Conclusion

Summary

Among the great diversity of republican and signorial governments, it is possible to identify some shared understanding of basic political principles and their implications. One was the idea of Italy as a community of powers, not divided into blocs of republics and princes. The vocabulary of monarchy, of lordship, was used by republican governments of themselves with no indication those terms were considered anomalous in that context. There was no indication that it was thought inappropriate for republics to have subjects. There was also much common ground in the principles underpinning the attitudes of subjects to the governments exercising dominion over them, princely or republican. Citizens of subject towns and cities cherished the idea of their own right to libertà, in the sense of a substantial measure of self-government. Participation in offices, rather than in decision-making, was often what mattered most to members of political communities, large and small, in republics and principalities.