Reddit mentions: The best italian history books

I lived in Madrid for a year, then took a 17 day trek through the Baltics (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) before I came back. Someone below mentioned cheaper places that are just as cool, and I would definitely recommend Eastern Europe if that's what you're interested in - just be aware that if you want to go to Russia there's a pretty involved Visa process so you need to plan ahead. Since you didn't mention Eastern Europe, I'll keep my comments to the places you mentioned.

One thing to be aware of is there are a lot of really cheap flights throughout Europe (like $50-$100 or less). I flew from Madrid to Berlin for $75. When I looked into the Eurail, it didn't seem like a great deal, so I would definitely compare costs to other options.

I don't know much about Croatia, but I've been to Italy, Spain, and Portugal. Of the major Italian cities, Venice is the most unique, Florence is the most cosmopolitan (if you want to party and have fun, that's the place) and Rome is the most historically interesting. One thing I remember is that the country side is gorgeous, so if you can take a train between cities, I would do that. Also, this is a really amazing book about Italy if you're into that sort of thing. https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Heart-Italy-Tobias-Jones/dp/0865477248

As for Spain, I actually know quite a bit, but I don't know what your'e looking for. Madrid is sort of the NYC, and it's smack dab in the middle. It's the most developed and city like, but people say it doesn't have as much Spanish flavor as some other places. There's a place called Granada in the South, which is famous for the Alhambra, which was a massive Moorish palace and definitely worth checking out (7 wonders of the world level, think Versailles except Islamic). They're also really known for giving generous tapas (free appetizers that come with drinks. Most places give you a slice of bread with cheese or ham, or something small, but Granada is known for still giving generous ones).

Sevilla is also really gorgeous. I didn't spend as much time up north, but Barcelona and Bilbao are definitely worth checking out.


Similarly, if you want a book recommendation, read Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell. My friend and I who lived there both agreed it was the best depiction of Spanish people we had ever read. Iberia by James Michener was also recommended to me, but I've never read it.

I had an awesome time in Lisbon. Port, the drink, is actual from Portugal, and they sell it in stalls in the street at night. There's also a local music called Musica Fado, where dudes come into restaurants and sing what basically amount to bar ballads. It's pretty cool. Also, a random Portuguese dude I met told me about these before I went, which I later read about it in a magazine. Also worth checking out. http://www.globalpost.com/article/6766048/2016/04/28/only-three-people-world-know-how-make-portuguese-pastry

Sorry, no book recs for Portugal.

As for traveling alone, I did a decent amount, but I'm a guy, so I don't know how relevant my experience is. One thing I would say is that if you're staying in hostels you'll probably end up meeting fellow travelers. Sometimes people are going along on the same route, or you just end up meeting cool people.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

I can't think of any 'study guides' per se, but there are a number of resources that can help you out getting started in bolognese.

The best way to go about it is to read the primary texts and use modern supplementary material to help you sort out what is going on.

Here are some suggestions:
Giovanni D'all Agocchie's manual on the use of the sidesword can be found translated online in places. It's pretty easy to follow compared to other primary bolognese sources so is a good place to start. It contains a couple of very basic 'katas' which is what I like to start my students on as they are intended to help teach and learn the fundamental movements of the system. A full copy of his manual including stuff not directly related to side sword can be found here: http://www.lulu.com/shop/jherek-swanger-and-giovanni-dallagocchie/the-art-of-defense-on-fencing-the-joust-and-battle-formation-by-giovanni-dallagocchie-paperback/paperback/product-23737371.html

A 'cheat sheet' for the techniques contained in the manual can be found here and is a useful for guided practice: http://www.lulu.com/shop/reinier-van-noort/dall-agocchie-cheat-sheet/paperback/product-22581086.html

Manciolino covers mostly sword and buckler, and Tom Leoni does a decent job of presenting the material in a format that is easy to follow and practice from: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0982591136?pf_rd_p=c2945051-950f-485c-b4df-15aac5223b10&pf_rd_r=0WWCFEQSX1PFS73V14BW

A modern 'clift notes' version of the bolognese style can be found here, but I prefer reading straight from the master's pen: https://www.amazon.com/16th-Century-Single-Sword-Combat/dp/150321429X/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?keywords=16th+century+italian+fencing&qid=1551209540&s=gateway&sr=8-1-fkmr1

There is also a complete translation of Marozzo's manual on lulu.com which is the most comprehensive of all the bolognese texts, and covers side sword with all the companion weapons as well as longsword (spadone) and polearms. However it is much harder to follow than the others mentioned above, so I would hold off on tackling it until you have a good understanding of the basics.

Other important works of the Bolognese system are the Anonimo Bolgonese which is one of the older bolgonese texts. It contains a lot of important information regarding the system and contains a large number of techniques. It is however kinda badly organized and not as clear as the other texts, but it makes for a good supplement.

