Università Roma Tre

Italian urban societies between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries
The course aims to provide studens with an updated and exhaustive picture of the urban Italian societies during the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, with particular attention to the regions and cities where the municipal political phenomenon was most evident. Based on and interacting with the most updated historiography – and starting from the so-called «Annales school» – the lessons will focus first on the configuration and types of sources available for this period, and the following aspects will be analyzed then: the economic growth of the West and the European political frameworks between eleventh and twelfth century; the emergence and developments of city communes; urban societies and social actors, (laymen and clergy); the urban economies within a wider Euro-Mediterranean economic framework; written culture and intellectuals. The lessons will alternate between frontal explanations and direct exercises on the sources or on specific bibliography.

Textbooks:
- François Menant, "L’Italia dei comuni (1100-1350)", transl. by E. Igor Mineo, Roma, Viella, 2011 (ed. or. Paris 2005)
- not attending students should add: Jean-Claude Maire Vigueur, Enrico Faini, "Il sistema politico dei comuni italiani (secoli XII-XIV)", Milano-Torino, Bruno Mondadori Campus, 2010

Further bibliography (exercitations):
- Paolo Cammarosano, "Italia medievale. Struttura e geografia delle fonti scritte", Roma, Carocci, 2011 (prima ed. 1991)
- Jean-Claude Maire Vigueur, "Cavalieri e cittadini. Guerra, conflitti e società nell’Italia comunale", Bologna, Il Mulino, 2004 (ed. or. Paris 2003)
- Chris Wickham, "Sonnambuli verso un nuovo mondo. L’affermazione dei comuni italiani nel XII secolo", transl. by Luigi Provero, Roma, Viella, 2017 (ed. or. Princeton 2015)
- "Origine dei comuni. Discutere «Sonnambuli verso un nuovo mondo» di Chris Wickham", ed. Sandro Carocci, «Storica» 70 (2018), pp. 91-149