Najemy offers a new interpretation of Florentine politics from the first attempt to institute a guild-based republic at the end of the thirteenth century to the advent of the consensus politics of civic humanism in the generation around 1400. The leading themes are: the role of the guilds in politics; the significance of the corporate ideology they advanced and the institutions implementing them; and the evolution of a new kind of republicanism that was both elitist and broadly based.



Originally published in 1982.



A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.