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Military Organisation Renaissance
This book describes the role and organization of the land forces of a renaissance state over a long period. It thus provides a model against which the military development of other countries can be measured in terms of the composition, control and cost of armies. Above all, it redresses the imbalance whereby only the naval forces of Venice have been studied seriously. It is thus an essential contribution to an understanding of the extension and maintenance of an empire by land and sea, and of the strength in troops and fortifications that preserved Venice as the one truly independent state in sixteenth-century Italy. It also adds significantly to an understanding of the relationship between Venice and the republic's subject territories.
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First published January 1, 1984
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October 19, 2025
British Historians M.E. Mallett & J.R. Hale Study The Military Structure Of The Venetian Republic's Mainland Empire, The Terraferma, From 1400 - 1617.
In the preface to Professors M.E. Mallett's & J.R. Hale's collaborative study on the organization & structure of Renaissance Venice's land army, The Military Organization of a Renaissance State: Venice c. 1400 to 1617, Mallett recognizes that it was very much a dual project from the beginning, while also acknowledging that a study which focused on Venice's land forces, as opposed to its navy, was long overdue : "It was conceived from the first as a collaboration. Wanting to cover a period long enough for continuities & changes to become apparent, as well as for analogies with the practice of other countries to emerge, we divided it chronologically. Even so, given the lack of secondary & printed sources (for too long, we felt the plash of Venetian oars had obscured the tread of soldiers' feet), it has taken a long series of visits to bring it to such completeness as it may be judged to possess." At its greatest size, Venice's extensive mainland empire, which was called the Terraferma, encompassed large swaths of northern Italy, including Treviso, Verona, Viacenza, & Padua, the Friuli & Istria regions, & Trieste, among other territories, & it constituted an important 'buffer zone' which served to protect Venice from both Italian & foreign invading armies such as France, Austria & the Ottoman Empire. The introduction provides important historical context & precedents which briefly discuss the standing armies of such European rulers as Charles the Bold of Burgundy, whose loss of 400 heavy guns contributed to his defeat by the Swiss at Morat, & how the superior tactics of the English longbow during the Hundred Years' War was instrumental in leading Charles VII 'the Victorious' to pass impactful reforms, called ordonnances, such as that which instituted his elite squadron of marksmen, the francs archers.
This 2006 trade paperback reprinting of the original 1984 edition of The Military Organization of a Renaissance State: Venice c. 1400 to 1617 is published by Cambridge University Press, with the 493-page main text being split into 16 chapters, an introduction & a conclusion, & divided into two parts. The first was composed by Professor M.E. Mallett & is 210 pages long, covering the period from c.1400-1508 & discussing such topics as the organization & administration of the Venetian army, control & policy making, & soldiers & the state, while the 281-page Part II explores 1509-1617, was written by Sir John Rigby Hale & contains such analyses as the War of Cyprus 1570-1573, fortifications in the Terraferma, & the defence of the maritime empire. There is also an appendix, Infantry wages in the sixteenth century, followed by an 8-page bibliography, as well as a map of Venice's mainland empire, the Terraferma, during the fifteenth & sixteenth centuries, & also a map of its overseas colonies, the Empire da Mar. There are a set of graphs & figures located at the back of the volume which depict visual representations of: the size & composition of the armies from 1509-1530, comparative wartime army wage bills from 1509-1617, & the costs of defence & war 1530-1616 in relations to revenues & conjectured total costs.
Chapter 1, The beginnings of Venetian expansion, describes the circumstances in the fourteenth century which led Venice to begin contemplating having a standing army at hand & how this need evolved over time as the conditions, mainly wars & rebellions, changed as well. Conscripting large groups of trained soldiers led by experienced condotierri was extremely costly, & the Serenissima preferred a nonviolent approach in response to the economic & political factors which contributed to these conflicts, as Professor Mallett discusses here : "This convergence between economic & political realities strengthened throughout the fourteenth century. Venice, as far as possible, tried to resolve the dilemma by peaceful means. War was always seen as a last resort which was not only costly but also immensely damaging to the free flow of trade." He also discusses briefly the rising need to install garrisons to protect Venice's overseas holdings, collectively called the Empire da Mar, which consisted of strategic islands & coastal cities such as Crete, Zara, & Modon & Coron, which were known as 'The Eyes of the Republic' due to their strategic placement at the southwest edge of the Balkan Peninsula. The main conflicts discussed are the revolts in Crete & Trieste, the war with Mastino della Scala, the Chioggia War which involved Genoa, Padua, & the Kingdom of Hungary, & the Paduan War waged against Francesco 'il Vecchio' Carrara & his son Francesco 'Novello' Carrara.
