‘De origine civitatis’. The building of civic Identity in Italian communal Chronicles (12th-14th century) Lorenzo Tanzini

Abstract

One of the most striking expressions of political identity of the Italian medieval cities is the early creation of municipal myths of origin. Most communal cities could relate themselves to ancient heroes, saints or emperors who were claimed to be their first founders in past centuries. Such a legendary creation of the origin was obviously an ideological tool to improve the municipal sense of identity. This paper aims to study the changing attitudes of municipal elites towards the ancient history of the city, starting from the first municipal chronicles in 12th century, through the great universal narratives of the 13th, until the dawn of humanistic historiography in late 14th.