Un anno di una Bandiera. La rotazione dei balestrieri di Genova in un anno di servizio nella seconda metà del XIV secolo

Abstract

Despite the bad performance given in 1346 at Crécy against the English longbowmen, the Genoese crossbowmen remained for a long time the bulk of the Genoese army, as well as elite mercenaries: in Florence, for example, they replaced the local stipendiari and 700 of them took part in the last defense of Constantinople in 1453. This paper analyzes the yearly management of these crossbowmen: by monitoring their recruitment and discharge during a full year in two separate occasions, specifically the years 1352 and 1387, not only we can have an idea of the differences between the men hired via ordinary and extraordinary budget, but we can also have a small perspective of where they were coming from.