The defense of the town. The definition of urban siege in wartime and in peacetime (Mantua, 1357-1397)

Abstract

The essay concentrates on the progressive definition of the identity of the “besieged” in Mantua during the wars of the late fourteenth century. the northern Italian Po plane city, capital of the Gonzaghesca Dominion, was assaulted by the Visconti troops of Milan that threatened the small state in three stages between 1357 and 1397. Under the violence of those attacks, both the ruling dynasty and the city understood very clearly that for them the only chance to survive relied on the possibility to potentiate the natural position of the city as a neutral and intermediate member of the system of the Italian states. This growing conscience was the basis of the building of a long-lasting political identity focused on a permanent “under siege” condition, which conditioned the entire history of the city until the very last years of its life as an autonomous state and even further. In particular, the assault brought to Mantua by Bernabò Visconti in 1368 is scrutinised, through sources which greatly differ amongst themselves, to understand the real and perceived significance of the events of the assault.