Power and Imagination: City-States in Renaissance Italy

by Lauro Martines

In Power and Imagination , a noted historian rethinks the evolution of the city-state in Renaissance Italy and recasts the conventional distinction between "society" and "culture." Martines traces the growth of commerce and the evolution of governments; he describes the attitudes, pleasures, and rituals of the ruling elite; and he seeks to understand the period's towering works of the imagination in literature, painting, city planning, and philosophy-not simply as the creations of individual artists, but as the forman expression of the ambitions and egos of those in power.

Genres: History, Renaissance, Italy, Nonfiction, European History, Medieval History, Politics

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Lauro Martines , former Professor of European History at the University of California, Los Angeles, is renowned for his books on the Italian Renaissance. The author of Power and Imagination: City-States in Renaissance Italy, and most recently of Strong Words: Writing and Social Strain in the Italian Renaissance, he reviews for The Times Literary Supplement and lives in London with his wife, novelist Julia O'Faolain.

Reviews

[Frank Stein · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is really two books that sit uneasily together.

One is a fascinating and shockingly coherent explanation of Italian Renaissance politics. Somehow the author is able to draw clear generalizations and theories from the continual chaos of Italy in what might be called the long Renaissance, about 1000-1600 AD. He traces the decline of the Holy Roman Empires fiefs and the rise of ducal bishops (to around 1050), followed by and the rise of the urban "communes," their decline into internecine warfare and comical "tower socities," then the rise of an armed, and organized, merchant class (the popolo) in the 1200s, their continual battle with the nobles and the lumpen proletariat, the seizure of power by the signories in the 15th century, and finally the invasion of Italy by Charles VII of France in 1494 that brought the High Renaissance to an abrupt end. He shows clear periods and tendencies in Italian politics across hundreds of years and dozens of independently operating states. It's great synthetic history.

The author is also adept at describing the intricate workings of power. He is able to show how elites in nominal "republics," like Florence and Venice were able to control political offices through abstruse methods (the description of the Byzantine process by which simple lots were drawn to select office is amazing). The need for this sort of skulduggery is particularly impressive since the author also shows that the franchise was rarely more than 4 or 5% of the population. The author is likewise able to explain how different groups in the cities exercised governmental power outside the state, from the tower societies of nobles who had the judicial power of capital punishment over their own members to the "captains of the people" who controlled armed neighbhorhood militias. Nobody had a monopoly on power in this era.

The second part of the book is really a series of cultural vignettes that rely on a crude Marxist base-superstructure model to describe Renaissance art and poetry. The author comes up with some unsurprising theories here: the bourgeoisie encouraged the rational art of Giotto and Masaccio, they used merchant metaphors in poetry, they eschewed religious flagellation for worldly celebration. Still, there are some great quotes here. He describes the intense attachments of citizens to their city and quotes one exile who says that if he ever returned he would "go licking the walls all around and every man I meet, weeping for joy." That's civic pride!

Overall this book would be a great read if great chunks of it were excised out.

[Michael Finocchiaro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lauro Martines does an excellent job of describing the pre-Renaissance period in the Italian city-states that led to one of the greatest periods of upheaval and change (and a few more centuries of anarchy in Italy). It is an interesting read and highly suggested to read before visiting cities in central and northern Italy such as Pisa, Florence, Milan, Sienna, etc because it gives you the historical context in which these cities became what they are today and how the period despite the violence everywhere still managed to produce some of western histories greatest artists - da Vinci, Michelangelo, etc.

[James Bechtel · Rating 4 out of 5]

First published in 1979, "Power and Imagination: City-States in Renaissance Italy" by Lauro Martines (Professor of History at UCLA for many years) is quite fascinating. The power part of the title analyzes the rise and diversity of formal political authority in Italy from the eleventh century through the sixteenth century. How was power exercised? How was arbitrary power limited, checked, controlled? (Or was it?) How was authority made legitimate? (Or challenged.) And how was all of that political and economic diversity imagined/interpreted by the people who lived there? How was culture created? A quote from the Preface: "my supreme concern is with relations between dominant social groups (power) and the articulated, formal, refined, or idealizing consciousness of those who speak for the powerful. In this interplay, the workings of the imagination tend to be foremost." Yes, it is an academic work. But very accessible. However, I'm not sure about 5 stars so I will go with 4.5 stars. Think of it as an A-. I have one small quibble concerning his lack of analysis of Jan Van Eyck's double portrait of the betrothal of Giovanni Arnolfini and Giovanna Cenami. He doesn't seem to analyze it. This is my first Lauro Martines book and I have just ordered two more of his books.

[Jo Walton]

Martines is not the most sparkling prose stylist, and he and I disagree about Savonarola. But this is an interesting broad sweep that told me some things I didn't know and made me think a lot. I wouldn't recommend this for a non-specialist, but I think it would be very useful for anyone who wants to think about how people's ideas about what a state is change what a state is over time.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating, but very academic book which I did not realise was actually first published in the 1970s. I think if I had known quite how old it was I would have chosen something else - I do not dispute its excellence of relevance for serious students but for readers like myself who are interested in this period of history but not necessarily in the way a university student is this will be a somewhat frustrating book.