In Chapter 2, The composition & role of the army, Professor Mallett discusses the series of conflicts Venice was engaged in while it was building its Terraferma state, such as the skirmishes against Hungary & the Milanese Wars of 1426-1454. In the following excerpt, the author comments on the effect these military campaigns had upon the Venetians' condotierre-led mercenary bands, whose numbers fluctuated greatly during this period : "It should be emphasized that the prolonged wars in Lombardy between 1426 to 1454 did not create the Venetian standing army. But they provided the atmosphere of tension & frequent conflict which institutionalized an already burgeoning system. Contractual & organizational devices which had been fragile innovations in 1425 became fixed traditions during a generation of warfare." In composing this study Professors Mallett & Hale have done extraordinary work -- it would have been comparatively easy to present a purely academic disquisition full of facts & figures & devoid of style or personality, but these two remarkable historians tell the story behind the numbers. They limn the colorful, vibrant careers of the mercenary commanders, the condottieri, with all of their bravery & betrayals to the Serene Republic resplendent for the reader to experience -- here we have Francesco Bussone, called the Count of Carmagnola, whose treachery to the republic & subsequent execution ensured his dubious place in Venetian history for all time, here we have Erasmo de Narni, known as 'Gattamelata', which translates to 'Honeyed Cat' in Italian, who distinguished himself fighting Venice's climactic war with the Milanese despot, Filippo Maria Visconti, & here we have Bartolomeo Colleoni, whose numerous defections to Milan did not prevent the Serenissima from appointing him Captain-General for life & constructing a commemorative equestrian statue of him at the Church of SS Giovanni e Paolo. Any Renaissance enthusiast would be well served indeed with the depth of the content to be found in M.E. Mallett & J.R. Hale's monolithic offering in Venetian military history; the prose style is scholarly yet the breadth of the subject matter varies widely -- the authors have enriched their study with so many interesting & colorful anecdotes possessing such fascinating character & personality that they add another dimension to a written work which already has a sufficient amount on its own.
Also discussed in chapter two is the Turkish War in the Friuli & Istria regions which was waged between Venice & the Ottoman Empire between 1463-1479, as well as the various conflicts that were occurring on the other side of the Mediterranean on the Greek Peloponnese & the isthmus of Corinth. While the rest of Italy enjoyed decades of peace & tranquility generated by the Treaty of Lodi in 1464, Venice was faced with a series of daunting military challenges from outside forces which it had to overcome if it hoped at all to retain control of its Terraferma & Stato da Mar. The most serious of these was the ever-looming threat of invasion from the Ottoman Empire, which finally manifested in the spring of 1463 when Turkish forces laid siege to & took Argos, on the Greek Peloponnese, which prompted Venice to respond by dispatching its Captain-General of the Fleet, Alvise Loredan, to transport an army of 5,000 infantry & 1,500 cavalry under the command of Bertoldo d'Este to the Morea in order to retake the city & also to fortify the isthmus of Corinth with a new, 6-mile-long & 12-foot-high bastioned Hexamillion wall to repel further assaults. During this section Mallett stresses the increased utility Venice enjoyed against the Ottomans by recruiting local Greek Stradiot light cavalry which were more effective against Turkish soldiers as well as less expensive, when compared to the Italian men-at-arms it usually employed. This Morea expedition was ultimately to be a failure, however, as the logistical obstacles presented by paying the wages of a large overseas army stationed in Greece as well as maintaining an additional force of 20,000 troops in Italy, at Trieste, as a deterrent against Austria, proved to be more of a challenge than the Venetians could overcome.
