Italian history - books

[Khalid ibn Walid]

Here's some references & readings on Italian history. Tag on your suggestions.

Books

Too many good ones to list. The following were particularly useful for the construction of this mod:

- J.C.L. Simonde de Sismondi (1809-18) "Histoire des republiques italiennes du moyen age" Vol. I, Vol.
II (Sismondi is the classic history of the era of the Lombard communes. In French. Links are to a pdf fascimile edition at the Bibliotheque Nationale de France).

- W.F. Butler (1906) "The Lombard Communes: A history of the republics of north Italy" (1969, New York: Haskell) (relied on this heavily)

- Lauro Martines (1988) "Power and Imagination: City States in Renaissance Italy" (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press). (more updated; extremely nice, but less detail)

- Peter Partner (1972) "The Lands of St. Peter: The Papal State in the middle ages and early renaissance." (Berkely: UC Press)

- Gino Luzzatto,(1961) "An Economic History of Italy from the Fall of the Roman Empire to the beginning of the Sixteenth Century. (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul)

- John Addington Symonds (1888) Renaissance in Italy: Vol. 1 - The Age of the Despots

[phaedo]

I would also like to recommend:

Durant, Will and Ariel (1953) "The Renaissance: A History of Civilization in Italy from the Birth of Petrarch to the Death of Titian - 1304 - 1576" (1953, New York: Simon and Schuster)

A very intensive look at Italian civilization and history within its stated time period - encompasses the rise of the Medici under Giovanni di Bicci and Cosimo de Medici, and their decline under Lorenzo "il Magnifico". Also deals with the fall of the Visconti and the rise of the Sforza dynasty in Milan. There is a large portion on Venetian politics, history, and policy that I personally found very interesting. Also, there are large portions of the book devoted to the poetry, sculpture, and paintings of Italy at this time, focusing especially on those influenced by the Florentine Renaissance.

All in all, a very informative and enjoyable resource.

EDIT - That Butler volume is pricey, I can only find it for around 75 dollars used.

[phaedo]

And now for a recent acquisition (and so far, the most informative and interesting book on the subject I have encountered) that is pretty readily available from Amazon.

Hyde, J.K. (1973) "Society and Politics in Medieval Italy: The Evolution of the Civil Life, 1000-1350." (1973, New York: St. Martin's Press).

A very thorough look at medieval politics and life in Italy. The book begins by examining the civic life during the late Roman Empire, and shows how the cities slowly grew in power through the Lombard and Frankish invasions. Also goes into some detail about the naval wars of Genoa and Pisa, with extensive exploration of how these Northern Italian coastal towns became important hubs of trade. Speaks rather briefly about the Italian raids on North Africa, Egypt, and Sicily; and deals with the captures of Corsica, Sardinia, and the Balearic Islands from Muslim forces.

Next, the book explores the civic nature of the commune - how they developed from the duchies of Lombardia, resisted Papal and Imperial subjection alike, and formed their political and civic institutions. Also includes maps of city layouts and a very informative discussion about the practice of forming a colony city on the boundaries of one's territory to block enemy attacks.

Finally, the book examines the podestas, the Archbishops, and the marquises of the 13th century, dealing heavily with the interactions of podesta with consuls and other civic bodies. Finishes with an overview of the events of the 13th century, and examines the terrible wars of the Lombard Leagues against Frederick II Stupor Mundi, in which Vicenza was destroyed and Lombardia devastated.

The next section deals with politics in the age of Dante, the wars of the Guelphs and Ghibillines, and the slow withdrawal of Imperial forces from Italy. Also addresses the growing role of the signoria in civic life.

The next two sections deal with the triumph of the cities, the fight against the encroachment of the marquises, and the expanding role of the Italians in international trade. The book ends by examining the effects of the Black Death on Italian civic life and trade, and outlining Marsiglio of Padua's plan for peace amongst the Lombard cities.

All in all, my favorite book that I have yet read on the subject. Concise and readable prose contribute to the appeal of this volume.

[Khalid ibn Walid]

YAY!!!

Googlebooks has scanned in Butler's "Lombard Communes". You can download the whole book online in PDF form if you want (beware of printing - it's 500 pages).

Medieval Lombardia

W.F. Butler (1906) The Lombard Communes: A history of the republics of north Italy

J.C.L. de Sismondi (1847) A History of the Italian Republics, being a view of the rise, progress and fall of Italian freedom[/i]

G. B. Testa (1878) History of the War of Frederick I against the Communes of Lombardy

W.K. Williams (1891) The Communes of Lombardy from the VI. to the X. Century: An Investigation of the causes which led to the development of municipal unity among the Lombard communes. (also at gutenburg here)

