当今，人们把艺术主要视为纯粹审美的事物。但历史地来看，艺术从来都是多功能的，被用来满足各种不同的需求和目的，政治表达便是其中之一。在研究这一时期意大利城市的政治制度和政治文化时，应该注意的是，无论世俗的还是宗教性的公共建筑都并非单纯的房屋，城市的各类统治者用它们建构权力，在这里行使权力，也通过它们表达和宣示权力，这些建筑的命运总与权力的兴衰更迭息息相关。
    注释：
    ①Sauro Gelichi, “The Cities,” in Cristina La Rocca, ed., Italy in the Early Middle Ages: 476-1000, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002, pp. 181-182.
    ②Giovanni Tabacco, “La Città Vescovile nell‘ Alto Medioevo, “ Modelli di Città， a cura di Pietro Rossi, Torino: Einaudi, 1987, pp. 327-345.
    ③L. Martines, Power and Imagination: City-States in Renaissance Italy, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1988, p. 13.
    ④E. Occhipinti, L’ Italia dei comuni, secoli Ⅺ-ⅩⅢ， Roma: Carocci, 2000, pp. 13-14, 17-19.
    ⑤E. Coleman, “Cities and Communes,” in D. Abulafia, ed. , Italy in the Central Middle Ages: 1000-1300, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004, p. 33.
    ⑥D. Waley and T. Dean, The Italian City-Republics, London: Longman, 2010, pp. 31-34.
    ⑦E. Occhipinti, L‘ Italia dei comuni, secoli Ⅺ-ⅩⅢ， pp. 38-41.
    ⑧L. Martines, Power and Imagination: City-States in Renaissance Italy, p. 26.
    ⑨斯金纳：《近代政治思想的基础》上卷，奚瑞森、亚方译，北京：商务印书馆，2002年，第26页。
    ⑩J. K. Hyde, Society and Politics in Medieval Italy, London: Macmillan, 1973, pp.124-141.
    （11）Giovanni Tabacco, The Struggle for Power in Medieval Italy, trans. R. Jensen, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989, p. 184.
    （12）Otto of Freising, The Deeds of Frederick Barbarossa, trans. Charles Mierow, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994, p. 127.
    （13）L. Martines, Power and Imagination: City-States in Renaissance Italy, pp. 27-28.
    （14）D. Waley and T. Dean, The Italian City-Republics, p. 40.
    （15）D. Waley and T. Dean, The Italian City-Republics, p. 43.
    （16）P. J. Jones, The Italian City-State: From Commune to Signoria, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997, pp. 305-306.
    （17）L. Martines, Power and Imagination: City-States in Renaissance Italy, pp. 33, 35-36.
    （18）Daniel Waley, Siena and the Sienese in the Thirteenth Century, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991, p. 6.
    （19）E. Coleman, “Cities and Communes,” pp. 52-53.
    （20）L. Martines, Power and Imagination: City-States in Renaissance Italy, pp. 45-49.
    （21）J. K. Hyde, Society and Politics in Medieval Italy, p. 115.
    （22）E. Coleman, “Cities and Communes,” pp. 53-54.
    （23）P. J. Jones, “Communes and Despots: The City State in Late-Medieval Italy,” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5[th] ser., vol. 15, 1965, p. 77.
    （24）P. J. Jones, “Communes and Despots: The City State in Late-Medieval Italy,” p. 76.
    （25）Renato Bordone, Guido Castelnuovo and Gian Maria Varanini, Le aristocrazie dai signori rurali al patriziato, a cura di R. Bordone, Roma: Laterza, 2004, pp. 39-120.
    （26）P. J. Jones, “Communes and Despots: The City State in Late-Medieval Italy,” p. 71.
    （27）英国史学家哈兰（Hallam）最先指出很难用习惯的术语概括这一时期的“领主”，后来，瑞士史学家布克哈特和英国史学家西门兹（John Symonds）等人把他们称为“暴君”。19世纪史学家对城市领主的这种画像影响极为深远。最近有史学家对这种刻画提出异议，认为所谓的“文艺复兴时期的暴君”不过是一个“神话”。（Benjamin Kohl，“The Myth of the Renaissance Despot,” in John Law et al. , eds. , Communes and Despots in Medieval and Renaissance Italy, Farnham: Ashgate, 2010, pp. 61-73）
    （28）D. Waley and T. Dean, The Italian City-Republics, pp. 170-183.
    （29）L. Martines, Power and Imagination: City-States in Renaissance Italy, pp. 101-102.
    （30）Trevor Dean, Land and Power in Late Medieval Ferrara, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988, p. 15.