Publisher Description

This volume examines the early growth of Barcelona and the formation of its ruling classes. The city did not at first grow because of overseas trade but because of market-oriented agriculture and tribute from Islamic Spain. Only after a difficult adjustment did the city develop the commercial foundations which would later ensure its prosperity. Barcelona's patriciate rose to prominence during the second stage of growth, its rise forming part of a profound restructuring of territorial power in response to the 'feudal crisis' that challenged traditional authority throughout Catalonia. Patrician families did not model themselves after noble patrilineages, but forged marital alliances in which the wife's dowry played a fundamental role. In this new book the family structure of the patriciate receives close examination and many traditional assumptions about the nature of Mediterranean towns are challenged.

Table of Contents

List of figures; List of maps; List of tables; Preface; List of abbreviations; Introduction; 1. The city and its region; 2. The city and its lord; 3. An aborted take-off: the urban economy in crisis, 1090-1140; 4. Urban society in transition; 5. The patriciate in gestation, 1140-1220; 6. Family structure and the devolution of property; 7. Consolidation and conflict: patrician power and Mediterranean expansion, 1220-1291; 8. Patrician continuity and family identity; Conclusion; Appendices; Bibliography; Index.

Review

"This is a lengthy, searching, and ultimately brilliant volume on the urban economy and rise of patrician families in Barcelona during the high Middle Ages...a sophisticated, original, and major contribution to Iberian social history. It promises to become a classic in the historiography of medieval Barcelona and to take its place alongside the works of Carme Batlle, Claude Carrere, and Jaume Vicens Vives, which are devoted to later periods of the city's history...Bensch's volume is beautifully written, well documented, and profound..." Speculum-A Journal of Medieval Studies "...the first book in English to consider the history of medieval Barcelona and the emergence of its patriciate...The book is also an important work of comparative history, placing Barcelona's evolution against the dominant model of northern Italian towns. Bensch is able to show that Barcelona did not conform to this model, but beyond that, he calls into question the unexamined assumptions about Mediterranean urban development based on the Italian examples...an important contribution to the history of Catalonia and of Mediterranean trade...Bensch has effectively demonstrated the origins of Barcelona's power and character while showing us a more complex Mediterranean world." Bryn Mawr Medieval Review "'Barcelona and its Rulers' is a well-written, thoroughly researched, crucial addition to both medieval urban and social history. Stephen Bensch not only enriches our understanding of a great city and its place within a powerful mediterranean kingdom, but also explores hypotheses concerning 'rebirth' and evolution of cities in the Middle Ages, drawing on Catalaln, Spanish, German, French, Italian, and English scholarship. Bensch's study is singularly important for any scholar of medieval Spain because it is the first systematic study of Barcelona during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries." Rebecca Winer, Comitatus "Barcelona and Its Rulers, 1096-1291 fills a serious gap in the history of this most important Mediterranean metropolis...Dozens of Catalan experts, it is true, are exploring the archives of the crown of Aragon -- as well as those of the Cathedral of Barcelona...Stephen Bensch has undertaken to integrate all of this published work and to add to it new data he has gleaned himself from the archives -- a formidable challenge, indeed, and one from which Bensch emerges victorious. Of equal significance is the fact that Bensch's study is now one of the most important monographs on medieval urban life as he has taken into account not only the immense body of studies by Italian and French scholars, but has, at times, cast his net to include the works of German and English scholars as well." Joseph Shatzmiller, International History Review "Bensch's study of the expansion of Barcelona's trade through the Mediterranean completes a study that explores in a new and original way the internal history of a major European city." American Historical Review

Prizes

Winner of John Nicholas Brown Prize 1999

Review Quote

"This is a lengthy, searching, and ultimately brilliant volume on the urban economy and rise of patrician families in Barcelona during the high Middle Ages....a sophisticated, original, and major contribution to Iberian social history. It promises to become a classic in the historiography of medieval Barcelona and to take its place alongside the works of Carme Batlle, Claude Carr

Promotional "Headline"

A study of the early growth of Barcelona and the formation of its ruling classes.

Description for Bookstore

Based on extensive research this study examines the early growth of Barcelona in an effort to understand the causes of the European economic take-off. The rise, function and family structure of the city's patriciate is also examined. Many traditional assumptions about the nature of Mediterranean towns are challenged.

Description for Library

Based on extensive research this study examines the early growth of Barcelona in an effort to understand the causes of the European economic take-off. The rise, function and family structure of the city's patriciate is also examined. Many traditional assumptions about the nature of Mediterranean towns are challenged.

Details