Also important is Viggiani's manual. It is a very different approach to the bolognese style, and is not a complete system like the others. However it presents much more of the body mechanics that make for good defensive/offensive maneuvers. It should likewise be viewed as a supplement to the general bolognese system.

I'm sorry I could provide more links as I am on my mobile, but I hope this helps.

I think that's part of it, but Great Man theory isn't the only historical framework that puts an emphasis on characters, even singular important characters. One example that comes to mind is Shiela Fitzpatrick's Commissariat of Enlightenment (https://www.amazon.com/Commissariat-Enlightenment-Organization-Lunacharsky-Post-Soviet/dp/0521524385). It is very much based in social history, but also focuses on the importance of Anatole Lunacharsky throughout. It is not only his story, but it is a story to which he is central and someone who is interested in stories could certainly find an interest in that book.

Another example is microhistory - something that really hasn't proven to be very popular at all outside of academia. This is a kind of history that focuses intensely on something very small, sometimes a single person. Gizberg's The Cheese and the Worms is the prototypical example of the genre in this case (https://www.amazon.com/Cheese-Worms-Cosmos-Sixteenth-Century-Miller/dp/0801843871).

There is something kind of easy about it though. Our popular media is filled with stories of archetypal heroes and villains and the Great Man theory does, perhaps, lend itself to writing stories about characters that can slide into that particular kind of narrative.

That being said, Great Man history isn't the only thing that sells well. Mark Kurlansky's Salt: A World History has been very popular and is about as far from a narrative about a single person as you can get (especially if you don't count salt as a person!!)

Oligarchies by nature seek political stability. They fear populist sentiments and the accumulation of too much power in the hands of a single individual. Especially, they fear excessive factionalism; that infighting amongst the elite could be exploited to collectively end their domination of political life. Oligarchies therefore tend to develop a very corporate identity, seeking unity of purpose and a relatively equal distribution of status across all members of the elite. I would expect your mercantile elite then to be very concerned with political stability.

One of the main countries in my world is governed by a mercantile oligarchy as well. The Numanthian ruling elite is obsessed with stability. Indeed, almost every facet of Numanthian governmental, social, and economic life is geared towards maintaining such stability. Over several centuries, this elite has consolidated its control over the state, slowly closing the senior offices of state off from provincial elites and the lower classes. This is not to say that social mobility is impossible in Numanthia. Indeed, the mercantile focus of the Numanthian economy makes it far less difficult to achieve wealth and status, even for foreigners, especially compared to other states. It is just extremely difficult to enter the established ruling elite. I strongly model this country on Venice, with elements of the Roman Republic as well.

I’m not sure what time period you’re basing this society off, but I would definitely look into Venetian political history for influence. Chapin Lane’s [Venice, A Maritime Republic] (http://www.amazon.com/Venice-Maritime-Republic-Frederic-Chapin/dp/080181460X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1412792305&sr=8-1&keywords=chapin+lane+venice) is still the best scholarly examination of Venetian political history, and is very readable. It’s the main text I reference for anything relating to Venetian politics.

I’ve also a few notes on slaves. The real advantages of owning a slave is that they cannot take their labor elsewhere to seek higher compensation. Remember, slaves aren’t cheap. Aside from the cost of acquiring them, slaves need to be fed (and when performing manual labor a sufficient diet is necessary), housed, clothed, and cared for if ill. You also need overseers to monitor them, a further cost. For unskilled work like mining, it’s much cheaper to hire free labor. Free labor needs only be paid for the work they do, with none of the upkeep costs listed above. Indeed, recent scholarship of Roman mining has deemphasized slave labor in favor of such free laborers. Just keep these costs in mind when determining the role you want slaves to play in this society’s economy. Apologies for the length, I hope this is helpful. Please feel free to ask any questions you have!

Last year I took an "Ethnography of Food" course where we read some really great texts.

A lot of my classmates really enjoyed Around the Tuscan Table by Carole M. Counihan. It centers around various members of a family in Italy and their ideas and traditions when it comes to food, eating, and the cultural issues that surround it, like gender or class.

We also read Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser, which is a pretty famous book. I found it to be the quickest read and a fascinating page-turner. It's kind of pop-culture-y though and while you could certainly consider it an ethnography, Schlosser is ultimately a journalist, not an anthropologist.

My personal favorite was Home Cooking in the Global Village by Richard Wilk, which is short, only about 200 pages of text, but really well researched and very anthropological. It's a study of the food history of the Central American country Belize, and traces back the reasons for why food in that country is so astoundingly, incredibly bad.

Also!! Let me pimp a book written by one of my most favorite professors. Labor and Legality: An Ethnography of a Mexican Immigrant Network by Ruth Gomberg-Munoz. She's a fantastic writer that I really learned a lot from, and her book is very accessible even if you're not approaching it with a lot of outside knowledge on the subject. She goes into the history behind undocumented labor migration from Mexico to the U.S., its causes and effects, and focuses on the strategies that undocumented workers employ for survival, drawing upon personal experiences and interviews with a core group of informants and their families.

