Amazon.com description: Product Description: This is the first in a two-volume study of the medieval city. It traces the slow regeneration of urban life in the early-medieval period, showing where and how an urban tradition had survived from late antiquity, and when and why new urban communities began to form where there was no continuity. The book charts the different types and functions of the medieval city, its interdependence with the surrounding countryside, and its often difficult relations with secular authority. It concludes with the critical changes of the late-13th century that established an urban network that was strong enough to survive the plagues, famines and wars of the 14th and 15th centuries.