IMC 2007: Sessions

Paper a: The objective of the paper is to examine the imperial political thought about the north Italian city-republics. Frederick's I struggle against Milan (1158-1162) and its presentation in the imperial historiography is the starting point and the basic source material. A study of the vocabulary which reflects the political thought, as well as a comparison with the ideas expressed by urban annalists, is also attempted. At my opinion the Empire, in the context of the existing imperial ideology, had realized the political dimensions of the communes-phenomenon and the economical factor was not the only decisive for the struggle against the city-republics.
Paper b: During the prosperous cities age, the prerogatives and benefits granted by the so-called status civitatis steadily increase.
A famous Commentator, Alberico da Rosciate (c. 1290-1360), tries to identify an exhaustive definition of civitas as autonomous political and legal entity having unambiguous meaning in the language of law. This definition we can find in a famous and worthy work, the Dictionarium iuris tam civilis quam canonici. Here the Author elaborates and preserves, with a rich system of auctoritates, a medieval law vocabulary, without ambiguities and uncertainties.
The paper will provide some analysis of Alberico’s definition of civitas in the broader context of his whole scientific work.
Paper c: Rimini is generally known for its 15th-century short Renaissance brought about by Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta’s cultural scheme. But a century earlier the medieval city was experiencing its most controversial period, artistic as well as political. The Commune, founded in the 12th century, could not keep its independence beyond the year 1295, when Malatesta da Verucchio became Podestà. In the same span of time the Riminese painters – for the most part living and working in St John's borough, close to the communal Arengo palace – were creating their first noteworthy works. In my paper I will discuss the political role Riminese painters played – particularly Giuliano, Giovanni and Pietro – in the years immediately preceding 1334, when members of the Malatesta family were eventually recognized as the sole lords of the city, arguing that the wall-paintings in St Augustine's church, representing St John's life, were political declarations in favour of communal liberty, against authoritarian rule.