La Battaglia di Cadore

The battle that took place on the 2 March 1508 in the area around Valle di Cadore (more precisely in the small town of Rusecco) between the imperial army of Maximilian I and the Venetian army headed by the renowned mercenary captain Bartolomeo D’Alviano is an episode well-known to military and political historians of Europe.  At the beginning of the 16^th century Macchiavelli and Guicciardini has already grasped its importance.

In relation to that event, however, an overall and detailed reflection has still been lacking.  What was needed was a study established on the precise re-examination and comparison of the contemporary sources and an objective and accurate consideration of the circumstances that led to the clash and the immediate political consequences that derived from it, especially the establishment of the League of Cambrai in December 1508.  Both the ideological and imaginary consequences would have to be considered.  On the 500^th anniversary of the battle, the Magnifica Comunità di Cadore, in collaboration with the Municipality of Valle and through the scientific coordination of the Fondazione Centro Studi Tiziano e Cadore, decided to organise a congress at which some of the most respected specialists from the universities of Innsbruck, Münster, Trent, Padua and  Venice, debated the battle and its significance.  There viewers are recorded in this volume,  a the summary of which follows:

Paolo Carta, Il contesto storico europeo della battaglia di Cadore nella riflessione politica di Machiavelli e Guicciardini; Angelo Lenci, Guerra di montagna nel Rinascimento: la battaglia di Riosecco;

Elio Franzin, La strategia e la tattica di Bartolomeo da Alviano (Liviano) nella ricostruzione storica Piero Pieri; Giandomenico Zanderigo Rosolo, La “crudel” impresa di Cadore (2 marzo 1508); Klaus Brandstätter, Die Schlacht bei Pieve di Cadore: Zeitgenössische Quellen und rezeptionsgeschichtliche Überlegungen;Elena Filippi, Misura, dismisura e pratica della guerra nell’immaginario figurativo d’Oltralpe nell’età di Massimiliano I d’Asburgo;Lionello Puppi, Un “bataglia” per Tiziano;Renzo Fontana, Dopo Tiziano. La battaglia di Cadore di Francesco Bassano e qualche riflesso delle guerre d’Italia nell’arte cadorina.

As well as with a systematic onomastic and topographical index, the volume has two appendices. The first, edited by Monia Fransolin, publishes the contemporary texts relevant to the battle (Bartolomeo D’Alviano’s relationship with the Venetian senate; the chronicles of Matteo Palatini and Vecellio Vecelli; the entries from Marin Sanudo’s Diary that relate to the battle).  The second index by Antonio Genova and Silvia Miscellaneo contains a full selection of the maps showing the locations of the battle with a set of individual charts dedicated to the identification of the visual findings.