WILLIAM P. CAFERRO – Ph.D. – Professor at Vanderbilt University

Dear Dr. Kolkey.

Your project sounds fascinating.

Faction and domestic political agitation were critical in Siena and throughout all of medieval and Renaissance Italy.  Siena was as intensely factional as any of the others – indeed some thought it was most of all.  You can begin with Dante, and continue on through the Piccolomini pope, who was himself Sienese and complained abut the factions and domestic quarrels.  So, yes, internal dispute and war are closely linked.  A good starting point for discussion of Siena is Schevill’s History of Siena. It is a bit overblown and rhetorical, but it expressed well the faction.  I wrote a book on public finance, war and Siena, which has a bit on the factions too.  The Sienese chronicles of the period have frequent notices of the problem. These are in a series known as Rerum Italicarum Scriptores – usually in a good university library.  You might also want to look at C.C. Bayley’s book about Florence and war.   

Sincerely,

Bill Caferro

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