Il Rosso & l’Oro – Uniforms, Equipment and Waponry of the Swiss Units in the service of the Kingdom of the Two-Sicilies

Various books of historical, evocative and organizational nature have already dealt with the Swiss Military Units of the Kingdom of the Two-Sicilies: what’s missing though is a comprehensive and structured study of their uniforms and equipment. Such is the ambition of this collection of four volumes in Italian (with English Summary and captions), the first of which deals with the various outfits of the initial years as worn by the regi- ments recruited under “capitulation” (between 1825 and 1829) and used until December 1835. The study examines the uniforms of the officers, the NCOs and the ranks of the Swiss Units in the Service of Naples, through the combi- nation of the several items that were issued under the Dress regulations. With- in the brilliantly dressed Army of the Two-Sicilies, the Swiss Units emerged for the variety and the unique style of their outfits. Recruited by Francis I (1825- 1830), they initially received uniforms patterned on a style comparable to the one of the Royal Guard Infantry Regiments; those were afterwards replaced under Ferdinand II (1830-1859) by more sober but still smart outfits. Through these uniforms one can therefore track back the evolution of the military dress of the Naples Bourbons Army across the 19th century.

The support of the most prestigious Swiss and Italian Museums, as well as the help by some selected private collections, has been instrumental in establishing a complete and structured analysis, and also in offering

Over the last 50 years, Massimo Fiorentino has been thoroughly studying the history of the uniforms and the organisation of the Italian Armies before 1861. His privileged field of research is the Army of the Two-Sicilies, 1734-1861. He has published various books and numerous articles in specialized magazines, starting with the dar- ing “Warrior” in the early 1970s down to “Soldats Napoléoniens” and “La Revue Napoléon” in more recent years, coming across “Storia Modellismo”, “Rivista Militare”, “Figurina Helveti- ca”, “Militaria Belgica” and “Tradition Magazine”. He acted as the curator of various exhibitions in the field of the mili- tary history such as “Dalla Campagna d’Italia a Porta Pia” in 1975-76; “Dagli Eserciti Pre-unitari all’Esercito Italiano” in 1985; “Napoleone e la Repubblica Italiana”, in 2002.