HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor

324 AUGUSTO VASINA1000 to the early medieval centuries. Along with the persistence oftraditional local powers—ecclesiastical and civil—there appears alongthe path of transformation in medieval Europe, albeit with differentmanifestations, a slow and not entirely linear decline of universalpowers and their cultural influence expressed variously in time andspace. The first of these institutions is the empire, the second is thepapacy. In north-central Italy we see development of the city-state,while in other places under consideration we see the consolidationof the central powers of national monarchies. Clearly, we are dealingwith political-institutional processes along completely differentpaths, which had an impact on the diverse class divisions in local,regional, and national society, as well as in various ethnic substrates.In southern Italy, because of immigration from transalpine countries,and north of the Alps, for a whole series of profound reasons(not least the usual application of the law of primogeniture), the greatnobility, both feudal and non-feudal, tended to prevail and to maintainpower longer. They did this through widespread control ofimportant ecclesiastical and civil posts, but from positions often external(although not foreign) to the urban world, where they were superiorto, but almost never dominated, the productive artisan andmercantile classes. The great nobility (princes, marquis, dukes, andcounts) frequently competed intensely against the sovereign powersof the monarchs, who often had recourse to the support of cities bymeans of a politics of concessions of privileges and immunities.In north-central Italy, in contrast, due to the capillary diffusionresulting from a different system of succession, as well as because ofa more complex ethnic makeup, the middle and lower nobility, feudaland otherwise, were prevalent. They displayed incisive initiativesand strong operative capacities that functioned by means of a connectiveweb between city and country. Further, the leaders of themiddle classes—artisanal, commercial, and intellectual—contributedto give a new juridical order and political autonomy to the city,which thus had to face an involved and prolonged conflict with thecentral powers (royal-imperial, then papal). 15 In these urban centers15It does not seem to me that the comparison between these diverse historicalrealities, Italian and European, has been conducted under any rubric that appliesin an effective way and with very convincing results. For the diverse lines of developmentafter 1000 of the communal cities one must, however, take separate countof the analytical, and still valid, studies for north-central Italy of Volpe (1922); forthe area of France and Flanders of Ottokar (1948), passim.