Regardless of my suggestions, hope you find something to love within the world of anthropology, it's really a wonderful discipline.

For Nietzsche, a revaluation of values does not take place at the individual level. At the very least, this is not Nietzsche's focus. What he is more interested in is such a revaluation taking place at the level of culture, for an entire culture. Even though Nietzsche celebrates certain individuals, and even though Nietzsche constantly complains about herd mentality, he is not really concerned with all this "personal growth," self-mastery or self-help nonsense. He is not a Tony Robbins.

To properly understand Nietzsche's project of the revaluation of values, it helps to understand the context. The context is culture, or society as a whole. Nietzsche abandoned his planned book vaguely organized around the concept of 'will to power' and instead replaced that project with a new plan: a series of books that would comprise the Revaluation of Values. The ultimate purpose of these books was to combat the onset of nihilism. That is the key. Thus, the revaluation of values would be (generally speaking) a book(s) about the cultural response to nihilism.

The Antichrist is actually Book One of this project. Nietzsche created and recreated a number of plans and outlines for the Revaluation, and here is one sample to give you an idea of what he had in mind:

1. The AntiChrist - Attempt at a Critique of Christianity
   
2. The Free Spirit - Critique of Philosophy as a Nihilistic Movement
   
3. The Immoralist - Critique of the most completely ill-fated kind of ignorance, morality
   
4. Dionysius - Philosophy of the eternal recurrence
   
   As late as 1888 he still planned on this four book series, as he intimated in a letter to Overbeck.
   
   Nietzsche was concerned about nihilism, about its corrosive effects on society and culture, and how nihilistic values would ultimately lead to man's ruin. To combat this, Nietzsche sought to critique philosophy, religion, and morality in order to uncover and unmask all the guises of nihilism, and then to overturn nihilism by 'revaluing' those values that have allowed it to fester. By clearing the ground in this way, humanity might even be able to generate a new, higher type of being that would justify man's suffering - the ubermenschen. This is a rough sketch of the context, but you should get the idea.
   
   How do you do it? What does it look like? Nietzsche himself answers this question, and gives Renaissance Europe as the prime example of a near total revaluation of values. For specifics, you'll just have to study the period. I will point out that here Nietzsche was influenced by his friend Jakob Burckhardt, so reading this book will give you an idea of what Nietzsche has in mind.
   
   As for your other questions, maybe I can get to those later.
   
   Edit: I should add, that Nietzsche considered Greek culture to be the highest, most fully developed European/Western culture to date. He sees the first "revaluation of values" when Christianity becomes ascendant - master morality is overthrown and replaced by slave morality. The "slave revolt in morals" is the initial revaluation of values, according to Nietzsche. Later, during the Renaissance, Nietzsche believes that at least a partial revaluation of the revaluation took place, but that ultimately Christian values became dominant again. He sees the flourishing of the Renaissance as an example of what is possible if European culture(s) would throw off the yoke of Christian morality.
   
   All this to say, that when Nietzsche talks about a revaluation of values what he has in mind are the values of an entire culture. He is concerned with the values that predominate within a given culture, as those values determine what kind of men emerge from that culture. In short, he is not at all concerned with what happens to individuals, about what a 'revaluation' means at the individual level. Of course, it takes individuals to reject Christian morality and develop some alternative, but it is the aggregate effect of this upon a given culture that concerns Nietzsche,

Fiore is a great way to start. I'd recommend checking out https://duello.tv/ if you'd like really great instruction on it and are unable to find any local club near you. Devon Boorman runs Academie Duello and his interpretation is very good. His interpretation fills in blanks by adding in concepts from later Italian manuscripts written by Achille Marozzo, Ridolfo Capoferro, Salvator Fabris, Nicolleto Giganti, and Camillo Agrippa. So you'll probably find it easiest to pick up.

Guy Windsor also has several excellent books as well and he has some free video tutorials on his Youtube channel but they aren't as indepth as Duello.tv

Of course you should also purchase a translated copy of the original source, but if you're going to self instruct then gaining the insight from Guy and Devon will help you make a lot of good progress on deciphering what is meant. As with all of the source manuscripts there is a lot of information missing which has needed to be figured out through experimentation.

I would recommend this translation of the Ludwig / Getty as a source for Fiore https://www.amazon.com/Flower-Battle-MS-Ludwig-XV13/dp/0984771689/

If you want a genuine history of the Catholic Church and its relationship with science, I'd recommend some background reading first. Lord John Norwich's History of Venice was an eye opener for me on understanding the dynamics of the church in that era. You have to understand that the Pope wasn't just a religious figure, he was a temporal leader of a state with a military as powerful as any other Italian state of that era (possible exception to Venice itself, given the Serene Republic's naval dominance). Further, many Popes have acted more like kings than priests, famously the Battle Popes.

