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The author outlines the framework of the studies moving from the twentieth-century perspective centered on demographic studies up to the attention dedicated by the most recent research to citizenship and the dynamics of belonging and exclusion from communities.

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The contribution overturns the narrative of the origins of the Florentine studium as a substantial 'failure'. Its events did not represent a particular case: as in other European cities of the late Middle Ages, the university experienced refoundations and movings of headquarters. The specificity of the Florentine studium must be identified in some characteristics of the evolution of Florentine society: a metropolis of international standing bent by the demographic crisis, an economy oriented towards trade but burdened by a growing public debt, a continuous state of warfare which allowed the subjugation of other cities, a literate society supported by private patronage. This context explains the events of the first two centuries of the history of the studium and the decision to move the headquarters elsewhere.

The University of Florence has always maintained very close relationships with the city's cultural institutions: libraries, museums, archives, research institutes. These relationships have been particularly significant with regards to the artistic heritage, even if sometimes the large museums of the city, on the one hand, and the university, on the other, have developed research independently without finding forms of collaboration. However, these relationships have strengthened in recent decades, enhancing the central role of the university in the city's cultural production.

On the 21st May 2019, the University of Florence awarded Michele Casalini an honorary degree for his dedication and his important contribution in the field of Library and Archival Sciences. The ceremony, which was held in the Rectorate's Aula Magna in Florence, represents the first recognition of merit for modern library science and the second for library and archival sciences to ever be granted by an Italian university. The text features the complete speeches by Luigi Dei, Rector, by Andrea Zorzi, Director of the SAGAS Department, the Laudatio by Mauro Guerrini, president of the Degree in Library and Archival Sciences and the Lectio Doctoralis by Michele Casalini, entitled La centralità delle biblioteche per il progresso e la democrazia. All the texts are published in Italian and English.

The history of political freedom in Europe has long been articulated within a genealogical scheme that interprets the nature of contemporary freedom starting from its remote origins. This explains the adoption of a teleological approach: from the freedom of the ancients to that of the moderns; from positive to negative freedom; from libertas ecclesiae to religious tolerance. Awareness of the crisis of the great narrative of freedom invites us to broaden the field of analysis, rejecting a linear history of the notion and its expressions, less and less capable of accounting for the discontinuities and tensions between different meanings and models. The volume reintegrates the theme of freedom within the framework of the practices of political actors in the late Middle Ages, taking into consideration the multiple declinations of the ideas of freedom in Europe with a specific attention to the Italian realities.

Studies on migrations, integrations and citizenship in late medieval Italy have investigated a variety of aspects over time but have sporadically focused on the connection between the three phenomena. The volume revisits classic themes such as immigration from the countryside and the integration of rustics into urban communities, or the disparity in conditions between marginal migrants and those with professional skills. It also proposes some analyses on less frequented perspectives such as settlement in suburban areas and the formation of neighborhood identities, highlighting the importance of integration networks offered by brotherhoods, corporations and marital ties, paying attention to the facets of citizenship rights and the forms of regulated access and the burdens for support her.

This book presents a history of the Florence University’s 100 years, tracing its extensive evolution in higher education within the city, from its medieval and early-modern origins to its progressive institutionalization during the period when Florence served as the Italian capital, then culminating in the formal birth of the University on October 1, 1924. During the two decades of Fascism, it experiences significant development but heavily suffers from the intrusion of the regime. As a protagonist in the shaping of the Republic alongside its prominent professors, the University will establish a dense network of relations with the community, thereby contributing to its economic and social growth. Running parallel to the profound changes in the nation, this interplay – closely reconstructed in the book – will promote the gradual shift from an elitist educational model to that of a mass higher education.

This book is a collection of contributions by the Italian scholarship fellows at the Deutsches Historisches Institut of Rome over the last decade. It is intended as a tribute to one of the leading mediaevalists at international level, a scrupulous and sensitive scholar of Italian history. Over and above all this, it is a sign of gratitude from the young academics who have been able to consolidate their research thanks to such scholarships. Consequently the 14 contributions that make up the book do not share the academic orientation of any particular school, but range over various research sectors and different chronological periods., Il volume, che raccoglie i contributi di ex borsisti italiani dell'ultimo decennio del Deutsches Historisches Institut di Roma, vuole essere un omaggio a uno dei medievisti più noti a livello internazionale e all'attento e sensibile studioso della storia italiana, ma soprattutto un segno di gratitudine di giovani studiosi che con tale borsa hanno potuto consolidare i loro percorsi di ricerca. I 14 contributi che lo compongono non sono quindi accomunati da un comune orientamento formativo di scuola, ma spaziano fra diversi settori di ricerca e differenti ambiti cronologici.