The Italian City-State

This book studies the history, unique in Europe, of the Renaissance and renascences in medieval Italy: the extraordinary revival, in a profoundly altered economic and social environment, of antique urbanity - the civilization and culture of city states. The paradox arose from a peculiar situation, a `double existence' part ancient, part medieval, that made Italy a singular combination of both social and cultural renaissance, and economic, capitalist revolution. In this fascinating and ground-breaking study, Philip Jones traces in detail the tension and interaction between the two traditions to their culmination in two rival regimes of communes and despots.