Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A leader of mercenary soldiers between the 14th and 16th centuries.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In Italian hist, one of a class of professional military captains in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, who raised troops and sold their services to warring states and princes.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A military adventurer of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, who sold his services, and those of his followers, to any party in any contest.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
mercenary military leader from 14th centuryItaly and later in other parts ofEurope
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Hafner and Ardea have laid bare two detestable souls, the one of an infamous usurer, half German, half Dutch; the other of a degraded nobleman, in whom is revived some ancient 'condottiere'.
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Hafner and Ardea have laid bare two detestable souls, the one of an infamous usurer, half German, half Dutch; the other of a degraded nobleman, in whom is revived some ancient 'condottiere'.
Cosmopolis — Complete Paul Bourget 1893
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There was in his composition something of the mediæval "condottiere," and a good deal more of that Dugald Dalgetty whom Scott drew.
Sketches From My Life By The Late Admiral Hobart Pasha Augustus Charles Hobart-Hampden 1854
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A woodcut in the March 1491 Venetian edition of the Divine Comedy depicts the condottiere recounting his misfortune to Virgil and Dante.
Architecture and Memory: The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro 2008
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From its inception, the alliance was tenuous: concessions were made on all accounts in order for agreement to be reached among its intricately intermarried and perpetually embattled members. 161 Francesco Sforza, previously a condottiere employed by the Visconti, was installed as duke of Milan to protect the territory from possible dynastic claims made by the French king.
Architecture and Memory: The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro 2008
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Representing the Serenissima, Giustiniani (unsuccessfully) petitioned Pope Pius II to pardon the condottiere, whose lands Venice considered the belly of its republic.
Architecture and Memory: The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro 2008
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Although one should generally refuse that food which "needlessly taxes digestion and so impairs mental activity," a young student — particularly a young condottiere such as Guidobaldo — could not be permitted to develop a finicky palate.
Architecture and Memory: The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro 2008
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Although he had retired as a condottiere and joined the Franciscan Order in 1296, Guido gave false counsel to the Colonna during Pope Bonifacio VIII's (1295 – 1303) campaign against the family.
Architecture and Memory: The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro 2008
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Two years later, Federico received formal training as a condottiere under Milan's captain general, the shrewd tactician Niccolò Piccinino.
Architecture and Memory: The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro 2008
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For a condottiere in particular, the delicate balance of war and peace was essential for the prosperity of the lands and people under his protection, as well as the artists and scholars supported at his court.
Architecture and Memory: The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro 2008
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