The market and the city. Square, street and architetcture in early Europe.

Abstract

The early modern period is often characterized as a time that witnessed the rise of a new and powerful merchant class across Europe. From Italy and Spain in the south, to the Low Countries and England in the north, men of business and trade came to play an increasingly pivotal role in the culture, politics and economics western Europe. This book takes a comparative approach to the effect such merchant and trades had on the urban history of market places –streets, sqares, and specific buildings- in some of the great commercial European cities between the 15^th and the 17^th centuries. It looks at how in this period, the transformations of designed commercial area were important enough to modify relationships throughout the entire urban context.