Croce, Flaminio della (15.. – 16..)

« Gentiluomo milanese al servizio della cavalleria di Del Monte nella guerra delle Fiandre. l suoi scritti come quelli dei ben più famosi Giorgio Basta e Ludovico Melzi, sono la sanzione teorica di un processo, di cui EDC era stato testimone nei Paesi Bassi, attraverso cui la cavalleria si era andata liberando dagli stretti legami operativi con le fanterie ed era andata acquistando caratteristiche radicalmente nuove, maggiore mobilità, compiti di esplorazione e attacchi di sorpresa alle posizioni nemiche. Autore di un Teatro militare. » Bibliothèque du Quirinal

« Flaminio della Croce, a gentleman (‘Gentill-huomo’) from Milan, may well have been a member of the ‘Crucejus’ family. Hardly anything is known of his life except for the fact that he was obviously well educated and that he served as an officer in the ‘Spanish- Austrian’ army in the Southern Netherlands during the Eighty Years’ War against the ‘rebels’ from the North. More precisely one can assume that he was in the Southern Netherlands from c.1615 onwards, halfway the Twelve Years’ Truce (1609-1621). ‘Il capitano’ Flaminio della Croce had earlier published a military book in Italy, his Teatro militare, in 1613; a second enlarged edition appeared in Antwerp with the publisher Hendrick Aertssens in 1617 under the title Theatro militare, when Della Croce was apparently already stationed in the Southern Netherlands. This second edition contains 10 more plates than the first one; 5 of them, showing the cavalryman mounting a horse or on horseback, are also to be found in the first edition of his second work, L’essercitio della cavalleria, which he published with the same publisher Hendrick Aertssens in Antwerp in 1625 : figs. III-VII on pp. 129, 151, 155, 193 and 197, illustrating a new way of carrying weapons for horsemen which will cause the horse least pain and discomfort for the horse. These admonitions do not stand alone : one of the five ‘libri’ (books) deals with the medical treatment of horses, at that time unusual for works devoted to cavalry practices. Mounting a horse while wearing a 17th-century suit of armour was not an easy task. Illustration III on p. 129 shows the solution to this problem : using a lance as a booster. The 10 illustrations newly cut for the L’essercitio (figs I-II, VIII-XV on pp. 31, 117, 253, 257, 337, 349, 357, 361, 373, and 387) show various dispositions of troops either on horseback or on foot, with the horses kept at a distance. The figures in them are neatly drawn and the accompanying artillery, including the ‘organ’ on several of them, is given distinctive attention. » Dejager (2014)