
Shadow Agents of Renaissance War
Suffering, Supporting, and Supplying Conflict in Italy and Beyond
Amsterdam University Press
Published on 22. January 2023
Book
Hardback
334 pages
978-94-6372-135-6 (ISBN)
Description
Who were the shadow agents of Renaissance war? In this pioneering collection of essays scholars use new archival evidence and other sources, including literature, artworks, and other non-textual material, to uncover those men, women, children and other animals who sustained war by means of their preparatory, auxiliary, infrastructural, or supplementary labour. These shadow agents worked in the zone between visibility and invisibility, often moving between civilians and soldiers, and their labour was frequently forced. This volume engages with a range of important debates including: the relationship between war and state formation; the 'military revolution' or transformation of early modern military force; the nature of human and non-human agency; gender and war; civilian protection and expulsion; and espionage and diplomacy. The focus of the volume is on Italy, but it includes studies of France and England, and the editors place these themes in a broader European context with the aim of supporting and stimulating research in this field.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Amsterdam
Netherlands
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Academic
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
669 gr
ISBN-13
978-94-6372-135-6 (9789463721356)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Stephen Bowd | Sarah Cockram | John Gagne
Shadow Agents of Renaissance War
Suffering, Supporting, and Supplying Conflict in Italy and Beyond
Book
approx. 12/2025
1st Edition
Routledge
€69.50
Not yet published

Stephen Bowd | Sarah Cockram | John Gagne
Shadow Agents of Renaissance War
Suffering, Supporting, and Supplying Conflict in Italy and Beyond
E-Book
10/2025
Routledge
€60.49
Available for download

Stephen Bowd | Sarah Cockram | John Gagne
Shadow Agents of Renaissance War
Suffering, Supporting, and Supplying Conflict in Italy and Beyond
E-Book
10/2025
Routledge
€60.49
Available for download
Persons
Stephen Bowd is Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Edinburgh and the author of studies of the Bresciano, among other works on Renaissance Italy. He has recently published Renaissance Mass Murder: Civilians and Soldiers during the Italian Wars (2018). Sarah Cockram is Lecturer in Medieval History at the University of Glasgow. Sarah specializes in gender history and historical animal studies, and her recent publications include work on animal emotion, companion animal health, and care of exotics. John Gagne is Senior Lecturer in History and Director of the Medieval and Early Modern Centre at the University of Sydney. Much of his research focuses on cultural problems in the history of premodern war, especially the Italian Wars of the early sixteenth century. He is the author most recently of Milan Undone (2021).
Content
Acknowledgements, 1. Introduction: War and Agency,(Stephen Bowd, Sarah Cockram, and John Gagne), 'Introduction', 2. The Unwilling Agents of War,(Neil Murphy), 'Refugees, Forced Migration and Henry VIII's Conquest of France, 1544-46',(Victoria Bartels), 'Prisoners for War: Convicts, Slaves, and the Culture of Forced Labour in Sixteenth-Century Tuscany',(Sarah Cockram), 'A Horse is a Feeling Animal: Interspecies Interaction and Animal Agency in Renaissance Warfare', 3. The Organizers and Suppliers of War,(William Caferro), 'Shadow Bureaucrats and Bureaucracy in Trecento Florence',(John Gagne), 'Heralds and the Representational Culture of War, 1350-1600',(Cristiano Zanetti), 'The Diverse Agencies of Renaissance Engineers in the Shadow of War',(Catherine Fletcher), 'Agents of Firearms Supply in Sixteenth-century Italy: Rethinking the Contractor State',(Ioanna Iordanou), 'The Invisible Trade: Commoners and Convicts as Early Modern Venice's Spies', 4. Women and Agency in War,(Stephen Bowd), 'Gender, War, and the State: The Military Management of Alda Pio Gambara during the Italian Wars',(Brian Sandberg), 'Delivering Arms: Noblewomen, Artillery, and the Gendering of Violence during the French Wars of Religion',(Gerry Milligan), 'Useless Mouths in Early Modern Italian Literature: Gian Giorgio Trissino and Lucrezia Marinella', Index.