«Hec est urbium regina»: il riflesso dei rapporti diplomatici della Milano altomedievale nelle laudes civitatum

This paper focuses on the laudes civitatis, a medieval genre aimed at celebrating urban realities which, in certain contexts, may also function as a vehicle for political revendication. The city becomes both the subject of praise and the commissioning agent, thus positioning itself within specific political and cultural dynamics. In this regard, the encomiastic technique intersects with contextual realities that motivate its composition, enabling these texts to develop as instruments of assertion in the context of conflicts between centers of power. The paper will examine two examples of civic praise: the Versum de Mediolano and the Libellus de situ civitatis Mediolani, linked by a common territorial framework and close chronological proximity. A stylistic and content-based analysis of these texts will be provided, followed by a contextualization within their respective historical and cultural settings, with the aim of identifying the role they may have played as a form of indirect diplomacy.