Medieval states are widely assumed to have lacked police forces. Yet in the Italian city-republics, soldiers patrolled the streets daily in search of lawbreakers. Police Power in the Italian Communes, 1228-1326 is the first book to examine the emergence of urban policing in medieval Italy and its impact on city life.Focusing on Bologna in the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, Gregory Roberts shows how police forces gave teeth to the communes' many statutes through a range of patrol activities. Whether seeking outlaws in the countryside or nighttime serenaders in the streets, urban police forces pursued lawbreakers energetically and effectively. They charged hundreds of individuals each year with arms-bearing, gambling, and curfew violations, convicting many of them in the process. Roberts draws on a trove of unpublished evidence from judicial archives, rich with witness testimony, to paint a vivid picture of policing in daily life and the capacity of urban governments to coerce.Breaking new ground in the study of violence, justice, and state formation in the Middle Ages, Police Power in the Italian Communes sheds fresh light on the question of how ostensibly modern institutions emerge from premodern social orders.

Gregory Roberts is a foreign affairs officer at the U.S. State Department and previously served as a historian at the U.S. Army Center of Military History. He received his PhD from Yale University in 2013 and was a 2010-2011 Fulbright scholar in Italy.

AcknowledgmentsList of FiguresA Note on UsageAbbreviationsIntroductionPolice as a Mode of GovernancePolice and Impersonal RulesThe Plan of the BookWorks CitedChapter 1: Police Power in the Italian CommunesThe Podestà's HouseholdPolice Patrols and InspectionsThe Legal Process: From Detention to TrialA Comparison of Selected DataConclusion: Policing and Hegemonic JusticeWorks CitedChapter 2: Police Discretion and Personal AutonomySocial IdentityPolitical StatusFactual MattersLegal PresumptionsPolice JurisdictionMitigating FactorsConclusion: The Paradox of ImpersonalityWorks CitedChapter 3: The Logic of Third-Party Policing"To=Pursue and Capture Outlawed Criminals""To=Search for Men Bearing Prohibited Arms""Trustworthy Foreign Men""The Good State of the Commune"Conclusion: A Preventive PoliceWorks CitedChapter 4: External Threats: Policing Out-Groups and CriminalityJudicial ViolenceThe Public InterestOutlaws, Infames, and Men of Ill ReputePolice Patrols as DragnetThe Role of FamaConclusion: A Persecuting Society?Works CitedChapter 5: Internal Threats: Policing Violence and EnmityEnmity and InstabilityPolicing FeudToward a Monopoly on ViolencePreventing EnmityConclusion: Legislating in the Shadow of ViolenceWorks CitedChapter 6: The Social Impact of Third-Party PolicingMandatory RulesLegal LiteracyFear of the FamiliaViolent Self-HelpPolice-Community RelationsPublic CorruptionLegal PrivilegeConclusion: A Legacy of Government CoercionWorks CitedConclusionWorks CitedIndex