The Medici Archive Project: News and Notes

PEACE ON EARTH

Draft-dodging in seventeenth-century Tuscany

DOCUMENT CITATION:
Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Mediceo del Principato 2360, unnumembered folio. (Entry 12881 in the "Documentary Sources" database.)

Bernardino di Bastiano has a pregnant wife and four small children and no one to help him. Compelling him to serve would thus be damaging.

Giovanni di Antonio Rossetti has a pregnant wife and a child and no other relative except a cousin called Bastiano di Biagio who is listed among the bachelors. It would thus be damaging if he left home.

Cosimo di Benedetto has a wife, a daughter and a niece, with both of the latter very young. He owns a horse in common with somebody else and a bit of arable land. Since his only relative is a brother who is soldiering in Prato, compelling him to serve would be damaging for his household.

Gismondo di Jacopo serves in lieu of someone else. He has an infirm brother, rents some good arable land, has 250 small animals, four cows, a wife and two children.

Antonio di Vettorio Stralanchi has an old father, an old mother and four small brothers. He is poor and compelling him to serve would be damaging.

Corporal Domenico di Solderio has a wife and four small children. He cultivates land in the Maremma yielding one and a half moggio of grain, has 250 goats, 10 horses and an infirm brother. Thus he is not fit for service.

Lisandro di Gusmano has a wife, a small child, 200 goats and 50 cows. He is a useless and slovenly person.

Giovanni Guscioni is alone with five nephews who have neither father nor mother. He has a mill, is 46 years of age and sending him to serve would be damaging to his household.

Martino di Girolamo has a wife and two children and sharecrops some not very productive land.

Marco Antonio, a bricklayer, has an old father, a wife, four small children and owns nothing in the world.

Giuliano di Simone Bartali has a wife and a son and a job, but his health is bad and as substitute he has provided his cousin Domenico di Niccolaio who is a good soldier.

Jacopo di Pasquino Niccolaii has a pregnant wife, 150 vines, a bit of arable land and no one to help him.

The Locality of Campiglia: soldiers who did not go into the field but who appear in the army list

Sabatino di Domenico di Roccho fled to Suvereto for fear of being jailed, since he had been banished to Livorno for a year.

Sandro di Cammillo has been imprisoned by me for seducing a widow by promising to marry her and he owes 360 lire to the community of Volterra, a debt left by his father.

Michelagnolo di Matteo Buscarelli has a blind mother, a crazy sister, a brother who has gone to war as a mounted arquibusier, a job worth 40 sacks [of wheat] and 60 buffalo. If we were not lenient, it would be damaging.

Battista di Marco has nothing in the world, a pregnant wife and four children. Even with just four children, it would be damaging.

Giovanni di Mario Pierini has a wife who is blind in one eye, three children and owns nothing in the world.

Signor Giovan Battista Donnoli, my Lieutenant, is so capable that he could manage a company [of foot soldiers] if given the chance.

Bernardino di Bastiano ha moglie gravida et ha quattro figli piccolini e non ha veruno per se e sarebbe di danno.

Giovanni di Antonio Rossetti [h]a moglie gravida et un figlio, e non ha altri che un cugino detto Bastiano di Biagio, che è nella lista degli scapoli, che venendo via sarebbe di danno.

Cosimo di Benedetto ha moglie una figlia e una nipote ambi piccole, et una punta di cavallo in soccio, et un poca di sementa e non ha altri che un fratello a Prato in ispeditione, perciò sarebbe di danno alla sua casa.

Gismondo di Jacopo è in cambio ha un fratello infermo ha un podere a fitto di buona sementa con bestie minute n. 250, 4 vacche, moglie e due figli.

Antonio di Vettorio Stralanchi ha padre, madre vecchi, n. 4 fratellini piccoli et è povero e sarebbe di danno.

Caporale Domenico di Solderio ha moglie con 4 figli piccoli, ha seminato in Maremma un moggio e mezzo di grano, ha 250 capre e n. 10 cavalle et ha un fratello infermo e non è atto al servitio.

Lisandro di Gusmano ha moglie et un figlio piccolo et ha capre n. 200, vacche n. 50, et è persona disutile e disciadatta vita.

