Massimo Predonzani

The battle of Caravaggio in 1448 decided the fortune of Francesco Sforza as Duke of Milan. After the death of the old duke Filippo Maria Visconti in 1447 without heir, Milan tried its luck as a republic while the condottiere Sforza, married to the duke's only daughter Bianca Maria, assembled Milan's forces to both defend it against numerous intruders and to reserve the duchy for himself. First however, he and the other condottieri in Milan's service had to beat back the other contenders.

Among them, Venice. The Caravaggio campaign is thus one of the few cases where republics fought a war against each other. Sforza was besieging the village/two of Caravaggio with a sizable army while Venice sent out a smaller army to relieve it. Similar to Caesar at Alésia, Sforza was in a better position and could just await either the surrender of the town or the attack of the Venetian army that had set up a relieving siege line and settled in.

When the Venetians learned that the town's defenders were close to surrender, they risked a battle. With inferior numbers, they tried a surprise attack over difficult terrain on the left flank Sforza managed to contain the blow and then counterattack the spent Venetians, taking the Venetian camp and bagging many prisoners. The exploitation of the complete victory was missed due to the interference of the Milanese republic that sent Sforza off on a fool's errand instead of pushing the Venetians further back. Sforza triumphant, however, had already become too powerful and soon turned his army against the republic.

This Italian booklet offers a good account of the battle, the protagonists and the armies. It is based almost exclusively on Italian sources. There are a number of German language titles that could have clarified some issues and prevented some mistakes. Overall, the quality and readability is good. Missing however is a survey of the literature and the sources. The author's main interest was in researching the banners of the protagonists which are also illustrated in fine pastel/crayon pictures by the author.… (mer)