ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the podesta literature opened up the teaching monopoly on the art of rulership, long held by the clergy. The exercise of power started to take on the shape of a profession in the podesta literature. Throughout the Middle Ages, the standard mode of government was the monarchy. The king’s power was, however, not absolute. He was expected to exercise his power properly. Kingship was thought of as an art – an art to be taught and learned. The clergy long held a monopoly on the teaching of this art of rulership, providing moral advice and political guidance to kings in their advice books commonly known as mirrors-for-princes. Republican government constituted the proverbial exception to the principle of monarchical rule. In the highly urbanized areas of northern and central Italy, collective self-government emerged at the end of the eleventh century and came to institutional maturity in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
