Mediaeval Orvieto: The Political History of an Italian City-State 1157-1334

Description

xxv, 170 pages : 23 cm

Originally published in 1952, this study of the medieval Italian city of Orvieto details the growth and survival of the city in a time of great development and political upheaval. Waley charts the city's territorial disputes with the Papacy, the machinations of its various elites and the eventual downfall of its democracy in the face of conquest. This book will be of value to all scholars of medieval Italy in general and of Orvieto specifically.
"The ancient city (urbs vetus in Latin, whence "Orvieto"), populated since Etruscan times, has usually been associated with Etruscan Velzna, but some modern scholars differ. Orvieto was certainly a major centre of Etruscan civilization; the archaeological museum (Museo Claudio Faina e Museo Civico) houses some of the Etruscan artefacts that have been recovered in the immediate neighbourhood. An interesting survival that might show the complexity of ethnic relations in ancient Italy and how such relations could be peaceful, is the inscription on a tomb in the Orvieto Cannicella necropolis: mi aviles katacinas, "I am of Avile Katacina", with an Etruscan-Latin first name (Aulus) and a family name that is believed to be of Celtic ("Catacos") origin."--Wikipedia

Includes bibliographical references (pages 159-164) and index

Cited in the notes of Dominican Penitent Women : The Legend of Giovanna of Orvieto (1264–✝1306; ref:11.1-146). Orvieto "had one of the oldest Dominican convents in Italy, founded in 1220" (ibid. n. 14, ref:20.189), at which St. Thomas Aquinas stayed and preached for 3 years while he finished his Summa contra Gentiles.