"The essays in this volume originally appeared in The Journal of modern history, 67 supp. (December 1995)"--T.p. verso.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

The state is "back in" / Julius Kirshner -- Legitimacy, discipline, and institutions : three necessary conditions for the birth of the modern state / Pierangelo Schiera -- The "private", the "public", the state / Giorgio Chittolini -- Law and jurists in the formation of the modern state in Italy / Aldo Mazzacane -- Center and Periphery / Elena Fasano Guarini -- The state and public finance : a hypothesis based on the history of late medieval Florence / Anthony Molho -- The courts / Trevor Dean -- Church, religion, and state in the early modern period / Roberto Bizzocchi -- The Italian League and the policy of the balance of power at the accession of Lorenzo de 'Medici.

The beginnings of the state in Europe is a central topic of contemporary historical research. The making of such early modern Italian regional states as Florence, the kingdom of Naples, Milan, and Venice exemplifies a decisive turn in the state tradition of Western Europe. The Origins of the State in Italy, 1300-1600 represents the best in American, British, and Italian scholarship and offers a valuable and critical overview of the key problems of the emergence of the state in Europe. Some of the topics covered include the political legitimacy of the aborning regional states, the changing lega.