Pietro Monte’s Collectanea
Title Details

333 Pages

23.4 x 15.6 cm

15 colour illus.

Series: Armour and Weapons

Series Vol. Number: 6

Imprint: Boydell Press

Pietro Monte's Collectanea

The Arms, Armour and Fighting Techniques of a Fifteenth-Century Soldier

Translated by Jeffrey L. Forgeng

  • Description
  • Contents
  • Author
  • Reviews
First translation into English of a wide-ranging military treatise from the late middle ages.

Pietro Monte's Collectanea is a wide-ranging treatise on the arts of knighthood, focusing on martial arts, athletics, arms and armour, and military practice, but touching on subjects as diverse as diet, zoology and the design of life preservers. Monte, a courtier, soldier and scholar who won the respect of men like Leonardo da Vinci and Baldesar Castiglione, wrote the work in Spanish in the late 1400s, and later produced an expanded Latin translation. The Latin version, published in Milan in 1509, forms the basis of this translation.
Monte describes the techniques of personal combat with various weapons, including the two-handed and one-handed sword, pollaxe, and dagger, as well as wrestling, armored and mounted combat. He also documents the athletic activities used by knights to hone their physical abilities: running, jumping, throwing, and vaulting. Finally, the Collectanea is the solemedieval text to provide extensive discussion of the design of arms and armour.
This translation includes an illustrated introduction to Monte and his technical subject-matter, as well as a translation of Book 5 of Monte's De Dignoscendis Hominibus (1492), which overlaps much of the technical content of the Collectanea.

JEFFREY L. FORGENG is curator of Arms and Armour and Medieval Art at the Worcester Art Museum, and teaches as Adjunct Professor of History at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Introduction
Pietro Monte's Collectanea, Books One to Three
Appendix A: Monte, The Appraisal of Men, Book 5
Appendix B: Structure of the Collectanea and Appraisal 5
Glossary
Bibliography

JEFFREY L. FORGENG is curator of Arms and Armor and Medieval Art at the Worcester Art Museum, and Adjunct Professor of History at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

"This is a challenging text for any reader but it is also hugely rewarding and Forgeng's cleanly rendered translation of an overlooked and contextually isolated work is a meaningful contribution to the history of martial pedagogy, culture, and the history of late-medieval and early-modern training and practice in arms. It is a joy to see it available from Boydell." Mark Geldof, De Re Militari

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9781783272754

February 2018

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Title Details

333 Pages

2.34 x 1.56 cm

15 colour illus.

Series: Armour and Weapons

Series Vol. Number: 6

Imprint: Boydell Press