AuTHoRITIEs.—The most important authority for the history of Ravenna is Bishop Agnellus, who wrote, about 84o, the Liber Pontifi calis Ecclesiae Ravennatis. The best edition is that by Holder-Egger in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica (1878). See G. T. Rivoira, Lom bardic Architecture (London, 1910) ; C. Ricci, Ravenna (Bergamo, 1902), Ravenna (London, 1913) ; E. Hutton, The Story of Ravenna (London, 1926). To the careful restorations of Ricci the buildings of Ravenna owe much.
This battle, one of the principal events of the long Italian wars of Charles VIII., Louis XII. and Francis I. of France, is, like Marignano (q.v.), interesting in a tactical sense, from the fact that the feudalism of the past and the expert soldiership of the future were strangely mingled. It arose out of the attempt of the Spanish and Italian forces to relieve Ravenna, besieged by Gaston de Foix, duke of Nemours. The most celebrated captains of these wars were present on either side—under Gaston de Foix were Bayard, Yves d'Allegre, La Palisse ; and under Cardona the Spanish viceroy of Naples, Pedro Navarro the great engineer, and Pescara, the originator of the Spanish tactical system. After some preliminary manoeuvres the two armies drew up face to face on the left bank of the Roneo, the Spanish left and the French right resting on this river. The Spaniards were entrenched, with their heavy artillery distributed along the front, but, thanks to Navarro, they had a more mobile artillery in the shape of 200 arquebuses d croc mounted in groups upon carts, after the German fashion. The battle opened with a prolonged cannonade from the Spanish lines. For three hours the professional regiments of all sorts in the French lines rivalled one another in enduring the fire unmoved, the forerunners of the military systems of to-day, landsknechts, Picardie and Piedmont, showing the feudal gen darmerie that they too were men of honour. There was no lying down. The captains placed themselves in the front, and in the centre 38 out of 4o of them were struck down. Molart and Empser, drinking each other's health in the midst of the cannon ade, were killed by the same shot. Sheltered behind the entrench
ments, the Spaniards scarcely suffered, for they were lithe active troops accustomed to lie down and spring up from the ground. But after three hours, Pescara's light horse having meantime been driven in by the superior light horse of the enemy, the artillery loving duke of Ferrara conceived the brilliant plan of taking his mobile field-guns to the extreme right of the enemy. This he did, and so came in sight of the prone masses of the Spaniards. Disciplined troops as they were, they resisted the temptation to escape Ferrara's fire by breaking out to the front ; but the whole Spanish line was enfiladed, and on the left of it the papal troops, who were by no means of the same quality, filled up the ditch in front of their breastworks and charged forward, followed by all the gendarmerie. Once in the plain they were charged by the French gendarmes under Gaston himself, as well as by the lands knechts, and driven back. The advantage of position being thus lost, the Spanish infantry rose and flung itself on the attackers; the landsknechts and the French bands were disordered by the fury of the counterstroke, being unaccustomed to deal with the swift, leaping and crouching attack of swordsmen with bucklers. But La Palisse's reserve wheeled in upon the rear of the Spaniards, and they retreated to the entrenchments as fast as they had ad vanced. The papal infantry, the gendarmes, and the light horse had already vanished from the field in disorder; but the Spanish regulars were of different mettle, and it was only after a long struggle that the landsknechts and the French bands broke into the trenches. The conflict continued, but at last La Palisse, with all the gendarmerie still in hand, rode completely round the en trenchments and charged the Spaniards' rear again. This was the end, but the remnant of the Spanish infantry retreated in order along the river causeway, keeping the pursuers at bay with their arquebuses. Gaston de Foix, recklessly charging into the midst of them, was killed.