Description
Since the mid-thirteenth century the presence of the mendicant orders becomes a characterizing element of the medieval city. This increasingly widespread phenomenon, which progressively consolidated in the following decades, reaching its apex during the fourteenth century, provokes a heated debate within the conventual communities on whether or not to erect lasting and monumental complexes in urban contexts.
The subsequent construction of a significant multitude of convents in the Italian peninsula deeply affects the artistic and architectural choices with innovative solutions that will be replicated, with appropriate local variations, in a large territorial context. The growth of the European city between the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries will be deeply affected by the presence of mendicant convents, determining the expansion of some areas, the residential and demographic increase in others, the transformation of the historical fabric close to the main urban, religious and political poles.
This volume, the result of the interdisciplinary and international research project, The medieval city. The city of friars | Medieval city. City of the friars, supported by various bodies and institutions, offers multiple approaches and skills useful to shed light on the complexity and richness of one of the most significant religious experiences of the medieval and early modern age.
In collaboration with SAMI, Società degli Archeologi Medievisti Italiani
