List of Figures and Tables ; Preface; Acknowledgments ; ONE; Introduction: The Medieval Florentine Nobles; PART ONE: THE LINEAGE; TWO; The Formation of Urban Lineages; THREE; Joint Lineage Property: An Overview; FOUR ; Ecclesiastical Rights as Joint Property; FIVE; Joint Property: Towers and Palaces; PART TWO: THE EXCLUSION OF WOMEN; SIX; Disaffection from the Lineage: Umiliana Dei Cerchi and the Cathars; SEVEN ; Women Within the Lineage; PART THREE: THE MAGNATES; EIGHT ; Knighthood and Courtly Style; NINE; Violence and Faction; TEN; The Popolo and the Ordinances of Justice; ELEVEN
The Debate Over True NobilityTWELVE ; The Magnates in the Early Fourteenth Century; APPENDIX I; List of the Magnates; APPENDIX II; A Note on Coinage; BIBLIOGRAPHY; INDEX
Summary
In the 1290s a new guild-based Florentine government placed a group of noble families under severe legal restraints, on the grounds that they were both the most powerful and the most violent and disruptive element in the city. In this colorful portrayal of civic life in medieval Florence, Carol Lansing explores the patrilineal structure and function of these urban families, known as ""magnates."" She shows how they emerged as a class defined not by specific economic interests but by a distinctive culture. During the earlier period of weaker civic institutions, these families built their pow
