A History of Siena From its Origins to the Present Day

A History of Siena provides a concise and up-to-date biography of the city, from its ancient and medieval developmentup to the present day, and makes Siena’s history, culture, and traditions accessible to anyone studying or visiting the city. Well informed by archival research and recent scholarship on medieval Siena and the Italian city-states, this book places Siena’s development in its larger context, both temporally and geographically. In the process, this book offers new interpretations of Siena’s artistic, political, and economic development, highlighting in particular the role of pilgrimage, banking, and class conflict. The second half of the book provides an important analysis of the historical development of Siena’s nobility, its unique system of neighborhood associations (contrade) and the race of the Palio, as well as an overview of the rise and fall of Siena’s troubled bank, the Monte dei Paschi. This book is accessible to undergraduates and tourists, while also offering plenty of new insights for graduate students and scholars of all periods of Sienese history.

Acknowledgements Introduction Part I: From the Origins of Siena to the Fall of the Sienese Republic Chapter 1: The Origins of Siena From the Etruscans to the Romans Lombard and Carolingian Siena Chapter 2: Urban Development and the Formation of the Sienese State (1000-1260) The Rise of Siena The Economic Boom of the Early Thirteenth Century The Growth of the Sienese State Chapter 3: Siena’s Golden Age: Montaperti and Good Government (1260-1355) Montaperti and Its Aftermath Santa Maria della Scala and Siena’s Principal Institutions The Government of the Nine (1287-1355) The Artistic Legacy of the Nine The Fall of the Nine Chapter 4: Renaissance Siena and the Fall of the Republic (1355-1555) A fifty-year crisis: 1355-1404 Siena in the 1400s: Consensus and Stability Siena’s Political System in the Fifteenth Century The Renaissance in Siena: Culture and the Arts, Society and the Contrade From Pandolfo Petrucci to the War for Siena (1487-1555) Part II: From the Age of the Medici to the Present Day Chapter 5: The Age of the Medici (1557-1737) An Intelligent Compromise The New, Broad Sienese Nobility Beside a Changing Nobility: Monte dei Paschi and the Surroundings The Contrade and the Palio in Early Modern Siena Festivals and Culture from Prince Mattias to Violante of Bavaria The Twilight of the Medici Age Chapter 6: From the Enlightenment to the World Wars (1723-1945) Hard Times? The Reforms of the Lorena Family The Co-management of the Monte dei Paschi and the Modern Commune (1787): Among Nobles and Contrade French Lights and Shadows: Viva Maria! The Lorena Family in the Age of Restoration (1814-1859) Social and Economic Concerns in Nineteenth-Century Siena Unification Strengthens the Civic Dream Substantial Developments in the New Century From the "Red Biennium" to the Triumph of Fascism Chapter 7: Siena From WWII to the Present Day The Postwar Economic Boom The Magnificent 1990s: Synthesis of a Civilization The Fall of Monte dei Paschi Siena Today Index

Mario Ascheri, a former professor at the University of Rome 3, Italy, has written extensively on institutions, law, and justice in the Middle Ages and on Italian supreme courts in early modern history. He is a former member of the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and is asenior fellow of the Robbins Collection Library (Law School, University of California, Berkeley, USA), and doctor h.c. of the Université de l'Auvergne (Clermont-Ferrand), France. Author and editor of hundreds of books and articles on Siena, Dr. Ascheri was awarded the prestigious Sienese award, the Mangia d'oro, in 2003. Bradley Franco is Associate Professor of Ancient and Medieval History at the University of Portland, USA, and is the author of numerous publications focusing on religion, community, family, and power in late medieval Siena. He has also published extensively on Franciscan studies and organized the first ever International Conference for Franciscan Studies in Siena in 2015. Along with Dr. Ascheri, Dr. Franco is a proud member of the contrada of Onda.