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Zusatztext Wickham ... offers an acute discussion of previous scholarship on the subject and an extensive and updated bibliography. Particularly valuable is Wickham's concluding chapter. Informationen zum Autor Chris Wickham is the Editor of Past & Present. Klappentext This book investigates a gap in Italian historiography by examining rural rather than city communes. Wickham's discussion of a group of villages around Lucca is the first detailed study of the origin of organized village communities in Italy to appear in over 70 years. It shows how the 12th-century social and political structures of the countryside ran alongside those of the city. Zusammenfassung This book addresses a gap in Italian historiography by examining rural rather than city communes. In recent years, historians have increasingly focused on local and regional studies of village communities as a way of understanding medieval European history. This discussion of a group of villages around Lucca is the first detailed study of the origin of organized village communities in Italy for over seventy years, showing how the social and political structures of the countryside ran alongside those of the city. Chris Wickham analyses how local politics took recognizable shape as its ruling structures gradually emerged over time. His argument does not end there, and indeed extends beyond Italy, to France and Spain, providing sustained comparisons of rural development and social organization. The result is a rare combination of systematic local analysis and wide synthesis, aimed at illuminating the whole area of social transformation in twelfth-century Europe. Inhaltsverzeichnis List of Maps 1: Introduction 2: Lucca and the Sei Miglia in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries 3: Rural Settlement, Village Identity, and the Parish in the Lucca Plain 4: Signoria and Commune in Moriano in the Twelfth Century: Institutions 5: Signoria and Commune in Moriano in the Twelfth Century: People 6: Rural Landowners and Rural Communes on the Eastern Plain 7: Rural Communes in the Lucca Plain in the Twelfth Century 8: Comparative Perspectives Appendix 1. Sources and Abbreviations Appendix 2. Main Archival Sources Guide to Use of Archival Sources Bibliography ...
