Abstract
This book examines the rise of Italian city communes in the twelfth century. Focusing on the cities of Milan, Pisa, and Rome, it explores real social and political differences in the experiences of the early city communes. It also highlights the role played by the elite of these cities and towns in the development of one of the first nonmonarchical forms of government in medieval Europe, not realizing that they were creating something altogether new. The communes of twelfth-century Italy were characterized by institutional creativity and were founded on bottom-up collaboration. These were novelties, and their very contradictions make them interesting as well as difficult to explain. The book analyzes such contradictions. This chapter explains why the emergence of communes has such importance for Italian historiography and discusses the historiographical frame for how to study communes in more detail as it has emerged in the last generation.
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