The Towns of Italy in the Later Middle Ages

by Dean, Trevor

• ISBN13: 9780719052040
• ISBN10: 0719052041
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-05-25
• Publisher: Manchester University Press

Summary

The towns of Italy in the later Middle Ages presents over one hundred fascinating documents, carefully selected and coordinated from the richest, most innovative and most documented society of the European Middle Ages: the urban civilization of Italy. After a general introduction, the book is divided into five sections on physical environment, civic religion, economy, society and politics. Each document is individually introduced and set in its own context.

Author Biography

Trevor Dean is Reader in the Department of History at Roehampton Institute, London.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	viii
List of abbreviations	ix
Map of Italy, c. 1300	x
Introduction	1	(4)
I: The physical environment and social services	5	(58)
`A world in itself': Milan, 1288	11	(5)
A vision of Padua, c. 1318	16	(5)
Genoa in the late thirteenth century	21	(2)
Public buildings in thirteenth-century Parma	23	(1)
Public buildings in fourteenth-century Siena	24	(6)
The enlargement and decoration of the Doge's Palace, Venice, 1297-1422	30	(4)
Making space for sermons: Florence, 1296	34	(1)
Commune and new cathedral: Perugia, 1300	35	(2)
Granary and oratory: Orsanmichele, Florence	37	(1)
Concealing a butchery: Pisa, 1382	37	(1)
New church building: Bologna, 1390-2	38	(1)
The rise and fall of urban towers	39	(2)
On the magnificence of his buildings: Azzone Visconti	41	(2)
The Sienese Opera in financial difficulties, 1299-1310	43	(2)
Pittura infamante	45	(1)
Saintly gates	46	(1)
Symbols of communal strength: lions	47	(1)
Symbols of communal strength: carrocci	48	(2)
Nettezza urbana: legislation	50	(4)
Nettezza urbana: enforcement	54	(1)
Clean water: the Perugia Fountain	55	(1)
Public health: salaried doctors, supervised hospitals	56	(2)
Public subvention of education: Lucca, 1348-79	58	(3)
Pistoia head-hunts a grammar teacher, 1377	61	(1)
A teaching monopoly: Bassano, 1259	62	(1)
II: Civic religion	63	(46)
Paradise on earth: the feast-day of St John the Baptist, Florence	72	(3)
The palio race in Bologna, 1288	75	(1)
The costs of a feast-day in Pistoia, 1252	76	(1)
Regulation of holy days: Perugia, 1342	77	(2)
A polular `saint': Alberto of Cremona	79	(1)
Miracles in Mantua and Bologna, c. 1300	80	(1)
Rainmaking in Florence and Bergamo	81	(2)
Saint or heretic?: Armanno Pungilupo of Ferrara	83	(5)
`Saint' Guglielma and her followers: Milan, 1300	88	(6)
A corrupt inquisitor: Florence, 1346	94	(2)
Bishop and popolo in conflict: Reggio, 1280	96	(1)
Communal assistance to religious groups: Parma, 1261-2	97	(1)
Prison releases on holy days: Perugia, 1342	98	(1)
Flagellants in northern Italy, 1260	98	(1)
The Bianchi, 1399	99	(3)
A sermon on usury	102	(2)
A charitable confraternity: Piacenza, 1268	104	(3)
A charitable confraternity in trouble: Orsanmichele, Florence	107	(2)
III: The urban economy	109	(32)
Economic growth: good and evil	112	(2)
The power of money: external relations	114	(1)
The power of money: internal relations	115	(1)
Wool production in Prato, 1397-8	115	(6)
The Mercato Vecchio, Florence	121	(4)
Enforcement of urban markets: Verona and Parma	125	(2)
Proliferation of guilds: Perugia, 1342	127	(1)
Statutes of a wool guild: Padua, 1384	128	(4)
Derecognition of guilds: Ferrara, 1287	132	(2)
Non-guild-worthy occupations	134	(1)
Promotion of local industry	134	(2)
The state promotes commerce	136	(2)
Demographic policy: controlling peasant immigration	138	(2)
Demographic policy: stimulating immigration of artisans	140	(1)
IV: Social organization and tensions	141	(72)
The decadence of chivalry	150	(1)
Complaint against moneyed parvenus	151	(1)
The costs of knighthood	151	(1)
Ceremonial knighthood: Siena, 1326	152	(3)
A miserly knight: late fourteenth-century Pistoia	155	(1)
Three social divisions	156	(1)
Pisa brought low by its new citizens	157	(1)
The popolo of Piacenza, 1250	158	(3)
The popolo of Bologna, 1271 and 1287	161	(4)
Social tensions in the kingdom of Naples, 1338-9	165	(3)
Social tensions in Rome: Cola di Rienzo	168	(4)
Food shortage and food riot: Siena, 1328	172	(3)
Revolt in a lordly city: Ferrara, 1385	175	(1)
Revolt in a republic: Siena, 1371	176	(6)
Social tensions in a southern town: Chieti	182	(1)
Fist-fights: Florence and Siena	183	(2)
The origins and conduct of vendetta	185	(2)
The pacification of vendetta	187	(1)
Legal penalties against vendetta: Florence, 1325	188	(1)
The customs of the citizens of Piacenza, 1388	189	(4)
Fine clothing only conceals the dirt	193	(1)
`Greed was greater' after the plague	194	(1)
Civil law on clandestine marriage	195	(1)
Advice on the management of wives and daughters	195	(2)
Sorrowful marriages	197	(1)
Women and the patrimony: dowry law	198	(1)
Women in the lawcourts	198	(1)
Cross-dressing	199	(1)
Women in the streets	200	(1)
Confinement of prostitutes and pimps	201	(1)
Sumptuary law: Parma, 1258	202	(1)
Sumptuary law: Bologna, 1288, 1398	202	(3)
Women cleverly evade the law	205	(2)
Assistance to converted Jews: Perugia, 1298	207	(1)
Exemptions and privileges to Jews	208	(1)
Jews as the enemies of the cross: Florence	209	(1)
``The domestic enemy'': female slaves	210	(1)
Contract of sale of a slave, 1388	211	(2)
V: Political structures	213	(32)
A guild-based regime: Perugia	216	(2)
Elections of the doges of Venice	218	(2)
Bell-ringers	220	(1)
Constitutional reforms at Florence	221	(3)
Regulations for councils in Pisa, 1286 and 1317	224	(2)
A short-lasting lordship: Pisa, 1365-8	226	(3)
A shortlived `tyranny': Fermo, 1376-80	229	(1)
A long-lasting lordship: Ferrara, 1264	230	(2)
Consolidation of a lordship: Verona, 1295	232	(1)
Political spectacle: Florence and Ferrara	233	(2)
Good government under lords: Milan	235	(3)
The end of communal liberty I: Pisa, 1406	238	(3)
The end of communal liberty II: Padua, 1405	241	(4)
Further reading	245	(1)
Index	246