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?
“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].
Bowsky’s own interpretation cited Dante as having “[…] characterised his own land: once a mighty power, it was now
the scene of political confusion and disunity, the stage for selfish and sordid
intrigues.”[3] Contextually, Dante’s outlook had
not been atypical. Fourteenth-century chronicles impart recurrent political
upheaval, as well as enduring conflict between old feudal nobility and the popolo. These repetitive themes unveil
the restructuring of systemised hierarchy and regulation within city communes.
What this essay seeks to explore are the changes made to the social, political,
and economic landscape of Italian city communes during the late medieval
period. A secondary intent to this will be to establish key internal and
external factors that contributed to both short and long-term changes. The
method of approach is as follows: (1) To assess the political remodelling of
city states during the fourteenth and fifteenth century, (2) To examine the
rise of the popolo into authoritative
roles, and (3) To analyse post-Black Death economic fluctuations, with
particular attention to the grain riots of the fourteenth-century. The
framework of this essay will employ a historiographical form of assessment.
Specifically, this will involve adopting social and Marxist histories, as well
as incorporating elements of New Historicism.[4]
During the late
medieval period, the political makeup of Italy had been separated into two
regions.[5] The north
– in theory – was governed by the Holy Roman Emperor, whilst the south was
subject to papal authority.[6] Papal
jurisdiction presented itself in locations such as Umbria, the Marches,
Bologna, and areas of present-day Lazio.[7]
The presence of these separate entities of governance had been to manage local
and regional affairs. Moreover, the Holy Roman Emperor and the Pope were
designated temporal rulers; an aid to guide and maintain Christianity in their
realms.[8] It may be confidently determined that politics had been central to Italian city
communes. The nature of political life was one that established
institutionalised power; particularly among various – and opposing – factions.
Moreover, internal legislation had been used to maintain a degree of systemised
regulation. However, the early fourteenth-century showcased
resistance between Italy city communes and these external forms of governance.
Arguably, the exposition
of conflict had not solely appeared due to recurring objection against imperial
control. Rather it had been proposed that external jurisdiction had contributed
to long-term socio-political and economic discord.[9]
Notably, this perception had been shaped as a result of wide scale hostility
between two political parties: the Guelf and the Ghibelline[10]
throughout the thirteenth-century. Determined warring between these factions
had contributed to political inconsistency over entire regions.[11]
Chronicler and Florentine diplomat, Giovanni Boccaccio[12]
detailed the impression this left on respective city states. In particular, the
long-term impact the Guelf and Ghibelline parties had on Tuscany and Lombardy.[13]
Boccaccio sourced both parties as contributing to the subjugation faced by the popolo in these city communes:
[...] Under these titles the Italian
cities sustained most grievous oppression and vicissitudes, and among them, our
city, which was as it were the head, now of one party, and now of the other,
according as the citizens changed.[14]
With regard to this,
the fourteenth-century witnessed extensive modifications made to the
administration of city communes. There is evidence to denote the normalisation
of self-governance during the late medieval period. By the fifteenth-century,
city states had appeared to function independently of dominant political
systems; often treated as sovereign states by which feudal nobility exercised
political and economic influence.[15]
Autonomous models of governance levelled throughout the Kingdom of Italy;
exemplified in cities such as San Gimignano, Florence, and Venice. This is
evidenced in a primary description of Venice provided by Nicolaus
Botrontinensis, author of the notable Nicolai
episcopi Botrontinensis relatio de Heinrici VII, imperatoris itinere italico.
Botrontinensis’ representation encompassed the progression of attitudes toward
self-determination; establishing Venetians as a “[...] a fifth essence, that
wished to recognize neither God, nor Church, nor emperor, nor sea, nor land,
unless inso as pleased them.”[16] With
reference, Bowsky is swift to remark that, although Venice had received a
degree of institutionalised privilege from the Vatican and the Holy Roman
Emperor, Venetians had not recognised external sovereign jurisdiction.[17] Moreover,
Bowky discerned that the value Venetians had placed on their city had been one
of “[...] a great independent naval power whose assistance could be courted or
purchased by all, but commanded by none.”[18]
As such, Venice may be utilised as a leading case-study to exemplify the drive
for independence in Italian cities during the late medieval and early modern period.
