Guerra y Cultura en la Epoca Moderna. La tratadistica militar hispanica de los siglos XVI y XVII: libros, autores y lectores (review)

This is a very important book, not only because it stands out in the rareified panorama of Spanish military history, but because of the great amount of research on which it is based. The author has listed 236 books and pamphlets relating to the art of war in Spain in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; he has perused 185 of them, along with 129 treatises on history, politics and the education of princes, and 16 unpublished manuscripts.

This enormous resource base enables us to see in detail the impact of war, soldiers and the new defensive and offensive military techniques brought about by the "Military Revolution," upon the society, the economy, the political and religious scene, and, finally, ideology during these two centuries.

The study is divided into nine chapters. The first two take into account the general development of the art of the war in the sixteenth (chapter 1) and seventeenth (chapter 2) centuries, stressing the importance of the Italian contribution to theoretical and practical progress in the field of military science. The third chapter deals with how and how much the art of war was learnt through the study of ancient history and the classical military writers, either in the original version (mainly in Latin, even if the authors were Greek), or translated into Italian or Spanish.

Chapter four concerns the new and increasing impact of science and technology on the art of war, especially on the new disciplines of military architecture, artillery and military engineering. This trend helps to explain, according to the author, the shift in military leadership from the nobles, traditionally empowered to make and manage war, to the military professionals, who wielded power because of both the experience acquired in battle and the study of war as an art.

The fifth chapter reviews the treatises written to teach the Prince how to wage war, along with works pertinent to the heated debate on the topic of the just war, and the different solutions offered to it. Chapter six is very technical, as it deals with military and ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and the seventh chapter informs us about such peripheral topics as the rules of duelling and instruction in fencing and riding.

Chapter eight provides detailed information on the military treatises' authors, the books they composed and the audience that read them, while in the ninth, and last, chapter Espino López attempts to explain why authors were moved to compose military treatises, why such books were so eagerly read, and why people chose the military profession in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Two priceless bibliographical appendixes follow: one gives a list of the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century military treatises of Hispanic authors (even if in some cases the authors are not Hispanic at all, but Italian or ancient Roman or Greek); the second lists other European military treatises of the same period. A substantial bibliography concludes the volume.

And now for the book's shortcomings: the main one, quite serious, is the lack of an index, an essential requirement for a book of this sort, one would think. The editing of the book also leaves something to be desired. Repetitions abound, sometimes just a few lines from each other, making reading difficult. Finally, the number and frequency of misprints is above average for a volume of such scholarly quality and significance.