The «belleza de la città». Urban planning and urban aesthetics in communal Tuscany: Florence and Siena between the 13th and 14th centuries
The widespread appreciation of aesthetic values of the city is a characteristic feature of the most advanced
phase of the Communal Age. Between the 13th and 14th centuries, a new consideration of sensitive
qualities of urban space emerges in many sources documenting the activities carried out by civic magistrates
in the field of town planning or building construction. Similar suggestions come from urban iconography,
which in the same decades moves away from conventional models. A real paradigm shift was recorded in
Florence and Siena, where the care of urban space becomes a central objective of government practices
based on the most up-to-date ideas in the field of political philosophy. The initiative of urban elites was constantly inspired by the Thomistic ideal of the common good, which also led to the recognition of an
ethical dimension of urban aesthetics.