The Battle of Fornovo, fought on 6 July 1495, was the decisive military engagement of the French king Charles VIII's invasion of Italy in 1494, an invasion that served as the harbinger for a series of devastating campaigns known as the Italian Wars which ravaged the country's mainland all the way up to 1559. In order to expel the French from Italian soil, the Serenissima had formed a League of Venice of which the signatories consisted of the Marquisate of Mantua, the Duchy of Milan, & the Republic of Venice. The League fielded a sizeable army of 15,000 cavalry & 24,000 infantry under the joint command of Giovanfrancesco da Sanseverino, Count of Caiazzo, Francesco Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua, & Bernardino Fortebraccio, pitted against Charles' French army led by Marshal Pierre de Rohan-Gié & Gian Giacomo Trivulzio. Despite a valiant effort on the part of the Venetians & their allies, the vastly outnumbered French army inflicted between 3,350-4,000 casualties on the League's army before achieving its objective of reaching Lombardy. Professor Mallett describes the later stages of the Battle of Fornovo in the following excerpt : "But it was the two leading columns of Venetian cavalry led by Gonzaga himself & Fortebraccio which bore the brunt of the fighting & suffered the heaviest losses. Their attack of the French centre & rear was badly disrupted by the swollen waters of the Taro which they had to cross, & it was not pressed home because of a failure to bring in the very substantial reserves at the crucial moment. But it was a heroic effort which failed narrowly to capture Charles himself & left the French with no great anxiety to renew the encounter on the following day." While the study does not fixate upon the tactical aspects of the battles themselves overmuch, preferring instead to focus on military personnel, mercenary condottieri commanders, & overall structure & administration, Professors Mallett & Hale perform admirable work as they limn for the reader the numerous & varied campaigns waged by the Most Serene Republic during the period from 1400-1617.
Chapter 3, Military development & fighting potential contains an intriguing analysis of the Ventetian lanze spezzate, which was a permanent state-employed man-at-arms under the command of a state-appointed commander, usually a mercenary condottiere but also led at times by Venetian noblemen, & the appointments were generally arbitrary, as Venice's military organization at this time did not support a structured hierarchy of officers or commanders within the state. The lanze spezzate were recruited using a variety of methods, but one of the primary ways discussed by Mallett involves what happens to a condottiere's company of troops when he either dies or otherwise leaves the service of the republic, & involves the ways the Serenissima was able to recoup their losses & retain the services of valuable, trained troops in a more permanent capacity. Mallett explains the rationale behind this procedure in the following excerpt : "This was in the main a result of government policy to gain greater control over the army & retain the services of good companies which might otherwise have broken up & drifted away. However, two other factors influenced this growth of the lanze spezzate; the growing permanence of the Venetian army & the fact that some companies had spent very long periods in Venetian service & had become settled in Venetian territory meant that if the leader deserted the men were often reluctant to follow him, & if he died without an obvious successor it was the natural reaction of the men to turn to Venice for employment." Although this chapter mainly discusses infantry & cavalry troop deployments, the authors managed to maintain this reviewer's interest & engagement due to the well-chosen historical anecdotes & engaging bits of military history which are woven into the otherwise-technical analyses. The study's pace fluctuates somewhat due to the sheer volume & diverse nature of the subject matter, & it is a testament to Mallett & Hale's composition abilities that there is enough of a chronicle to satisfy readers who might otherwise be turned off by the title's advanced skill level.
Renaissance Venice possessed a complex, multi-faceted military structure which required a considerable degree of administration to be effective on the field, & in Chapter 4, The organization & administration of the army, Mallett discusses the different positions which were created to fulfill these vital roles, among them the all-important proveditors, whom were used by the Serenissima to interact between the civilian institutions of the Venetian government, such as the Council of Ten, & the condottieri whose mercenary bands were under state-sanctioned contracts. The author briefly explains the proveditors' functions, as well as the responsibilities of a few other positions related to organization & administration, in the following excerpt : "In addition to the proveditors, whose role was well-established as the civilian advisers to the army commander & therefore his link with Venice, there appeared the gubernatores, who were also usually Venetian nobles. Their task was camp organization: the supervision of provisioning services, the maintenance of discipline & occasionally military command. In 1413 two officials known as executores were appointed, both Venetian nobles, to fulfil a variety of administrative functions in the army. In addition the title proveditor was used to apply not only to the senior civilian representatives whose duty was to stay close to the captain-general, but also to younger nobles sent out from time to time to help with provisioning, enrolling of troops & inspections."
