Now in its fifth edition, The Italian City Republics illustrates how, from the eleventh century onwards, many Italian towns achieved independence as political entities, unhindered by any centralising power. Until the fourteenth century, when the regimes of individual ‘tyrants’ took over in most towns, these communes were the scene of a precocious, and very well-documented, experiment in republican self-government.
In this new edition, Trevor Dean has expanded the book’s treatment of women and gender, the early history of the communes and the lives of non-élites. Focusing on the typical medium-sized towns rather than the better-known cities, the authors draw on a rich variety of contemporary material, both documentary and literary, to portray the world of the communes, illustrating the patriotism and public spirit as well as the equally characteristic factional strife which was to tear them apart. Discussion of the artistic and social lives of the inhabitants shows how these towns were the seedbed of the cultural achievements of the early Renaissance. The Bibliography has been updated to a list of Further Reading with the latest scholarship for students to continue their studies.
Both students and the general reader interested in Italian history, literature and art will find this accessible book a rewarding and fascinating read.
Author(s): Trevor Dean, Daniel Waley
Edition: 5
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 228
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
List of illustrations
Acknowledgements
A note on currency
Preface to the fifth edition
Introduction
1 The legacy of power
Economic changes
The nascent commune
2 The population
Status and occupation
Growth of the town
New categories and class feeling
Documents in translation
3 Government
Origins of the commune
Institutions
The podestà
Other officials
Administration
Church and state
The presuppositions of government
Citizenship
Documents in translation
4 Town and country
The contado
Administration in the contado
Immigration from the contado
Tenurial change in the countryside
The liberation of the serfs
The feudal nobility
Documents in translation
5 External relations
The role of the Empire and Papacy
The conduct of diplomacy
Military organisation
Patriotism
Documents in translation
6 Civic spirit and the visual arts
Palaces and piazzas
The walls
Fountains
Church-building
Town planning
Painting the city
Documents in translation
7 Internal divisions
Nobles and magnates
The Popolo
Other private city organisations
Guelfs and Ghibellines
The ideal of concord
Documents in translation
8 The failure of the republics
Feudal power
The triumph of the Signoria
Documents in translation
9 The historiography of the city-republics
Abbreviations
Further reading
Historical gazetteer
Index
