Maurizio Arfaioli

The Medici Archive Project

A Society on the March: The Terzo Vecchio of the Italian Infantry (1597-1715) 

2010-2011: Spring

Maurizio Arfaioli (Ph.D. in History, University of Warwick, 2002) is Adjunct Research Fellow at the Medici Archive Project, an international Foundation based in the Archivio di Stato in Florence. His research interests focus on the political, social and cultural history of Renaissance and early modern Italy, with an emphasis on military history. In particular, Dr. Arfaioli has studied the rise of the Florentine military system under the reign of Cosimo I de' Medici (1519-1574), and the role played by the Italian troops in Spanish service in early modern European conflicts. He has also been studying military iconography in frescoes, paintings and engravings, as well as the imagery in contemporary epic poetry, as historical sources. At the Italian Academy Dr. Arfaioli will carry out a study of the early modern Italian military in Spanish service, following the history of the 'Terzo Vecchio', the longest-lived unit of Italian infantry that served the Habsburg kings of Spain.