The Growth of the Medieval City

The first part of David Nicholas's two-volume study of the medieval city, traces the slow regeneration of urban life in the early medieval period. He shows where and how an urban tradition had survived from late antiquity, and when and why new urban communities began to form where there was no such continuity. He then charts the different types and functions of the medieval city, its interdependence with the surrounding countryside, and its often difficult relations with secular authority. The book concludes with the critical changes of the late thirteenth century in the urban network.