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Osprey Campaign #324
Campaldino 1289: The battle that made Dante
Campaldino is one of the important battles between the Guelphs and Ghibellines--the major political factions in the city states of central and northern Italy. It heralded the rise of Florence to a dominant position over the area of Tuscany and was one of the last occassions when the Italian city militias contested a battle, with the 14th century seeing the rise of the condottiere in Italy's Wars.
In this highly illustrated new study, renowned medieval historians Kelly De Vries and Niccolò Capponi have uncovered new material from the battlefield itself, as well as using all the available sources, to breathe new life into this colorful and fascinating battle.
In this highly illustrated new study, renowned medieval historians Kelly De Vries and Niccolò Capponi have uncovered new material from the battlefield itself, as well as using all the available sources, to breathe new life into this colorful and fascinating battle.
96 pages, Paperback
Published July 24, 2018
2 people are currently reading
30 people want to read
About the author
Kelly DeVries
67 books11 followersKelly DeVries (born December 23, 1956) is an American historian specializing in the warfare of the Middle Ages. He is often featured as an expert commentator on television documentaries. He is professor of history at Loyola University Maryland and Honorary Historical Consultant at the Royal Armouries, UK.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 6, 2024
Everyone who knows a little about Dante knows the Battle of Campaldino by name at least, but it’s hard to get details on it (in English, anyway) beyond the biographical facts about Dante’s service in the Florentine Guelf cavalry there that translators of the Comedy typically offer up in their explanatory notes. I’ve felt this pretty keenly, because in my grad level Medieval and Renaissance Florence seminar at Clemson too many years ago I decided to combine my interests in Dante and military history, producing a twenty-page final paper on the entire Campaldino campaign. I was fortunate to work from a few primary and early secondary sources in translation but there was vanishingly little on the battle in modern scholarship. It was a useful experience for a young historian, piecing the course of the battle together from what little was available to me, but I what I wouldn’t have given to have had this book at the time.
The authors, one of whom is one of the preeminent medieval military historians working today, provide a good view of the overall political context behind the war between Florence and her allies and Arezzo and her allies, a very good explanation of the kinds of forces the battle was fought with, and an excellent narrative of the course of the battle which, like the other rare direct clashes in this period, had a long buildup, hung in the balance several times, and ended suddenly. The authors’ familiarity with the well-preserved terrain is especially helpful. (I had to work strictly from maps for my paper, which gave an impression but nothing like the understanding one gets from walking the actual ground.) Because Dante was present and he explicitly invokes his combat experience several times in the Comedy—most famously but not least when he encounters the enemy commander, Buonconte di Montefeltro, as a peer in Purgatory—they also do a good job of teasing out moments from the battle and its aftermath that might have informed Dante’s imagination.
I have two misgivings about the book, but they don’t detract from the scholarship so I’m still giving it five stars. First, there are a lot of typos. Osprey usually does a fine job copyediting their books but this one had many blunders, often one per page for several pages in a row. (The most embarrassing: mentioning Dante’s descriptions of “the dammed” in Inferno.) The second is that several of the images were so low resolution that they were pixelated and it was hard to make out what was happening in them. (I read a print copy, FWIW.)
That said, this is a good short book that will meet a specific need for students both of Dante and of military history very well.
Highly recommended.
The authors, one of whom is one of the preeminent medieval military historians working today, provide a good view of the overall political context behind the war between Florence and her allies and Arezzo and her allies, a very good explanation of the kinds of forces the battle was fought with, and an excellent narrative of the course of the battle which, like the other rare direct clashes in this period, had a long buildup, hung in the balance several times, and ended suddenly. The authors’ familiarity with the well-preserved terrain is especially helpful. (I had to work strictly from maps for my paper, which gave an impression but nothing like the understanding one gets from walking the actual ground.) Because Dante was present and he explicitly invokes his combat experience several times in the Comedy—most famously but not least when he encounters the enemy commander, Buonconte di Montefeltro, as a peer in Purgatory—they also do a good job of teasing out moments from the battle and its aftermath that might have informed Dante’s imagination.
I have two misgivings about the book, but they don’t detract from the scholarship so I’m still giving it five stars. First, there are a lot of typos. Osprey usually does a fine job copyediting their books but this one had many blunders, often one per page for several pages in a row. (The most embarrassing: mentioning Dante’s descriptions of “the dammed” in Inferno.) The second is that several of the images were so low resolution that they were pixelated and it was hard to make out what was happening in them. (I read a print copy, FWIW.)
