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Here there is great valour in the limbs whilst it fails in the

head. Look attentively at the duels and the hand-to-hand combats,

how superior the Italians are in strength, dexterity, and

subtlety. But when it comes to armies they do not bear

comparison, and this springs entirely from the insufficiency of

the leaders, since those who are capable are not obedient, and

each one seems to himself to know, there having never been any

one so distinguished above the rest, either by valour or fortune,

that others would yield to him. Hence it is that for so long a

time, and during so much fighting in the past twenty years,

whenever there has been an army wholly Italian, it has always

given a poor account of itself; the first witness to this is Il

Taro, afterwards Allesandria, Capua, Genoa, Vaila, Bologna,

Mestri.[2]

[2] The battles of Il Taro, 1495; Alessandria, 1499; Capua, 1501;

Genoa, 1507; Vaila, 1509; Bologna, 1511; Mestri, 1513.