In reference to this, a
conspicuous shift within the political climate of the fourteenth-century had been
the emergence of a non-noble faction. Primary documentation referred to this
demographic as the popolo, popolo grasso, or popolo minuto.[19]
Specifically, popolo grasso translated
to the social grouping made up of merchants, bankers, and lawyers, whereas popolo minuto signified working men,
artisans, and tradesmen.[20] The
significance of this development had
been the political opposition that extended between the popolo and old feudal nobility; although there is evidence to
ascertain increasing tension between the two factions within the
thirteenth-century. The initial half of the fourteenth-century saw the popolo established within positions of
societal influence. A factor that is made evident by the exchange of
power-dynamics; in which the popolo
featured heavily in the political, social, and economic regulation of Italian
city communes throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth century.[21] This phenomenon has lent itself to primary and secondary
dissection. As such, historiography has presented a variety of arguments;
primarily developed alongside the rise of social history in the
twentieth-century.
A key justification
proposed in secondary assessments has linked the
growth of the merchant oligarchy with the concept of ‘self-fashioning’.
Although the term itself is contemporary[22],
it has been adopted by social historians in order to address the nature of
social and cultural advancements during the Renaissance. The concept of
‘self-fashioning’ is defined by Greenblatt as “[...] there were both selves and
a sense that they could be fashioned.”[23]
Cultural historian, Jacob Burckhardt prematurely constructed the ideals
associated with ‘self-fashioning’ in the nineteenth-century. In his work,
Burckhardt openly associated the end of feudalism in Italy with the building of
independent city-states.[24] New
Historicists have furthered theorised the reasons behind the appearance of
‘self-fashioning’ during the Italian Renaissance. A leading suggestion
advocates that the ‘self-made’ individual was permitted to grow as a product of
long-term political struggles, alongside persistent economic instability.[25] In brief,
the emergence of the self-made citizen had been encouraged by the power vacuums
witnessed in regional and city-state governance.[26] In his article, The
Impact of Humanism, Keith
Whitlock asserted that the political and social discord of the
thirteenth-century gave way to the rise of individuality.[27]
Utilising the example of Leon Battista Alberti[28],
Whitlock explained the manner by which the popolo
had begun to apply themselves to an education in high-status craft without
formal instruction:
[...]
learned music without a master....he acquired every sort of accomplishment and
dexterity, cross-examining artists, scholars...To all this must be added his
literary works, first those on art, which are landmarks and authorities of the
first order of the Renaissance of form [...][29]
As a figurehead of
Renaissance ideals, Alberti is not only illustrative of Humanist scholarship
but the ascension of low-status members of society. A characteristic that
manifested through his own words: “Men can do all things if they will”.[30] For this,
it may be confidently argued that the art of ‘self-fashioning’ led to the
assembling of a merchant oligarchy within Italian city states.
From a Marxist
perspective, the merchant oligarchy had been written as an example of positive
social progression. Nevertheless, its establishment had failed to resolve
issues present between the grandi, the popolo grasso, and the popolo minuto. A prime example of this is
discernible in the rift between the popolo
and the grandi. Although these
two factions had shared similar
socio-economic interests, the grandi had
been resistant to accommodate the popolo
grasso within positions of leadership.[31]
As a result, the latter half of the thirteenth-century saw the popolo seize power from the grandi. This led to an extensive degree
of repression against the grandi from
the grasso.[32]
Using the city commune of Florence as an example, the popolo determined - through the Ordinances of Justice (1293) - that
“[...] No person, no matter how rich, powerful, or nobly descended, had any
citizen rights unless he was a member of one of the guilds.”[33]
Therefore, the fourteenth-century saw the Florentine grasso employing themselves within the arti maggiori.[34]
Bowsky referred to this
development as “[…] the rising order of the wealthy bourgeoisie.”[35] Arguably,
the conflict that ensued as a result of this redistribution of power led to the
subsequent abolishing of the republic by Allesandro de’Medici in 1532.[36]
Albeit the reshuffle of
jurisdiction in Italian city communes, the relationship between the popolo grasso and feudal nobility
continued to be strained. Consequently, this created a political vacuum by
