The Medieval commune in Italian historical-legal textbooks: autonomy, pluralism and legal practices

This essay provides an overview of the descriptive models typically found in Italian legal history handbooks regarding the medieval Commune. While traditional texts often presented a linear or teleological narrative of urban growth, recent scholarly interest has triggered a significant ‘revival’ and a reappraisal of these conventional paradigms on multiple levels. The study incorporates innovative interpretations – such as Chris Wickham’s “sleepwalkers” theory – while confirming the utility of traditional syntheses for didactic and introductory purposes. Furthermore, the contribution of legal history remains fundamental for interpreting the Commune as a “legal order” (ordinamento giuridico), operating within a context characterised by normative and institutional pluralism, the centrality of social practices, and the role of jurists in both legal science and practice. Finally, the essay revisits the longstanding influence of the medieval communal experience, which has been adopted as a “founding myth” of Italian civil identity and, more recently, is viewed as a dynamic precursor to the complex multi-level legal architecture of the European Union.