ABSTRACT

Gaston Bachelard has commented that the opposition between inside and outside 'has the sharpness of the dialectics of yes and no, which decides everything', and may even be seen 'in terms of being and non-being'. The fundamental opposition between inside and outside identified by Bachelard finds a clear reflection in the typical structures and mentalities of the medieval city. It is immediately apparent that such ethnocentrism is characteristic of Western Europe during the Middle Ages in general, and of the urban societies of Northern and Central Italy during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in particular. A similar mixture of civic and religious traditions was epitomized in the celebrations taking place on the feast-day of the city's patron saint, which could also serve to reinforce the distinction between insiders and outsiders. Life in a medieval Italian city necessarily implied a sense of 'belonging', the identification of the individual citizen with all those living within the city-wall.