Wednesday 29 January 2020

The Great Italian Wars 1: The Expedition of Charles VIII into Italy and the Battle of Fornovo (Formerly from Gewalthaufen Blog)

A couple of months ago I was sent a proof copy of The Great Italian Wars 1: The Expedition of Charles VIII into Italy and the Battle of Fornovo which is due to be published soon by Helion and Company in a rather exciting series of books called From Retinue to Regiment which already include, Richard III and the Battle of Bosworth and Tanaka 1587. Japan's Greatest Unknown Samurai Battle and will soon include volumes examining The Army of the Swabian League. I'm sure there will be more to come in this series!

I'm going to review the book, I'm not sure when as I only have a proof copy but I'm about to contact the editor and see if he thinks it's OK to go ahead now or to wait.

I'll leave you with a picture featuring the front cover teaser which illustrates the quality of the plates within the book.



The vignette will of course be very useful when it comes to painting up my smaller 28mm Venetian forces at Fornovo, although it does model some of the forces of Venice to some 12 years later.

Pier del Monte di Santa Maria at the Battle of Agnadello, 1509 by Francesco  Sbarile 
(My thanks to Ratmaul for pointing me in the direction of the modeller of the above vignette)

9 comments:

  1. Hello! The author is Francesco Sbarile.
    The vignette represents Pier del Monte di Santa Maria at the battle of Agnadello, 1509.
    Here is the link:
    http://stemmieimprese.it/2013/11/10/i-veneziani-di-agnadello-di-francesco-sbarile/

    Happy gaming! ;)

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Ratmaul , I've amended the caption for the vignette.

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    2. You are welcome, a few months ago I was documenting myself on the battle of Agnadello and I found the beautiful vignette in Predonzani's blog Stemmi e Imprese. The gallant episode of Pier del Monte was particularly memorable and so I was able to track back the source ;)

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  2. Replies
    1. The credit for the vignette is not something I can lay claim to. I have amended the credits above Phil.

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  3. Will be interesting to see and read the book.
    The vignette looks great!

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, the book is excellent, especially for wargamers! If you haven't got a copy of it yet I would order it ASAP. The first print run ran out *very* quickly and it's now in it's second run.

      I don't know if you read my previous post but I will be doing a detailed review of the book very soon. Starting tomorrow with a train journey to Vapnartak, York Wargames Show!

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  4. Wow, now I see that one of the authors is Predonzani. Knowing him it will be for sure a thoroughly searched and superbly illustrated text. It is almost a shame these books are published in English before than Italian... Do you know if a reprint is in the works?

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    Replies
    1. Hi Ratmaul,

      I'm quite pleased that it was printed in English lol.

      The reprint is available now from Helion here:

      https://www.helion.co.uk/military-history-books/the-italian-wars-volume-1-the-expedition-of-charles-viii-into-italy-and-the-battle-of-fornovo.php?sid=1537d92aaf2997bee8d169b3ffae3600

      Hope that helps?

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