Addendum: Army of the Kingdom of Sardinia

I have found Stefano Ales' Le Regie Truppe Sarde on-line and it is as good as I expected. It is available to view/read at archive.org, having been posted there at the end of last year.

I do not read nor speak Italian, but can work out bits from similarities to words of latin origin in French and English and, of course, familiarity with the subject matter. A look at the contents (and a bit of translation) reinforces the scope of the coverage of the book and its logical organisation.

It is divided into three sections: I) the structure of the army, uniforms, II) equipment and arms and, lastly, III) the plates. The first section covers the army overall, troops of the line, specialist services, the regulations and requirements of the various arms of service, officers, and, lastly, administration. The second part has chapters dedicated to the uniforms of the infantry, cavalry, artillery, royal household, generals and staff, specialist troops, military police and militia, badges of rank and distinctions of service, flags, standards and banners and, lastly, the army during the exile on Sardinia following the defeat of 1796. 

The third section comprises 91 plates, mainly of Massimo Brandani's fabulous drawings, as well as some photos of arms and equipment. There are also several excellent reproductions of plates from the Anne SK Brown collection that are presented alongside relevant pages of the chapters in parts I and II. Biography, appendices and detailed contents round out the book.

Having finished painting my Sardinian artillery and Nice light infantry, I thought that I'd keep going with other units of the army of the Kingdom of Sardinia that I have prepared, beginning with the cavalry. Starting to paint them, I realised that I did not have information regarding the horse 'furniture' as well as details of the uniforms of trumpeters, aspects missing from Ricchiardi's book, but fortunately Ales & Brandani came to the rescue. I have not, though, been able to find in Ales' tome any mention of the colour that guns and limbers of the artillery were painted. Probably just as well, since I am not gonna change them from the green that I settled on.

This book is clearly the 'best in class' on the subject as well as a fine example of how to do a book on arms and uniforms well—publishers take note. You don't need to take my word for it though; check it out for yourself.

[p.s. Vincent, if you are reading this, I have just seen your comment on the wargaming erratic blog advising me that the book was on archive.org. Thank you. It was amazing timing since I only found it late last week!]