La guerra nel Medioevo

10/05/2020 (**) Il saggio espone, come da titolo, il concetto di guerra, per come la si è intesa, fatta e vissuta nel lungo arco di tempo che noi chiamiamo Medioevo (tipicamente 476-1492, date fatidiche quanto arbitrarie). Dal punto di vista militare tuttavia, e specifico che parliamo della sola Europ Leggi tutto

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This is a true academic's book-and I don't mean that as a compliment. Contamine clearly has an encyclopedic knowledge of medieval warfare, but he struggles to convey this knowledge to the non-expert reader. You have to know so much medieval history to be able to follow large parts of this book (and

Testo un pò datato, ma di cui mi sono voluto munire poichè generalmente ritenuto uno dei migliori sull'argomento e per l'ampiezza d'analisi. Cosa dire? Il testo è denso, stratificato e complesso e possiede una struttura valida: la prima parte prevede l'andamento della narrazione secondo il criterio Leggi tutto

For a casual reader, like me, this is an overly-complex work. For a scholar, I presume, this would be an extremely valuable work. Contamine is an excellent historian. He will state a thesis, and then provide plenty of examples, and then wrap it all up. After a while I decided that I would accept his Leggi tutto

Even for its age I still consider it a fantastic academic book on the subject of medieval warfare. It covers everything from the Migration Period to the Renaissance. Arms and armor, recruitment, army composition, tactics and strategy, and more.

Originally published on my blog here in February 1999. Philippe Contamine's survey is designed to cover a subject that for many other historians might almost as well not exist. There is a stereotyped view of medieval warfare which makes it seem hardly worthy of study: it is seen as lacking in strateg Leggi tutto

This is an academic book and not recommended for the general reader. It's certainly not designed for reading pleasure and it assumes far more knowledge than the casual reader is likely to have. I have a degree in medieval history and I struggled in places. Contamine doesn't care how actual battles we Leggi tutto