I ran across the name in Barbara Tuchman’s book A Distant Mirror, where he was mentioned as the captain of a free company in the wars over the Papal states, fighting mostly for the Visconti. She only mentions his name in passing a few times, but my interest was piqued, probably because of the strangeness of the name. Does anyone know of any secondary material on him, because Google and a quick library search turned up zilch.
Well, most of the condottiere are mentioned only in passing. However, I can tell you that Anechino was a fairly common name in 14th century Italy, So I’d guess that he was born in Italy with German ancestry. Baumgarten’s company is said to have turned upon his employers (Siena) when he was defeated in 1359.
Tuchman’s a Serious Historian, so I’d imagine she has access to sources much more erudite than Google. I’m not surprised he’s not on the Web.
So I think if you want more information on him, you’re looking at Serious Research, capital S capital R. 