Fines, termini et limites. Boundaries in the formation of the Florentine state

Abstract

In the growth and development of the Florentine State, since the end of the thirteenth century at least, the increasing attention towards boundaries is proved by the more marked linear character of the limits, in opposition to the zonal dimension of boundary spaces: thus, where it was possible, boundaries would be identified with the course of a road. Florence was claiming the extension of its dominion in front of the surrounding jurisdictional, institutional and politic situations, aiming at a legitimation that found its actual expression on the ground and that, when possible, was the result of mutual agreements, as we see from the two fourteenth century agreements with the Commune of Bologna we analyse here. The conduct adopted by the Florentine Commune in the mapping out of the outer boundaries seems to have been applied inside the town comitatus as well. In this area the communal expansion had left the pre-existing territorial divisions (communes, plebati etc.) nearly unchanged, adjusting the communal institutional, administrative and jurisdictional exigencies to them: it was basically a design that had to be preserved and improved. Thus, more and more frequently – as in the 1338 case we analyse here, concerning two communities near Florence – a neat delimitation drawn out on the ground was both an attempt to get over local quarrels with neighbour universitates and a guarantee for a stable lay out of the Florentine territorial organization as a whole.