The Aristocracy in City and Contado

Chapter 3 examines the general characteristics of the Tuscan aristocracy across both town and city during the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and the important shifts which took place, centring on Florence and its contado, the Fiorentino. The reader will be introduced to the most recent Italian scholarship and its terminological underpinning. It will discuss the high aristocracy (marquises and counts) and the involvement of these and of the bishops in local politics. Particular attention will be given to the house of Canossa. The chapter then turns to the aristocrazia intermedia: their interests; their relationships with the high aristocracy; their role in monastic patronage; their family structure and strategies; and their changing relationship with the city of Florence. It concludes with a comparison between Florence and other Tuscan cities.