"Italians in the livery of Sigismondo Malatesta, 15thC" Topic

'Hesperides' by Basinio de' Basini of Parma, Italy, Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS. Canon. Class. Lat. 81, 1457-1468AD
A story illustrated with soldiers in 15th century costume.
Combat at a castle. 'Hesperides' by Basinio de' Basini of Parma
Navy and army besieging a castle. 'Hesperides' by Basinio de' Basini of Parma (their short pikes are used two-handed)
Italian camp and army. 'Hesperides' by Basinio de' Basini of Parma
Italian army on the march with musicians and pack-horses. 'Hesperides' by Basinio de' Basini of Parma The livery $ can be seen on the lower back of some infantry tunics.

Druzhina
15th Century Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers

Thanks, very interesting!

Terrific! Thanks! I have been building up a Venetian army and used the "S" logo on a bunch of the guys. I guess that wasn't far wrong.

Is it a serpent on a staff instead of an "S"? I have seen that with the serpent in green. Surely they are not mercenaries with dollar signs! Also confused by the image on the banner of the horns.

There have been debates about the meaning of the symbol but it is an S over an I.
See link

The design on the trumpet banners is Malatesta's heraldry.
link shows a couple of variants. The trumpets have the double elephant crest. The shield only carries the design of the first quarter of the shields i.e link

This category includes, in the Chapel of the ancestors, Malatesta elephants and howdah with coats of arms (on the sides) and portrait.
I haven't seen another version where the elephants face different directions.

Druzhina
Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers

A stylized femur, encircled by a coil of ribbon, or veil? The similarity to the "dollar sign" is merely coincidental….

The "S" intwined with "I" could well represent the initials of Sigismondo Malatesta and Isotta degli Atti.
Isotta was Sigismondo's third wife which would date the badge between 1456-1468.
Thus:

link discusses the symbol.
The Sigismondo and Isotta theory is discussed but this particular site believes it refers only to the first two letters of Siggy's name, citing e.g. a 1909 paper.

Regardless whether it is just his name or the names of the couple, or even a mysterious word known only to a few (which has been suggested), the symbol is interpreted as the two letters, not as representing anything else.

(The dollar sign is also probably a combination of letters though it is sometimes suggested it is from one of the columns of Hercules shown on Spanish coins).

I go for the romantic version, Siggy and Issy….

Swampster – a good link and I suspect you are right.
Great War Ace – and a great excuse to include the fair lady on the command base!