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Cities of God: The Italian Communes at War
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
Extract
To believe that a political community might justly go to war in defence of its legitimate interests was a necessity of daily life to the city states of northern and central Italy from the twelfth century onwards. This belief as such was of course hardly confined to them among medieval European societies, but there are certain features of the Italian experience of war which, taken with the character of the cities themselves, contributed significantly to the emergence and formulation of those secular attitudes to political life which are so often regarded as typical of renaissance culture. The Italian cities lived close to the papacy, which claimed the authority to identify the enemies of the Church and to declare on them wars which were not merely just but holy. Insofar as the enemies of the Church proved to be Italians, or to be operating on Italian soil, those cities which allied themselves with the papacy could acquire the tincture of holiness for wars that were essentially fought in pursuance of local interests. There could be little doubt, for example, that the immediate cause of the great battle of Montaperti, fought on 4 September 1260 between the guelfs of Tuscany, headed by the Florentines, and the Sienese, aided by Florentine ghibelline exiles and by German troops of Manfred of Sicily, was the territorial rivalry of Florence and Siena in southern Tuscany, and most immediately of all the struggle for control of the little town of Montalcino. Manfred and his allies, like Lewis of Bavaria and his ally the Lucchese tyrant Castruccio Castracani, another local enemy of Florence, two generations later, were however the enemies of the Church, and thus Florence’s war-effort was sanctified.
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References
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6 ‘Universitatem Guelforum, si ad divinum respicias, cum Romana Ecclesia, si ad humánum, cum Libertate coniunctam reperies . . .’ Quoted by Baron, H., The Crisis of the Early Italian Renaissance, 2 ed (Princeton 1966) p 468 n 8.Google Scholar
7 ‘. . . ad efftgiem Dei conversus, Barbadorìus (is enim maioń spiritu nitebatur), magna voce, ita ut pontifex exaudiret, “Deus!, inquit, nos legati, florentini populi nomine, ab hac sententia vicarii tui inique lata, ad te tuamque aequitatem appellamus. Tu, qui falli non potes, nec ira inflecteris, nec servitutem populorum sed libertatem amas, et tyrannos libidinesque odisti, florentino populo libertatém suam défendent subvenies, аC propitius protectorque aderis!’” Muratori 19 pt 3 pp 215-16.
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11 LP p 433; Boso’s Life p 97.
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13 Annales Mediolanenses, MGH SS 18p 377.
14 Ibid p 369.
15 Ibid p 378: ‘Sed Longobardos deseruit et episcopos depósitos restituii, et auos ipse creaverat desposuit.’ Galdino’s biographer strongly emphasises both his pro-papal and his civic role: Mombritius, B., Sanctuarium seu Vitae Sanctorum, n ed 2 vols (Paris 1910) 1 pp 561–3.Google Scholar
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22 Chronicon Parmense, Muratori 9 pt 9 p 19.
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26 Liber de kudíbus civitatis ticinensis, Muratori 11 pt 1 p 25: ‘Cum ad solempnem et generałem procédant exercitum secům aliquando ducunt plaustrum trahentibus pluribus paribus boum panno rubeo coopertorum, quod plaustrum vulgo carocium dicitur. in quo tabemaculum est ligneum, capiens aliquam hominum quantitatem; in cuius medio sublimis est pertica, sursum erecta cum pomo erea deaurato, in qua inter alia insignia rubeum tentorium ponitur et vexillum longissimum rubeum cum cruce alba et desuper ramus olive, et ita, celebrans in ilio missarum solempniis. ordinate procedunt.’
27 Villani 1 pp 294-5 (bk 6, cap 76).
28 See the recent brief summary by Housley pp 56-7.
29 Meersseman, G., ‘Études sur les anciennes confréries dominicaines: Les Milices de Jésus-Christ’ AFP 23 (1953) pp 275–308 Google Scholar; the quotation is on p 301.
30 Villani 1 p 338; Housley p 56 n 94.
31 II Constituo [del comune di Siena dell’anno 1262 ed Zdekauer, L. (Milan 1897 Google Scholar)] Caps 119-122, pp 53-4 concern the punishment of heresy and are immediately followed by the provisions for civic honours to George (caps 123-6, pp 54-6). Civic protection of the Cistercian house of San Galgano, which was closely associated with the life of the commune, was to be proclaimed annually on the feast of the Assumption (cap. 103, pp 49-50) and there are numerous grants of money and building materials to other churches and orders.
32 Two of these accounts are accessible in [Cronaca Senese di Autore] Anonimo, Muratori 15 pt 6, pp 57-61, and [Cronaca Senese conosciuta sotto il nome di Paolo di Tommaso] Montauri, ibid pp 194-222. These and the other extant accounts are subjected to exhaustive criticism from an art-historical viewpoint by Garrison, E.B., Studies in the History of Medieval Italian Painting, 4 vols (Florence 1954-62) 4, pp 5–58 Google Scholar, who is sceptical of the value of the traditions supposedly embodied in them. The present writer hopes to publish a study of some aspects of the Virgin’s rulership of Siena, which traditionally derives from 1260.
33 Salimbene p 196.
34 Il Libro di Montaperti ed C. Paoli (Florence 1889).
35 Ibid p 53.
36 Ibid p 13. Volontario and Tornanbene are listed as cappellani elsewhere, in a partial list of the male inhabitants of the San Pancrazio sector p 323.
