Designing defenses: the Marquis of Leganés and Jesuit Father Francesco Antonio Camassa, expert in military art

The “notable campaña del año 1639” sees the Spanish-Lombard troops, led by the Marquis of Leganés, Don Diego Felipe de Guzman, invade the Savoy Piedmont, alley of France, occupy different cities and get dangerously close to Turin. It is one of the last victorious actions of the Spain in northern Italy: in the forty years of the seventeenth century, the Spaniards will be forced to defend the state of Milan and, after a few years, the Peace of the Pyrenees (1659) will dramatically reduce the ambitions of Spain in Europe. With the Spanish occupation, brief and fleeting, some cities and villages see change its fortified perimeter and the relationship with the surrounding area. Traces of the "Spanish" drawings, if not immediately made, are visible in the rear projects and, in some cases, the execution goes to modify indelibly the urban conformation. The Marquis of Leganés, the soldiers and engineers of his following are undisputed protagonists of "notable campaña": an atlas of drawings preserved in the National Library of Madrid allows to identify projects and realizations. Among all, it emerges the figure of the Jesuit Father Francesco Antonio Camassa, professor of mathematics and military art at the Imperial College of Madrid, spiritual father of Leganés, but also designer and consultant in military fortifications. Currently, this particular moment in the Piedmont history has not yet been studied in detail: some towns will be redesigned by Spanish (Vercelli, Asti, Verrua, Ivrea, Crescentino). Now it’s possible understand better thanks to the drawings of the atlas “Plantas de las plazas que redimió, fortificó, yganó, el ex.to de su Mag.d Catolica, en Yttallia, [...] el Ex.mo S.or Marques de Legánes”.