Funzioni urbane e centri polinucleati: un modello per la città altomedievale

Abstract

In the Early Middle Age (6th - 8th century) Italian cities show specific aspects that distinguish them both from earlier
Roman and from later Medieval cities. These aspects allow us to outline a specific city model, characterized by a
decreased difference between urban and rural space, by the importance of its role – as an administrative and religious
center (i.e. an episcopal see) – in the definition as a city, by the division of urban space into residential areas separated
by deserted ones.
This specific urban structure would evolve from the Carolingian age into new forms, leading by the 11th - 12th century
to the flourishing of the later Medieval communal city.