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

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.