Fr. Lodovico Melzo's Rules for Cavalry

Abstract

The lieutenant general of the Spanish cavalry in the Low Countries at the Truce of 1609 was Frate Lodovico Melzo, a Knight of St. John of Jerusalem and a member of an important Milanese family. He represents the Italian professional soldier of the period.In 1611 there appeared at Antwerp his Regole Militari sopra il Governo e Servitio della Cavalleria. This is a folio volume printed in large Italic type, with an engraved title page representing Pallas and Hercules and three typical cavalry soldiers [Plate I], and with a number of double-page folding plates to illustrate the text. Melzo explains in the dedication to his leader, the Archduke Albert, that as soon as the peace of 1609 was made, he judged it a good employment of his leisure to gather together those rules that in the experience of many years he had observed on the conduct and special service of cavalry.