A book about the Venetian army (the fleet is not treated) in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The book is divided into two parts, one covering the period up to the battle of Agnadello in 1509, the other the succeeding period up the the War of Gradisca (also known as the Uskok War) 1615-1617. Internally each part is thematically rather than chronologically organized, but the chronological top level division makes a good deal of sense because where fifteenth century sees the creation of the Terraferma, or Venetian dominions on the Italian mainland, the sixteenth sees Venice basically on the defensive, trying to avoid war and maintain as much as possible of its possessions rather than acquire new ones.

While decidely on the dry side, I enjoyed it a lot.