Condottieri


 * [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/Farinata.jpg width="233" height="360" align="left" caption="An artist's depiction of a condottieri."]]Condottieri** (singular **condottiero** and **condottiere**) were the [|mercenary] soldier [|leaders] (or [|warlords]) of the professional, military [|free companies] contracted by the Italian [|city-states] and the [|Papacy],[|[][|1][|]] from the [|late Middle Ages] and throughout the [|Renaissance]. In Renaissance Italian, //condottiero// meant "contractor", and was synonymous with the modern English title //Mercenary Captain//, which, [|historiographically], does not connote the hired soldier’s nationality. In contemporary Italian, "condottiero" acquired the broader meaning of "military leader" (e.g., not restricted to mercenaries).