Cities in late medieval Europe: the promise and the curse of modernity

Abstract

This article examines how modern historiography has developed quite differentiated views on the way medieval cities have given expression to renewal and to creativity. 'National' traditions have played a highly influential role in modifying the general views articulated in the major syntheses produced by scholars such as Max Weber and Henri Pirenne at the beginning of the twentieth century. An almost jubilant way of looking at the city as the hotbed of modernity gave room, in the decades after the Great War, to pessimism and a negative view on urbanity, before a more nuanced and positive view has been re-established after World War II and in the course of recent paradigmatic changes.

Weber and the European City in the 21st century: Still reality or just a concept?

“…This rationalization means an increase in freedom and individuality (Pohlmann, 1987). But unlike Simmel, who recognized these connections on his walks in contemporary Berlin, Weber saw the process of rationalization already coincide with the emergence of the medieval city (Boone, 2012).…”

Social organizations and political institutions: why China and Europe diverged

“…All the same, these features of urban corporations were of decisive importance when sovereign nations began to develop their political institutions. As Boone (2012, p. 348) states, European towns ‘succeeded in launching a set of social and legal constructs which in the long run did have a fundamental influence in the search for an equilibrium between private interest and the commonwealth, the bonum commune’.…”