Also discussed in chapter 4 is the evolution of the collateral-general position, a post which was originally conceived as "..a resident official to be found in many Lombard cities responsible for local recruiting & payment of garrison troops.", but eventually became, "..a semi-permanent official watching over the condotttieri, attending to the renewals of their condotte in the field, keeping an eye on their companies, assessing their pay on the basis of their actual strength, & having a particular responsibility to prevent desertion - all this was clearly the outcome of a long campaign." The collateral-general role's highest level of productivity was achieved under the watchful eye of Belpetro Manelmi, who in many ways revolutionized the occupation because of his due diligence & tireless attention to detail. When summarizing Venice's logistical system at the chapter's end, Mallett brings attention to Manelmi's hard work : "Because of the nature of the surviving records it is very difficult to get an overall impression of how the military organization which has been described in this chapter actually functioned in practice. Judging by the admiration bestowed on Belbetro Manelmi later in the century, he did achieve something special in the way of making the system work." The upper tier of the Serene Republic's command structure, including proveditors, rectors, & military governors, are explored with much more depth in J.R. Hale's half of the study, Part II: 1509-1617, in Chapter 10, Government: policy, control & administration, & Chapter 11, The higher command. In addition, there is a exceptional flow chart on page 250 that depicts, with Byzantine levels of complexity, the intricate relationships between the civilian & military branches of the Venetian bureaucracy.
Although clearly intended for a scholarly audience & likely necessitating an advanced skill level, M.E. Mallett & J.R. Hale's The Military Organization of a Renaissance State: Venice c. 1400 to 1617 is a uniquely enjoyable reading experience for any enthusiast of Renaissance or military history. This dual study effectively presents its curriculum in a style & format which uses short, episodic anecdotes & historical examples that lend themselves easily to any learning style. Mallett & Hale have generously provided a plethora of supplemental materials to assist in understanding the content -- the flow charts, graphs, & detailed maps are simply invaluable. The prospective reader is recommended at the least to have undertaken a book on general Venetian history, such as John Julius Norwich's A History of Venice, & also to possess a passing level of familiarity with the Italian Wars. A suggestion to assist in accomplishing the latter can be found in Sydney Alexander's wonderful 1969 translation of Francesco Guicciardini's The History of Italy, which is an accounting of the Habsburg-Valois Wars written from a ruler's perspective. Guicciardini was a prominent statesman who had developed close affiliations with many ruling houses & dynasties throughout his political career, & his writing style possesses a unique, upper-echelon perspective that reflects his extensive experience interacting with these individuals. It's still quite possible to jump into & enjoy this rich study without having first read any of the aforementioned titles, but having background knowledge of why Venice fought the wars that it did during the turbulent Renaissance period will likely add to the reader's level of enjoyment. I hope you enjoyed the review, thank you so much for reading!
In the preface to Professors M.E. Mallett's & J.R. Hale's collaborative study on the organization & structure of Renaissance Venice's land army, The Military Organization of a Renaissance State: Venice c. 1400 to 1617, Mallett recognizes that it was very much a dual project from the beginning, while also acknowledging that a study which focused on Venice's land forces, as opposed to its navy, was long overdue : "It was conceived from the first as a collaboration. Wanting to cover a period long enough for continuities & changes to become apparent, as well as for analogies with the practice of other countries to emerge, we divided it chronologically. Even so, given the lack of secondary & printed sources (for too long, we felt the plash of Venetian oars had obscured the tread of soldiers' feet), it has taken a long series of visits to bring it to such completeness as it may be judged to possess." At its greatest size, Venice's extensive mainland empire, which was called the Terraferma, encompassed large swaths of northern Italy, including Treviso, Verona, Viacenza, & Padua, the Friuli & Istria regions, & Trieste, among other territories, & it constituted an important 'buffer zone' which served to protect Venice from both Italian & foreign invading armies such as France, Austria & the Ottoman Empire. The introduction provides important historical context & precedents which briefly discuss the standing armies of such European rulers as Charles the Bold of Burgundy, whose loss of 400 heavy guns contributed to his defeat by the Swiss at Morat, & how the superior tactics of the English longbow during the Hundred Years' War was instrumental in leading Charles VII 'the Victorious' to pass impactful reforms, called ordonnances, such as that which instituted his elite squadron of marksmen, the francs archers.
