HERBERT B. ADAMS, Editor History is past Politics and Politics present History.— Freeman...

The Communes of Lombardy from the VI. to the X. Century May, June, 1891      "Est error spretus, quo Langobarda juventus      Errabat, verum loquitur nunc pagina sensum." RHOTARI: Legum Prologus ....

Before tracing the beginnings of renewed municipal life in Northern Italy, we must consider the conditions of land and people, which first rendered possible and then fostered the spirit of local independence of which such beginnings were the natural expression. To do this we must commence our researches with the first domination of the Lombards in the country. In detail the story of the conquest of Northern Italy by the Lombards under Alboin, in 568, hardly differs materially from that of the in

In the second part of this paper we have to consider a period of development rather than one of transition, of growth rather than of change. We have before us the task of tracing the advance from a period of barbarism to one when the feudal system had obtained an almost complete domination over the social system of Europe. Considering the principles which lay at the base of the society of new Europe, this system is a natural, indeed an unavoidable evolution from the stage of barbarism and social