Available:*
Library | Item Barcode | Call Number | Material Type | Item Category 1 | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... | 30000002060808 | NA9053.N4 F74 1988 | Open Access Book | Book | Searching... |
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Summary
Summary
Winner, Alice Davis Hitchcock Award, Society of Architectural Historians. The city of Florence came late to the process of town foundation that reshaped Europe at the end of the Middle Ages, yet the five towns it created are the most complex and artistically accomplished of the entire new town tradition. Florentine New Townsis an original and comprehensive study of an important episode in late Medieval urbanism. It uncovers the root of urban phenomena familiar since the Renaissance but shown here to have developed much earlier. On the basis of archival evidence unknown for any other medieval founded towns, Friedman demonstrates that the Tuscan new towns of San Giovanni, Castelfranco di Sopra, Terranuova, Scarperia, and Firenzuola were created by men recognized as professional designers by 14th-century Florence. He identifies them and analyzes their design process, including the geometry of sines and chords on which two of the new towns are based. During the period from 1299 to 1350 when Florence undertook its foundation of towns, it was in the process of a transformation that was central to the formation of the modern European city. This was a time when the merchant class gained control of government and when government took charge of the physical environment of the city. A new urban ideal emerged, Friedman points out, that was only partly realized in Florence but which found its fullest expression in the planners' comprehensive schemes for these new towns. David Friedman is Associate Professor of History in the Architecture Department at MIT. An Architectural History Foundation Book.
Reviews 1
Choice Review
Friedman's detailed study of five towns established by the Florentine commune in the rural surroundings of that city during the first half of the 14th century is the first extensive study in English of this subject and is very valuable. Separate chapters are devoted to the plans of the towns, the models of those plans, the geometrical design of the plans, the character of the planners, and finally the social and political context of the new towns as elements in the urban development of the Florentine state. Friedman is very original and erudite, effectively combining historical and art historical methods and sources and drawing upon a wide variety of archival sources. The book contains ample illustrations, references, bibliography, and transcriptions of important documents. It gives important insight into the special character of late medieval towns, so different from the ancient cities to which they are often compared. Indeed the author shows that although both ancient and medieval towns shared rectangular layouts and orthagonal planning, they differ radically in proportion, location of buildings, and other important features. Friedman also effectively contrasts the Florentine new towns' use of the central square for civic ceremonial with the use of the central space for market elsewhere in Europe. Of interest to advanced undergraduate and graduate students, and faculty interested in late medieval art, architecture, and society. -L. Nees, University of Delaware
