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Signorie in the Light of 21st-Century Historiography
Abstract This article reflects on how the historiography of the 21st century has profoundly changed our knowledge of the signorie that arose in communal Italy. The rethinking has concerned not only the chronology of these lordships, which are now interpreted as a long-lasting phenomenon from the mid-13th to the early 15th century, with a decisive “seigneurial transformation” around 1330. The geography of the signorie can also be better articulated, thanks to the identification of significant experiences in central Italy and notable differences in exercising the arbitrium between the North-East and North-West. Compared to the prevailing interpretations in the 20th century, the institutional consistency (actually absent in many experiences of personal domination) and the coexistence with other powers occupying the urban political space, starting with the commune and the supra-local dominions of the Empire and Anjou, have also been differently framed. The social dimension of the signoria has also been outlined, as the important supporting role of the popular classes in various seigneurial experiences has been recognised.
