‎Kim Sexton‎
‎Loggia in Italian Communes. Architecture and Visual Regimes in Late Medieval Republics‎

‎, Brepols, 2026 Paperback, Pages: 198, Size:216 x 280 mm, Illustrations:69 b/w, 18 col., Language: English. ISBN 9782503617510.‎

Reference : 70619

‎Summary In this book, Kim Sexton offers a cultural history of loggias and their role in modernizing late medieval urban life in north and central Italy. In a narrative organized thematically around seismic ideological shifts in republican city-states from circa 1100 to 1400, she demonstrates that the loggia-a compact and refined form of portico-was much more than a convenient shelter on public squares and streets. Not only did loggias offer protection and adornment to both casual gatherings and ceremonial events, but they also functioned as societal tools that facilitated the collective validation of changing mores. Sexton argues that the increasingly monumental loggias commissioned by Italian communes for civic, commercial, and social settings reflects the influence of three secularizing trends: the process of political legitimation in self-governing, proto-capitalistic states, which required innovative, yet prestigious architectural forms to mediate unaccustomed rituals; the development of visual regimes that steered observers toward looking upon and remembering select public activities in a favorable light; and the rise of sophisticated temporal programs of ornament that rivaled ecclesiastical art in rhetorical force. Sexton further argues that both art and architectural historians can benefit from understanding the power of built form to exhibit human interaction, not only because loggias did so in a way that made architecture and spectacle seem indivisible and semi-pictorial, but also because a multi-disciplinary approach allows these highly elaborated spaces of encounter to emerge as key elements in theorizing the late medieval Italian city.????? TABLE OF CONTENTS List of illustrations Acknowledgements List of abbreviations Introduction: Seeing Loggias Utilitarian Shelters and Instruments of Social Change Framing the Loggia Overview of the Chapters Chapter 1: Justice Laubiae in Carolingian and Ottonian Italy The Social Landscape of Early Modern Loggias in Italy Chapter 2: Law Early Communes and the Challenges of Self-Governance Northern Church Porticoes at the Dawn of the Communal Era Podestas and Northern Communal Loggias Milan's Loggia degli Osii Loggias and Mobile Urbanites in Milan Loggias, Imaging, and Memory Loggias and Communal Government in Rome Early Seggi in the Kingdom of Naples Chapter 3: Money Medieval Cultures of the Coin The Loggia of the Merchants in Venice The Loggia of the Merchants as a Social Tool Banking Porticoes: The Campo S. Giacomo at the Rialto Affective Urbanism and Venice's Money Loggias Merchant Courts and Later Loggias Chapter 4: Play Opening Space for Public Leisure Communal Leisure: Treviso's Loggia dei Cavalieri Class Segregation and Loggia Sociability Urban Environments and Loggias for Play Picture Perfect Leisure Class, Gender, and the Social Space of Leisure The Scourge of Gambling Chapter 5: Politics Republican Ideologies and Civic Loggias The Framing of Republican Rituals in Florence Civic Loggias as Symbols of Liberty The Urban Calculus in Central Italy Loggia Performances: A Citizen's View The Civic Loggia as Review Stand Picturing Civic Loggias in Central Italy The Loggia dei Lanzi's Sculptural Program Cross Currents Conclusion Bibliography Index‎