How the miniature “Bolognese Slinger” came about
The popular militia of the Communes of central and northern Italy, from the Umbria and Toscana regions to Romagna, up to “Lombardy” which in the Middle Ages included the vast area of whole Lombardy plain, were made up of militiamen, horsemen, and common people, the organized mass of urban and farming population who fought on foot.
Among these common people, the make-up of the armed people was quite diversified: shield-bearers, archers, crossbowmen, those armed with long lances, saboteurs and raiders, the most infamous category who were generally assigned to manage the siege machines.
The infantrymen of the Italian Communes were armed in different ways, raised from the parochial ranks from the registered fighting population aged between 15 and 60 years, more often than not eager youths who took part in the communal army armed according to their own disposable means.
Our slinger represents one of these youths, a boy elevated from the urban or faming populace of a city like Bologna, or any other city from the universal Italian Commune of the 1200s.
To protect his head, he has a hood made out of heavy cloth stuffed with cotton wool and tied under his chin, wears a cloth cape and a “long and wide” garment tied at the waist with a leather belt, as was the fashion which lasted until the end of the mid-14th century; the garment is marked with the heraldry symbols of the military company to which he belongs.
Under the garment he wears a long tunic of poor fabric, cotton trousers and leather shoes which complete the outfit, which could be that of a common man.
As regards weapons, he had a small knife, a farming tool or an artisan’s tool which would have nevertheless been useful for military needs, and a rodella, a type of small shield made out of woven wicker and covered in leather.
The catapult was his main offensive weapon, a very old weapon mentioned even in biblical times, and which was widely used in the Italian regions, as is witnessed in our old city chronicles.