Straws In The Wind

An account of the environmental history of medieval towns which examines the law codes of towns in northern and central Italy to demonstrate that legislators had a vision of what the quality of life should be and enacted laws designed to shape the city environment in accordance with this ideal.

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Providing an account of the environmental history of medieval Italian towns, this work examines the law codes of towns in northern and central Italy in order to learn what individual towns wanted their town and environment to be. It demonstrates that medieval legislators had a vision of what the ideal quality of life should be and that they enacted laws designed to shape the city environment in accordance with this ideal.