Roman Foundations: Constructing Civic Identity in Late Medieval Italy

FAIN: FT-54454-06

Carrie Elizabeth Benes
New College of Florida (Sarasota, FL 34243-2146)

Completion of a book manuscript exploring the construction of urban identity in the northern and central Italian cities in the century between AD 1250 and 1350. I argue that appropriations of the classical past in the late medieval cities attest a broader awareness of classical antiquity than has traditionally been credited to late medieval Italy, and I use both textual and material evidence to evaluate the ways that the Roman past was woven into the culture, politics, and social identities of urban communities.

Associated Products

Urban Legends: Civic Identity and the Classical Past in Northern Italy, 1250-1350 (Book)
Title: Urban Legends: Civic Identity and the Classical Past in Northern Italy, 1250-1350
Author: Carrie E. Beneš
Abstract: Between 1250 and 1350, numerous Italian city-states jockeyed for position in a cutthroat political climate. Seeking to legitimate and ennoble their autonomy, they turned to ancient Rome for concrete and symbolic sources of identity. Each city-state appropriated classical symbols, ancient materials, and Roman myths to legitimate its regime as a logical successor to—or continuation of—Roman rule. In Urban Legends, Carrie Beneš illuminates this role of the classical past in the construction of late medieval Italian urban identity.
Year: 2011
Primary URL: http://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-03765-3.html
Primary URL Description: Publisher's webpage
Secondary URL: http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/648936028
Secondary URL Description: WorldCat entry
Publisher: Pennsylvania State University Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 978-0-271-0376

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