Buonavoglia

For most of its history, Genoa employed solely freed rowers. Only by the end of the Chioggia War in 1381 that they started using slave rowers to reduce expenses.^[3] However, buonavoglia continued being a fixture of Genoese fleets, with showings like the 1519 Battle of Pianosa, where Andrea Doria's flotilla was crewed by free rowers due to a lack of slaves.^[4] Similarly, Venice fielded only buonavoglia recruited from Dalmatia and Greece, by either levy or payment. Only in March 1545, after Cristoforo Canal had insisted to use enslaved rowers to reduce costs after the defeat of Preveza seven years earlier, the Venetian senate instated the custom.^[5]

Aside from hiring regular buonavoglia, Knights Hospitaller often signed contracts of indentured servitude where the signers would serve a measure of time as a rower in exchange for their debt to be cleared. As galley slaves in Hospitaller ships were often Muslim and Jewish prisoners of war, their free counterparts were expected to watch over possible rebellions aboard.^[6]

Buonavoglia hired by the Spanish Empire were called buenas boyas, a corruption of the term. Spanish viceroy Pedro Téllez-Girón, Duke of Osuna used many paid rowers in his fleets, and offered galley slaves to remain in their jobs in exchange for a salary when they served all of their time.^[7]

• Galley slave
• Condottiero