Building Civic Identities. Communal Palaces in Italian Urban History (14th-17th Centuries)

Built from the 12th century onwards in all cities of North-Central Italy, communal palaces became a model of civic architecture that has continued to play a prominent role in local political life for centuries. Underneath this long continuity, however, the transformations have been as numerous as radical, in terms of uses and functions, spatial articulation, and decorative definition. The five case studies included in the collection focus precisely on moments of transformation, in a period of strong political and cultural change, at the turn of the Middle Ages and the Modern Age.