Marco Gentile
I was born and raised in Milan, Italy. After graduating in Medieval History from the State University of Milan, I was awarded a PhD in Historical Studies from the University of Trent in 2003. In 2005 I was appointed Dombrowski Fellow in History at Villa I Tatti, the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies. From 2006 to 2010 I have been a Research Fellow in History at the State University of Milan. I have been a Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford during Michaelmas and Hilary Terms, academic year 2016/17. Since December 2010 I have been teaching at the University of Parma, where at present I am associate professor of Medieval History, and since January 2020 Head of the BA in Humanities (Lettere). I am a member of the editorial boards of "Società e storia", of "Medievalismo. Boletín de la Sociedad Española de Estudios Medievales" and of "Lombardia nel Rinascimento".
Supervisors: Giorgio Chittolini (MA, State University of Milan 1999), Letizia Arcangeli (MA, Gian Maria Varanini (PhD, and State University of Trent 2003)
Phone: +39 0521032248
Address: Dipartimento di Discipline Umanistiche, Sociali e delle Imprese Culturali
Università di Parma
Strada Massimo D'Azeglio, 85
43125 Parma
Italy
http://www.unipr.it/ugov/person/101444
Supervisors: Giorgio Chittolini (MA, State University of Milan 1999), Letizia Arcangeli (MA, Gian Maria Varanini (PhD, and State University of Trent 2003)
Phone: +39 0521032248
Address: Dipartimento di Discipline Umanistiche, Sociali e delle Imprese Culturali
Università di Parma
Strada Massimo D'Azeglio, 85
43125 Parma
Italy
http://www.unipr.it/ugov/person/101444
less
InterestsView All (75)
Uploads
Books by Marco Gentile
La ricostruzione analitica della società politica parmense del XV secolo consente di procedere oltre la tradizionale visione storiografica dei partiti tardomedievali come portatori di insensata violenza, evidenziando come il disordine abbia le sue regole; e permette al tempo stesso di mettere in discussione il concetto di fazione come aggregato informale e fluido trasmessa agli storici del tardo medioevo e della prima età moderna dall’antropologia e dalla sociologia post-strutturaliste.
L’indagine mette a fuoco una pluralità di forme e di livelli d’azione dei gruppi politicizzati: le quattro «squadre», partiti cittadini dotati di un alto profilo istituzionale e stabilmente legati ai potenti casati signorili del contado; le «conventicole e sette», reticoli informali e lobbies che si coagulano intorno ad obiettivi aperti e chiusi nell’ombra dei giochi cortigiani e sulla grande scena del sistema degli stati italiani; le vecchie ma sempre incombenti metafazioni dei guelfi e dei ghibellini, ancora disponibili in pieno Quattrocento per chi sappia sfruttarne a fini politici il grande potenziale simbolico e l’intatta capacità di ridestare solidarietà antiche e profonde.
Articles by Marco Gentile
of political crisis, also show that traditional practices such as planting trees and collecting leafy branches at the beginning of May were equally common in town and country. The analysis of the rich materials provided by the Carteggio sforzesco brings to surface practices which we get to know because the context was considered politically or criminally relevant by the actors or by the public authority: which confirms once more the heuristic value of conflict, as well as the need to nuance our understanding of the urban and rural environment as rigidly separated cultural contexts, and to rethink and complicate the very concept of popular culture.
and political theorists who conceded the legitimacy of factional division as a means to good government. References to the natural belonging to a faction, which was never completely independent from individual free will, are particularly abundant in Lombardy under the Visconti
and the Sforza. Built around a stock of examples drawn from chronicles, theoretical treatises and pragmatic political texts, the essay charts a history of this concept, later dismissed during the sixteenth century, with the fall of the regional state and its inclusion in broader political
structures.
La ricostruzione analitica della società politica parmense del XV secolo consente di procedere oltre la tradizionale visione storiografica dei partiti tardomedievali come portatori di insensata violenza, evidenziando come il disordine abbia le sue regole; e permette al tempo stesso di mettere in discussione il concetto di fazione come aggregato informale e fluido trasmessa agli storici del tardo medioevo e della prima età moderna dall’antropologia e dalla sociologia post-strutturaliste.