The goal here isn't to make the Church seem like a force for good, since it was, like every nation in that era, a force with good and bad qualities, but the Catholic Church collected its tithes and tributes from the rest of Europe and ended up channeling absurd amounts of wealth into art, science, technology, music, architecture, and many other worthwhile pursuits.

While many lords, kings, and doges would also patronize art and science, it is hard to understate how much progress the West made during the Renaissance, the period where the Pope wielded power on his continent arguably stronger than Caesar's.

Unfortunately, I don't know of a single book that delves specifically into the topic of the Catholic Church and science, although I am sure some exist. I'm an avid historian, particularly of the colonial period, and the Church is an interesting institution through that era. I'd highly recommend checking out any history books regarding that era if you want a snapshot of the Church's glory years.

>I'd still argue that the bible, and literal interpretations of it, along with the continued insistence (including Catholic doctrine still existing regarding evolution) is flawed, particularly in regards to literal belief in things like a soul, but am open to opinions...

Here's the beauty of the Catholic stance, though. They don't especially care. They listen to scientific thought, and are willing to modify church doctrine accordingly. The key difference between the Catholic Church and an empiricist is that the Catholic Church doesn't feel bound by the need to prove their beliefs. The statement "There is a soul" is unscientific; but so is "There is no such thing as a soul." The empirical statement is "There is no evidence which would indicate the existence of a soul, so we have no reason to believe in it." But few people do. Most people make a decision, one way or the other. And that's OK; to me, the annoying thing is evangelists of any stripe. I believe in live and let live when it comes to things that don't conform to scientific experimentation.

I second all of u/EmoryUpton's recommendations, but given this description of you I want to add a couple more that aren't quite as sociological (more historical research into individual women). These offer some interesting insights into the psychology of women, girl game, and our interactions with other women.

EDIT - obviously, with one chapter dedicated to each subject, there's not enough room for a highly detailed history of any of the subjects mentioned. Still, the overarching histories are interesting and thought provoking:

The Book of the Courtesans: A Catalogue of Their Virtues

By a Pulitzer Prize winning author, it really details how individual courtesans used their sexuality, charisma, and access to men to rise to the top of the world. Each chapter focuses on a different courtesan.

Very useful for any guy interested in an academic look at "girl game."

Unveiled: The Hidden Lives of Nuns

On the complete opposite end of the spectrum ...

A reporter lived with hundreds of nuns of many different orders, ranging from almost hippie-esque nuns who protest war to those that (in this day and age, shockingly) are completely cloistered from the outside world, living almost like they were in the Middle Ages.

It will be a shock to the system for anyone who subscribes to TRP-esque beliefs (women can't be loyal, they're in constant competition with each other, they can't be chaste, etc.), but it's an interesting look into female dynamics when men are removed from the equation. Not to mention how women run their own little worlds.

Can you suggest some books on German tank development during the war? I focus on British & Italian stuff but a friend of mine has expressed interest in German armor. I'm looking for some good English language materials in the vein of Death by Design, Firepower, British Armour in the Normandy Campaign etc. He's got a particular interest in pz IIs, and panzer III/IV history, so something focusing on prewar design would be great.

Glorious.

If she's as fun to play as the Cesare, this will be well worth the purchase. It'd be fantastic if she gets released in time for the Christmas holidays.

It will go along nicely with a book I recently ordered.

You seem to be interested in "microhistory". Believe it or not, since the 1970's, some academics have been asking big questions out of small places, and this has progressed into "New Historicism" and the history of ideologies.

For microhistory, see:

• Giovanni Levi: L’eredita immateriale. Carriere di un esorcista nel Piemonte del seicento.
  
  
• Carlo Ginzburg: The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth Century Miller
  
  For New Historicism:
  
  
• [Greenblatt, Stephen, Renaissance Self-Fashioning: From More to Shakespeare] (http://www.amazon.com/Renaissance-Self-Fashioning-Shakespeare-Stephen-Greenblatt/dp/0226306593/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1342813933&sr=1-6&keywords=stephen+greenblatt) I really love this one and have used it for graduate school papers in the past. The introduction is particularly enlightening.
  
  EDIT: hhawks12, great post! I like your thinking!

Dimicator on facebook is one place for pretty great info on sword and buckler.

As for books... You could go with the pretty outdated Sword and Buckler book from Chivalry Bookshelf. Found here on Amazon.

Then there is new book (BTW thanks for having me look this up, I didn't even know this existed)

Next in line would be Manciolino.

You could also try looking at Lignitzer through Wiktenauer.com. That is going to more updated than David Lindholm's books (two links btw), or Christian Tobler's. But, it is nice to have physical copies.

Currently in my first semester of Ancient Greek at Uni, after two years of Latin. It's hard. Like others have mentioned, this is partly due to a new alphabet which just makes it harder to recognise works.

