Community and Clientele in Twelfth-Century Tuscany: The Origins of the Rural Commune in the Plain of Lucca

This book investigates a gap in Italian historiography by examining rural rather than city communes. Wickham's discussion of a group of villages around Lucca is the first detailed study of the origin of organized village communities in Italy to appear in over 70 years. It shows how the 12th-century social and political structures of the countryside ran alongside those of the city.