Foto do autor

Obras de Maurizio Arfaioli

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Data de nascimento
1967
Sexo
male
Nacionalidade
Italy

Membros

Resenhas

The titular Black Bands where a unit of Italian mercenary infantry, so named after the black dress and flags they assumed after the death of their original commander, Giovanni de' Medici. The book follows them through their participation in the invasion of Naples in 1528 by the forces of the French-led League of Cognac, whereof they compromised the bulk of the Florentine contingent, until the their dissolution upon the final defeat of the League's army.

Unfortunately, due to the nature of the sources, we don't learn too much about the day-to-day lives of the individual soldiers; instead the narrative shifts between a general account of the progress of the invasion and one of the Bands' officers' always complicated relationship with their Florentine paymasters.

The book is Arfaioli's doctoral thesis, and decidedly academic. I would not characterize it as 'dry' however - Arfaioli is a decent writer and enlivens the story with many colourful quotations from the correspondence of various of the principals. An annoyance is his habit of refering to the same person with different names or titles: one better remembers that Philibert de Châlons is the same as the prince of Orange, or that Cristianissimo was an appellation of the French king.
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Marcado
AndreasJ | Oct 22, 2015 |

Estatísticas

Obras
1
Membros
4
Popularidade
#1,536,815
Resenhas
1
ISBNs
1