This 2006 trade paperback reprinting of the original 1984 edition of The Military Organization of a Renaissance State: Venice c. 1400 to 1617 is published by Cambridge University Press, with the 493-page main text being split into 16 chapters, an introduction & a conclusion, & divided into two parts. The first was composed by Professor M.E. Mallett & is 210 pages long, covering the period from c.1400-1508 & discussing such topics as the organization & administration of the Venetian army, control & policy making, & soldiers & the state, while the 281-page Part II explores 1509-1617, was written by Sir John Rigby Hale & contains such analyses as the War of Cyprus 1570-1573, fortifications in the Terraferma, & the defence of the maritime empire. There is also an appendix, Infantry wages in the sixteenth century, followed by an 8-page bibliography, as well as a map of Venice's mainland empire, the Terraferma, during the fifteenth & sixteenth centuries, & also a map of its overseas colonies, the Empire da Mar. There are a set of graphs & figures located at the back of the volume which depict visual representations of: the size & composition of the armies from 1509-1530, comparative wartime army wage bills from 1509-1617, & the costs of defence & war 1530-1616 in relations to revenues & conjectured total costs.
Chapter 1, The beginnings of Venetian expansion, describes the circumstances in the fourteenth century which led Venice to begin contemplating having a standing army at hand & how this need evolved over time as the conditions, mainly wars & rebellions, changed as well. Conscripting large groups of trained soldiers led by experienced condotierri was extremely costly, & the Serenissima preferred a nonviolent approach in response to the economic & political factors which contributed to these conflicts, as Professor Mallett discusses here : "This convergence between economic & political realities strengthened throughout the fourteenth century. Venice, as far as possible, tried to resolve the dilemma by peaceful means. War was always seen as a last resort which was not only costly but also immensely damaging to the free flow of trade." He also discusses briefly the rising need to install garrisons to protect Venice's overseas holdings, collectively called the Empire da Mar, which consisted of strategic islands & coastal cities such as Crete, Zara, & Modon & Coron, which were known as 'The Eyes of the Republic' due to their strategic placement at the southwest edge of the Balkan Peninsula. The main conflicts discussed are the revolts in Crete & Trieste, the war with Mastino della Scala, the Chioggia War which involved Genoa, Padua, & the Kingdom of Hungary, & the Paduan War waged against Francesco 'il Vecchio' Carrara & his son Francesco 'Novello' Carrara.
In Chapter 2, The composition & role of the army, Professor Mallett discusses the series of conflicts Venice was engaged in while it was building its Terraferma state, such as the skirmishes against Hungary & the Milanese Wars of 1426-1454. In the following excerpt, the author comments on the effect these military campaigns had upon the Venetians' condotierre-led mercenary bands, whose numbers fluctuated greatly during this period : "It should be emphasized that the prolonged wars in Lombardy between 1426 to 1454 did not create the Venetian standing army. But they provided the atmosphere of tension & frequent conflict which institutionalized an already burgeoning system. Contractual & organizational devices which had been fragile innovations in 1425 became fixed traditions during a generation of warfare." In composing this study Professors Mallett & Hale have done extraordinary work -- it would have been comparatively easy to present a purely academic disquisition full of facts & figures & devoid of style or personality, but these two remarkable historians tell the story behind the numbers. They limn the colorful, vibrant careers of the mercenary commanders, the condottieri, with all of their bravery & betrayals to the Serene Republic resplendent for the reader to experience -- here we have Francesco Bussone, called the Count of Carmagnola, whose treachery to the republic & subsequent execution ensured his dubious place in Venetian history for all time, here we have Erasmo de Narni, known as 'Gattamelata', which translates to 'Honeyed Cat' in Italian, who distinguished himself fighting Venice's climactic war with the Milanese despot, Filippo Maria Visconti, & here we have Bartolomeo Colleoni, whose numerous defections to Milan did not prevent the Serenissima from appointing him Captain-General for life & constructing a commemorative equestrian statue of him at the Church of SS Giovanni e Paolo. Any Renaissance enthusiast would be well served indeed with the depth of the content to be found in M.E. Mallett & J.R. Hale's monolithic offering in Venetian military history; the prose style is scholarly yet the breadth of the subject matter varies widely -- the authors have enriched their study with so many interesting & colorful anecdotes possessing such fascinating character & personality that they add another dimension to a written work which already has a sufficient amount on its own.
