with whom I am acquainted were in the realm of Naples, they would all be barons, marquises, and counts, but the Milanese in every matter think more of well-being and good cheer than of making a show. They are also all very devoted to beautiful women, of whom there are great numbers, and more addicted to the pursuit of love than those of any city that I know, and the ladies receive their attentions with infinite pleasure. For this reason, we all day long see troops of gentlemen of all sorts on splendidly caparisoned mules, on fast slim Turkish horses, on light fleet barbs or spirited genets, on fierce coursers or on quiet hacks, with every day new fashions of dress passing here and there, so that they seem like bees seeking to cull honey from the flowers. One also sees many carriages, gilt and covered with richly embroidered stuffs, drawn by four spirited horses, so that it would seem that one were beholding the triumph of an emperor, and within the carriages are seated the loveliest women, who go up and down the city disporting themselves."[1] Such was Milan in the days of its greatest armourers, the Negrolis.
When you suggested, dearest Guy, that I should write an introduction to your book, you allowed me the fullest liberty to discourse on arms as my fancy might prompt me, and I fear that I have greatly abused that latitude. If my passion for the subject has led me to digress much and to stray from the more serious side of my theme, from dusty archives and tedious inventories, to the genial tales of old-time novelists, I have ever striven not to encroach on what I considered would be your part of the work, and I trust that I have succeeded in this endeavour. But even if I have digressed much, I have kept one purpose constantly in view. I have sought to show, as I have myself always felt, that armour and arms are not merely a matter for dry archaeological investigation, occasionally interesting to the painter or the costumier, but a far larger and more many-sided subject than has generally been supposed, intimately connected as they were with the life, the customs, the arts, the industry, and the commerce of many peoples in Europe during the Middle Ages and the brilliant epoch of the Renaissance, indeed until, towards the middle of the XVIIth century, the great development in the use of firearms completely changed the methods of warfare.
And now I will only wish your book God speed! and may it lead others to feel, as you and I do, how deeply interesting is the study of the evolution and history of arms offensive and defensive in past times.
CHARLES ALEXANDER DE COSSON.
Florence, July 1919.
- ↑ Matteo Bandello, Le Novelle, parte ii, novella viii.
