What kills representative government? It is not always the mob. It is one of the revealing curiosities of history that the founders of the American republic were none to sanguine about the viability of republican government.
It began with the Italian city-state of medieval times…The true “new men” of the communes were not its rulers but the people themselves. It was they who defended the common law and stood by the government, shedding their blood in its cause, when the feuding nobles were tearing it apart.P.J. Jones, an an expert on Italian city-states, noted, “it was the populares, despised and misruled by their betters, who understood the meaning of civic virtue and the true requirements of republican government and did so long before the humanists of Florence began studying republicanism in the texts of classical antiquity.”
—MANTEGNA, Andrea – The Family of Ludovico Gonzaga—click image for source…
Though they were far from meek and hapless, there is a genuine pathos in the populares fidelity to law and in their faith in legalistic contrivances. When the internecine warfare among the nobles had all but destroyed the consulate, the people created a new municipal officer, the podesta- a sort of city manager chosen from another city for a fixed term of office in the hope that a paid official from a neutral quarter would administer municipal affairs in a professional manner and thereby overawe the nobility. But the ruling families were to strong and too contemptuous of law for such a feeble constitutional makeshift to have much of an effect.( to be continued)…
—by Duccio di Buoninsegna
Duccio di Buoninsegna; c.1255-1319. “The Wedding at Cana”, c.1308/11. From the scenes from the public life of Christ. Back of the “Maestà” from Siena Cathedral. Predella, 4th panel. Tempera and gold ground on wood, 43.5 x 46.5cm.—click image for source…
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