"Book Review - The Italian Wars Part 1 Helion Publishing" Topic

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Morning fellow gamers,

I picked this new book up yesterday and was suitably impressed enough to put a quick review together.

Not heard of Helion before, this book reminds me of the Osprey Campaign series. 128 pages with colour plates in the middle.

A mini Yarkshire TV special on the book is available via the YouTube link on the blog post.

Wish the book was out a year ago before I started my army !

Regards Ken
The Yarkshire Gamer

I've just flicked through mine, and to be honest haven't been very impressed….

The colour plates are OK… not as good quality artwork as Ospreys, and don't seem to show anything new really. They offer no commentary on the details of arms and armour, like the Ospreys do.

Was this written in another language and translated into English? It seems like an imperfect translation…. little details like, for example, referring to all mounted soldiers as 'knights'. Seems like it's either poorly written, or would have benefited from a better translation.

For example, in reference to Straditti: "Facing these peculiar knights in the Italian wars convinced other European states to hire and deploy these mercenaries greatly in the following century"…
And later: "The Stradiotti were mainly tasked with exploration, breaking up the opponents' attacks through quick and merciless raids, and, naturally, pursuit and pillage. Quickness and mercilessness were the main characteristics of these knights."

HOWEVER… I haven't actually read it yet. How does it compare to the Osprey book on the exact same subject? Seems identical in format. Whether it has more information or not, I don't yet know.

My guess is that this a a translation. I have Massimo Predonzani's book on Cerasole – bought direct from the author – excellent and highly recommended but the language choice there was French or Italian and I promise there is no commercial translation, however leaden-footed and budget driven that is worse than me trying to read a French book.

The quality of translation does sound disappointing but I'm pleased Helion are at least trying to bring things to an English speaking audience that we could otherwise only access with a phrase book or Google translate in one hand.

Hi, Charlie that's a very detailed reply for having not read the book !

I do mention the translation on the YouTube review, the parts I noticed felt like a English translation from Italian. Il Cavaliere is the Italian for knight but also for horseman and cavalryman so maybe that's the issue.

The book has a whole chapter on the Opposing armies, the arms and armour as well. I don't have the Osprey book to compare this with.

Midlander65 makes very good points about the translations, budget has to be an issue for Helion, to get a 100% translation you would need an Italian / English expert who was also not just a Military Historian but one familiar with the details of the Italian Wars.

The access to Italian sources are the most important thing for me, I can work out the occasional language slip personally and if you exchange the word cavalryman for knight in the example for Charlie it makes perfect sense. Things like the Appendix with the orbat make this for me.

Regards Ken
The Yarkshire Gamer

True, a poor translation is better than no translation at all!

Thanks! I pre-ordered it, still waiting for its arrival. Fornovo is probably the only Italian Wars battle I'll ever get around to doing.

Fyi, there is a page to "Register Interest" in the 2nd volume so that you'll be emailed when it's available to order:
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I must make a point of having a look at this at the next show I attend. Helion have a habit of ruining perfectly good books by not proofing, editing or checking them in anyway. No one seems to question what the author is doing, so some books are half complete. Warwick Lowth's book should be a major reference work, but is marred by misleading typos. Consequently I am resolved not to buy anymore until I have a really good look at them. I am concerned about the quality of the translation. Bad translations can be very misleading (there are some in the Penguin classics series where the translator has no idea about Roman tactics).

I dont understand the reviewer's rationale. It sounds like he is suggesting that because it is too expensive to hire a proper translator, everyone else has to just accept that and buy the book? Sorry, not everyone is desperate enough to get books on this subject to overlook sloppy work.

Additionally, overlooking an item's flaws because one is a fan can be seen to compromise the value of a review.

Helion seems to be heading in too many directions at once. It's like theyre trying to become a poor man's Osprey overnight. Maybe if they slowed down, they could afford that elusive translator.

Hi Minipigs, the reviewer is human, he is called Ken and you don't need to address me in the third person like I'm not in the room.

To answer your points, I am not excusing anything I am trying to provide a rational for the way the book was written. I would suggest that the Venn diagram crossover for Italian / English translator and Renaissance war expert is tiny if it exists at all. What would be a better suggestion would be an English proof reader would it not ?

Having now read most of the book it does suffer from poor translation which can be difficult to read at times, there are passages which show both the original Italian and the translation into English which helps understand how the book has been translated, it is not unreadable and the vast majority of the book has been very useful to me.

I am certainly not desperate as you suggest, my rationale is that I have an interest in a period and provided a personal perspective on the book with no vested interest, I found the book interesting, it contained information that I found useful, I described this AND I described the translation issues, to suggest I am some sort of fan boy is well wide of the mark.

