cities

Medieval Italy was defined by its cities: it was relatively urbanized compared to the rest of late medieval Europe, and urban settlements were major visual markers of the landscape due to their towers and walls—not to mention a process called incastellamento ("encastlement") during the early Middle Ages, which concentrated settlements on the tops of hills and fortified them, creating the famous "hill town" landscapes for which areas like Tuscany, Umbria, and Piedmont are so famous.

While many of these cities date from the Roman period, it was only in the later Middle Ages that they took the shape that we would recognize today, when urban wealth boomed due to trade and public art and architecture were commissioned everywhere.

Over the term each student chose one city to present to the class, focusing on its geography, major monuments, history, as well as its unique features and challenges in the later Middle Ages. (Some of these were given as oral presentations in class before the campus shut down; others via Zoom later in the course.)