ABSTRACT
The study of elites has attracted considerable scholarship in Italy. Arguably Italy had a greater range of social and ruling elites, with more fluidity between them, than in most parts of Europe.1 They were based on power and prestige in the contado or in the city, or in both. As elsewhere they were affected by concepts of nobility, and increasingly so. Before differentiating between Italian elites it should help to consider the attitudes to nobility and status that complicated the groupings.
