Representing the communes, instituting the common

Each era has read the experience of the Italian communes of the Middle Ages through the filter of its own urgencies, projecting onto the past its own anxieties. If, in the ^19th century, historians saw Florence, Venice and Padua as models of republican freedom, and in the ^20th century - sometimes - as symbols of a betrayed hope, what is the image of the communes today? And what might this image reveal about the times we live in? This session will attempt to answer these questions. It will therefore be devoted, firstly, to gaining a better understanding, in the light of contemporary changes, of certain aspects of collective government in the towns of medieval Italy (such as electoral systems, diplomacy and the use of images). It will then mobilize the results of recent historical research to redefine certain notions: citizenship, common resources, representation. Within the framework of an interdisciplinary analysis of public monuments, diplomatic and deliberative sources, law plays a privileged role. It was here that a fundamental battle was fought for the affirmation of the communes. It was in the context of a developed and widespread legal culture that Italian towns developed the political practices needed to gain recognition from external authorities and, over time, maintain the balance between the various social forces present in the city.