A Reading of the Relationship between Cities, Manufacturing Crafts and Guilds in Early Modern Italy

Ever since the late Middle Ages, the city had a particular importance in Italy and the dynamic character of the phenomenon had far-reaching consequences. The pressures on the surrounding contado were such that the countryside penetrated the city and the city permeated the countryside, in this way justifying Carlo Cattaneo's observation that the 'the city formed an inseparable body with its territory' .1Nonetheless, even the lives of the Italian cities had their phases.