H.D. Sedgwick (1912) Italy in the Thirteenth Century

O. Browning (1893) Guelphs and Ghibellines: A short history of Medieval Italy from 1250-1409[/i]

Specific Cities

E. Noyes (1908), The Story of Milan[/i]

M. Bowen (1906) The Viper of Milan: A Romance of Lombardy

C. Headlan (1908) Venetia and Northern Italy: Being the Story of Venice, Lombardy & Emilia

Venice

E. Smedley (1846) Sketches from Venetian History - Vol. 1, Vol. 2

W.C. Hazlitt (1860) History of the Venetian Republic: Her rise, her greatness and her - Vol. 1,Vol. 2

W.G. Waters (1876) The Rise of the Republic of Venice

H.F. Brown (1893) Venice: A historical sketch of the republic[/i]

F.C. Hodgson (1901) The Early History of Venice, from the foundation to the conquest of Constantinople AD 1204[/i]

T. Okey (1904) Venice and its Story

E. Hutton (1911) Venice and Venetia[/i]

HRE

T.F. Tout (1903) The Empire and the Papacy, 918-1273

T.L. Kington (1862) History of Frederick the Second, Emperor of the Romans, from chronicles and documents published within the last ten years. -
Vol. 1, Vol. 2

J.Bryce (1880) The Holy Roman Empire

H.A.L. Fisher (1898) The Medieval Empire - Vol. I, Vol. II

M.M. Busk (1856) Mediaeval Popes, Emperors, Kings and Crusaders, or Germany, Italy and Palestine from AD 1125 to AD 1268[/i]

U. Balzani (1889) The Popes and the Hohenstaufen[/i]

Rome & Church

F. Gregorovius (1854) History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages -
Vol. 1 (400-568),
Vol. 2 (568-800),
Vol. 3 (800-1002),
Vol. 4.1 (1003-1106),
Vol. 4.2 (1107-1199)
Vol. 5.1 (1200-1260),
Vol. 5.2 (1260-1304),
Vol. 6.1 (1305-1354),
Vol. 6.2 (1355-1420)
Vol. 7.1 (1421-1496),
Vol. 7.2 (1497-1503),
Vol. 8.1 (1504-1522),
Vol. 8.2 (1523-1534) & Index

A. Lagarde (1915) The Latin Church in the Middle Ages[/i]

H.K. Mann (1914) Lives of the Popes in the Middle Ages: The Popes at the height of their Temporal influence, Innocent II to Blessed Benedict XI 1130-1305 - gazillion volumes, of which the following is online: Vol. 9 - 1130-1159,
Vol. 10 - 1159-1198

Tuscany

B. Duffy (1898) The Tuscan Republics (Florence, Siena, Pisa and Lucca) with Genoa[/i]

L. Pignotti (1826)A History of Tuscany, from the earliest era, etc. - Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3, Vol. 4

Sicily

E. Curtis (1912) Roger of Sicily and the Normans in Lower Italy, 1016-1154

H.G. Knight (1838) (The Normans in Sicily (architectural tour)

C.H. Haskins (1915) The Normans in European History[/i]

General Histories

E. Emerton (1894) Mediaeval Europe. (814-1300)[/i]

J. Burkhart (1860) Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy: An essay[/i]

J. Trevelyan (1920) A Short History of the Italian Peoples, from the barbarian invasions to the attainament of unity[/i]

A. Greenwood (1892) books.google.com/books?id=oZMRIifSOhsC&printsec=titlepage]Empire and Papacy in the Middle Ages (school primer)

W. Hunt (1883) History of Italy

G. Bosco (1881) A Compendium of Italian history from the fall of the Roman empire[/i]

The following, although only in preview form, is also useful:

C. Kleinhenz, editor, (2004) Medieval Italy: An Encyclopedia - Volume 1 (A-K), Volume 2 (L-Z)

[Khalid ibn Walid]

Adding some other volumes to the reading list that I've been lately perusing:

D. Waley (1969) The Italian City-Republics. New York: McGraw-Hill. - excellent, brief and cheap. Very good on the internal politics of cities in our time period. If you see it, get it.

H. Nolthenius (1968) Duecento: The late Middle Ages in Italy. New York: McGraw-Hill. - OK read. The right time period. But a little too focused on culture and not enough on politics. Too much Tuscany & Sicily. But still good.

O. Prescott (1972) Lords of Italy: Portraits from the Middle Ages. New York: Harper-Row. - - Sheer fun. Brief, light profiles of all your favorite villains, from Robert d'Hauteville through Ezzelino da Romano to the Visconti.

J. Larner (1965) The Lords oF Romagna: Romagnol society and the origins of the Signorie. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Press. - scholarly, focused on Forli/Faenza/Ravenna rather than the whole, but very detailed on internal government and politics of a typical commune, and a blow-by-blow account of how they slipped into tyrannies.

A. Molho, editor, (1969) Social & Economic Foundations of the Italian Renaissance. New York: Wiley. - collection of scholarly essays on the socio-economic milieu. A little after our time, but useful.

M.K. Spike (2004) Tuscan Countess: The life and extraordinary times of Mathilda of Canossa. New York: Vendome. - pulp biography of the Founding Mother of the Guelfs.