Giovanni Guscioni è solo con cinque nipoti piccoli senza padre, ne madre; ha un mulino , di atà di anni 46 e sarebbe di danno alla sua casa.

Martino di Girolamo ha moglie e due figli, e fa un podere a mezzo con poca sementa

Marco Antonio muratore ha il padre vecchio, moglie e 4 figlioli piccoli e non ha niente al mondo.

Giuliano di Simone Bartali ha moglie et un figlio et ha lavoro et è anco malato e da per cambio Domenico di Niccolaio, buon soldato et suo cugino. Jacopo di Pasquino Niccolaii ha la moglie gravida, ha 150 opere di vignia, un poco di sementa e non ha veruno per se.

Campiglia: soldati che non sono sono venuti in campagna e venuti al’esercitio come nella lista

Sabatino di Domenico di Roccho è fuggito a Suvereto per paura di non essere messo in prigione per un anno di confino ch’ha da fare a Livorno.

Sandro di Cammillo ho prigione per aver usato con una vedova sotto colore di pigliarla per moglie e per debito della comunità di Volterra di lire 360 per debito di suo padre.

Michelagnolo di Matteo Buscarelli ha la madre cieca, ha una sorella matta ed un fratello archibusiere che va alla guerra, a un lavoro di 40 saccate, 60 bufali e una reigoria sarebbe di danno.

Battista di Marco non ha niente al mondo, [h]a la moglie gravida e 4 figli; sarebbe di danno con quattro figlioli.

Giovanni di Mario Pierini quale ha la moglie ciecia di un occhio, et ha 3 figli e non ha niente al mondo.

Il sig. Giovan Battista Donnoli, mio Tenente, è tanto abile che all’occasione sarebbe atto a reggere una compagnia.

In debt...in jail...blind mother...infirm brother...crazy sister...pregnant wife...four children...sixty buffalo...ill with gout...already dead...

With a few local adjustments, this litany of hard-luck stories could have emerged from almost any small town in the world at almost any time in the last few thousand years. In the spring of 1643, however, the chorus of special pleading had important practical implications for Grand Duke Ferdinando II de’ Medici. The War of Castro was raging and for the first time in over eighty years, the Tuscans needed to field an army for their own defense.

In 1641, Pope Urban VIII Barberini (a Tuscan by birth though no ally of the Medici) occupied the two Farnese fiefs of Castro and Ronciglione in northern Latium on the border of the Grand Dukedom of Tuscany. While offering flimsy legal justifications for his incursion, the Pope’s obvious goal was to create a semi-independent state for his own grasping relatives. In addition to resenting the territorial pretentions of the Barberini family, the governments of northern and central Italy had good reason to fear an intervention by the French and Spanish, altering an essential balance of power which had been in place since the Peace of Cateau-Cambresis (1559). In order to block the Barberini advance and restore the status quo ante, Venice, Modena, Parma and Tuscany formed a defensive league in 1641. Grand Duke Ferdinando II de’ Medici’s motives were as much familial as political since his sister Margherita de’ Medici was the wife of Odoardo Farnese, Duke of Parma and Lord of Castro and Ronciglione.

Between the last months of 1641 and early 1643, Tuscany mobilised its army, though with notable reluctance, hoping that the Castro affair might be resolved through diplomacy rather than force of arms. Pacific solutions, however, continued to elude the anti-Barberini alliance and by March of 1643, full military preparations were under way. By June, a well-provisioned Tuscan army 12,000 strong was ready to invade the Papal States by way of Perugia, under the command of Prince Mattias de’ Medici, brother of Grand Duke Ferdinando II. Both Mattias and his able second-in-command Alessandro dal Borro were experienced military men and veterans of the Thirty Years War.

The Tuscan army, like other armies of the time, contained a good number of paid professionals, many of whom were Medici subjects. However, the backbone of the Grand Dukedom’s defence system was a semi-civilian militia made up of "Bande" or "Bands", including both foot and mounted soldiers. First instituted by Duke Alessandro de’ Medici in 1534, the Bands had performed well during the war of Siena (1554-1557.) Over the years, these militiamen (especially those from the area of Pisa and Livorno), were often used to to crew the Tuscan galleys. They also served to garrison the many Tuscan fortresses and to deal with local emergencies. By 1641, however, there had not been a general mobilization for more than eighty years. Though the Bands were meant to be in a state of constant preparedness, ready to take the field at the drop of a hat, decades of semi-disuse had inevitably taken their toll.

