Waterfront Design in Small Mediterranean Port Towns

An introduction to the life of towns and cities in the medieval period, this book shows how medieval towns grew to become important centers of trade and liberty. Beginning with a l...

In the twilight of the Renaissance, the grand duke of Tuscany—a scion of the fabled Medici family of bankers—invited foreign merchants, artisans, and ship captains to settle in his...

The political narrative of late medieval English towns is often reduced to the story of the gradual intensification of oligarchy, in which power was exercised and projected by an e...

Abstract Faith in the Town explores the ways in which religious faith affected the lives of men, women, and children in the increasingly urban and industrialized con...

This article describes the origins of Africa; the ‘First Great Transition’ of human history from foraging to food production; the era of agricultural elaboration; the ‘Second Great...

This chapter is historiographical and conceptual in focus. It explores and critiques the paradigm of urban oligarchy, which has exercised a profound influence upon the history of l...

This chapter investigates the character of the chartered towns in Roman Britain, their mature form in the late second/early third centuries, and the social use of urban space. It e...