J.J. Norwich (1982) A History of Venice New York: Vintage. - if you've ever read Norwich, you know you're in for a treat. Best narrative history of Venice ever.

F.C. Lane (1973) Venice: A maritime republic Baltimore: Johns Hopkins. = Lane, a superb economic historian, here tries to write a more accessible book. Complements Norwich nicely - Norwich goes doge-by-doge, Lane gives the big picture.

[Khalid ibn Walid]

More Googlebooks:

Individual Communes

Salvatore Muzzi, Compendio della storia di Bologna

Cesare Cantù, 1856, Storia della città e della diocesi di Como - Vol. I, Vol. II

M. Monti (1831) Storia di Como - Vol. II

Ancient Lombards


Paul the Deacon (c.790, 1906) History of the Langobards

T. Hodgkin (1880-99) Italy and Her Invaders -
Vol. I (375-476, Visigoths),
Vol. II (375-476, Huns, Vandals, Heruli),
Vol. 3 (476-535, Ostrogoths),
Vol. 5 (553-600, Lombard invasion),
Vol. 6 (600-744, Lombard Kingdom),
Vol. 7 (744-744, Frankish invasions),
Vol. 8 (774-814, Frankish empire)


Travelogues

A.J.C. Hare (1876) Cities of Northern and Central Italy - Vol. 1 (Riviera, Piedmont, Lombardy), Vol. 2 (Venetia, Emilia, Marche), Vol. 3 (Tuscany & Umbria)

E.R. Williams, 1914 Lombard Towns in Italy: Or the cities of ancient Lombardy

E. Hutton (1912) The Cities of Lombardy

A. Symons (1907) Cities of Italy


E.H. Blashfield (1908) Italian CitiesVol. 1, Vol.2

E.R. Williams (1911) The Plain Towns of Italy: Cities of old Venetia[/i]

A.K. Porter (1917) Lombard Architecture - Vol. 1

R. Cattaneo (1896) Architecture in Italy from the 6th to the 11th Centuries[/i]

Now some foreign languages:

Italian

G. Tamassia (1826) Storia del regno dei Goti e dei Longobardi in Italia - Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3 (Goths & Lombards in Italy)

R. Altavilla (1878) Breve compendio di storia Lombarda (compendium)

C. Balbo (1856) Storia d'Italia: Sotto ai barbari (Italy under the barbarians (Goths, Lombards))

C. Balbo (1862) Il Regno di Carlomagno in Italia[/i] (Italy under Charlemagne)

F. Guicciardini (1832) Storia d'Italia - Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3, Vol.4, Vol. 5

E. Ricotti (1845) Storia delle compagnie di ventura in Italia - Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3, Vol. IV (history of condottieri companies)

P. Emilani-Giudici (1851) Storia politica dei municipj italiani., (Italian municipalities)

P. Emilani-Giudici (1866) Storia dei comuni italiani, Vol. 1, Vol. 2,
Vol. 3 (Italian communes)

M. Caffi (1842) Dell'abbazia di Chiaravalle in Lombardia (Chiaravalle Abbey)

L. Tosti (1859) La contessa Matilde e i romani pontefici (Countess Matilda & the popes)

M. Amari (1858) Storia dei Musulmani di Sicilia - Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. III (Saracens in Sicily)

G. De Blasiis (1864) La insurrezione pugliese e la conquista normanna nel secolo XIVol. 1, Vol. 2?, Vol. 3 (Normans in Apulia)


I. La Lumia (1867) Storia della Sicilia sotto Guglielmo il buono[/i] (Sicily under William the Good)

German

F.C.A. Hasse (1826) Die Geschichte der Lombardei (old Lombards)

J. Voigt (1818) Geschichte des Lombarden-bundes und seines Kampfes mit Kaiser Friedrich dem Ersten (Lombard League-Barbarossa war)

M. Bethmann-Hollweg (1846) Ursprung der lombardischen Städtefreiheit: Eine geschichtliche Untersuchung (rise of free Lombard communes)

K. Hegel (1847) Geschichte der Städteverfassung von Italien: Seit der Zeit der römischen bis zum Ausgang des zwolfen Jahrhunderts - Vol. 1, Vol. 2 (Italian towns from Roman times until 1200s)

French

T. de Partouneaux (1843) Histoire de la conquête de la Lombardie par Charlemagne - [url=http://books.google.com/books?id=1g4NAAAAYAAJ&printsec
=titlepage]Vol. 1[/url], [url=http://books.google.com/books?id=tWtJAAAAMAAJ&printsec
=frontcover]Vol. 2[/url] (Charlemagne's conquest of Lombardia)

P. de Haulleville (1858) Histoire des communes lombardes depuis leur origine jusqu'à la fin du XIIIe - Vol I, Vol. 2 (Lombard communes until end of 13th C.)

A. Luchaire (1905) Innocent III: Rome et Italie[/i] (Da Man)

O. Delarc (1883) Les Normands en Italie, depuis le premieres invasions jusqu'a l'avenement de S. Gregoire VII (Norman Sicily)