ABSTRACT
https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-u.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780429292354/3abb420d-80da-4aed-a9cf-ae5c42b997f9/content/ifig0001.tif"/>In his famous history of the wars of Italy Francesco Guicciardini wrote that Gianpaolo Baglioni was “more driven by destiny than by reason.” The remark could apply almost equally well to all of the other princes of the Renaissance who were involved, whether they wished to be or not, in all the terrible wars which ravaged Italy from Lake Como to the Bay of Naples. Yet, in some respects Guicciardini seems mistaken. No professional soldier and minor lord tried harder than Gianpaolo Baglioni to conduct his affairs by the cold light of reason.