We use the JACT Reading Greek books. There's three: a grammar and exercises, text and vocabulary and an independent study guide. (There's also an ancient Greek history one but that's not really necessary) They all work together and get you to learn by reading from the start - one book talks you through the grammar whilst the other has corresponding reading passages. This makes the endless tables of grammar far more relevant. Also the independent study guide helps you through the tricky bits of a translation where it would be nice to have a teacher to explain it to you. But they're still not a substitute for a tutor.

Good luck!

I'm an autodidact. I bought three volumes of the JACT Cambridge Reading Greek:

Grammary, Vocabulary and Exercises

Text

An indipendent guide

You can buy them on Amazon.

If you don't mind older texts, you could get free ebooks from here https://www.textkit.com/greek_grammar.php

E.g, https://www.textkit.com/learn/ID/159/author_id/75/

or https://www.textkit.com/learn/ID/136/author_id/39/

Make sure you get the key to the exercises. Work methodically through the books without cutting corners. Feel free to ask for help here.

​

EDIT

Added Amazon links.

While watching the Showtime series 'The Borgias' I got an interest in this period of Italian history. Pope Alexander and his brood, Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Machiavelli, the Medici. I knew enough that i could not trust any of what was being dramatized in that series (or in "Borgia" the later European series shown on Netflix that I watched later) as being historically accurate but I didn't know what I couldn't trust. Very frustrating.

So I read "The Borgias And Their Enemies" (more or less orthodox history), "The Borgias: The Hidden History" (very revisionist history, more or less endorsing the very sympathetic portrayals in the TV series), "The House of Medici: Its Rise And Fall" and I torrented a PDF copy of 'A Journey Into Michelangelo's Rome." As someone with just a casual interest in that time and place and no previous academic background in either, I would recommend all of them.

this book can get dry at times, but it’s still a great read. Has a big section on Superga. I’d recommend it to anyone looking to learn a bit more about Serie A, some real interesting stories in there.

I have a couple of books about big game hunters on my list, but I have not read either of these yet:

• Man-Eaters of Kumaon by Jim Corbett, memoirs of a big game hunter in India in the early 20th century.
  
  
• The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival by John Vaillant, about hunting a killer tiger in remote Russia.
  
  As for explorers, the best non-fiction I've read about explorers are The Lost City of Z by David Grann, about Percy Fawcett's attempts to find Eldorado in the jungles of South America, and Endurance by Alfred Lansing, about Shackleton's survival after his doomed polar expedition.
  
  It occurs to me that none of these are set in Africa. Hope that's not a deal-breaker.
  
  I'll also recommend my favorite memoir of all time, Papa Hemingway by A.E. Hotchner. It's about his time spent traveling with Ernest Hemingway, who was something of a hunter and adventurer, and recounts a lot of very exciting trips to exotic locales in which manly deeds were done.

i'm working through the stack i just got for my birthday - just finished Too Like the Lightning, which was amazing and I would love to talk about it forever. now i'm reading Agents of Empire; it's a veeeery dense but veeeery good account of an Albanian/Venitian family and how they got tangled in the Ottoman/Venitian/Italian politics of the 1500s. that's a period of history i know nothing about, so it's really cool to learn about it.

Well, Veneto as part of the Republic of Venice has a much longer history of independence than Scotland or Catalunya.

I understand you are a foresto (ehm) but if you are interested, I suggest a book I bought from Amazon that according to the guys at /r/history was probably the best on the subject: Venice, a Maritime Republic.

Just to comment on the book, Man-eaters of Kumaon is a fascinating read. I have read it dozens of times and as I grow older, I find different parts of his story that fascinate me. Check it out if you can. Good adventure reading.

Reminds me of this classic that read when I was younger: https://www.amazon.com/Man-Eaters-Kumaon-Oxford-India-Paperbacks/dp/0195622553/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1496909025&sr=8-1&keywords=maneaters+of+kumaon

Awesome book of stories about one man's experiences with these magnificent, intelligent and vengeful creatures.

Off the top of my head, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Also,
How the Irish Saved Civilization is a great read, though not about Rome.
If you're into church history, The Early Church by Chadwick and The Reformation by Macchulloch are well-written and interesting

Agree. It was a terrifying time, and is still I presume for people that share space with these tigers. There's a wonderful documentary out there about how people have adapted to living with tigers in the mangroves (sunderbans)

For folks that enjoy reading, there are fantastic books about man-eating tigers. Man-eaters of Kumaon. See related items for others at this link

If you want to, there's a bunch of resources out there to learna little more. DnD and Fencing was where I started. /r/wma is a great place for all European Martial Arts, and there's a small pocket of rapier fighters. Martin Fabian's videos on youtube are a great resource, though I use a different master than he does. I study under Giganti's treatises, which you can find on amazon.

