34219 w25'

The cathedral and baptistry of Pisa, seen from the Leaning Tower in 1958, before the city spread much beyond its medieval wails. The open area around these buildings was used for militia training. (Author’s photograph)

the suspicious Savoyard nobles: numerous pirate fleets were roaming the Aegean and Black Seas at this point, containing a large number of Italians in their ranks, and were no doubt on the look-ont for eager new recrnits.

The command structure of Italian infantry milidas was simple. In late-13th-century Padua, the Podesta presented standards to each of the gastaldiones (leaders of the guild militias): the banner of the Podesta was held by an officer called the iudex ancianorum. In Lucca the fonr gon-falonieri militia commanders each had four pennonień (junior officers) responsible for looking after banners and snmnioning the men. These officers were elected either by the General Council of Lucca or by a smaller executive com-mittee called the Thirty-Six. The role of gonfaloniere could not pass directly from father to son, or from brother to hrother, except after a four-month interval. In Florence each militia unit was led by a gonfalonierius, supported by two distringitori (explainers) and a consigliere (‘consuf or representative). The commander of an archer or crosshow unit here was called a bandifer. also, the paoesań were divided into three vexilla units. In Siena the Capitano del Popolo and Podesta shared responsibility for militia units, along with a ‘war captain’, a post created early in the 14th century. Sienese militia com-panies were headecl by a captain with a standard bearer and three councillors, all at least 30 years old and selected from ‘men of property’ within that particular quarter of the city. Each captain swore loyalty to the Guelf party and the city of Siena, and every man in the company might also have to swear the same, to ensure that no hated Ghibelline entered their ranks. In 1310 Siena decided that only citizens should command rural militia units, as opposed to the Podesta s ‘foreign’ assistants, who were instead given the role of rural police officers. However, as the Italian militia system fell apart in the 1390s, officers were mostly drawn from the old feudal elite, and were almost all ‘foreign’ mercenaries in so far as they came from other parts of Italy.

PAY AND MOTIVATION

Several different currencies were used in 13th-14th-century Italy, while inflation was as prominent though not as clrastic as in the present day. In early-14th-century Siena, recorcls show that each militia company had its own notary or clerk who sened as treasurer: so many captains had embezzled company funds that such appointments were considered vital. The funds available covered the renting of store-rooms as well as paying the men. Two copies of the account books were kept, listing members: one remained with the notary, and the other was kept by the company captain. Both men had to show their records to the Podesta, the Capitano del Popolo and the city courts on request.