37 Ibid p 373.
38 Ibid p 116.
39 Ibid p 117.
40 Ibid p 371.
41 Ibid p 369.
42 Sanzonome ludias Gesta Florentinorum ab anno 1125 ad annum 1231, ed G. Milanesi (Florence 1876) pp 133, 134, 148.
43 In 1288 ‘il di dì san Giovanni Battista vennero i Fiorentini schierati in sul prato d’Arezzo, e in quello dinnanzi alla porta della città feciono correre il palio, siccome per loro costuma sifacea per la detta festa in Firenze, e fecionvisi dodici cavalieri di corredo’: Villani I p 448 (bk 7 cap 120). Villani records other such expeditions against Arezzo after the victory of Campaldino in 1289 (p 462), against against Arezzo in 1290 (p 468) and against Pisa in 1292 (p 478).
44 II Caleffo Vecchio del Comune di Siena ed. Cecchini, G., 3 vols (Siena 1932–40) 2 p 846 Google Scholar.
45 The Anonimo p 51 cites an instance in 1234; and on 16 September 1313 the prisoners taken when Monteguidi surrendered to Siena ‘fumo offerti a la Vergine Maria al Duomo per onore della Vergine Maria’ (Montauri p 246).
46 Kaftal, [G.], [Iconography of the Saints in Tuscan Painting] (Florence 1952) p xx.Google Scholar
47 Kaftal, cols 129-36 (Barnabas), 1012 (Victor), 307-8 (Denis), 51-3 (Corsini).
48 Kaftal, cols 1011-16: Gigli, G., Diario Sánese (Siena 1722) p 109 Google Scholar; Anomino p 61. Ordericus, a canon of the cathedral, speaks of relics of Victor in about the year 1215: Ordo [Officiorum Ecclesiae Senensis ed J. C. Trombelli (Bologna 1766)] p 325. In 1274 the bishop invokes Victor among the other patrons while in 1284 his successor does not: Pecci, G.A., Stork del Vesconado della Città di Siena (Lucca 1748) pp 233–4, 240.Google Scholar In 1287, however, he appears when the bishop grants an indulgence to assist the building of a chapel for the blessed Ambrogio Sansedoni: ASB Martii 3 p 242.
49 U Constituto p 29; Tommasi, G., Dell’Istorie di Siena 2 vols (Venice 1625-6) 2 p 14 Google Scholar. By the time the chapel was approaching completion, in 1277, it seems to have been regarded as dedicated to Saint James: Milanesi, G., Documenti per la Storia dell’Arte Senese 3 vols (Siena 1854-6) I pp 155–6 Google Scholar. The Anonimo p 90, refers to an altar of Saint Boniface.
50 This regulation is accessible in the vernacular recension made in 1309-10: Il Costituto del Comune di Siena volgarizzato nel MCCIX-MCCCX ed A. Lisini 2 vols (Siena 1905) 1 p 67. It seems to have been first made in 1274: Siena, Archivio di Stato, Statuti 3 fol lv, and then appears in the 1287-97 collection in the form in which it was to be translated in 1309-10: ibid. Statuti 5 fol 18v. I am indebted to Dr Peter Denley for help in tracing these references. There was however another element in the complex relationship between Boniface, as an ancient patron of Siena, and the Virgin and her church: the belief at this period that it was he who had saved the Pantheon from destruction and caused it to be dedicated to Mary. For this see Ordo p 324; Middeldorf-Kosegarten, A., ‘Zur Bedeutung der Sieneser Domkuppel’ Münchener Jahrbuch der Bildenden Kunst 21 (1970) p 85.Google Scholar
51 Villani 1 pp 361 (bk 7 cap 31), 459 (bk 7 cap 131).
52 Ibid 2 p 154 (bk 9 cap 13).
53 Montauri p 212; Peyer, H., Stadt und Stadtpatron in mittelalterlichen italien (Zurich 1955) pp 46–52.Google Scholar
54 Dati, A., Opera (Siena 1503) p 231 Google Scholar: ‘Proinde arbitror Reginam coelorum atque eius civitatis principem...domi militiaeque acrem se prebuisse, tuendam libertatis auctorem, nunquam saluti nunquam principatus sui dignitati defuisse, non autem vel albis equis vel districto gladio adversum hostes pugnavisse, id quod Tindaridas Romani pro se fecisse gloriantur, sed invida illa dextera vinuté, quae totius mundi Redemptorem genuit.’ The theme of Sienese humility and repentance is emphasised to excess by L. Politi, La Sconfitta di Monte Aperto (Siena 1502).
55 Il Constituto p 54: ‘Cum beatissimum Georgium, militem militum, quern in nostrum et communis Senarum vexilliferum et potissimum defensorem eligimus, in cunctis negotiis civitatis Senarum invocantes ipsius nomen, plenum potentia ac virtute, in prelio noviter habito...ipse verus omnipotens, ipsius beatissimu Georgii precibus et mentis, nobis et comuni et popolo Senensi contra hostes ipsos victoriam tribuerit triumphalem...‘
56 Annales Pìancentini Guelfi, MGH SS 18 p 429.
57 Villani 1 pp 301-2 (bk 6 cap 79); pp 286-7 (bk 6 cap 65).
58 Ibid 3 pp 369-70 (bk 11 cap 135).
59 Cf. Housley’s remarks (pp 170-2) on the mental repercussions of failure in wars designated crusades by the papacy.
60 Kaftal, cols 3, 437-8.