11 Useless Mouths in Early Modern Italian Literature Gian Giorgio Trissino and Lucrezia Marinella Gerry Milligan Abstract In order to manage dwindling food rations, cities under siege expelled people known as ‘useless mouths’ (‘bocche inutili’). Those forced out were ostensibly promised safety as they were (perceived to be) non-combatants, while those who remained within the city were meant to fight. This chapter of fers the first discussion of the theme of ‘useless mouths’ in early modern Italian literature, and focuses on the process by which powerful men came to the decision to cast out others who were neither powerful nor (often) men. The chapter discusses mentions of the practice in contemporary military manuals and then analyzes the lengthy passages found in Gian Giorgio Trissino’s Italy Liberated from the Goths (1547–48) and Lucrezia Marinella’s Enrico, or Byzantium Conquered (1635). Keywords: Useless mouths; bocche inutili; Lucrezia Marinella; Gian Giorgio Trissino; non-combatants; women in war As the curtain rises on the second act of Annie Vivanti’s play, Le bocche inutili ( The Useless Mouths ) (1918), a British war captain shows his commander a graph that predicts when provisions in their village will be depleted. The captain then shows a second graph where supplies extend to a later date, which is only achievable if the city were to expel ‘useless mouths’, also called ‘superfluous beings – who don’t know how to kill’. 1 The hesitant commander 1 Vivanti, ‘Fuori le bocche inutili’ (Act II, 123); ‘essere super flui – che non sanno uccidere’ (Act II, 126). All translations are mine unless otherwise indicated. Bowd, S., Cockram, S. & Gagné, J. (eds.), Shadow Agents of Renaissance War. Suf fering, Supporting, and Supplying Conf lict in Italy and Beyond. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press 2023 doi: 10.5117/9789463721356_ch11