How and why did the politics, society and economics of the Italian City Communes change in c.1300-c.1500?
How and why did the politics, society and economics of the Italian City Communes change in c.1300-c.1500? by Darcy R. Keim, MA “Ah Italy, thou slave of woe, vessel without pilot in a great storm, not the mistress of provinces, but a brothel!" [1] This proclamation by Dante has been utilised throughout secondary historiography concerning the Italian Renaissance. Certainly, it ought to be proposed that Dante’s statement was designed to prompt an insight - as well as supply a basis of understanding - regarding the condition of the Kingdom of Italy. To the historian, Dante’s affirmation is reflective of widespread criticism toward the social, political, and economic shifts featured in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth-century. In his piece, Dante’s Italy: A Political Dissection , medievalist, William M. Bowsky surveyed the socio-political and economic currents that had shaped city communes. Significantly, this study was formulated with reference to Dante’s Purgatorio [2...