Osprey "Renaissance Armies in Italy 1450 - 1550" review

I just received the recently published Osprey Men-At-Arms 536 "Renaissance Armies in Italy 1450 - 1550". The book presents the usual MAA format and it is tightly packed with historical information, uniformologic details and beautiful illustrations.

The author is G. Esposito, and the booklet is preciously illustrated by the skilled G. Rava, one of my favourite historical illutrators.

You can find details about the main armies of the periods, both Italian (Milanese, Florentine, Papal, Venetian, Kingdom of Naples) and Foreign (Aragonese, French, Imperial German). The illustration are well researched (the commentary plate is one of the most valuable asset of this series), and very inspiring (for those interesting seeing them translated into the wargaming table, check my post). The book also contains other illustrations, also in colour (differently from older Ospreys), but in this volume mostly from the same source/style, I would have preferred a little variation and some real piece of armour, instead than nineteenth century impressions.

Lastly, the book share the the same issues as the previous books about Italian history (e.g. Italian Medieval Armies 1125–1325 and Italian Unification Wars): too much events and armies in the frametime and to little space to deal with them! I understand the limitation imposed by the series format, and I think the author managed to squeeze the essential in it. For this reason I would have loved a longer bibliography, which is instead limited to a couple of volumes for each army involved.

Overall I value positively the book, mainly for its illustrations, for many player it will be a nice introduction to this period.

Images taken from author Facebook page for his concession.