L’indagine mette a fuoco una pluralità di forme e di livelli d’azione dei gruppi politicizzati: le quattro «squadre», partiti cittadini dotati di un alto profilo istituzionale e stabilmente legati ai potenti casati signorili del contado; le «conventicole e sette», reticoli informali e lobbies che si coagulano intorno ad obiettivi aperti e chiusi nell’ombra dei giochi cortigiani e sulla grande scena del sistema degli stati italiani; le vecchie ma sempre incombenti metafazioni dei guelfi e dei ghibellini, ancora disponibili in pieno Quattrocento per chi sappia sfruttarne a fini politici il grande potenziale simbolico e l’intatta capacità di ridestare solidarietà antiche e profonde.
of political crisis, also show that traditional practices such as planting trees and collecting leafy branches at the beginning of May were equally common in town and country. The analysis of the rich materials provided by the Carteggio sforzesco brings to surface practices which we get to know because the context was considered politically or criminally relevant by the actors or by the public authority: which confirms once more the heuristic value of conflict, as well as the need to nuance our understanding of the urban and rural environment as rigidly separated cultural contexts, and to rethink and complicate the very concept of popular culture.
and political theorists who conceded the legitimacy of factional division as a means to good government. References to the natural belonging to a faction, which was never completely independent from individual free will, are particularly abundant in Lombardy under the Visconti
and the Sforza. Built around a stock of examples drawn from chronicles, theoretical treatises and pragmatic political texts, the essay charts a history of this concept, later dismissed during the sixteenth century, with the fall of the regional state and its inclusion in broader political
structures.
From 1355 on L’Aquila it was ruled by a Reggimento ad Arti based on guilds and quarters: this system was different from the other cities of the Kingdom, whose councils were divided between 'nobiles' and 'populares'. During the fifteenth century, a larger council called 'cerna' was also elected. The local mercantile élite controlled the decision-making process and the civic offices without any strict regulations, and with the support of Pietro Lalle Camponeschi, count of Montorio. As a faction leader, his influence on the urban government was very heavy. During the 15th century, the Camponeschi faction had not acted in the civic institutions as a structured group. When in 1485 the Camponeschi lost their power to the new rival Gaglioffi faction, Pietro Lalle dumped his traditional allegiance and became pro-Aragonese with the support of the urban élite. Since then, factional allegiance became in practice a way to exclude citizens from government.
From the Angevins to the Popes: Ruling Classes and Political Participation in Avignon (Late Thirteenth to Fourteenth Centuries) (Simone Balossino)
Between the thirteenth and the fourteenth century, Avignon and its region underwent dramatic change during the transition from the communal regime to the rule of the Kings of Naples and to the papal government, which brought about the residence in the city of the Popes and their Curia from 1348. Social and political change in the city was also determined by the fast growth of the population. The city’s changing demography, particularly during the fourteenth century, contributed to the shaping of a particular urban physiognomy. Fourteenth century Avignon was characterized by the presence of several groups of foreigners, belonging to different nationalities. For a consistent number of them, the settlement became permanent and implied the involvement in politics at local level. This paper analyses the appearance of new social groups characterised by a growing political consciousness, and focuses on the relationship between political participation and social change.
Patron-Client Relations and Changes in the Castilian Political Society during the Fifteenth Century (María Ángeles Martín-Romera)
Many Castilian cities were ruled by factions of urban knights called Linajes. The Linajes have been extensively studied from an institutional perspective, regarding their relation with conflicts or stressing the local particularities from each city. However, despite their central role in the social history of the kingdom‘s urban elites, little has been said about the transformation of the Linajes during the Late Middle Ages and its connection with the Revolt of the Comuneros in 1520. In previous works I have proposed an explanatory model of the decline of the Linajes based on the passage from a collective system to a patron-client one. This paper analyses that process in several Castilian cities and its different consequences in the oligarchy’s composition, representative role and legitimacy. Finally, it addresses the connection between those changes and the rise of the commoner’s demands at the end of this period.