CHAPTER I

ITALY IN THE DARK AGE (476 _ca._-1100 A.D.) 15

The Barbarian invaders, 17. Charlemagne and his successors, 18. The empire and the papacy, 21. The disunited municipalities, 22. The origin of Venice, 24. The origin of the dogeship, 27. Venice in the tenth century, 28. Prosperity and political reforms, 32. Other maritime cities, 35. The Lombard cities and their allies, 36. Florence, 39. Social conditions, 40. Municipal wars, 41.