RISE OF ITALIAN COMMUNES IN 11-12TH C.

   Society: 11th C. cities dominated by nobility
       nobles: military, landowning class, urban
       citizens (cives):         guild members
          non-noble property holders (merchants);
       popolino (little people)
         majority poorer urban dwellers: servants, day laborers,

   Republican city states: representative self-government
        transfer of power from feudal ruler (Bishop, Counts)

   COMMUNE:  Italian for Latin res publica (public thing)
       association of free men collectively holding some public authority
      
   CONSULS:  permanent body of elected citizen executives
               extension of authority over the contado (countryside)
     Phases of the Italian commune:
     11th C. Consular commune: dominated by noble families
              Age of the Towers: built by noble families for urban warfare
     12th C. Podesta: outsider (nobleman with law degree)
                 brought as executive  for specific period (1-2 years)
     12-13th C. Rise of the popolo:  guild regimes
 
Emperor Frederick II (1220-50) Hohenstaufen dynasty:
      asserts Imperial power in Sicily and Italy

Florentine factions: background to Dante
         Guelfs (papacy) versus  Ghibellines (Empire)       

 Florentine factions: 1248-1265 urban civil war:
     Guelfs (papacy) versus  Ghibellines (Empire)
     Ghibellines (Uberti faction) level towers of Guelf enemies = origins of 
GUELF ALLIANCE: Papacy, France, Guelf city states; anti-Imperial focus  
       (note similarities to early Franco-Papal alliance against Lombards)

GUILD REGIME in FLORENCE 1282-1434: l
       new office of priors elected for short 2 month terms (mistrust of officials)
       priors elected from 21 guilds (7 greater guilds, 14 lesser guilds)
               must be master craftsmen paying designated amount of taxes 

  Anti-noble agenda: 1289 serfdom abolished in Florentine countryside by popolo
       1293 Ordinances of Justice: exclude nobility from office holding because of
              history of noble violence; only guild members eligible for office
       1295 lesser nobility permitted to register in guild to get political rights
  Factional split: BLACK GUELFS versus WHITE GUELFS: origins in family disputes
       Black Guelfs: older Guelf aristocracy closely allied with Papacy (Corso Donati)
       White Guelfs: newer families, money from banking and trade (Vieri dei Cerchi)
                       accused of pro-Imperial Ghibelline leanings by their opponents
       1300 leaders of both factions exiled by Priors in effort to calm situation

1301 POPE BONIFACE VIII sends Charles of Valois (French noble) to end conflict
       Blacks put in power;
       Whites condemned as Ghibellines, exiled, property taken
       exiles include Dante Alighieri; Petrarch's father (notary, goes to Avignon)
          Dante on exile: "how lonely is the going up and down of others' stairs."