DINAMICHE DI PICCOLA GUERRA TRA XVI E XVII SECOLO: UNO STUDIO SULLA TRATTATISTICA E SUGLI AUTORI MILITARI COEVI

Early modern warfare has been interpreted through different paradigms, from revolution to evolution and transformation. These debates have encouraged historians to consider different aspects of war, from the institutions managing it to the operations, passing through military cultures and emotions of the soldiers, but not only. Yet, recently the everyday operational conduct of campaigns has received less systematic attention. This thesis investigates it through what it terms ‘small-war dynamics’, an analytical category encompassing the recurrent and discontinuous actions that connected the major events of war with the continuing control of territory. The expression refers to a level of military activity present across conflicts of markedly different scale, from major sieges to minor border skirmishes. It remains distinct from irregular warfare and does not assume a direct genealogy leading to the eighteenth-century Petite Guerre. The research examines the period from 1540 to 1640 by combining the cultural history of military writing with operational history. One body of sources consists of a corpus of 56 technical military treatises in Italian, French, Spanish and English. These texts are read as attempts to organise and formalise problems often arising from military experience, with particular attention to uncertainty and the judgement required from commanders. Their categories are compared with unpublished archival correspondence and contemporary narratives concerning four Italian theatres of war: Garfagnana, Gradisca, Monferrato and the Savoyard-Genoese conflict. Across five chapters, the analysis moves from the general place of small-war dynamics in early modern warfare to their treatment in military writing and their operation during campaigns. It examines the recurring practices of reconnaissance and skirmishing before exploring their relationship with night warfare and sieges as two contexts in which these dynamics became especially visible. Darkness altered the acquisition of information and the cohesion of units. Siege warfare extended beyond walls and trenches through sorties and the struggle over convoys and rear areas. The thesis argues that small-war dynamics formed an ordinary component of early modern warfare. They allowed armies to gather information and influence enemy movements. They also contributed to the protection of communications and helped preserve freedom of action. Their effects depended on adaptation to different terrains and available resources. Even when limited in scale, these actions could cumulatively shape wider operational developments and sometimes produce strategic consequences. A single and stable category corresponding to the eighteenth-century Petite Guerre had not yet emerged. Nevertheless, the treatises made these recurring practices and functions intelligible well before their later codification. Comparison with wartime documentation confirms their importance in the conflicts examined, while also showing how written categories were adapted or disregarded in practice. Theory and practice therefore emerge as distinct but interacting levels of the same military culture.