Скачать или смотреть Between diocese and comitatus: the expansion of the Italian Communes

The growth of Northern and Central Italian cities during the XII century entailed new forms of political organization, the most famous of which was notoriously the Commune.

The expansion of Communal power resulted on the territorial level in the substitution of the new urban political entity on the local comital or episcopal power. This process allowed the Communes to claim some legitimacy on an otherwise "revolutionary" act for the public organization of the time, exploiting in particular for this the rivalries between the Empire and Papacy during the renewed Hohenstaufen's efforts to bring back the kingdom of Italy under imperial rule.

While for most Italian Communes the territorial expansion coincided generally with the the boundaries of the diocese or of the comitatus, some cities (including Milan, Genua and Pisa) went far beyond these borders starting the construction of new ambitious and aggressive territorial dominions, which would reshape the political map of the peninsula.