Between unitas and aequalitas

Abstract

This chapter focuses on political life within the city commune. Although each political group tended to represent itself as ‘the whole’, division in the political body not only existed but was in fact a constituent part of communal experience, where a variety of different social groups and sectors confronted one another in increasingly regulated and disciplined forms. To see how the ideologies of unity came to terms with the theme of plurality means, therefore, investigating phenomena in the context of political culture, such as the organization of assemblies, the decision-making process, and the mediation of councils. In this respect the chapter casts light on the development of new civic values, such as aequalitas, and fresh legal principles, such as quod omnes tangit ab omnibus comprobetur—what affects everybody must be agreed upon by everybody—which succeeded not only in justifying collective decision-making but also in establishing the principle of representation.