This book aims to serve both as a corrective to the older English-language interpretations of sea power in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and as a general work on naval and maritime history in the period. The objective here is to draw broad conclusions on the role and characteristics of armed force at sea before 1650, conclusions that exploit the best current understanding of the medieval period. While this volume does not claim to be a comprehensive attempt at understanding the naval history of Europe from the late Roman Empire to the mid-seventeenth century, it may serve as a guide to suggest why the period is both important and unique. In addition, since this volume is not an exhaustive study of those years, the editors hope that it will serve as a stimulus for further work on the general theme as well as on specific aspects of warfare at sea in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance that we were unable to include here.

The use of armed force at sea during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance in Europe needs reconsideration. New research and new thinking about the broad nature of sea warfare in these periods, as well as a new understanding about the ships used, has created the need for a more general scholarly reappraisal. The development of scuba gear made possible, from the 1950s on, investigations of shipwrecks under water, which rapidly expanded knowledge of the history of ship design.