How Roberto Sanseverino achieved a hero's death

[Erpingham]

This one can be blamed on Duncan raising my interest in the obscure War of Rovereto and the Venetian defeat at Calliano in 1487.

Roberto Sanseverino , an experienced condottiero, commanded the Venetian forces and was killed.  He ended up with a splendid memorial in Trento Cathedral paid for by his enemies.  How he became the fallen hero and feted champion of chivalry is told in this interesting article.  It's on Jstor but can be accessed through the independent researcher free account scheme.

It is worth reading this if you are interested in how medieval and renaissance attitudes to warfare overlapped and how confused the reporting of the aftermath of battles could be.  Sanseverino is interesting too because of his age - killed commanding an army at the age of 69.

Another interesting thing is his armour still exists, having been captured along with his body after the battle.



The helmet isn't original - this probably would have been worn with an armet.  It was associated with a German-style painted black sallet in the 17th century (the helmet remains in the collection) but its the wrong type of helmet for this armour.

[Duncan Head]

This one can be blamed on Duncan raising my interest in the obscure War of Rovereto and the Venetian defeat at Calliano in 1487.

Always happy to take the blame for arousing someone's interest