The controversy on the “universal gendering of war” (6)—war gendered as masculine—and the role of women in war are ancient questions famously debated by the Greeks and the Romans, and occasionally resurfacing throughout the Middle Ages. However, Italian sixteenth-century literature offers the first sustained discourse on women's militarism and militancy. These themes were central in philosophical works, fictional epics, and biographies of the Italian Renaissance. Scholars of this age debated the role of women in war, raising questions about decorum in killing, weakness, and vulnerability to sexual assaults, and portraying them as heroines—leading armies and fighting in combat. A major factor leading to the proliferation of textual representations of warrior women may be found in the escalation of violence and bloodshed brought by the Italian Wars (1499–1559).

Moral Combat is the first study in English to investigate this complex of issues through a dense, source-rich analysis of how Italian Renaissance texts functioned as agents in the cultural discourse of war and gender. This fascinating book explains how war was gendered in a crucial moment of the Italian Renaissance, a moment in which kingdoms and principalities were ruled by powerful women; at the same time, the foreign occupation of Italy cast doubts on men's ability in war. Through genres as varied as philosophical treatises, epic poetry, and biographical writings, Milligan explores the textual representations of women as warriors, noncombatants, commanders, pacifists, victims, and observers of war, within the cultural, social, political, and military context of the Italian Cinquecento. Through such a broad lens, the author explains how women warriors became both cultural symbols and exponents of a larger political and military agenda.

The book consists of six chapters. Chapter 1 offers an overview of Italian Renaissance philosophical and didactic treatises tackling the issue of women in the military. Starting from the most influential sources for the debate on women's militancy—Plato's Republic (book 5) favoring the participation of women in war alongside men, and Aristotle's History of Animals (book 9, part 1) on the physical and emotional inaptness for combat—Milligan discusses a vast array of sources contending with Plato's and Aristotle's opposing view on the matter, arguing that “the discourse of the armed woman challenged not only women's position in the patriarchy but one of the fundamental ways that the gender binary was framed” (42). Chapters 2–6 consider the cultural and historical contexts that contributed to the proliferation of discourse on armed women during the Italian sixteenth century. Chapter 2 provides a compelling analysis of ancient and Renaissance heroic poetry depicting courageous warrior women. From the Amazons to Virgil's Camilla, Milligan guides the reader through various portrayals of the noble virago, a figure that enjoyed the greatest fortune in sixteenth-century epics and became central in the two most celebrated poems of the age, Ariosto's Orlando furioso and Tasso's Gerusalemme liberata.

Chapter 3, “Women Writers Demanding Warrior Masculinity,” focuses on the writings of four women: Catherine of Siena (1347–80), Laura Bacio Terracina (1519–77), Chiara Matrini (1515–1604), and Isabella Cervoni (ca. 1576–after 1600). This select group stands out among the surprisingly large number of women (about fifty) writing about war in that, while they glorify peace and praise men for fighting, they also critique the actions of men who poorly performed in war, thus empowering themselves as judges in the system of masculine military honor. The last three chapters (chapters 4–6) explore biographical narratives, poetry, letters, and dialogues praising women in war. Anchoring the discussion in Boccaccio's De Mulieribus Claris, and following a loose chronological exposition, chapter 4 discusses the classical and Christian model of warrior women from Plutarch's Mulierum virtutes to Boccaccio's work itself. Chapter 5 looks at the 1547 Italian translation and augmentation of Boccaccio's work, the Famous Women by Giuseppe Betussi (1512–73); the last chapter discusses the 1596 republication of Bertussi's translation, which included many additional biographies of women by Betussi and the new editor, Francesco Serdonati (ca. 1540–ca. 1603).

All in all, Milligan offers a very detailed, well-documented, and illuminating study on gender and war in Renaissance Italy, and brilliantly illustrates how the proliferation of textual representations of warrior women impacted the culture, society, and moral norms of that age.