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Siena: the life and afterlife of a medieval city

Abstract:

An authoritative, richly illustrated history, and affectionate celebration, of Siena, one of the best-loved and most-visited cities in Italy.

Occupying a hilltop site in the midst of a vast, undulating landscape, Siena is as much a magnet for contemporary tourism as Florence. However, its proud republican past presents an intriguing contrast with its Medici-dominated northern Tuscan rival, with which it tussled for local supremacy for much of the High Middle Ages. From the twelfth century, profiting from its advantageous position on a major pilgrim route, the Republic of Siena developed into a major European power and remained an important commercial, financial and artistic centre for four centuries.

Jane Stevenson charts the changing fortunes of a city that rose to an astonishingly productive cultural heyday in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, suffered a catastrophic late medieval decline in the aftermath of the Black Death, but transcended the loss of its wider political power to enjoy a prosperous civic afterlife. Siena today enjoys a cherished position as a uniquely well-preserved medieval city, crammed with world-class art and architecture, furnished with appealing and intriguing traditions, and set in a heavenly landscape.

Publication status:
Published
Peer review status:
Reviewed (other)

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Files:
Publisher copy:
10.5040/9781035920105

Authors

More by this author
Institution:
University of Oxford
Division:
HUMS
Department:
English
Oxford college:
Campion Hall
Role:
Author
ORCID:
0009-0002-8031-8627


Publisher:
Bloomsbury Publishing
Pages:
1-432
Place of publication:
London, UK
Publication date:
2022-10-13
DOI:
EISBN:
9781035920105
ISBN-10:
1801101167
ISBN-13:
9781801101165


Language:
English
Pubs id:
2066914
Local pid:
pubs:2066914
Deposit date:
2026-05-14
ARK identifier:

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