The Medieval Italian City State
by Pauline Montagna
My novel ‘The Slave’ is set in fourteenth
century Northern Italy, but it isn’t a tale of knights and ladies in their
castles. It’s set in an Italian Medieval City State, a world away from the
Middle Ages as we know them in England, France or Germany.
These ancient walled cities dot the landscape
of Northern Italy. They perch on hilltops like Bergamo and San Gimignano. They
nestle in picturesque river valleys like Florence and Verona. They lie by river
banks in the flat valley of the River Po like Mantua and Vicenza. Though some
have been subsumed into a bustling port city like Genoa, or a commercial dynamo
like Milan, many retain their ancient and unique charms like Pisa and Venice.
Though these cities may have flowered during the Renaissance their days of true
glory came in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries when they were rich and
independent mercantile city states.
To visit these cities is to step back into
another time. Inside their encircling walls, the houses, with their simple
lines, made of local materials, seem to have grown out of the earth itself,
sometimes ochre tuffa and terra cotta like Siena or white pietra bianca like
Perugia. At the heart of the city is a grand piazza, like the Piazza del Campo
in Siena or the Piazza delle Erbe in Verona. On market days they fill with farmers
from the hinterland selling their produce. On city feast days they are draped
in the colours of the local clans and might host a horse race like Siena’s
Palio. Fronting the Piazza is a grand municipal building, sometimes called La
Signoria as in Florence or il Palazzo della Ragione as in Padua, from which the
city was once governed.
Indicating the division between Church and
state, though built by the people in honour of their patron saint, the city’s
cathedral or Duomo sits on a fine piazza of its own. The Duomo was not only a
place of worship. It represented the city’s history and its wealth and was
large enough to house the city’s total population of up to 10,000 on municipal
feast days. Attached to the Duomo might be a Baptistry or a campanile. Though
the largest, the Duomo was not the only church in the city, as smaller parish
churches and devotee chapels might be found on every street.
Away from the grand piazzas, the streets
are narrow and the houses tall and sometimes walled, their arched doorways all
one can see from the street. Occasionally you will come across a tall
featureless tower or the remnants of one. These were built in the early days of
the city by rival feudal clans for their self-defence, and from which they
would sally forth to attack their enemies, much to the great terror of the
citizens.
If we make our way back to the piazza, we
can visit the municipal palace. Inside, the walls might be covered in frescos
dating from as early as the twelfth century depicting the ideals of good
governance for the edification of the council of citizens, or the Commune, that
ran the city’s affairs. The make-up and methods of selection of the Communes
differed from city to city and from time to time as cities experimented with
different forms, but generally the Communes were formed from the city’s most
affluent men.
Drawn from the middle classes, these men
had in large part been made rich through international trade, but most of them
would be landowners as well. Among them might also be bankers, lawyers and
notaries. All of them would be literate and educated in law and rhetoric (and
perhaps double entry accounting, which had been invented in Italy.) Some of
these men might be separated by only one or two generations from their peasant
ancestors as the city state was a place of opportunity where social barriers
were low.
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To a large extent, the old feudal nobility
was excluded from the Communes as, in fact, the Communes had been formed to
protect the citizens from their unruly violence. However, they were not
excluded from city life altogether, and behind the scenes would have been able
to exert some power and influence. They generally had homes in the city where
they spent most of their time, as well as country houses where they retreated
in summer. Just as the merchants might also be landowners, the nobility would
also dabble in trade, despite their patent disdain for the gente nuova who made their fortunes from it. In their own way, the
nobility were crucial to the defence of their cities. They were required to
maintain a horse and armour for cavalry duties and were often called on to act
as ambassadors for their city to the Emperor’s court.
Sometimes, as rivalries between powerful
men, or unexpected crises made the Commune unworkable, an able administrator, a
man with authority and legal training, might be called on to take over the
running of the city. The podestà was
contracted to take the reins for a fixed period. Many men made this their
profession, moving from city to city. However in some cities his contract might
be renewed year after year, either because the citizens had come to rely on
him, or because he had become too powerful to dismiss. In such a case his
position might not only became permanent but hereditary. In some cities, the
Commune might be undermined and taken over from within by a rich clan, such as
the Medici in Florence.
An ambitious or disaffected nobleman with
military skills, might hire himself out as a mercenary commander or condottiere. Many cities hired condottieri to fight their constant
intercity wars because they might not have the population or money to maintain
a permanent army of their own. However they would one day pay with their
freedom. Following the devastation and chaos created by the Black Death, many
of these condottieri were able to
take control of the very cities that had once hired them.
So, in one way or another, by the fifteenth
century, most of these once independent and democratic city states had been
taken over by one petty tyrant or another. Over time their de facto power was
recognised by the Emperor who, generally for a price, awarded them an
aristocratic title. Yet despite their venal beginnings, it was this new class
of aristocrats who became the patrons of the Renaissance.
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The
Slave
Aurelia Rubbini, the only child of a rich
merchant in fourteenth century Italy, has been raised to be a dutiful daughter,
wife and mother, but she longs for something more than the restricted life
intended for her. Then one day, her father brings home from a buying trip an
Asian slave boy, Batu, who will reshape Aurelia’s destiny.
Aurelia and Batu are inexorably drawn to
each other, but their relationship is forbidden as Aurelia is destined for an
arranged marriage to further her father’s political ambitions. When Aurelia
marries Lorenzo de Graziano, a nobleman with a dangerous reputation, Batu
insists on going with her for her protection. But Batu’s presence arouses
violent passions that Aurelia, in her innocence, can never understand.
About the author:
Pauline
Montagna was born into an Italian family in Melbourne, Australia. After
obtaining a BA in French, Italian and History, she indulged her artistic
interests through amateur theatre, while developing her accounting skills
through a wide variety of workplaces culminating in the Australian film
industry. In her mid-thirties, Pauline returned to university and qualified as
a teacher of English as Second Language, a profession she pursued while
completing a Diploma of Professional Writing and Editing. She has now retired
from teaching to concentrate on her writing. As well as The Slave, she has published a short story collection, Suburban Terrors.
Her website is http://paulinemontagna.net/
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