Able-bodied men from different areas were conscripted to fill the local militia units. They served until dismissed and were rewarded with tax relief and other fiscal privileges (much resented by local administrators who faced a loss of revenue.) The concept of "able bodied" could be interpreted quite broadly. Many barely fit specimens were eager to enlist, since they could enjoy the privileges and social prestige of military status in exchange for the relatively minor inconveniences of peacetime service. In any case, those unwilling to serve could always avoid conscription by providing a substitute. Since the granducal authorities were not overly picky regarding the human material of these Bands, in time of peace they could pride themselves on commanding a pool of 50,000 fighting men, assembled at little or no cost. But war was an entirely a different matter and once the Castro conflict erupted, the various commanders of the Bands started sending in long lists of those they considered "inabili" (unfit) or "aggravati" (burdened).

The present document is one of these lists, sent from the territory of Massa Marittima in the Maremma region on the southern coast of Tuscany. At the time of the last documented muster in 1628, the Band of Massa was 361 strong, with the men described as "good human material, considering the diseases and the death rate of this part of the world" (Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Miscellanea Medicea 597, insert 1 "Osservazioni fatte nella Visita delle Bande di Maremma, l’Anno 1628, di Maggio, e prima", sub-heading "Banda di Massa".) This was no idle comment since the "Maremma Amara" (or "Bitter Maremma") was a notoriously impoverished region and a breeding ground for malaria. In 1643 the "burdened"of Massa were 34, nearly 10% of the above number. We can only guess whether the quality of the men had declined or the standards for inclusion had become more stringent. In any case, the reasons for exclusion were not merely physical. Some had moral or character flaws, like the "useless and slovenly" Lisandro di Gusmano or the imprisoned seducer of widows Sandro di Cammillo. Others were proposed for exemption due to poverty and family obligations. The peculiar phrase, "sarebbe di danno" ("it would be damaging") runs like a refrain through the list. The obvious question is "damaging for whom?" — for the individual, for his dependents, for the community or perhaps for all of the above? Some candidates were even proposed as overqualified for conscription. Giovanni Battista Donnoli was evidently wasted as a lieutenant of a band of foot soldiers and could have commanded a company of his own. Since he was presumably a man of some means, he could perhaps have served as a horsemen (at his own expense, according to the period custom) like the mounted arquebusier Lorenzo della Nave.

Whatever the defects of the "Bands", one half of the Tuscan army that marched into Umbria in June 1643 was made up of militiamen and according to all accounts they acquitted themselves well in the battle of Mongiovino the following September. Though the militia system was subsequently reorganized, it remained the core of the Tuscan defense for nearly another century, allowing the Grand Dukedom to muster a moderately efficient and admirably cheap army until the end of Medici rule.

Francesco Paolo Fiore, Castro capitale Farnesiana (1537-1649): un programma di ‘Instauratio’ urbana, «Quaderni dell’Istituto di Storia dell’Architettura», 22, 1976, pp. 75-94.

Baccio del Bianco, A Satire on the Barberini War (Pen and brown ink; 28 x 45.7 cm.) The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (Parker, No. 797.)

The Florentine Baccio del Bianco (1604-1656) was a military architect as well as a painter and draftsman; in that capacity, he was an active participant in the War of Castro. The present drawing offers a ferocious satire of the opposing Papal Army, reduced to a rag-tag gang of walking wounded. The upper inscription proclaims "Dalla Guerra" ("From the War"), while the lead beggar carries an alms pouch that reads "Limosine a’ poveri soldati di Don Taddeo" ("Alms for Don Taddeo’s Poor Soldiers"), referring to Don Taddeo Barberini, Prince of Palestrina, nephew of Pope Urban VIII and leader of the papal forces. Their two standards feature the papal arms (the crossed keys of Saint Peter) and a galley (Don Taddeo was also involved with the Papal Navy.) Immediately to the right of the standard, a particularly dejected veteran wears the Pope’s processional umbrella on his head (Don Taddeo’s military title was in fact General of the Holy Church) while his companions sport other eccentric bits of ecclesiastical regalia.

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