The Italian Renaissance State

Cover
The Italian Renaissance State
Title
Copyright
Contents
Notes on the contributors
Note on translations and usage
Introduction
	The Italian Renaissance State: two reasons for a title
	Historiographical premises
	Main themes
	Structure of the book
	Acknowledgements
Part I: The Italian states
	1: The kingdom of Sicily
		Introduction
		Aragonese success and the role of the universitates
		Economic policy and reconstituting the aristocratic framework
		Demographic values
		The crisis of royal power and the government of the vicars
		The restoration of Martin I and the personal union of the crowns
		The outcomes of the confrontation between king and country in the fifteenth century
		Concluding remarks
	2: The kingdom of Naples
		Introduction
		Anjou and Aragon: the 200-year war
		The monarchy and local powers
		The state machinery
		The political and economic structure of the kingdom
		The territory
		Concluding remarks: the curse of the south
	3: The kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica
		Introduction
		The Trecento: the birth of the kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica
		The reign of Peter IV of Aragon and the long conflict with the giudici of Arborea
		The value of a conquest
		The Quattrocento: historical notes
		Alfonso V and the economic renewal
		Ferdinand II and the politics of redreç (reform)
		Conclusion
	4: The papal state
		Introduction
		Fluctuations of power
		Administrative structures
		Territorial organisation
		The idea of power and the state
		The peculiarities of the sovereign pontiff
		Barons and apostolic vicars
		Towns and cives ecclesiastici
		Conclusion
	5: Tuscan states: Florence and Siena
		Introduction
		Florence: from commune to respublica
		Florence: power and government tested
		Florence and the Medici
		The Florentine politics of magnificence
		An uncertain destiny
		Siena: a different Renaissance?
		Siena: a simple state
		Sienas last century
		Conclusion
	6: Ferrara and Mantua
		Introduction: the historiography
		The dynasties and their territories
		Three ways of looking at principalities
		Mid-point summary
		Offices and officials
		Court and municipality
		The contractual state
		Conclusion
	7: Venice and the Terraferma
		Introduction: from 1300 to 1530
		The city-state: myth and reality
		The city-state: institutions and patrician politics
		The regional state: similarities and differences
		Definitions of dominion
		Venetian policy and authority in the Terraferma
		Local decision-making and power-holders in the Terraferma
		Conclusion
	8: Lombardy under the Visconti and the Sforza
		Introduction
		The apparatus of government and the role of the cities
		A debated diarchy
		The centre
		Conclusion
	9: The feudal principalities: the west (Monferrato, Saluzzo, Savoy and Savoy-Acaia)
		Introduction: the importance of a definition
		The structure of the territory
		The local offices
		The institutions of central government
		Courtiers and officials
		Relations with the country: statutes and assemblies of the Three Estates
		Conclusion
	10: The feudal principalities: the east (Trent, Bressanone/Brixen, Aquileia, Tyrol and Gorizia)
		Introduction: the medieval background
		`Pass-states´ or `frontier states´?
		Delayed feudalisation
		The fourteenth century: between the German empire and the Italian states
		Conclusion: moving towards a new genealogy of power in the fifteenth century
	11: Genoa
		Introduction
		`The absence of the state´
		Political instability and commercial power
		Public and private spheres
		Conclusion
Part II: Themes and perspectives
	12: The collapse of city-states and the role of urban centres in the new political geography of Renaissance Italy
		Introduction
		The collapse of the city-states
		The separation of the contadi
		The emergence of the oligarchies
		The vitality of southern and Sicilian cities
		Concluding remarks
	13: The rural communities
		Historiographical considerations
			Renewed interest
			Institutions
			Identity
		An interpretive hypothesis: the processes of communalisation in late medieval rural Italy
			Chronologies
			Resources
			Services
			Individual and collective identities
			Territories
			Outsiders
		The Italy of rural communities
		Conclusion
	14: Lordships, fiefs and `small  states´
		Introduction
		Lordships
		Fiefs
		`Small states´
		Conclusion
	15: Factions and parties: problems and perspectives
		Introduction
		Beyond evil and disorder
		The `informal´ paradigm: agency and the individual
		Rediscovering institutions: factions and government
		Guelfs and Ghibellines: a resilient code for long-distance communication
		Concluding remarks: developments
	16: States, orders and social distinction
		Introduction
		City, state and the logic of distinction
		The division of labour and corporations
		Nobilities among the local ruling groups
		Between learned reflection and common sense
		Conclusion
	17: Women and the state
		Introduction
		Property, or the state as the father
		Government, or the state as a household
		Protection, or the state as a surrogate family
		Legitimacy and fiscality, or the moralising state
		Concluding remarks: womens agency and the state
	18: Offices and officials
		Introduction
		Kings´ and princes´ officials: from Sicily to Europe?