If you want to listen to the audible version, go to amazon and get the kindle version first. It is free. and then because you have the kindle version the audible version drops down to something like $1. Its the joys of their 'if you buy both you get stuff cheap' thing.

http://www.amazon.com/History-Decline-Roman-Empire-ebook/dp/B0082ZJA9M

Historical books are a chore if we're talking academia, so don't go into them too fresh. Renaissance Italy is not my forte so I dug around on google, here's some that may be interesting:

Calamities and the Economy in Renaissance Italy, Guido Alfani

This one is a bit too expensive for the content it offers, but from a quick skim on Google Books preview, it seems worth looking over if your local library has it in stock. Author credibility is okay, not one of the 'big names' though. Economic history is interesting to look at, especially when you put it in context of the "big" historical events such as war or famine.

The House of Medici: Its Rise and Fall, Christopher Hibbert

This is a good one, very cheap and by a well known historian. Its one to keep around for sure, however, it seems to stray from the timeline of AC2. Still worth a read nonetheless.

​

The Borgias and Their Enemies, 1431–1519, Christopher Hibbert

Another one by Hibbert, stalk this dude, he seems to know his Renaissance.

For kids that age. Not just girls.

I read these.

• Enid Blyton
  
• Roald Dahl (Famous Five, etc)
  
• Harry Potter series
  
• The secrets of Droon series
  
• Goosebumps series
  
  many more that I can't remember the names of
  
  Super relatable Indian ones
  
  
• Jim Corbett my favourite one
  
• Ruskin Bond a good collection of stories like this
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Well, remember Italy was also the home of Giulio Douhet, probably the most famous aerial strategist from the interwar period. There's no lack of appreciation by some strategists and Mussolini of the potency of airpower - whether that gets implemented at the procurement and air force organization levels is a different story. Same goes for the naval requirements branch. It's all too easy to assume one aspect of a country applies to every part of it, and we need to be careful about making such generalizations. I wish I had Bagnasco and de Toro's book on the Littorio class at hand - I suspect it would provide some more definitive answers regarding these unique windows.

If you want to learn more about rennisaiance swordsman ship, check this book out.

It has an excellent introduction about the basics of Bolognese style fencing and some history. Then goes into a translation of Manciolino who was a fencing master from Italy. It's excellent and is one of the sources I use for teaching HEMA.

https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Renaissance-Swordsman-Antonio-Manciolinos/dp/0982591136/ref=asc_df_0982591136/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312029778645&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=108549007198241022&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9002001&hvtargid=aud-801381245258:pla-493580792297&psc=1

Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:


amazon.co.uk

amazon.ca

amazon.com.au

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amazon.it

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amazon.nl

amazon.co.jp

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a great resource for fencing manuscripts is http://wiktenauer.com personally i would recommend taking a look at Giganti a translation of which you can get right off Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0982591128/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1481352452&sr=8-2&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=Giganti+fencing

The Cheese and the Worms is awesome. Glad you mentioned it, it's an even-better example of what I was trying to explain.

We have The House of Medici: Its Rise and Fall, or, if you are interested in only a single member of the family, Magnifico: The Brilliant Life and Violent Times of Lorenzo de' Medici is good as well.

Calcio if you're interested in Italian football.

A season with Verona about an Englishman who lives in Verona and talks about his adventures following them.

Football, Fascism and Fandom: The UltraS of Italian Football
if you're interested in the darker side of the Ultras in Italian football (and mainly Rome).

They may have introductions that could be different lengths, different fonts, and some books like that have footnotes, which can add to page counts.

But the biggest difference here is probably just the size of the page. The paperback is "198mm x 10mm x 129mm" and the hardback is "174mm x 25mm x 113mm". It's smaller in size, so it has to be thicker/have more pages.

(Even the same edition can vary a few pages between paperback and hardback, though.)

ETA: Looking on Amazon, it looks like the paperback intro is by Anthony Grafton and the hardcover intro is by Tim Parks, the translator. I also see Coralie Bickford-Smith listed as an illustrator on the hardcover, so there may be some illustrations in that copy as well. (She may have just done the cover, though. I can't tell from the listing.) -- https://www.amazon.com/Prince-Penguin-Classics-Hardcover/dp/0141395877/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3V3C9Y5CWNG33&keywords=the+prince+penguin+classics&qid=1566404430&s=books&sprefix=the+prince+penguin+%2Cstripbooks%2C203&sr=1-3

Not sure if it counts as a "firsthand account," but the inquisition records of Domenico Scandella (AKA Menocchio), a heresiarch in 16th C northern Italy, are fascinating.

