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'Soldiers at the Crucifixion’ taken from a late-14th-century wall-painting by Altichiero. (In situ, Chapel of S. Giacomo, the Basilica, Padua)

over his adult children until he decided to emancipate them. In many cases, children were not set free until their father died. This meant that a young man could only follow a military career if his paterfamilia agreed, although coercion could be used to gain paternal consent.

It is often assumed that medieval close-families were large, and that they lived in overcrowded and insanitary conditions. This was clearly not the case in Italian cities where the average 13th-14th-century family was macie up of three to four people - much like the modern nuclear family. Disease, rather than war, also meant that the average age of the popu-lation remainecl relatively Iow.

Social and sexual attitudes were extremely varied in medieval Italy. Sonie attitudes were modern and progressire, while others now seem shocking. For example, in the 13th— 14th centuries women usually married in their early teens: men however did not tend to wed until their 30s, in stark contrast to the early Middle Ages when young boys were often forced into marriage. Indeed much of the characteristic violence and unrest in Italian cities was blamed on young men who hacl little else to do in a segregated society. For reasons unknown, women out-numbered men by a three-to-two niajority. We can only assume that the widely cliffering age-gap between husbands and wives hindered the development of a sense of tnie companionship, though romantic ideals of‘love’ remainecl a favourite literary theme. No doubt the Black Death changed things: the catastrophe which wiped out entire families inevitably forced a strengthening of the bonds between generations, as well as that between husband ancl wife.

Italian urban housing of this period hacl morę in common with Byzantium and the Islamie world than with cities north of the AIps. This was because in Italy, Greece ancl the Middle East, Roman cities hacl mostly survived along with their associated way of life. Most professional soldiers tended to live near the citadel or fortified pałace, or in the domus, the great family house of their employers. Sonie cities provided accommodation for mercenaries, though this was not necessarily in the form of barracks. Militiamen lived in their own homes which were often part of their sliops or workshops.

A detailed study of surviving medieval houses in Genoa has identified three main tępes (see the illustration on page 45 for examples). The first consisted of several houses with a continuous portico: this was probably associated with the consorlm system, where by an extencled family lived in the building ancl operated several shops on the ground floor. The second tępe was the casa-fondaco, characteristic of the 13th-14th centuries, which was morę like an inhabited warehouse. It had shops or storage areas beneath, and could have a fortified fom?attached. The third tępe was a humbler structure which was divided into numerous apartments for poorer artisan families. Each structure was on a single floor with about 32 square metres of liring space. The simplest houses of this period were madę of wood: sadly nonę have sur\ived.

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