Medieval Rome: Stability and Crisis of a City, 900–1150 by Chris Wickham
Frances Muecke
Reviewed by: Medieval Rome: Stability and Crisis of a City, 900–1150 by Chris Wickham Frances Muecke Wickham, Chris, (Oxford Studies in European History), Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2014; hardback; pp. 536; 13 b/w illustrations, 9 maps; R.R.P. £35.00; ISBN 9780199684960. Already published as Roma medievale. Crisi e stabilità di una città, (trans. Alessio Fiore Luigi Provero (Viella, 2013)), this book has been greeted with considerable enthusiasm acclaim. Publication Italian made sense, most specialists the field are continental scholars or must be able to read Italian. English suggests bid for wider readership it is from viewpoint that I address book. Non-specialists will find [End Page 370] demanding but, if they persist, extremely rewarding, its methods much results. The deals problems ‘pre-communal’ Rome. Its period begins late Carolingian crisis, involving Arab incursions into Lazio, factional violence, murder popes. It ends surmounting longer crisis (1050–1150), breakdown Rome’s traditional system government, establishment papal Curia Senate, new types political structure. But ‘storyline’ not Wickham’s subject. His subject series interlocking facets workings city – social, economic, cultural, structures explored reconstructed great detail supreme methodological awareness mostly small patchy collection archival documents, ‘building blocks originally destined quite other purposes’ (p. 11). Herein lies book’s originality, well hurdles minute analyses present non-specialist reader. teasing information, hypotheses, explanations out documents enabled deft manipulation contexts driven posing bold questions. one aims work through comparisons: ‘Rome cannot understood except comparatively’ 3). comparators larger northern cities Lombardy Tuscany, but also some southern ones. comparative perspective yields Rome unique complex economy, owing size hinterland (a direct source agricultural surplus) complete control over Agro romano, largely owned churches leased. itself was unproductive. In tenth century, largest Europe had fallen behind 1300. Artisans merchants were more than elsewhere Italy before 1150; allow creation ‘snapshots artisanal activity specialization’ 141). A particularly interesting section Chapter 2, ‘The Urban Economy’, focuses on urban fabric. Here, draws recent archaeology Étienne Hubert’s Espace urbain et habitat à du Xe siècle la fin XIIIe (Ecole française de Rome, 1990), modify Krautheimer’s sharp distinction between abitato disabitato. tour well-documented regions eleventh-century (‘small bustling’) demonstrates an unparalleled differentiation them character, social makeup, economic focus prosperity lays foundations his two chapters elite strata: 5, ‘Urban Aristocracies’, 6, ‘Medium Elites Church Clienteles: Society Regions Eleventh Twelfth Centuries’. regards these ‘in many respects central book’ 181). By squeezing restricted documentation hard he can information prosopography, holding titles offices (with 371] important remarks terminology), wealth, property, place residence, castle ownership, 5 traces changing patterns roles rise fall thirteen families (e.g., Tuscolani, ‘Crescenzi’, Frangipane, Pierleoni). looks at sample five medium three regions. One key interest special feature importance regional politics, issue taken up again last, powerful, chapter, Crisis, 1050–1150’, where Roman collective politics are...
Parergon