The Italian Renaissance State

Cambridge University Press, 3/29/2012
EAN 9781107010123, ISBN10: 1107010128

Hardcover, 650 pages, 22.8 x 15.2 x 3.5 cm
Language: English

This magisterial study proposes a revised and innovative view of the political history of Renaissance Italy. Drawing on comparative examples from across the peninsula and the kingdoms of Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica, an international team of leading scholars highlights the complexity and variety of the Italian world from the fourteenth to early sixteenth centuries, surveying the mosaic of kingdoms, principalities, signorie and republics against a backdrop of wider political themes common to all types of state in the period. The authors address the contentious problem of the apparent weakness of the Italian Renaissance political system. By repositioning the Renaissance as a political, rather than simply an artistic and cultural phenomenon, they identify the period as a pivotal moment in the history of the state, in which political languages, practices and tools, together with political and governmental institutions, became vital to the evolution of a modern European political identity.

Introduction Andrea Gamberini and Isabella Lazzarini
Part I. The Italian States
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, Savoy-Acaia) Alessandro Barbero
10. The feudal principalities
the east (Trent, Bressanone/Brixen, Aquileia, Tyrol and Gorizia) Marco Bellabarba
11. Genoa, Christine Shaw
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 Francesco Somaini
13. The rural communities Massimo Della Misericordia
14. Lordships, fiefs 'small states' Federica Cengarle
15. Factions and parties
problems and perspectives Marco Gentile
16. State, 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 statebuilding
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
Bibliography.

"Recommended." -Choice

"Comprehensive and innovative in its approach, this book should prove a definitive reference for scholars interested in a wide variety of topics related to Italian Renaissance politics." -Robert Policelli, Renaissance Quarterly