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| 2. The Development of Italian Towns |
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| No continuous tradition of medieval and classical town government in Italy can be traced. The post-Carolingian anarchy left defense in local hands, and rural refuges and town walls were the work of local cooperation. The bishops in Lombardy, traditional guardians of their peoples, with large episcopal and comital powers delegated from the monarchs, played a decisive role in communal organization for defense (e.g., Bergamo, 904). The first cases of true urban autonomy were in Amalfi, Benevento, and Naples (1000–34), a development cut short by the advent of the Normans. | 1 |
| The great urban evolution took place in the north, and particularly in Lombardy, where communes, sworn associations of free men seeking complete political and economic independence from local lords, appeared (probably) in the later 10th century. The emperors, busy in Germany or preoccupied with the popes, made wide grants of regalian rights over local coinage, tolls, customs dues, police powers, and justice (diplomas of Henry I, Lothair II, and Conrad II); there were also considerable delegations of local episcopal powers. Full-fledged communes appeared in the 11th and 12th centuries (e.g., Asti, 1093; Pavia, 1105; Florence, 1138; and Rome itself, by papal charter, 1188). Expansion in the great maritime and commercial republics was rapid (e.g., Pisa's new walls, 1081; Florence's second wall, 1172–74; Venetian expansion in the Adriatic after the capture of Bari from the Saracens, 1002). | 2 |
| As a result of revolt and negotiation, the towns of Lombardy were largely self-governing communes by the opening of the 12th century, and the consulate or its equivalent was in full activity by the end of the century. Typical town organization: an assembly (legislation, declaration of war and peace, etc.); the consuls, the core of the magistracy, usually 4 to 20 in number, serving a one-year term, and chosen from the leading families; the town council and minor magistrates. | 3 |
| Gradual merger of northern Italian feudal nobility and the commercial aristocracy: nobles attracted by opportunities of long-distance trade, the rising value of urban real estate, the new public offices available in the communes, and the possibilities of advantageous marriages with rich commercial families; marriage vows often sealed business contracts between rural nobility and wealthy merchant families. A new social class, an urban nobility, appeared. | 4 |
| The development of the merchant and craft guilds led to vigorous class warfare as the rising bourgeoisie asserted itself and brought, in the podestate (the podestà), a kind of local dictator during the last quarter of the 12th century. | 5 |
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