Community and Clientele in Twelfth-Century Tuscany : The Origins of the Rural Commune in the Plain of Lucca

This book fills a gap in recent Italian historiography by examining village rather than city communes. Chris Wickham uses the experience of villagers in the area around Lucca to shed light on the working of rural communities all over early medieval Europe. He shows how different strands in the local politics of these villages changed and took recognizable shape as the governing structure of the commune gradually emerged. Focused on a small area of the Tuscan plain, it will offer stimulating insight into general questions of European social change in the twelfth century.