Also discussed in chapter two is the Turkish War in the Friuli & Istria regions which was waged between Venice & the Ottoman Empire between 1463-1479, as well as the various conflicts that were occurring on the other side of the Mediterranean on the Greek Peloponnese & the isthmus of Corinth. While the rest of Italy enjoyed decades of peace & tranquility generated by the Treaty of Lodi in 1464, Venice was faced with a series of daunting military challenges from outside forces which it had to overcome if it hoped at all to retain control of its Terraferma & Stato da Mar. The most serious of these was the ever-looming threat of invasion from the Ottoman Empire, which finally manifested in the spring of 1463 when Turkish forces laid siege to & took Argos, on the Greek Peloponnese, which prompted Venice to respond by dispatching its Captain-General of the Fleet, Alvise Loredan, to transport an army of 5,000 infantry & 1,500 cavalry under the command of Bertoldo d'Este to the Morea in order to retake the city & also to fortify the isthmus of Corinth with a new, 6-mile-long & 12-foot-high bastioned Hexamillion wall to repel further assaults. During this section Mallett stresses the increased utility Venice enjoyed against the Ottomans by recruiting local Greek Stradiot light cavalry which were more effective against Turkish soldiers as well as less expensive, when compared to the Italian men-at-arms it usually employed. This Morea expedition was ultimately to be a failure, however, as the logistical obstacles presented by paying the wages of a large overseas army stationed in Greece as well as maintaining an additional force of 20,000 troops in Italy, at Trieste, as a deterrent against Austria, proved to be more of a challenge than the Venetians could overcome.
The Battle of Fornovo, fought on 6 July 1495, was the decisive military engagement of the French king Charles VIII's invasion of Italy in 1494, an invasion that served as the harbinger for a series of devastating campaigns known as the Italian Wars which ravaged the country's mainland all the way up to 1559. In order to expel the French from Italian soil, the Serenissima had formed a League of Venice of which the signatories consisted of the Marquisate of Mantua, the Duchy of Milan, & the Republic of Venice. The League fielded a sizeable army of 15,000 cavalry & 24,000 infantry under the joint command of Giovanfrancesco da Sanseverino, Count of Caiazzo, Francesco Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua, & Bernardino Fortebraccio, pitted against Charles' French army led by Marshal Pierre de Rohan-Gié & Gian Giacomo Trivulzio. Despite a valiant effort on the part of the Venetians & their allies, the vastly outnumbered French army inflicted between 3,350-4,000 casualties on the League's army before achieving its objective of reaching Lombardy. Professor Mallett describes the later stages of the Battle of Fornovo in the following excerpt : "But it was the two leading columns of Venetian cavalry led by Gonzaga himself & Fortebraccio which bore the brunt of the fighting & suffered the heaviest losses. Their attack of the French centre & rear was badly disrupted by the swollen waters of the Taro which they had to cross, & it was not pressed home because of a failure to bring in the very substantial reserves at the crucial moment. But it was a heroic effort which failed narrowly to capture Charles himself & left the French with no great anxiety to renew the encounter on the following day." While the study does not fixate upon the tactical aspects of the battles themselves overmuch, preferring instead to focus on military personnel, mercenary condottieri commanders, & overall structure & administration, Professors Mallett & Hale perform admirable work as they limn for the reader the numerous & varied campaigns waged by the Most Serene Republic during the period from 1400-1617.
Chapter 3, Military development & fighting potential contains an intriguing analysis of the Ventetian lanze spezzate, which was a permanent state-employed man-at-arms under the command of a state-appointed commander, usually a mercenary condottiere but also led at times by Venetian noblemen, & the appointments were generally arbitrary, as Venice's military organization at this time did not support a structured hierarchy of officers or commanders within the state. The lanze spezzate were recruited using a variety of methods, but one of the primary ways discussed by Mallett involves what happens to a condottiere's company of troops when he either dies or otherwise leaves the service of the republic, & involves the ways the Serenissima was able to recoup their losses & retain the services of valuable, trained troops in a more permanent capacity. Mallett explains the rationale behind this procedure in the following excerpt : "This was in the main a result of government policy to gain greater control over the army & retain the services of good companies which might otherwise have broken up & drifted away. However, two other factors influenced this growth of the lanze spezzate; the growing permanence of the Venetian army & the fact that some companies had spent very long periods in Venetian service & had become settled in Venetian territory meant that if the leader deserted the men were often reluctant to follow him, & if he died without an obvious successor it was the natural reaction of the men to turn to Venice for employment." Although this chapter mainly discusses infantry & cavalry troop deployments, the authors managed to maintain this reviewer's interest & engagement due to the well-chosen historical anecdotes & engaging bits of military history which are woven into the otherwise-technical analyses. The study's pace fluctuates somewhat due to the sheer volume & diverse nature of the subject matter, & it is a testament to Mallett & Hale's composition abilities that there is enough of a chronicle to satisfy readers who might otherwise be turned off by the title's advanced skill level.
