Citation

Gilbert AH. Italica 1946; 23(4): 275-286.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1946, American Association of Teachers of Italian)

DOI

10.2307/475549

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Soldiers must be trained in the use ofthe scoppietto, "an instrument new, as you know, and necessary," says Fabrizio Colonna, the chief speaker in Machiavelli's Art of War, book 2. The necessity of this weapon -- strictly a light matchlock -- had been long known to the Florentine Secretary. When in 1506 his plans for raising armed forces in the territory of Florence were adopted, one specification was that in every hundred infantry there were to be at least ten scoppietteri.