ABSTRACT
Throughout the early modern period, Italy had the largest number of major cities in Europe. If one takes 10,000 people as a rather crude dividing line, Italy had at least twenty-nine such cities in 1500, thirty-four in 1600 and forty-five in 1700. The comparable numbers at those dates for France were thirteen, twelve and eight; for the Netherlands twelve, fifteen and eleven, and for England four, five and three cities.1 Over the period Paris, Amsterdam and London grew into very large cities, but so did Naples and Rome (see Appendix). Below the 10,000 figure all western European areas had many communities that can be called urban, on the basis of the diversity of a non-farming economy, and England had many market towns with under 1000 people that might be judged more ‘urban’ than, say, Cosenza at 12,000 in 1600. But within Italy one might claim a community like Altopascio or Poppi as urbanised as well at under 1000 people. As already noted, some large Italian cities declined in size through our period, and in terms of complexity of economic activity within sizeable communities, the Netherlands and England probably grew proportionately more urban. This chapter will concentrate on the top category of cities, and derive evidence from them, but much can apply to some città below that level (see Map 3).
