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A Milanese bascinet with a hounskull visor, plus the original mail aventail. (Formerly in Churburg, Alto Adige, no w in the Tower of London Armoury, inv. IV 430)

tottered to its fali, Islam as it was menaced by the Mongols, and Europę in the declining years of the failed Crusading ideał. These were all times of crisis, but how much the political turbulence of Renaissance Italy contributed to such military theorising is unclear. It may simply have been just another aspect of that Renaissance infatuation with the Classical past from which the theorists drew most of their morals. It does seem highly unlikely that the later condottieri imitated Roman tactics, though they may well have been flattered by any parallels between themselves and Caesar.

The increasing savagery of warfare in later 15th century Italy led to widespread concern about the differences between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ war. Devas-tation, the attempt to undermine an opponent’s economy by the destruction of crops, mills, and so on, had long been normal practice. Here, however, peasants rather than soldiers suffered most. The actual quastatori, or devastators, were normally peasants conscripted as pioneers, which also enabled the warrior class to remain at least slightly aloof.

Machiavelli’s propagandist myth of bloodless condottieri battles should long sińce have been put to rest. Casualties had always been higher in siege-warfare, however, particularly when a direct assault proved necessary. In open battle the issue was rarely fought out to the bitter end. During the 15th century the use of gunpowder certainly led to higher losses, not least because bullet wounds were dirtier and involved the destruction of morę tissue, so tending to fester morę often. Foreign troops such as stradiotti, who were paid a ducat for every enemy head, and Frenchmen and Spaniards, who often dispatched their fallen foes with daggers, also madę warfare morę hazardous.

On the other hand, Italian armies had sur-prisingly good medical services. Neapolitan army doctors ranked equal to the feudal nobility and helped both officers and common soldiers. Records show some of their operations in the field to have been astonishing, if somewhat chancy. The treat-

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