It is not a book for the faint hearted.

[Alex Helling · Rating 3 out of 5]

Power and Imagination by Lauro Martines is subtitled ‘city states in renaissance Italy’ which is quite a good summing up of the book. This is a broad look at the Italian renaissance (from the 11th Century through to the 16th) and how the particular milieu of the city states brought about the developments that the renaissance is famous for. Martines argues the outlook and culture created by living in urban statelets was a vital ingredient.

As a wide ranging book it should be of at least some interest to a lot of people – so long as you have some interest in history! it does not just cover the politics and power in Italy but also the culture, the art and architecture, the literature and philosophy, even the development of language moving from Latin to the vernacular. About the only major area almost entirely missed is science (which for much of this period would have been an extension of philosophy).

While the book covers the areas of art and literature this is done through the prism of culture. So, we do get discussion on the development of art, and of the artists themselves but this is less about the ‘how’ of the shift to incorporating realism and perspective and more about the ‘why’. Why were the artists painting in new styles? It was the drivers of culture, and particularly the desires of patrons – the big powerful courts.

However, its strength of its breadth is also a weakness. To cover all these topics it is thematic rather than a narrative. This almost invariably makes it feel more academic as a result. Something that is exacerbated by being quite dry and by the regular use of lists; of cities, artists, art works, books etc. creating a list of people or works I don’t know helps me not a jot.

I also had gripes with the book. The biggest was where things were not explained, or not explained until some time later with the most notable being the popolo. This is introduced as being the people – incredibly broad. We then get a whole chapter (IV) in which popolo is treated as an individual or office – very confusing! Things are made worse when we are told that there could be nobility into Popolo as well! (p.63) Fortunately we do eventually get a better definition.

It had some odd statements; for example, that mathematics might no longer count as knowledge if humanity were no longer interested in it (p.202). Clearly if no one at all knew any maths there would be no knowledge of it, but the absence of interest from the majority would not mean that those who do still retain the mathematical knowhow would not have knowledge. Or the statement that the as popolani were less inclined to war and the number of mercenaries increased the cost of war rose. A statement that makes no economic sense – less demand, greater supply, should mean falling prices! Martines fails to explain that the nobility who make up these mercenaries had previously been fighting for free for their home city rather than for wages/plunder for other cities.

But the biggest problem for me was the lack of a comparative. So why was Italy different from elsewhere? Why Italy ended up with lots of city states while other regions with similarly urban centres and decentralisation in the early middle ages did not is not explained.

Overall worthwhile if you are interested in how the culture that created the renaissance was born. But a bit of a chore to read and it does require some pre-existing knowledge so not a book for an introduction to the renaissance.

[Don · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title names the essence of this encompassing history of the Italian Renaissance, the interplay between political-economic power and the development of prevailing ideologies (‘imagination’j in northern Italian city-states. Martines provides a thorough summary of the rise of these city-states and the growing dominance of their rural hinterlands, the varieties of struggles between royal, ecclesiastical, and mercantile classes throughout the region, and how the results of such struggles influenced the focus of artists, craftsmen, philosophers, and historians of the time (11th to 16th centuries) that we’ve come to know as the Renaissance. Interesting, deeply researched, well-structured, I found Power and Imagination to be a demanding but rewarding read.

FYI - Previously unfamiliar with the work of Martines, I found this biographical summary a helpful context as I thought back over the book:
https://books.google.com/books?id=012...

[Mark Singer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential history of the Italian Renaissance and the city-states where it happened.

[Carolina Casas · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I've read for one of my classes while doinbg my BA in History. It's magnificent and there's so much you learn from the middle ages and renaissance not just from Italy but in general like where the author describes the repercusions shift from power in different sectors affected the rest of Europe, primarily the cloth industry and agriculture. At the same time you realize how different the Italian states were from the rest of Western Europe, except for military takeovers (and some were permitted and even voted for in times of extreme necessity or advantage of one party over another) most of the Italian states had assemblies or podesta and their guilds had more freedom and representation, however this was flexible and there came a time where voting rights became more and more restrictive.
Illegitimacy in some places was not frowned upon and illegitimate offspring could inherit their fathers' last name and property in some special cases. Women as well had more economic freedom but they still were expected to make a profitable marriage.
Highly recommend this book.

[Ties · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have been fascinated by Italian city states and this book satisfied all my curiosity. It details every aspect of the rise and fall of the Italian city states, the Renaissance and daily (high society) life. Quite dense and sometimes I found the structuring to be confusing. Also, I would have preferred a more matter of fact writing style.

[Victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was with it right up until the transition into the Renaissance proper, at which point my own interpretation of circumstances diverges wildly. Mostly interesting for the generalities of the rise of the medieval communes and the eventual transition into Renaissance states, such as they were.

[Thomas Baughman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought that this was a decent book on Renaissance Italy. Since I am not a specialist in that area, I can't really assess it properly.

[Susan Wyler · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully written, classic study of the Renaissance. Everyone should read this book.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

An introduction to the Italian Renaissance and its socio-economic underpinnings.