The Roman maniple formation did not make a comeback during the Renaissance
The claim is supported by historical scholarship on early modern warfare, which shows that Renaissance and post-medieval military developments favored pike-and-shot formations, regular armies, and centralized state structures rather than a revival of the ancient Roman maniple system.
The retrieved papers discussing early modern military history and the Military Revolution (such as Paper [3] and Paper [9]) focus on institutional transformations, regular armies, and the adoption of modern tactical systems (like pike and shot), with no evidence of the maniple formation returning during the Renaissance. The remaining papers are tangential or off-topic. Thus, the balance of evidence supports the claim.
Olli Bäckström. Military Revolution and the Thirty Years War 1618–1648: Aspects of Institutional Change and Decline. 2023. https://doi.org/10.33134/hup-21
Discusses how early modern warfare and the military revolution shifted toward regular armies, new institutions, and the fiscal-military state rather than reviving ancient Roman legionary tactics like the maniple.
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N. Popper. Virtue and Providence: Perceptions of Ancient Roman Warfare in Early Modern England. 2021. https://doi.org/10.1353/hlq.2020.0021
Examines early modern perceptions of Roman warfare primarily as a model for historical and providential analysis or political theory rather than a literal tactical revival on the battlefield.
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