Alcuni aspetti dell’esercito veneziano fra Tre e Quattrocento

It is a well-known fact that the period in which Francesco Foscari lived was decisive for the Republic, allowing it to establish a stable dominion over the mainland and thus become a territorial power in the peninsula. These developments were enabled by huge financial resources that, in turn, allowed for the employment of a conspicuous military force. The decades between the War of Chioggia and the Peace of Lodi witnessed the constitution of a permanent professional army, a gradual crisis of the system of forced loans, the tendency to stabilise a core of military leaders serving Venice, the rising organisation of the magistrates dealing with war and finance. All this against the general backdrop of profound transformations in Europe in the art of war: the infantry began to assume an increasingly important role on the battlefields and technological innovations significantly increased the effectiveness of artillery. This essay focuses on a number of elements – military, financial and political – to examine the trends, the choices made by the Venetian government, as well as possible differences compared to other state structures in the Italian peninsula.