signoria
Sign in to savethumbnail|Palazzo Vecchio, the former seat of the Signoria of [[Florence]] A signoria () was the governing authority in many of the Italian city-states during the Medieval and Renaissance periods. The word signoria comes from signore (), or "lord", an abstract noun meaning (roughly) "government", "governing authority", de facto "sovereignty", "lordship"; : signorie.
~8 min read
Encyclopedic overview
6 sectionsContents
- History of the ''Signoria''
- Politics
- List of ''signorie''
- See also
- References
- Further reading
thumbnail|Palazzo Vecchio, the former seat of the Signoria of [[Florence]] A signoria () was the governing authority in many of the Italian city-states during the Medieval and Renaissance periods. The word signoria comes from signore (), or "lord", an abstract noun meaning (roughly) "government", "governing authority", de facto "sovereignty", "lordship"; : signorie.
==History of the Signoria== During the late 13th and early 14th centuries, a significant shift occurred in the governance of Italian cities. Whereas citizens had once chosen their own leaders, they began to entrust power to a single ruler. Such authority often spiraled out of control when the citizens could not depose rulers who had failed to govern wisely.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “signoria” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.