Governing and Building the City (1200-1600)

Mirrors-for-Magistrates as a lieu for theoretical reflection on architecture

Project information

The study of late medieval architectural theory in a European context presents methodological challenges, as the rise of architectural theory as a discipline is primarily linked to the emergence of the architectural treatise as a literary genre in the Italian Renaissance. Historians of architectural theory have mainly studied these treatises, as their authors chose to theorize architecture as an independent discipline and practice. Apart from treatises, other writings on how to make architecture, providing guidelines for design and construction (such as building manuals), are continuously being included in the corpus, suggesting these too present theories on what architecture is and how it should be made. However, architecture was also discussed in other texts, submerging it in discussions on politics, ethics or religion.

In such texts, architecture is not discussed as an independent discipline, defined by its own internal principles of good practice, but as something that can serve an end, external to itself. Historians of architectural theory, focusing on geographical areas both North and South of the Alps, have started to turn to these texts, recognizing these too present theories on architecture, even if (and especially because) this theoretical reflection is subordinate to, or in function of, other political, moral, religious… questions. This project furthers this emerging tradition, proposing to study political advice books, addressed to urban magistrates (such as citizens, alderman, mayors) for the theories they present about architecture.

The project specifically turns to this kind of literature, variously called Stadtsregimentslehre, Ratsliteratur, or Mirrors for Magistrates in contemporary scholarship, along with other sources. It is primarily concerned with how the built environment of the city was conceived and shaped in relation to questions of good governance during the late medieval period. The Italian Peninsula, the Low Countries, and the German Lands, between 1200 and 1600, will be the main focus of our study. During this period, cities across these regions not only developed into flourishing entities governed by rulers with overlapping and complicated jurisdictions, but citizens, aldermen, mayors, and other social groups also actively engaged in shaping the physical environment of the city. In other words, focusing on this period also provides the opportunity to study whether and how the ideas discussed in the texts were reflected in the built environment. Incorporating an approach from the Digital Humanities, the project will also engage digital tools to perform text analysis and study the built environment of cities.

The project thus aims to study how the built environment of the city was theorized in relation to questions on good governance in the late medieval period. It also aims, more broadly, to extend the body of sources relevant to the study of architectural theory for the period 1200-1600; to explore the interactions between concepts developed within political theories on urban governance and architectural theories on the city; to broaden our knowledge of the socio-political function attributed to architectural patronage and design in a certain historical context; and to create new criteria and methods to discuss architectural theories comparatively between different geographical regions. The project considers the urban realm as a specific microcosmos in which ideas (and ideals) on the social, political and physical structure of the city cannot be separated from one another.