which city states succumbed to increasing tension - and outward feuding -
between the feudal nobility, the popolo
grasso, and the popolo minuto.[37]
Fundamentally, this development had been encouraged by the lack of pontifical
control in Italy; as Clement V had remained in France since his establishment
in 1305.[38] This is
primarily exemplified by succession of revolts throughout the Kingdom of Italy
during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. With particular significance to
the pre-Black Death landscape, grain riots had already begun to initiate from
the early fourteenth-century onward. In 1304, it was recorded that a leader of
the Guelfs had attempted to benefit themselves from the issue of food shortage
in Florence.[39]
In reaction to this, both the popolo grasso
and the popolo minuto had risen
against the Florentine Guelfs.[40]
Nonetheless, food shortages had not been limited to
post-Black Death conditions. The pattern - and consistency - of the grain riots
increased after the dramatic decline in population. As a result of the
subsequent impact on trade and workforce led to a devastating reduce in food
production. Chronicler, Matteo Villani wrote that these conditions had reached
peak visibility in the mid-fourteenth century; using the example of the grain
riots in Gatea in 1353, in which the popolo
minuto had amassed against the grandi
and grasso with the proclamation
to “[...] kill as many rich merchants as they could.”[41]
Similarly, in 1368, Florence
experienced a tumultuous grain riot; in which it was recorded that five hundred
popolo had settled in the city’s
central grain market and had proceeded to take sacks of grain for the purpose
of placing them on the doorsteps of the grandi.[42]
The event is meticulously accounted by Niccolò Rodolico’s in his work, Il Popolo Minuto: Note di storia fiorentina (1343-1378):
They then took a certain quantity of
grain, beyond twenty bushels staia,
also on sale here in this loggia, and along with the assembled people went with
this grain to the Palace of the Lord Priors, where they shouted: “Long live the
People.”[43]
An element that ought to be determined from this is that
both the grain riots in Gatea and Florence “[...] were the acts of
revolutionary theatre.”[44]
For this, it is imperative
to acknowledge that several of these grain riots held a clear political agenda
irrespective of the concerns of starvation.[45]
This particular agenda was centralised around the warring for power among the grandi and the popolo. Conclusively, this pattern of conflict would not settle
until the regional ascension of the Medici’s in the early sixteenth-century.
In summary, the environment of Italian city communes had experienced socio-political and economic restructuring during the late medieval period. This sudden progression largely fed into the emergence of the Italian Renaissance, as well as the successive rise of Humanism. Arguably, the early modern period had been predominantly shaped by internal and external socio-political dissension within the fourteenth and fifteenth century. This is exemplified by the introduction of political autonomy via the enactment of self-governance; as a result of the rejection of papal and imperial interference. This subsequently paved the way for grasso families - like the Medici’s - to assume widespread power within the sixteenth-century. It may be argued that the Medici’s had emerged as the capitano del popolo; established by their affinity for family loyalty and desire for authoritarian rule.[46] For this, it is possible to illustrate this period as a landscape of revolution and personal ascension. More importantly, these qualities – such as the self-fashioned citizen - had not pre-existed the Italian Renaissance.
Bibliography
Primary
Giorgo Stella, ‘Annales
Genuenses’, Lust for Liberty: The Politics of
Social Revolt, 1200-1425, Italy, France, and Flanders, (ed.) Cohn, K. Samuel., (Harvard,
2006), p. 73
Nicolaus
Botrontinensis, Nicolai episcopi Botrontinensis
relatio de Heinrici VII, imperatoris itinere italico, ‘Dante's Italy: A
Political Dissection’, (ed.) Bowsky, William., (New Jersey, 1958), pp. 84-85
Smith,
R. J., (Trans.) Boccaccio’s Life of Dante,
(New York, 1901), in ‘Internet Archive’, www.archive.org (accessed 13/12/16)
Secondary
Bowsky, W., ‘Dante's Italy: A Political
Dissection’, The Historian, Vol. 21,
No. 1 (New Jersey, 1958), pp. 82-100
Cohn,
K. S., Lust for Liberty: The Politics of
Social Revolt, 1200-1425, Italy, France, and Flanders, (Harvard, 2006)
Elmer, P., ‘Inventing
the Renaissance: Burckhardt as historian’, The
Impact of Humanism, (ed.) Kekewich, L. Margaret., (London, 2000)
Greenblatt, S., Renaissance Self-Fashioning: From More to Shakespeare, (London, 1980)
Nauert,
G. C., The A to Z of the Renaissance,
(Maryland, 2004)
Whitlock
K., ‘Section One: The Impact of Humanism’, The
Renaissance in Europe: A Reader, (ed.) Whitlock, Keith., (London, 2000)
Wills, G., Venice:
Lion City: The Religion of Empire, (New York, 2001)
[1] W.