		In the land of the communes: a general picture
		In the land of communes: officials in republics and principalities
		Communes, principalities, kingdoms: central and territorial officials
		Administration, institutions and culture: some fifteenth-century transformations
		Conclusion
	19: Public written records
		Introduction
		Archives in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
		Thirteenth-century archives in communal Italy
		In Renaissance states: public archives in subject towns
		Archives in capital cities: communal tradition and new functions – Florence and Venice
		Signorie, principalities and kingdoms in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
		Relations between states: foreign policy and the archives of diplomacy
		Circulation of models and imitation of practices on the periphery of states: the archives of minor centres, small seigneurial states and rural communities
		Conclusion
	20: The language of politics and the process of state-building: approaches and interpretations
		Introduction
		The language of politics: producers and matrices
		The content of political language
		Political language as a form of political action
		Conclusion
	21: Renaissance diplomacy
		Introduction
		Sources, chronology and geography
		Conflicts, authority and legitimacy
		Nature and forms of diplomatic assignments
		Communication networks and political leagues
		Practices and men
		Laws, theories and tales
		Conclusion
	22: Regional states and economic development
		Introduction
		Commercial policy and development of the domestic market
		Strategies of redistribution of productive activities on a regional scale
		Support for manufacturing
		Protection of technical innovation
		Conclusion
	23: The papacy and the Italian states
		Introduction
		Some `original characteristics´
		From the Avignonese exile to the victory of the papacy over conciliarism
		Rome, the `capital city´
		The regional states
		Local churches and the civic church
		Concluding remarks: continuities and transformations in the early Cinquecento
	24: Justice
		Introduction
		Communitary justice: conflicts, peaces and vendettas
		Trials and procedures
		Hegemonic justice: criminal law
		Social control and public order
		New judicial bodies
		The pragmatic nature of judicial policies
		Ruling with mercy, ruling with the gallows
		Justice in the territorial states
		Concluding remarks
Bibliography
	1. The kingdom of Sicily (Fabrizio Titone)
	2. The kingdom of Naples (Francesco Senatore)
	3. The kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica (Olivetta Schena)
	4. The papal state (Sandro Carocci)
	5. Tuscan states: Florence and Siena (Lorenzo Tanzini)
	6. Ferrara and Mantua (Trevor Dean)
	7. Venice and the Terraferma (Michael Knapton)
	8. Lombardy under the Visconti and the Sforza (Federico Del Tredici)
	9. The feudal principalities: the west (Monferrato, Saluzzo, Savoy and Savoy-Acaia) (Alessandro Barbero)
	10. The feudal principalities: the east (Trent, Bressanonel Brixen, Aquileia, Tyrol and Gorizia) (Marco Bellabarba)
	11. Genoa (Christine Shaw)
	12. The collapse of city-states and the role of urban centres inthe new political geography of Renaissance Italy (Francesco Somaini)
	13. The rural communities (Massimo Della Misericordia)
	14. Lordships, fiefs and ‘small states’ (Federica Cengarle)
	15. Factions and parties: problems and perspectives (Marco Gentile)
	16. States, orders and social distinction (E. Igor Mineo)
	17. Women and the state (Serena Ferente)
	18. Offices and officials (Guido Castelnuovo)
	19. Public written records (Gian Maria Varanini)
	20. The language of politics and the process of state-building: approaches and interpretations (Andrea Gamberini)
	21. Renaissance diplomacy (Isabella Lazzarini)
	22. Regional states and economic development (Franco Franceschi and Luca Molà )
	23. The papacy and the Italian states (Giorgio Chittolini)
	24. Justice (Andrea Zorzi)
Index