The guy was fearless in articulating his heretical interpretations of Christian theology to the inquisitors who were interrogating him. You can read about this in The Cheese and the Worms by Carlo Ginzburg.

https://www.amazon.com/Wojtek-Bear-Polish-War-Hero/dp/1843410656/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_3/145-9167715-9753257?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1843410656&pd_rd_r=1d597819-3346-4aed-80c7-6b197c288c17&pd_rd_w=QfBEi&pd_rd_wg=LESH8&pf_rd_p=09627863-9889-4290-b90a-5e9f86682449&pf_rd_r=5K921AT333QE436YV9BY&psc=1&refRID=5K921AT333QE436YV9BY there is apparently a biographical book about Wojtek, an honorary soldier (and bear) in the Polish Army during WWII.


People are going to suggest "Bear" by Marian Engel. Do not listen to them, trust me.

My first recommendation would be to come down to Phoenix to learn first hand from Richard Marsden, otherwise, you can check: https://www.hemaalliance.com/ for close HEMA club affiliates.

You can also get a hardback, english translated treatise for $40 on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Flower-Battle-MS-Ludwig-XV13/dp/0984771689/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1523987594&sr=8-1&keywords=flower+of+battle

Aside from that, I'm not sure if there are any YouTubers for it but I really like Fiore's system.

>What was the first usage of this title [Rex] during Late Antiquity/Early Middle Ages, and how did it's perception change?

The earliest I found was Holy Roman Emperor Henry II (1014-24) who used the title, "Rex Romanorum," -- King of the Romans. {Source}

Undoubtedly earlier adoptions of Latin-sounding titles exist. It makes you sound more impressive if your title is in Latin.

The reasons perceptions "changed" was because the people adopting the title weren't Romans.

>And, if I may ask a similar question, when did the term Republic become common to describe governments in Italy?

I wouldn't say the word republic ever went out of fashion in Italy. Republican ideals didn't die with the Empire. Plato's The Republic and Aristotle's Politics made a comeback in the Renaissance, but their ideas didn't disappear entirely in the 6th century. Venice has been calling itself a republic since at least the 8th century. {Source} In 1115, Florence was established as a republic. {Source} Genoa (1015-ish), Siena (1199-ish), Ragusa (1358) all claimed the term. The term was common as soon as the Republics were founded.

>Did the Italians of this time perceive their states are Roman successors?

Of course. It goes without saying. Everyone wanted to be the New Rome and be seen as the successor to the Republic (if not the Empire), not just in Italy but everywhere in Europe. This goes back to your post's first statement:

>The title Rex was despised by the Romans, yet this Latin title was used by medieval kings.

Naturally, you wouldn't dare call yourself Emperor; the Emperor was reigning in Constantinople until 1453. Even Caesar was still in use as a title in the Eastern Roman Empire. But Rex or Dux (Duke) was tasteful for international relations.

I think a great place to start is with Tom Leoni's translation of Giganti.

https://www.amazon.com/Venetian-Rapier-Nicoletto-Gigantis-Curriculum/dp/0982591128

I loved People's History, Salt, The Cheese and the Worms, the Edmond Morris series on TR, Common Women, and Gender and Jim Crow.

There's actually a book on him and his adventures and I can recommend it myself.

If being top 4 means buying titles/referees, then yes.

Source: https://www.amazon.com/Calcio-History-Football-John-Foot/dp/0007175752/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1468754206&sr=1-2&keywords=calcio+italian+football

Thanks!

For US people: http://www.amazon.com/History-Venice-John-Julius-Norwich/dp/0679721975

With regard to history generally, no -- I was already interested in that. But with regard to particular histories, absolutely.


For example, Civilization V sparked in me an obsession about Venice and its history. Since 2014:

• I've read through a small library of related books:
  
  • Venice: A New History
    
  • City of Fortune: How Venice Ruled the Seas
    
  • The Lion of St. Mark: A Tale of Venice in the 14th Century
    
  • Venice: A Maritime Republic
    
  • The Genius of Venice: Piazza San Marco and the Making of the Republic (currently reading)
    
    
• Made over 100 Venice related memes, showcased on my meme page.
  
• Modded Venice into Civilization VI.
  
• Spent a day in the city itself -- not nearly long enough
  
  I could go on, but that that should suffice to illustrate how big an impact the Serenissima's inclusion in V has had on my historical interests.

Man-eaters of Kumaon by Jim Corbett is also a very interesting read, it talks about man eating Bengal tigers in India. Imagine a smaller tiger with double the vengeance - you get the bengal tiger.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0195622553/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_dp_T1_86mozbRJPW1VJ

Is that what these are? The release date is different. I like the look.

when i was doing it in class, there was a lot of emphasis on vico

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/vico/

and Carlo Ginzburg

http://www.amazon.com/The-Cheese-Worms-Cosmos-Sixteenth-Century/dp/0801843871?tag=duckduckgo-d-20

I found them both to be interesting reads.

Well, the books that I enjoyed the most about Albania are the ones written by Mrs. Edith Durham. Maybe it's just me but it was hard to put them down. I'm putting here a list with the links to Amazon.
High Albania, The Struggle for Scutari, The Burden Of The Balkans and Twenty Years Of Balkan Tangle. And then there is this one by Noel Malcolm that I have to read yet called Agents Of Empire but judging by the other book he wrote about Kosovo it should be a good read.

