Battle of Seminara 1495 AD

[Tim]

I can't seem to find much in English sources on the Battle of Seminara 1495 AD - even The Great Captain does not have real detail.  Does anyone know of English Language sources that have real detail?  Failing that French (or I suppose at a push Spanish or Italian)?

[Patrick Waterson]

Try the books cited in the Wikipedia article on the battle.

Here is the list.  Some will obviously be better than others but unfortunately I do not know which, though Cowley and Parker, Oman and perhaps Taylor may be worth trying first.

    Cowley, Robert, and Geoffrey Parker, eds. The Reader's Companion to Military History. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1996.

    Johnson, A. H. Europe in the Sixteenth Century, 1494–1598 (Period IV). London: Rivingtons, 1905.

    Keegan, John, and Andrew Wheatcroft. Who's Who in Military History: From 1453 to the Present Day. London: Routledge, 1996.

    Lanning, Michael Lee. The Military 100: a Ranking of the Most Influential Military Leaders of All Time. New York: Citadel Press, 1996.

    Nicolle, David. Fornovo 1495 — France's Bloody Fighting Retreat. Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 1996.

    Oman, Charles. A History of the Art of War in the Sixteenth Century. London: Methuen & Co., 1937.

    Pohl, John and Adam Hook. The Conquistador, 1492–1550. Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2001.

    Prescott, William Hickling. History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic, of Spain. Volume II. London: Bradbury and Evans, 1854.

    Reese, Peter. The Scottish Commander — Scotland's Greatest Military Commanders from Wallace to World War II. Edinburgh: Canongate Books Ltd., 1999.

    Roscoe, William. The Life and Pontificate of Leo the Tenth. Volume I. London: David Bogue, Fleet Street, 1846.

    Taylor, Frederick Lewis. The Art of War in Italy, 1494–1529. 1921.


Unless someone already knows and can save Tim a lot of time and trouble?

[Tim]

Thanks - have / have looked at half of those.  Will keep trying.

[Duncan Head]

Not very much, no. Michael Mallett and Christine Shaw, The Italian Wars 1494-1559: War, State and Society in Early Modern Europe (Routledge 2012) is probably the best starting-point for most Italian Wars issues now, but on this one has no more than a paragraph. I can't find much more anywhere else.

However at https://archive.org/details/imagePIII443NarrativaOpal is Giovio's biography of Gonsalvo, if you fancy practicing your 16th-century Italian - start on p.45 for the first occurrence of the word "Seminara". I think this is one of the main near-contemporary sources.

At http://rohanturenne.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/1495%20Fornoue%20et%20Seminara is the text of a contemporary pamphlet listing the French troops left in Naples in 1495, from whom the army at Seminara was drawn. The commander, Bérault Stuart d'Aubigny, is supposed to have left an account of the battle because I've seen someone quoting him for numbers; but I haven't tracked it down.

[Tim]

Duncan

Thank you as always.  I know from reading Tudor material that I struggle with 16thC English let along Italian...