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Simonetta Bernardi
Simonetta Bernardi demonstrates that the representative mechanisms of a small Italian town in the later Middle Ages—Sant'Elpidio in the Marches of the papal states—differed little from those of the better known large city states. Sant'Elpidio's largely illiterate population needed a panoply of ritualistic demonstrations of the nature of urban power, such as summons by bell and town crier. This small municipality had a full range of democratic institutions, from the Podestà at its head, a stranger to the town elected for only six months, to a parliament in which sat all the citizens, i.e. those who paid taxes. There all matters affecting the whole body of citizens were debated. The governing councils, magistrates and officials were chosen by a complex system of direct and indirect elections, with some drawing of lots, even if the higher offices in practice passed down through the leading families of the town. Stringent controls were enforced on the performance of public duties at all levels. The sanctions were also visible ones, from confinement of the Podestà to his lodgings to torture in extreme cases. Documents were for the learned and for the archives, the symbols of power for those who experienced it.