Renaissance Venice possessed a complex, multi-faceted military structure which required a considerable degree of administration to be effective on the field, & in Chapter 4, The organization & administration of the army, Mallett discusses the different positions which were created to fulfill these vital roles, among them the all-important proveditors, whom were used by the Serenissima to interact between the civilian institutions of the Venetian government, such as the Council of Ten, & the condottieri whose mercenary bands were under state-sanctioned contracts. The author briefly explains the proveditors' functions, as well as the responsibilities of a few other positions related to organization & administration, in the following excerpt : "In addition to the proveditors, whose role was well-established as the civilian advisers to the army commander & therefore his link with Venice, there appeared the gubernatores, who were also usually Venetian nobles. Their task was camp organization: the supervision of provisioning services, the maintenance of discipline & occasionally military command. In 1413 two officials known as executores were appointed, both Venetian nobles, to fulfil a variety of administrative functions in the army. In addition the title proveditor was used to apply not only to the senior civilian representatives whose duty was to stay close to the captain-general, but also to younger nobles sent out from time to time to help with provisioning, enrolling of troops & inspections."
Also discussed in chapter 4 is the evolution of the collateral-general position, a post which was originally conceived as "..a resident official to be found in many Lombard cities responsible for local recruiting & payment of garrison troops.", but eventually became, "..a semi-permanent official watching over the condotttieri, attending to the renewals of their condotte in the field, keeping an eye on their companies, assessing their pay on the basis of their actual strength, & having a particular responsibility to prevent desertion - all this was clearly the outcome of a long campaign." The collateral-general role's highest level of productivity was achieved under the watchful eye of Belpetro Manelmi, who in many ways revolutionized the occupation because of his due diligence & tireless attention to detail. When summarizing Venice's logistical system at the chapter's end, Mallett brings attention to Manelmi's hard work : "Because of the nature of the surviving records it is very difficult to get an overall impression of how the military organization which has been described in this chapter actually functioned in practice. Judging by the admiration bestowed on Belbetro Manelmi later in the century, he did achieve something special in the way of making the system work." The upper tier of the Serene Republic's command structure, including proveditors, rectors, & military governors, are explored with much more depth in J.R. Hale's half of the study, Part II: 1509-1617, in Chapter 10, Government: policy, control & administration, & Chapter 11, The higher command. In addition, there is a exceptional flow chart on page 250 that depicts, with Byzantine levels of complexity, the intricate relationships between the civilian & military branches of the Venetian bureaucracy.
Although clearly intended for a scholarly audience & likely necessitating an advanced skill level, M.E. Mallett & J.R. Hale's The Military Organization of a Renaissance State: Venice c. 1400 to 1617 is a uniquely enjoyable reading experience for any enthusiast of Renaissance or military history. This dual study effectively presents its curriculum in a style & format which uses short, episodic anecdotes & historical examples that lend themselves easily to any learning style. Mallett & Hale have generously provided a plethora of supplemental materials to assist in understanding the content -- the flow charts, graphs, & detailed maps are simply invaluable. The prospective reader is recommended at the least to have undertaken a book on general Venetian history, such as John Julius Norwich's A History of Venice, & also to possess a passing level of familiarity with the Italian Wars. A suggestion to assist in accomplishing the latter can be found in Sydney Alexander's wonderful 1969 translation of Francesco Guicciardini's The History of Italy, which is an accounting of the Habsburg-Valois Wars written from a ruler's perspective. Guicciardini was a prominent statesman who had developed close affiliations with many ruling houses & dynasties throughout his political career, & his writing style possesses a unique, upper-echelon perspective that reflects his extensive experience interacting with these individuals. It's still quite possible to jump into & enjoy this rich study without having first read any of the aforementioned titles, but having background knowledge of why Venice fought the wars that it did during the turbulent Renaissance period will likely add to the reader's level of enjoyment. I hope you enjoyed the review, thank you so much for reading!
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