanctam
Mercenary Swiss & Stradiots in a 1506 print of the Battle of Fornovo 1495
Stradiots in Le Voyage de Gênes (The Journey to Genoa) by Jean Marot, 1510-1520, with a link to the manuscript (in French).

Druzhina
16th Century Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers

I keep meaning to pick up the book about Giovanni's Black Bands. I've heard it gives some insights into arquebusier tactics.

I've found that the problem with finding out about this period was down to my own misconception. Because the period is now called the renaissance I imagined that there would have been lots and lots written about it at the time. I was wrong, of course. The Italian Wars is only just past the outset of the renaissance. It is still largely a medieval age. The printing press had only just been invented and hardly anyone was writing proper histories, let alone finding someone willing to print them; and books on tactics were only just beginning to be thought of as useful – they would start to appear during the period, but so many are fanciful (e.g. Machiavelli) that they are not exactly trustworthy.

It is probably why the first hand snippets I've read are like medieval tales of chivalry and knightly doings – and, consequently, not much use to a war gamer.

The whole nature of warfare at this time is shrouded under a medieval mist. The nature of warfare also changed faster than most could keep up with; changes were local and changed again before becoming widely known. I sometimes wonder if those in the know liked to keep it that way, secret and arcane, in order to preserve their military status. On the other hand, because so much is unknown, it does allow the war gamer more scope for interpretation than later periods.

I'm sure there are memoirs of the chevalier Bayard which perfectly illustrate James' point above.

The title escapes me but google or amazon should help you find it.

Bayard's biography was wrtten by his "Loyal Servant": the original title is La très joyeuse et très plaisante histoire du gentil seigneur de Bayart, le bon chevalier sans peur et sans reproche, le gentil seigneur de Bayart acc'd to WP.

Bayard was a modest man !

The response from everyone here has been fantastic. The sources you've provided have given me a very good selection of what I needed. My sincerest thanks go out to all of you. In particular the 'black bands', Monluc and Bayard sound interesting. I think I know a person who reads french so we shall see on the Marechal de Florange piece. The Hale book I know someone who has a copy, so i'll give it a go, and the artwork Druzhina is fantastic and will be of great use.
Thank you all for the posts!

With regards to Monluc I recomend using the French original text which is freely available online if you know the language. If not use 1674 English translation which is also available as a digital text though a bit harder to locate if you don't have EEBO access. For some reason the 1971 edition removed at least 60% of the original text and what you end up with are somewhat disjointed episodes from Monluc's long military service.

Withregards to Bayard one must watch out for the various semi-fictional accounts of his life which can be hard to distinguish at frist glance from the serious histories or the original "Loyal Servant" translation.

BTW: Adam Reisner, secretary to Georg von Frundsberg, wrote a biography on him (and Frundsbergs son) a couple of years after Frundsbergs (sr) death. As Reisner was on several campaigns himself these are also offers a good if oten subjective view into the life of the most prominent leaders of the Landsknechts.

The Text is available online at several sources under the German original "Historia der Herren Georg und Kaspar von Frundsberg", though I am not sure wether there ever was an English translation.

Arfaioli also wrote a dissertion on the Black band that should be available online in toto, though I have lost the link. This was the base for his book, but covers some more aspects (if not at the same depth).

Puster is right, Arfaiolis "Black Bands of Giovanni" is his Phd thesis turned into a book. The thesis can be found here: PDF link

I found it fascinating.

A good read on Bayard is here but I am not sure how accurate it is?

link

Blaise de Monluc has a street named after him in my city, Siena (and we also have a statue dedicated to him). His chief feat was the famous defense of the city (1555) which he related himself.
He is considered a hero for our history, because he commanded the troops of Siena in the heroic defense of the city against the Florentines and Spaniards.