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 groundbreaking study, Philip Jones traces in detail the tension and interaction between the two traditions to...

A detailed history, from the mid-thirteenth to the early sixteenth century, of an Italian state, Rimini, and its ruling family, the Malatesta. The Malatesta are best known, through the works of Jacob Burckhardt, John Addington Symonds and others, for their colourful contribution to the court life and culture of renaissance Italy. There are other sides to their history of at least comparable importance. By their representative status, as princes of middle rank, and by their unusually long tenure of power, the Malatesta are among the families most typical in all its stages of Italy's Age of...

This book brings together challenging new essays from some of the leaders in Italian scholarship in three countries, to show the range of work that is currently being done not only on Florence but also on Naples, Ferrara and Lucca and on the relationship between cities and countryside.