The History of the City

Leonardo Benevolo, author of The Architecture of the Renaissance and History of Modern Architecture (MIT Press, 1971), here provides a basic history of the man-made environment in Europe and the Near East, where the idea first emerged of the city as an integral and self-contained settlement, containing within itself other lesser settlements. Cities remain specifically historical creations. They have not always existed; they began at a certain time in the evolution of society and can be ended or radically transformed at another. They came into being as a result of a historical need; and it is for this reason that the origins of the city in the ancient world, and its future in the modern world, need to be studied.

An essential feature of Benevolo's method are his detailed studies of the growth of specific European cities, and these heavily illustrated accounts provide a valuable source of reference material for the student of architecture and urban studies and for the general reader.

Contents: Introduction: The prehistoric background and the beginnings of the city; The free city in Greece; Rome: city and worldwide empire; The formation of the medieval environment; The cities of Islam; European cities in the Middle Ages; Renaissance art; Italian cities during the Renaissance; European colonization; The capitalists of Baroque Europe; The setting of the Industrial Revolution; The 'post-liberal' city; The modern city; The situation today; Index.