Passignano e i Fiorentini (1000-1266): indizi per una lettura politica

This paper outlines the relations between the Passignano monastery (an important centre of religious and seigneurial power in the Florentine territory) and the city of Florence. These relations appear to be fairly regular until the end of the 11th century, when – following a trend noted by Maria Elena Cortese as characterizing the entire Florentine territory – their documentary evidence becomes few and far between. However, at the end of the 12th century these relations return to their former intensity – at this time the city aristocracy was beginning a military and financial conquest of the surrounding contado (countryside). Careful investigation of the prosopographical aspects of these documents reveals that not all the aristocrats were equally involved in relations with the monastery. Indeed, those most involved were the family groups of the political faction that, during the 13th century, came to be known as the pars imperii or Ghibellines. The essay shows how an investigation into the city-state must take into account its sociopolitical complexity, i.e., its existence as a ‘collection of centres’, as opposed to a single locus of power. Hence, no phenomenon, particularly not the relationship between the city and the countryside or the ‘conquest of the contado,’ can be studied scientifically without reference to its political context.