Quote is from Machiavelli if I'm not mistaken.

Just finished this book last night. Fantastic read on how to navigate a totalitarian rule in a state, that perceived itself as a democracy at the time.

The Cheese and the Worms. Story about Domenico Scandella, an Italian man from the sixteenth century who came to the belief that the creation of the universe was like 'worms in cheese'. He spoke of these beliefs and the Inquisition conducted a heresy trial. Refusing to renounce, the Pope ultimately ordered his execution and he was burnt at the stake. The book examines sixteenth century religious order through translations of the trial proceedings, a microhistory of a singular event to extrapolate a macrocosm of religious values at that time.

Also: Cheese and Worms. The Universe. Too fucking weird.

Sorry it took so long to reply, it wasn't for lack of trying just lack of time.

Three books that really stuck out to me were The Cheese and The Worms, Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches' Sabbath and Bread of Dreams. What facinated me about the picture they presented was how little influence The Christian Church had in rural Europe (which was most of Europe). Most people in Europe not only knew little to nothing about Christianity, but many rural priests were just as confused. As a result, a very interesting cosmology existed in a time where I assumed most people were Catholic.

In summary: Most people in medieval Europe were not Christian.

LOL. Read this: Jim Corbett - Man-Eaters of Kumaon

The dude was a government-contracted hunter of man-eaters in colonial India. Despite the fact that he is killing a regal creature, he is doing what is necessary.

Tigers are so much more dangerous than most folks imagine. Even a professional hunter like this guy, who has spent years in the field and has a high-powered safari rifle and a team of guides, has serious difficulty with them. I cannot imagine how the heck people killed them before firearms were invented. This guy had a few close calls where it was literally nothing but luck that allowed him to survive. It's a very thrilling read.

One of my all-time favorite stories is about the trial of a guy named Menocchio, a laborer in Italy during the 16th century.

the TL;DR version is: Menocchio had some, shall we say, unorthodox views about the nature of man and god. After all, he had read 12 books. According to him, "I have said that, in my opinion, all was chaos, that is, earth, air, water, and fire were mixed together; and out of that bulk a mass formed – just as cheese is made out of milk – and worms appeared in it, and these were the angels."

The Catholic Church at the time wasn't thrilled about this, and so they brought him up on charges of heresy. But during the trial, they realized that his view of the world was quite a bit more substantial (and a bit more zany) than the prosecutors realized, and so sent him away with a warning not to say anything more about his beliefs. Well, guess what, Mennochio didn't listen and actually started spreading the good news about this new understanding of the world of cheese and worms. Which landed him in a second and a third heresy trial.

At the second, he confessed that he might have been influenced by the devil to say such things, and was let off the hook again. But at the third, which was to be his last, Mennochio admitted that he had, big surprise, actually made it all up. That the universe was not, in fact, cheese.

He was burned at the stake for refusing to admit that blasphemy was actually a sin, for, in the words of the historian Carlo Ginzburg, who wrote a really really great book about the episode, he had not realised that he had "a tendency to reduce religion to morality."

You can get the book here for less than a buck: http://www.amazon.com/The-Cheese-Worms-Cosmos-Sixteenth-Century/dp/0801843871

Yay people clapping each other on the back because they all know how bad the Italians are, woohoo!

Re: TDS. Read Bagnasco's book for a more thorough explanation, excellent book cheap price. Just a link to hard copy to look at, electronic version is on google play and other formats.

https://www.amazon.com/Littorio-Class-Largest-Battleships-1937-1948/dp/1591144450

Pretty much every prewar TDS was not as good as imagined. For some odd reason the Italians are singled out although if you look at the system in war time usage it did about as well as everyone else. Aka not as well as the designers imagined. I won't go into arguments, the book above gives several examples. Basically as with every other ship that had to work up during the war hard lessons where learned and things became better over time.

The Brits, per Brown, underestimated wartime torpedo payloads and even wargamed battleships taking multiple hits without severe degradation to the fighting capability of their battleships.

For an incompetent navy the Italians still managed to keep the sea lanes open, cause the British to cancel operations, halt other operations to run operations in the Med, go to long lengths to plan convoy missions, etc.

https://www.usni.org/store/world-war-ii/struggle-middle-sea

Don't believe me just read the book by an American author.

There was more than one Inquisition. There was a Roman Inquisition and a Spanish Inquisition, and so forth. The Cheese and the Worms is a study of a trial of a heretical miller by the Roman Inquisition using trial records. You will be "surprised" at how even-handed the proceedings were. Far more professional than other trials of the 1500s.

The Spanish Inquisition was less concerned with justice. It was used as an instrument of the Spanish rulers for expansion and religious persecution. Good example why Christians should never mix their faith with political authority.

So you need to ask "which one?"