Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Late medieval social history has been among the most fruitful areas of research since the Second World War. This has been especially true for Italian towns and cities between 1200 and 1500. Their histories have provided models for study for much of the urban landscape of the rest of Europe. Given the scope and aims of this collection of essays and the vast bibliography produced for the topic of this essay, it is appropriate to limit this essay to Italian towns and cities during that period in comparative terms. Urban elites across Europe are comparable in the ways that they used mercantile interests and rural bases of power to maintain dominance. The historiography of Italian urban society, especially that of elites, reflects the major scholarly trends since the mid‐twentieth century and can indicate where future research might head, not only for Italy but also for urban elites more generally.Town life on the Italian peninsula took off after 1200. While there had been some continuation of urban concentrations from the fifth century, cities really grew in terms of population and cultural significance in the thirteenth century. By then they were more or less freed of imperial capacity and were well into developing the economic activities and capacities that gave them the wealth that placed them at the center of the European economy. Pierre Racine quotes the work of four major scholars ... log in or subscribe to read full text