LA BATTAGLIA DI MONTAPERTI (The Battle of Montaperti) Volume 2

1-1947518

Second of two volumes contains dozens of color images and iconography of the Italian Middle Ages.

Montaperti in September of 1260 was one of the largest in the European Middle Ages. The battle between the Guelphs of Florence and the Ghibellines of Siena, with which they fought many German knights, sent by King Manfredi of Hohenstaufen, and the Florentine exiles of Ghibelline part headed by Farinata degli Uberti.

The Sienese Army consisted of 18,000 infantry and 400 knights from Siena, plus 800 German and Ghibelline Knights and 200 mercenaries. The Florentines mustered 3,000 knights and 30,000 infantry. The battle was much more than a squabble between the two Tuscan cities: The massacred Florentines -- excluding their Guelfi allies -- numbered over 10,000, a frightening figure in a city of 75,000 inhabitants.