Bowsky, ‘Dante's Italy: A Political Dissection’, The Historian, Vol. 21, No. 1 (New Jersey, 1958), p. 82
[2] Completed
in the early fourteenth-century, Purgatorio
is the second installment in Dante’s The
Divine Comedy.
[3] W. Bowsky, ‘Dante's Italy’, p. 82
[4] Developed
by Stephen Greenblatt during the 1980s, New Historicism developed as a form of
analysis; in order to identify hegemonic discourses within primary
documentation, as well as assess these components within the overarching
culture of the period.
[5] W. Bowsky, ‘Dante's Italy’, p. 85
[6] Ibid. 85
[7] Ibid. 86
[8] Ibid. 86
[9] Ibid. 89
[10] The
thirteenth-century saw the rise of two political parties, the Guelf who had
been supporters of papal authority and the Ghibelline, who had favoured the
Holy Roman Emperor.
[11] W. Bowsky, ‘Dante's Italy’, p. 90
[12] Giovanni Boccaccio has remained a
primary figure within medieval Italian historiography for his chronicle, Nuova Cronica.
[13] J. R. Smith, (Trans.) Boccaccio’s Life of Dante, (New York,
1901), in ‘Internet Archive’, www.archive.org (accessed 13/12/16), p. 58
[14] J.
R. Smith, (Trans.) Boccaccio’s Life of
Dante, p. 58
[15] W. Bowsky, ‘Dante's Italy’, p. 86
[16] Ibid. 84-85
[17] Ibid. 85
[18] Ibid.
[19] Ibid. 91
[20] Ibid.
[21] C. G. Nauert, The A to Z of the Renaissance, (Maryland, 2004), p. 368
[22] ‘Self-fashioning’
is a term coined by literary historian, Stephen Greenblatt in 1980.
[23] S. Greenblatt, Renaissance
Self-Fashioning: From More to Shakespeare, (London, 1980), p. 1
[24] P. Elmer, ‘Inventing the Renaissance:
Burckhardt as historian’, The Impact of
Humanism, Kekewich, L. Margaret (ed.), (London, 2000), p. 2
[25] K.
Whitlock, ‘Section One: The Impact of Humanism’, The Renaissance in Europe: A Reader, (ed.) Whitlock, Keith.,
(London, 2000), p. 7
[26] C. G. Nauert, The A to Z of the Renaissance, p. 366
[27] K.
Whitlock, ‘The Impact of Humanism’, p. 7
[28] Leon
Battista Alberti (b. 1404?.,
d. 1472) has remained to be viewed as a leading figure in the Italian
Renaissance for his contribution to Humanist scholarship.
[29] K.
Whitlock, ‘The Impact of Humanism’, p. 7
[30] Ibid.
[31] C. G. Nauert, The A to Z of the Renaissance, p. 367
[32] Ibid.
[33] Ibid.
[34] The
arti maggiori were the seven major
guilds within the city of Florence. They exhibited profound political, social,
and economic influence from the twelfth to the sixteenth century. The guild
councils were informally known as institutions of ‘brotherhood’.
[35] W. Bowsky, ‘Dante's Italy’, p. 90-91
[36] C.
G. Nauert, The A to Z of the Renaissance,
p. 368
[37] Ibid.
[38] W. Bowsky, ‘Dante's Italy’, p. 86
[39] S.
K. Cohn, Lust for Liberty: The Politics
of Social Revolt, 1200-1425, Italy, France, and Flanders, (Harvard, 2006),
p. 72-73
[40] Ibid.
[41] S. K. Cohn, Lust
for Liberty, p. 73
[42] Ibid. 72
[43] S. K. Cohn, Lust for Liberty, p. 72
[44] Ibid.
[45] Ibid.
[46] C.
G. Nauert, The A to Z of the Renaissance,
p. 368
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