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Description of  Forged in the Shadow of Mars: Chivalry and Violence in Late Medieval Florence

In Forged in the Shadow of Mars, Peter W. Sposato traces chivalry's powerful influence on the mentalit and behavior of a sizeable segment of the elite in late medieval Florence. He finds that the strenuous knights and men-at-arms of the Florentine chivalric elitea cultural community comprised of men from both traditional and newly emerged elite lineagesembraced a chivalric ideology that was fundamentally martial and violent. Chivalry helped to shape a common identity among these men based on the profession of arms and the ready use of violence against both their peers and those they perceived to be their social inferiors. This violence, often transgressive in nature, was not only crucial to asserting and defending personal, familial, and corporate honor, but was also inherently praiseworthy. In this way, Sposato highlights the sharp differences between chivalry and the more familiar civic ideology of the popolo grasso, the Florentine mercantile and banking elite who came to dominate Florence politically and economically during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Read more