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My thesis investigates the dynamics which made it possible for the conflict-ridden polities of late communal-age Italy (c.1250-1350) to keep the peace and experience relative political stability, using Bologna and its surrounding countryside (contado) in c.1265-1307 as case study. The aim is to analyse the ways in which European and Mediterranean late-medieval polities could function in what was a period of unprecedented institutional and legal growth, but also one of deepening pluralism and rising inequality. By doing so, my thesis addresses a number of key debates linked to the study of this important historical period. These are the question of the relationship between the growth and development of polities and the control of 'private' violence; and the ways in which new administrative, legal, and judicial developments - but also the circulation of new intellectual ideas - affected the functioning of society and its internal power relations. As I argue, deeply divided late-medieval polities could actually achieve an internal balance which secured peaceful coexistence between enemy families and factions. During these periods, civic governments managed to carry out more or less coherent political programmes. This was not only the consequence of new advances in the fields of law , bureaucracy , and administration, but it was also - and mainly - possible thanks to formal and informal collaboration between different sections of society. In particular, I demonstrate the existence of a restricted network made of 161 elite urban families whose members appeared in a mediating capacity in thousands of disputes and in the most delicate conflicts. This system of peace-keeping also came at a cost, however, as it produced many side-effects and did not completely eradicate the problem of internecine divisions. The underlying argument is that the growth of public institutions around 1300 did not replace an older political system made of interpersonal relations but, rather, was built onto it.

This thesis interrogates material sources from the fifth and sixth centuries to come to a nuanced understanding of what implications the association of Christianity and Romanness had for the conduct of late antique Christians'. I argue that Christian art and material culture shows us that in their lived religious practices, Christians treated Roman cultural techniques and Roman spaces, which high-ranking church representatives considered un-Christian or even pagan, as parts of Christian culture. The thesis demonstrates that very diverse Christian groups, some located on the rural edges of the Western Mediterranean and others in one of its imperial centres, Ravenna, allowed Roman visual culture, and even pre-Christian cult spaces, to shape baptismal art and architecture. Whether these manifestations of Romanness had an impact on Christian beliefs, i.e. their orthodoxy, can be shown by analyzing material culture only with great difficulty. Roman-Christian material culture does provide evidence, however, that late antique Christians privileged keeping Roman traditions alive over contemporary scholarship considers correct Christian conduct. Roman cultural techniques, officially deemed un-Christian, appear in the material record, and suggest that individual communities' understandings of permissible and orthodox ways of performing Christianity were influenced by the cultural landscapes that surrounded them.

This thesis focuses on the representation of time within the diagrams of Opicinus de Canistris, a cleric working in the scriptorium of the Avignon Papacy from 1329, who created a collection of fifty-two large, highly complex, unbound drawings (BAV, MS Pal. Lat. 1993). The intimidating volume and variety of information which each image displays, amalgamating amongst other elements maps, calendars, astrological tables and theological hierarchies, led their twentieth-century interpreters to conclude that Opicinus was insane. This has been to the detriment of a properly historicised interpretation of his drawings. The dissertation shows that the calendrical and cartographic features of these pictures are neither ornamental nor vague allegories of temporality and geography, but methodically constructed and meticulously measured instruments. By focusing on the calendars of the Palatinus, it demonstrates how Opicinus incorporated and creatively configured new sources, temporal and theological, derived principally from the Avignon papal court, into representations of time in order to create unique cosmologies which sought to visualise, and so better to comprehend, the metaphysical themes of time, space and God. In addition to elucidating a selection of Opicinus's neglected drawings, they are contextualised here in order to illustrate their value to the study of medieval visual culture. Their comparison to other sources made in Avignon shows how a particular type of diagram, which used technological renderings of time and space for an essentially theological purpose, was characteristic of the Avignon court. This indicates that Opicinus's drawings, in their form and content, were made in response to a discussion at the court concerning the shape of the cosmos and the place of the Church within it. Their interpretation also contributes to larger questions concerning the changing perception of time and function of diagrams in the fourteenth century, whilst demonstrating how the history of technology can inform the study of visual culture.

This thesis presents seven large thirteenth-century single and multiple piece roll manuscripts (the Rotoli figurati) held at the Archivio Capitolare of the cathedral of S. Eusebio in Vercelli. In the process of presenting these documents, and arguments for their dating and provenance in the city of Vercelli, I contend that they should be examined as a group because of their distinctive shared qualities, particularly their unusual format, and their communication of complex forms of knowledge through ordered systems of image and text. Understood broadly, the thematic content of most of these manuscripts relates to the ordered representation of knowledge and the shape of salvific history including the (imminent) Apocalypse. Further motifs emerge which concern the role of the Church within this ordered universe. In two of the manuscripts, Rotoli figurati 4 and 7, these themes converge in the thought and works of monastic exegete Joachim of Fiore (d. 1202). The diagram of Rotoli figurati 4 (Ecclesia) is known from one other version, but with significant differences relating to its incorporation of Joachim's thought. Rotoli figurati 7 contains five new testimonies of Joachim's work, including two diagrammatic figures. I argue that the layout of texts in this manuscript represents an early and accurate visual transmission of Joachim's works. To critically engage with their function, these documents are historicized in an examination of the active religious and intellectual centres in Vercelli, 1150‒1300, a city marked by its political significance to both papacy and empire. Furthermore, I expand the significance of the Rotoli figurati by contextualising them within known complex visualisations of knowledge in medieval visual culture. While some of the Rotoli figurati can be compared to other sources, others demonstrate an innovative use of the diagrammatic mode. Considered together, their shared motifs directly reflect their use and function in the cathedral chapter of S. Eusebio, with its dynamic intellectual community and strong links to the papacy. In this thesis I argue for the significance of complex images as a means of communicating innovative theological thought and papal ideology in the period 1185‒1307, reflected in the distinctive composition of the Rotoli figurati.

