Mario Ascheri - A History of Siena: From its Origins to the Present Day

A History of Siena provides a concise and up-to-date biography of the city, from its ancient and medieval development up to the present day, and makes Sienas history, culture, and traditions accessible to anyone studying or visiting the city.

Well informed by archival research and recent scholarship on medieval Siena and the Italian city-states, this book places Sienas development in its larger context, both temporally and geographically. In the process, this book offers new interpretations of Sienas artistic, political, and economic development, highlighting in particular the role of pilgrimage, banking, and class conflict. The second half of the book provides an important analysis of the historical development of Sienas nobility, its unique system of neighborhood associations (contrade), and the race of the Palio, as well as an overview of the rise and fall of Sienas troubled bank, the Monte dei Paschi.

This book is accessible to undergraduates and tourists, while also offering plenty of new insights for graduate students and scholars of all periods of Sienese history.

Mario Ascheri, a former professor at the University of Rome 3, Italy, has written extensively on institutions, law, and justice in the Middle Ages and on Italian supreme courts in early modern history. He is a former member of the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and is a senior fellow of the Robbins Collection Library (Law School, University of California, Berkeley, USA), and doctor h.c. of the Universit de lAuvergne (Clermont-Ferrand), France. Author and editor of hundreds of books and articles on Siena, Dr. Ascheri was awarded the prestigious Sienese award, the Mangia doro, in 2003.

Bradley Franco is Associate Professor of Ancient and Medieval History at the University of Portland, USA, and is the author of numerous publications focusing on religion, community, family, and power in late medieval Siena. He has also published extensively on Franciscan studies and organized the first ever International Conference for Franciscan Studies in Siena in 2015. Along with Dr. Ascheri, Dr. Franco is a proud member of the contrada of Onda.

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A History of Siena

From its Origins to the Present Day

Mario Ascheri and Bradley Franco

www.routledge.com/classicalstudies/series/CITYBIOS

Mario Ascheri
and Bradley Franco

First published 2020

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge

52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2020 Mario Ascheri and Bradley Franco

The right of Mario Ascheri and Bradley Franco to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

An earlier version of this work was originally published in Italian by Mario Ascheri with Edizioni Biblioteca dellImmagine (Pordenone, 2013 and 2018), which kindly permitted this new expanded and updated edition.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Ascheri, Mario, author. | Franco, Bradley R., author.

Title: A history of Siena : from its origins to the present day / Mario Ascheri and Bradley Franco.

Description: First edition. | Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY :

Routledge, [2019] | Series: Cities of the ancient world |

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019013181 (print) | LCCN 2019013675 (ebook) |

ISBN 9781315232010 (ebook) | ISBN 9781351866798 (web pdf) |

ISBN 9781351866774 (mobi/kindle) | ISBN 9781351866781 (epub) |

ISBN 9781138293595 (hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780367253486 (pbk. : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Siena (Italy)History. | Siena (Italy)Politics and government.

Classification: LCC DG975.S5 (ebook) |

LCC DG975.S5 A828 2019 (print) | DDC 945/.581dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019013181

ISBN: 978-1-138-29359-5 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-367-25348-6 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-23201-0 (ebk)

Typeset in Bembo

by Newgen Publishing UK

by Fabrizio Ricciardelli

Mario Ascheri and Brad Francos book on the history of Siena is a masterful combination of methodical rigor and a wealth of data communicated in an enjoyably fluid style. Despite the distinctly synthetic approach of this highly informative work, it does not neglect even minor episodes when these have a significant bearing on the citys history. It offers insights into the customs and practices, the food and the bureaucracy, the neighborhood associations (contrade) and the forms of solidarity that characterized Sienese history, consistently viewed from a global perspective. One of the most important contributions of this book is the food for thought it offers on the subject of republicanism and its different expressions. Using the paradigmatic example of Siena, Ascheri and Franco draw on their backgrounds as historians of law, institutions, and culture to produce a substantial work of history and political science.

Like many other cities in central-northern Italy, in the course of the tenth century Siena too acquired specific privileges, exploiting the crisis of the Regnum Italiae. When the Commune of the Consuls emerged in Siena, the aristocratic elite that governed it was dependent on the approval of the ordinary citizens, namely those who did not own a warhorse. Consular Siena was pro-Ghibelline and boasted a lively civic spirit. Strengthened by the wealth imported by the