ABSTRACT

Ancient and late antique authors composed numerous texts devoted to the praise of their cities, a genre known as civic encomium (plural encomia). The glorification of one’s hometown remained popular through the later medieval period, especially in the densely urbanized environment of the Italian peninsula. However, like much that was inherited from the ancient past, the encomium as a genre did not survive wholly intact, but rather - much like spolia of metal or stone - it was reconfigured, repurposed, and reinserted into a variety of textual products to serve or support the medieval urban community. This chapter touches briefly on the genre of the encomium, then traces its echoes through the Italian urban context using a variety of historiographical, hagiographic, epigraphic, literary, and documentary examples. We also consider evidence of both sponsorship and reception to gauge authors’ motivations and the impact of their work, which demonstrates clearly how the urban environment shaped - and in its turn reflected - the medieval Italian experience.