This work questions the assumption that the French invasion of Italy under Charles VIII in 1494-95 inaugurated a new and wretched era in Italian history. It focuses anew on the intricate politics of Renaissance Italy and the long history of Angevin attempts to impose their rule in Southern Italy.

Part 1 Antecedents of the French invasion: the distant origins of the Italian wars - political relations between France and Italy in the 14th and 15th centuries, Georges Peyronnet
the Angevin bid for Naples, 1380-1480, Alan Ryder
the inception of the reign of King Ferrante I of Naples - the events of summer 1458 in the light of documentation from Milan, David Abulafia
toward the Tragedia d'Italia - Ferrante and Galeazzo Maria Sforza, friendly enemies and hostile allies, Vincent Ilardi
between Milan and Naples - Ippolita Maria Sforza, Duchess of Calabria, Evelyn S. Welch
the politics of protection in late-15th-century Italy - Florence and the failed Sienese exiles' plot of May 1485, Humfrey Butters
personalities and pressures - Italian involvement in the French invasion of 1494, Michael Mallett
court and household in Farrara 1494, Trevor Dean. Part 2 The invasion of 1494-95: the Romagna campaign of 1494 - a significant military encounter, Cecil H. Clough
Francesco II Gonzaga, Marquis of Manua, "Liberator of Italy", David Chambers
political and cultural implications of secret diplomacy - Commynes and Ferrara in the light of unpublished documents, Joel Blanchard
the Roman barons and the descent into Italy, Christine Shaw
castles and cannon in the Naples campaigns of 1494-95, Simon Pepper
Venice, the French invasion and the Apulian ports, Carol Kidwell. Part 3 Reaction and effects: "il semble que ce soit la un vrai paradis terrestre" - Charles VIII's conquest of Naples and the French Rennaisance, A.V. Antonovis
institutional continuities in the kingdom of Naples between 1443 and 1528, Eleni Sakellariou
Machiavelli, "Italianita" and the French invasion of 1494, David Laven
"Traitres Lombardi" - the expedition of Charles VIII in the Lombard sources up to the mid-16th century, Paolo Margaroli
Milan in the face of the Italian wars (1494-1535) - between the crisis of the state and the affirmation of urban autonomy, Giorgio Chittolini. Appendix: index of microfilms on Italian diplomatic history, 1454-94, in the Ilardi Collection at the Sterling Library, Yale University.