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TOP Infantry soldiers in Altichiero’s late-14th-century wall-painting ‘The Martyrdom of St. Catherine’. (In situ, Oratorio di San Giorgio, Padua)

ABOVE Altichiero’s ‘Martyrdom of St. George’, showing infantry soldiers. (In situ, Oratorio di San Giorgio, Padua)

republic, all operations had to be agreed by a city’s Grand Conncil, which decided upon the command structure to be adopted. Tliose on the receiving end of raids often attempted to ambush the enemy on the march, either using an elite cavalry force in open country or infantry if the enemy was hit in hills or mountains. Armies were similarly exposed and vulnerable while assembling at a designated campsite.

A typical example of a small-scale campaign can be found in the one launched by Perugia against Foligno injune 1282: although both formed part of the Papai States, they were rivals. Both cities had built and garrisoned castles in an elfort to control commercially important access to the sea. Though brief, this was a serious affair, as demon-strated by the fact that the entire fmancial resources of Perugia were dedicated to the campaign. The comune also procured and dis-tributed arms, demanding supplies of crossbows from its contado for the new castles, while mer-chants and artisans all had to supply certain articles from a list carefully composed by the authorities. In addition, the comune organised the distribution of food and military supplies to the zonę of operations, with two officials called superstites checking movements in and out of every city gate. Economic warfare was after all just as important as military action.

The cavalry may have once morę come to dominate the battlefield by the second half of the 14th century, but the infantry militia could still demonstrate its effectiveness and importance at crucial moments. For example, when Florence determined to błock the passage of the infamous Grand Company of mercenaries across the Apennines injuly 1356, it was the 2,500 crossbowmen sent to man the passes that forced the unwelcome visitors to turn back. The same ‘impasse’ resulted the fol-lowing year, but in 1358 Florence gave the Grand Company permission to continue its journey to Siena. In the Scalella Valley, however, 12,000 local mountain folk decided that the mercenaries were causing too much damage and attacked them. The battered survivors eventually negotiated their safe passage out of Florentine territory.

Byzantine-Roman and Middle Eastern influence is clearly evident in the careful arrangement of medieval Italian military encampments, as well as in the bureaucratic inspections of troops and horses by marshals upon arrival there. This ensured that items ‘lost’ on campaign and due for replacement by the government did actually exist in the first place, and were not merely invented. Italian field-fortifications however do not seem to have changed a great deal sińce the fali of the western Roman Empire: the only innovation it seems was the highly effectire use of crossbows to defend them. In fact, from the 13th to the 15th century, field-fortifications (along with the tactics of siege) came to dominate Italian warfare: as a result luring an enemy out of his defences became a major priority. A revival of offensive light infantry towards the end of the 14th century may also have reflected this State of affairs, as might a short