Regards Ken
The Yarkshire Gamer

From what I saw online, it looks like at the very least the illustrations will be useful. I have three of Massimo Predonzani's other books (covering the battles of Anghari, Ceresole, and Caravaggio.) They are well researched and illustrated. Looking forward to receiving my copy. His website is also very useful (in Italian, but Google translate helps):
stemmieimprese.it

Oh I'm sorry Ken, I didnt know your name and i thought i was being curteous by referring to your write up as a review and you as a reviewer. I do hope I havent hurt your feelings?

Going forward, with your permission of course, i will refer to you as either Ken or Ken the Reviewer so that your many fans will know just whose works of art I am defiling. :)

I actually like this period myself and I have hopes they will do some works on the French Wars of Religion. Helion have done a service by reprinting some hard to find wargaming friendly authors like Christopher Duffy but i still think they display an exploding toilet strategy to make a name for themselves.

Many thanks Minipigs, sarcasm noted.

The name is at the end of the initial post, if you had read it all.

I do wonder why people can't be courteous on here, I've had a long career in Law Enforcement so your snipes are a long way off registering on the hurt scale as yet.

Regards Ken
The Yarkshire Gamer

I received my copy yesterday and read through portions of the text. While I saw a handful of issues with the translation, nothing detracted from comprehending the meaning. My only criticism I have is I wish there were one or two more pages of color illustrations. The illustrations in the book are very useful, but I kept wanting more. Overall, I find the book to be well worth the cost.

I received my copy yesterday. I was initially not expecting a lot, but was pleasantly surprised. I have read about 60% of the book now and have found it to offer a number of insights into things I had not seen elsewhere. I particularly liked the discussion on early Italian infantry and how they were armed and organized. It also discusses the differences between the organization of Gendarmes and Italian Knights in terms of their entourage.
There is a nice map of the battle (Now I have three books with three different maps of the battle) and discusses the orders of battle,
What I particularly liked was the discussion on the source material, with the preference to use accounts of those present at the battle over those written five years after the battle or even centuries after the battle This discussion of source material certainly allows the reader to assess the validity of the information.
I found the book easy to read and not disjointed by translation issues that can often be the caae with translated texts.
Even though my expectations were low, they were exceeded by a large margin with this book. I concur with some of the opinions above that the book was worth the cost if you are looking for information on the very early part of the Italian Wars.

Since my first comment pointing out the possible translation issues, I've now read a good portion of it – the chapters leading up to the battle itself.

When I'd first commented on the translation I had read / skimmed through the chapter on the armies. Now I've read more, I can say that it reads well, and the translation isn't an issue overall – it just seems to be the 'armies' chapter that had glaring things that stood out for me (translating horsemen as 'knights' that sort of thing), dunno why that is.

I found the chapters discussing the political situation leading up to the invasion very interesting…. Very confusing also, but I eventually got my head around it and think I understand the Naples / Aragon / Milan / France relationship much better now. I had to do a LOT of confused cross-referencing with dozens of wikipedia pages to understand who was who and how they were related…. They all seem to be called Ferdinand or Alfonso.
And the author does seem to make it doubly confusing at times…. the Duke of Calabria is referred to as Ferdinand in the next sentence (there are at least three Ferdinands), then the next paragraph he is King Ferandino, and then is refered to as Duke of Calabria again.
Ludovico Sforza is almost always referred to as 'The Moor' throughout, with no explanation as to why he was known as that.
And I am CERTAIN there is at least one mistake…. At least twice there is reference to Isabella of Aragon's 'powerful uncle Ferdinand', and I have cross-checked things so many times, I am SURE it actually means her GRANDFATHER Ferdinand, King of Naples. There is also this Ferdinand's cousin, Ferdinand King of Aragon. And Isabella's nephew, who later became King of Naples. But no uncle by that name.
But I might have got it wrong myself, someone enlighten me if that's the case!

A couple of good family trees would have helped, as would a detailed map of Italy, the one included is very disappointing.

BUT overall I am enjoying it.

I feel the translation and editing are somewhat lacking, as with many Helion books, but the cup is at least half full.

It seems like Helion could undercut the very expensive Mallett and Shaw Italian Wars book by being more affordable but their reputation for not proofreading makes me reticent to but their books :/

Possibly Isabella of Aragon's 'powerful uncle Ferdinand' referred to was Fernando de Aragón the 1st Duke of Montalto, who was an illegitimate son of Ferdinand I of Naples.

I too have this book and am very happy with it and recommend it to anyone interested in this period.

Cheers
Ian

but the cup is at least half full.

Regarding the battle of Fornovo I would give it three quarters at least.

undercut the very expensive Mallett and Shaw Italian Wars book

The coverage is so narrow in this work compared to Mallet/Shaws "Italian wars" that they are not on the same scale. If they ever plan to cover the whole of the Italian wars in this detail, they will certainly surpass even the most extravagant pricing for Mallets book. That said, the detail on Fornovo was better, imho, which given the scope of Mallet/Shaws book is no failure on their side.