Introduction

During the past two decades, the forms of political organisation that generally come within the definition of ‘faction’ or ‘party’ have without doubt acquired new importance in Italian historiography. While this theme, previously visited mostly by historians of the era of the communes, has come on to the agenda of early modern historians, and largely from there has been transmitted to the historiography on the late Middle Ages, the approach to factions as a subject for study has also undergone some significant changes, from the point of view of both methodology and conceptual and interpretative categories. The wealth of studies resulting from this new attention to the theme is in reality still very unevenly distributed: the bibliography is rich in contributions on northern Italy between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries, while historians of southern Italy in the same period have only recently shown signs of interest in it. Partly for this reason, a detailed reconstruction of the geography of factions in late medieval Italy is not an objective of this brief synthesis, which aims instead to emphasise some significant core themes.

Beyond evil and disorder

Tackling late medieval factions as a specific subject of enquiry often implies coming to terms with poor sources, rarely explicit about their nature. About thirty years ago Jacques Heers, still the author of the only attempt at a comprehensive treatment of ‘parties’ in medieval western Europe, noted that factions escape the usual procedures of historical enquiry: they were spontaneous formations, held together by tacit or at least informal bonds, the moment of their birth is generally unknown, and there are no pacts, written contracts or statutes that furnish information about their aims and social composition. In part, the difficulties arise from the fact that the types of documents traditionally most used to gather information on factions can produce severe distortions of perspective. This consideration applies above all to narrative sources, because chronicles speak of factions almost exclusively in relation to the most violent moments of political confrontation, and at the same time take for granted how they functioned and their very existence. Public documents, including those produced by central governments, are often reticent about organised political groups, which they tend to mention on the occasion of repressive interventions.