Buckley Theodore A. The Great Cities of the Middle Ages; or, The Landmarks or European civilization

London: Routledge, Warne & Routledge, 1862. — 432 p.In a lately-published historical sketch I endeavoured briefly to set forth the advantage of taking cities as the leading points of historical research, and to show the necessity of judging1 of antiquity rather from the greatness attained in these noble sites of ancient civilization,
than by the more desultory wanderings through which whole nations have passed, on their way to their final development. Without attempting to show that similar criticism holds equally good of the cities of mediaeval times, I shall proceed to point out certain features in the history of the Middle Ages, which may perhaps give the clearest notion of the plan I propose to realize in the following pages. Varied as are the political conditions under which the cities of the middle ages are presented to our view, they still possess a curious consistency in one respect: I mean in the tendency to struggle for the attainment of a settled form of government — alloyed, it is true, by the disputes arising from interest or faction — but yet pressing onwards to political consummation. Deeds of daring* heroism, redolent of the barbarous energies of those, who had sunk into a comparative I See the preface to my " Great Cities of the Ancient World."