This study analyzes the once great medieval Tuscan capital of Lucca's struggle for survival at the beginning of the fifteenth century. This was the age of the rise of regional states in Italy, and the expansionistic aims of Milan, Florence and others were a constant challenge to city-states such as Lucca which desired a political and cultural status quo. Yet, it was a challenge that was successfully met; unlike Pisa, Siena, Perugia, and various other major Tuscan cities, Lucca did not succumb to Milanese or Florentine aggression in the early Quattrocento. Why it did not is a major topic of discussion here. One of the means in which the Lucchese faced the new political and military realities of the time was the establishment of a monarchial system of government in the signoria of Paolo Guinigi (r. 1400-1430). The Guinigi Signoria was not characterized by the use of intimidation and violence, but rather by clientage, kinship and neighborhood bonds, marriage alliances, and the general consent of the people. Paolo garnered the consent of the people at first because his wealth allowed him to protect Lucca and its contado to a greater extent than would have been possible otherwise, and because of his family's long ties with the powerful Visconti of Milan; he held it later because he provided the city-state with capable leadership. This study extends the evidence of recent scholars that every Italian Renaissance city was unique based on its particular geography, alliances, civic wealth, and a number of other factors. Lucca in the period of Paolo Guinigi, a monarchy in the setting of one of the traditionally most republican cities of Italy, provides a most interesting example. “Civic humanism,” for example, has a decidedly different slant in Lucca than elsewhere, and is best exemplified in the figure of Giovanni Sercambi. This study also provides new perspectives from which to view Florence and Milan during the period of “crisis” at the beginning of the fifteenth century, and thus contributes to the mass of scholarship concerning the Baron thesis.

Lo scopo di questo lavoro è realizzare uno studio interdisciplinare sul rapporto tra Milano e i regimi succedutisi alla sua guida nel basso medioevo. Il punto di partenza è il principio, largamente diffuso nella storiografia, che sistemi di governo diversi plasmino lo spazio in maniera differente. L’analisi dello spazio urbano così ottenuta, però, può essere arricchita dall’uso di strumenti della geografia culturale. La città, tema tra i più importanti e complessi della cultura occidentale, è infatti il luogo di incontro naturale tra storia e geografia culturale: è il luogo in cui si svolge la storia, ma più di un semplice palcoscenico. Le caratteristiche del fenomeno urbano trovano massima espressione nel caso di Milano, che presenta una storia di primissimo piano tradottasi in una struttura urbana dalle forme assolutamente peculiari. Sia al suo interno sia verso l’esterno (per la sua capacità di plasmare il territorio, agendo sull’ambiente naturale e modellandolo in base alle proprie necessità, ribaltando le logiche del determinismo ambientale). Combinando gli strumenti propri della geografia culturale con quelli della ricerca storica, si ottiene la possibilità di usare la città stessa e le sue rappresentazioni come documento, affiancando all’analisi degli eventi storici lo studio della valenza simbolica di tali realizzazioni. / This work is aimed to create an interdisciplinary study on the relationship between Milan and its polical regimes in the late Middle Ages. The starting point is the principle, widely used in historiography, that different systems of government produce space differently. The analysis of urban space thus obtained, however, can be improved using instruments from cultural geography. The city - one of the most important and complex topics in Western culture - is the meeting place of the natural history and cultural geography: it is the place where the story takes place, but more than just a stage. Milan is the perfect example of city: it has a history of the first order which turned into an urban structure of absolutely peculiar shape. Both internally and externally (for its ability to shape the territory, by acting on the natural and modeling it to suit your needs, reversing the logic of environmental determinism). Combining the tools of cultural geography with those of historical research, you get the opportunity to use the city itself and its representations as a document, supporting the analysis of historical events, the study of the symbolic value of such achievements.

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