Comparing Two Italies: Civic Tradition, Trade Networks, Family Relationships between the Italy of Communes and the Kingdom of Sicily

Description

The title recalls a famous book by David Abulafia, 'The Two Italies', Cambridge 1977, about the origins of the so-called unequal exchange and dual economy between Northern and Southern Italy. This argument is supposed to be the ground of the so called Southern question('questione meridionale'), one of the foremost topics of the whole Italian history. But trade isn't the only major theme apt to compare Italy of Communes and Kingdom of Sicily. This miscellany of essays points to enlarge interpretative paths not only about trade networks, but aboutless known sides of interrelations, e.g. the rise of civic tradition, the spread of Mendicant Orders, the circulation of wealth because of family relationships, women, marriage and patrimonial assets. Patrizia Mainoni / About the 'Two Italies' 7 Gianmarco De Angelis / Between Legal Tradition and Political Practice: Decisions by Majority Vote in North-Central Italian Communes, and a Few Thoughts for Comparison with the 'Universitates' of Peninsular Southern Italy (Twelfth-Thirteenth Centuries) 27 Giovanni Araldi / Transformations sociales et institutionnelles dans une ville pontificale du Mezzogiorno: les statuts de Bénévent de 1203 61 Maria Teresa Dolso / The Franciscan Order between Two Italies 89 Nicola Lorenzo Barile / Rethinking 'The Two Italies': Circulation of Goods and Merchants between Venice and the 'Regno' in the Late Middle Ages 117 Eleni Sakellariou / Regional Trade and Economic Agents in the Kingdom of Naples (Fifteenth Century) 139 Paola Guglielmotti / Women, Families and Wealth in Twelfth- and Thirteenth-Century Liguria: Past Approaches and New Perspectives 167 Alessandra Bassani / 'Familia id est substantia'? Women and Statutes in the 'Consilia' of Baldus de Ubaldis 189 Isabelle Chabot / Deux, trois, cent Italies. Réflexions pour une géographie historique des systèmes dotaux 211 Paolo Grillo / Conclusion: Many Centuries, Many Italies 233 Index of Names and Places 243