That said, this is a good short book that will meet a specific need for students both of Dante and of military history very well.
Highly recommended.
March 14, 2022
It's hard to imagine a more complex topic than medieval Italian politics. Just sorting out who's allied with whom at what time can be maddening. And the names! Family names, names based on where people resided, dynastic connections: all of that needs to be understood to make any sense of what happened and why.
The first part of this book discusses those aspects of the conflict in northern Italy during the late 13th century. It's the weakest part of the book not because it's poorly written, but because it's compressed into a short section. It's done as well as I suspect it could be done, but I found myself reading a sentence or paragraph, stopping, thinking about it, re-reading it, flipping back a few pages to make sure I was remembering who was who. (Which Montefeltro are we discussing now? Where is that town in relation to others?) And then I could move on.
The book really shines when the authors move on to the forces engaged at Campaldino, their commanders, their pre-battle plans, how the campaign unfolded, the battle itself and it's aftermath. It clips right along, clear and concise, and all that earlier set-up informs what happened on the battlefield.
This is a short book, only about 100 pages, but the authors do a wonderful job explaining what the experience of battle must have been like for these armies. Particularly interesting is the discussion of Dante Alighieri's role. He was just 24 years old at the time and this battle lasted just a few incredibly violent hours. Those hours affected his entire life. He played no role noted at the time, but throughout The Divine Comedy, he returns to his experience in the Battle of Campaldino. Was his epic poem a way for him to work through PTSD? The most horrific scenes in the poem -- the gluttons, slogging around in the muck, surrounded by dismembered bodies and filth -- recall Dante's experience with the looting of the bloated, rain-soaked bodies of the dead at Campaldino. He meets the dead Buonconte da Montefeltro in Purgatory where he explains where and how he died. In reality, his body was never found. Does Dante relate a true story or fiction?
The first part of this book discusses those aspects of the conflict in northern Italy during the late 13th century. It's the weakest part of the book not because it's poorly written, but because it's compressed into a short section. It's done as well as I suspect it could be done, but I found myself reading a sentence or paragraph, stopping, thinking about it, re-reading it, flipping back a few pages to make sure I was remembering who was who. (Which Montefeltro are we discussing now? Where is that town in relation to others?) And then I could move on.
The book really shines when the authors move on to the forces engaged at Campaldino, their commanders, their pre-battle plans, how the campaign unfolded, the battle itself and it's aftermath. It clips right along, clear and concise, and all that earlier set-up informs what happened on the battlefield.
This is a short book, only about 100 pages, but the authors do a wonderful job explaining what the experience of battle must have been like for these armies. Particularly interesting is the discussion of Dante Alighieri's role. He was just 24 years old at the time and this battle lasted just a few incredibly violent hours. Those hours affected his entire life. He played no role noted at the time, but throughout The Divine Comedy, he returns to his experience in the Battle of Campaldino. Was his epic poem a way for him to work through PTSD? The most horrific scenes in the poem -- the gluttons, slogging around in the muck, surrounded by dismembered bodies and filth -- recall Dante's experience with the looting of the bloated, rain-soaked bodies of the dead at Campaldino. He meets the dead Buonconte da Montefeltro in Purgatory where he explains where and how he died. In reality, his body was never found. Does Dante relate a true story or fiction?
July 29, 2018
Fascinating account
Well written and illustrated.However(for a hd8 fire reader)let down by the weird formatting that prevents an easy read because you are always having to touch the white spaces to Get at least half of the illustrations to appear.
I've mentioned it before and a little FED UP with it ,as are others who have also pointed it out.It's wrong Ospre y
Publishing.Get it SORTED!!!
Well written and illustrated.However(for a hd8 fire reader)let down by the weird formatting that prevents an easy read because you are always having to touch the white spaces to Get at least half of the illustrations to appear.
I've mentioned it before and a little FED UP with it ,as are others who have also pointed it out.It's wrong Ospre y
Publishing.Get it SORTED!!!
August 28, 2021
A very nice and well focused summary of the campaign and the battle. Interesting details about Florentine logistics, a good explanation of late 13th century warfare, and even an excellent examination of events from the point of view of the point Dante. He was present at and deeply affected by the battle.
June 8, 2019
Preciso, puntuale, dettagliato e con tante mappe e foto a colori.
Non si può volere di più da un libro di storia militare.
Non si può volere di più da un libro di storia militare.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews