ABSTRACT
This book, which details the ways in which medieval Siena set about garrisoning its southern contado (and in particular Sant’Angelo in Colle, one of its frontier castles confronting Monte Amiata and overlooking the valley of the River orcia), has been concerned with the period between 1287 and 1355. With hindsight, we can see that this was the period when Sant’Angelo in Colle achieved its greatest significance. This was in large part because in these years Sant’Angelo in Colle was an important base in Siena’s attempt to encircle and take over Montalcino, one of the remaining rebellious communes blocking the way south. That path was cleared with the final subjugation of Montalcino in 1361, and its formal incorporation in the Sienese state. Paradoxically, that victory, in which Sant’Angelo in Colle played an important part, led to Sant’Angelo’s own decline.
