ABSTRACT

The rise of the cities in Europe in the tenth and twelfth centuries marked a turning point in the history of the West-and, for that matter, of the whole world.

Towns had prospered and proliferated in the Greco-Roman world, but the decline of the Empire brought with it their ruin. In a letter dated AD381 Ambrose, bishop of Milan, described the towns of central Italy as “semirutarum urbium cadavera”—remains of half-ruined cities. If some urban centers survived, their role was simply that of headquarters of religious and/ or military administrations. In the primitive world of the Dark Ages, the city was an anachronism.