This thesis examines urban political conflict in the late Middle Ages (c. 1370-1440) in Europe’s most heavily urbanised regions, Italy and the Southern Low Countries. Conflicts have frequently been viewed in the context of an emerging state-controlled political order, and have been interpreted either as forms of disruptive disorder, or as affirmations of political processes shaped by states. This thesis suggests that urban conflict should be studied not in the context of a state-controlled political order, but within the political framework provided by the numerous semi-autonomous jurisdictional institutions inside and outside cities (such as guilds, parishes or contending outside powers). This pluralistic order of politics gave rise to a form of political order sui generis which expressed itself in two ways. According to a general logic of conflict (Part One), particular rationales for justifying conflict (Chapter One) and specific political practices ranging from concealed protest to urban warfare (Chapter Two) were embedded in this multi-faceted and shifting political framework. Action groups could be negotiated and renegotiated around the resources provided by the city’s multiple legitimating institutions (Chapter Three). At the same time, such political institutions were configured differently in different cities, and this also generated a particular logic which lay at the basis of different systems of conflict (Part Two). Levels of conflict could, in fact, vary greatly between Bologna and Liège (Chapter Four), Florence and Tournai (Chapter Five), and Lille and Verona (Chapter Six), where, on the basis of different underlying political institutions, diverse practices of conflict and forms of association prevailed. The pluralistic order of politics itself was, therefore, a form of political organisation which crystallised around conflict. It gave rise to a logic which put conflict at the centre of the political order of late medieval cities.

This thesis examines the transmission and reception of images in Le Roman de la rose manuscripts and printed editions of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Through in-depth case studies, I analyse how illustrators, editors, and readers used printed imagery in Rose books ca. 1481-1538, during the period of Rose printed edition production, exploring wider cross-disciplinary issues concerning the history of the book, the relationship between word and image, and readership practices following the advent of French printing. I argue that the mobility of printed imagery, which was facilitated in part by the wider dissemination of woodcuts in workshops, influenced the form and function of images in books. In addition, I problematize the 'transition' from manuscript to print in the later Middle Ages, through an investigation of artisans' personal and professional collaborations and evidence of image sharing between hand-illustrated and printed books. Bookmakers and readers used printed imagery in fascinating ways in books, appropriating and modifying woodcuts in order to engage with certain subjects and motifs. Readers' visual responses to books are under-examined, and I assess how readers' drawings add insight into their understanding of printed editions and those editions' visual iconography. French books contain a large body of evidence pertaining to image production and reception, but printed imagery is often overlooked, despite its potential to shed light on the practices of illustrators, editors, and readers. I provide new strategies for examining patterns of printed image production, circulation, and reception in the visual presentations of manuscripts and printed editions of this period. I also deepen understanding of the Rose and its consumption in the later Middle Ages and Renaissance, probing the role of images in books.

This dissertation focuses on images of Christ that date from the first half of Late Antiquity, defined as the three centuries between AD 200 and 500. The cultural dynamics of this period left a distinct impression on Christian art, and this dissertation traces that impact. Unlike other studies that attempt to resolve ambiguity within the corpus of Christ images, the argument here maintains that ambiguity was a key component in the creation and subsequent interpretation of the Late Antique Christian iconography. The dissertation proceeds in three parts, each comprising two chapters. In the first section, the history and historiography of the image of Christ is explored, and a methodology capable of accommodating the diverse meanings assigned to the Christ’s discrepant and ambiguous iconographies is developed. In order to better understand the socio-religious environment in which the first images of Christ were produced and interpreted, the second section of the dissertation moves away from material culture and towards method and theory. The notion that interpretation is a group level phenomenon is critiqued, and a model explaining how individuals in Late Antiquity could have made sense of ambiguous images of Christ is advanced. The final section turns back to the material culture and applies the framework developed in the second section to two artworks: (1) the sarcophagus of Junius Bassus and (2) the floor mosaic from the Hinton St. Mary Roman Villa now in the British Museum. By complementing the standard analyses of Christian art with interpretations grounded in the diverse interactions viewers had with artworks, new perspectives will emerge that provide a fuller picture of Late Antique Christianity and the iconography of its godhead alike.