​Introduction:

Lewis Mumford in his book, The Culture of Cities, have attempted to present how the cities have transformed through its history from being cities within the human values to the cities of mechanized transpositions. Illustrating the history of western cities after 10th century, (after fall of Roman empire), he presents his views of cities moving from social dimensions to the capitalist dimensions. In the introduction part of his book, he strongly voices for the city being product of time, with its tangible and intangible forms layering the past times through cultural and social activities, while humans play the role of actors in the scenic settings of cities as the stage to showcase drama’s related to human life. Developing with the continuum between rural and urban settings, medieval cities were more associated with social linkage and communal belief. It represented maximum possibility of humanizing natural environment through its social domain. In one hand, Mumford supportively describes the sustainable urban scenario of medieval cities; in the other part he explains how cities are in continuous pressure of external forces and influences. The approach and lure for new modes of life as part of being “universal city” thrives to struggle with its own individuality transformed through phases f past time. What is the city? How it functioned in western world? What factors have contributed to the city’s growth and how they have influenced the pros and cons of machine civilization with agricultural urban settings are some of the basic questions where Mumford tries to elaborate in the successive chapters of his book. Citing his words in the Introduction part, “ Nothing is permanent, nothing endures except life: the capacity for birth, growth and daily renewal. As life becomes insurgent once more in our civilization, conquering the reckless thrust of barbarism, the culture of cities will be both instrumental and goal.

Below are some of my understandings and abstracts of  Chapter 1 of his book.

Chapter 1: Protection and the Medieval Towns:

Chapter 1, is divided in further 12 subheadings under which the writer has attempted to elaborate the medieval cities in relation to psychological and security importance of Medieval city’s wall, principle of city design in achieving human hygiene and sanitation, contribution of guild system, the cultural and religious life of citizens, public domain of medieval cities and its social coherence. The chapter however begins with the subheading of stripping the medieval myth where he has elaborated how wrong concepts about medieval cities have defamed the cities by it defamers and where he tries to voice the issues of medieval cities being more sustainable and to humanly based on social coherence and communal feelings.

1)Stripping off the Medieval Myth

Before approaching the medieval towns the writer makes the statement that one must come out of the false defaming about the medieval cities, for period of 10th to 16th century was a kind of dark period compounded with insecurity and ignorance. He prefers to consider Middle Ages as far manageable and richer in city dynamics, social kinship and regular rural urban continuum. Even the critics of hygiene are considered to be merely myth in order to defame the city.

2)The Need for Protection

After fall of Roman Empire, the cities were primarily in need of security and military defense for which building walls were part of secure systems. The otherwise left rural settlements, under the protected wall became towns and the local craftsmen,, peasants would come together for market within the secured walls. A social life became more solid and compact and the suburb became the towns.


3)The Increase in Population and wealth:

The agricultural activities in the nearby countryside, the local craftsmen, and merchant all under secure haven, gave rise to the population. The various forms of security offered by religious and feudal system were foundation of medieval towns. Inclusive commercial zeal, political unification under feudal lords, food supply chain and religious uniformity gave rise to the population and urban settlers in the medieval ages.

4)Lordly Scadders and Medieval New Edens

“As urban occupations step by step drove out of the rural ones that had at first been pursued in the city with almost equal vigor, the antagonism widened between country and the town.”

Medieval cities tend to move more or less to the self-governing cities and with the slogan brought by the merchants and political of urban merchants and the traders. With military protection and the undermining effects of the feudal systems the cities got more liberated from its rural country. The rationalization of political basis and economic movement led by replacement of barter to money encouraged for more and more self governing and independent attitude of economic activities. While feudal lord desired for “ready money”, rent as source of urban economics. Medieval city tend to become more selective in terms of environment and the people who they cater removing certain group of rural populations which inhibited isolations in the otherwise continuum relationship between rural and urban settings.

5)Dominance of the Church

After the fall of the Roman Empire the Church became one of the powerful and universal institution.

“In the medieval city the spirit had organized shelters, and accepted forms of escape from worldly importunity. Today, the degradation of the inner life is symbolized by the fact that the only place sacred from interruptions is the private Toilet”. In this statement Mumford voices his strong opinion against the growing modern cities, where inner life is completely neglected in lure of capitalist life .In medieval cities, glorification of God was important in both religious and as well as economic aspects, which he coins as the “Faith “gives way to the “credit “Local churches were not only place of worship they housed the social kinship among the dwellers giving ordeal relational duties to tits citizens. Medieval cities constantly made effort where inner life flourish. He emphasizes the constant continuum between private and public life is the need of civic life where modern cities failed to address.

6)The Service of the Guild

The existence of the Guild institution in the medieval cities suggested the strong hold of community led control over the cities. For its survival people had to be part of any association and guild was part of it. Merchant guilds and craft guilds were the examples of how arts and craft flourished in the medieval cities through the strong hold of guilds unions. The physical representation of guild concepts was depicted through special guildhalls, market halls and town halls. In modern cities the organizations were merely economic process that represents only share of people with their vested interests, it does not have to take part in any cultural or social institutions of the city while in the medieval cities they were integral part of religious, cultural and social domain. It covered the large part of cultural life of the members. The guild institution decayed once the economic motive isolated from the societal and cultural motive. Bequest of wealth to their successor and the heirs along with the exclusions of disadvantaged people gave rise to undermining religious and cooperative social concept.
“In fact guilds rises and falls with the medieval city: the guilds are the city in the economic aspects and the city is the guild in their social and political aspects”
Town halls serve as the place for municipal activities. It is a two store free standing building in the middle of market place .The ground floor were used for storage for finer wares, while upper floors were used for meetings with mayors and the councils and periodic feasts and receptions.
By membership in the municipality one owes to the citizen duties and responsibilities. Patrolling and safeguarding the cities during night time was part of moral civic responsibilities of their citizens, instilling human values and sense of responsibilities in every citizens for which Mumford elaborates:

“ To patrol one’s city at night: to know its dark alleys under the moon or with no light at all except one’s lantern, to enjoy the companionship of the watch was, this not an early practical example of William  Jame’s Moral Equivalent of War”
His statement below reflects his deep admiration towards the medieval city and the how the capitalist economy decayed the concept of  harmony, unity, civic life, faith, inner life  and homogeneity.
“At the beginning the city was striving as a social unit to establish its existence: the very insecurity promoted the neighborly effort and the even solidarity between the various ranks and occupations. They needed each other and the voluntary groups of neighbors formed. When the privileges had been won, when the great disparities in riches appeared between the successful and the unsuccessful, when the wealth as well as station was inherited then the walls between the classes became more important than the protective barrier that had once made the city one.”
Concept of guild and the church were taken over by the institution of university combining knowledge of science and politics. It made systematic functional enduring while leaving behind practical knowledge of responsibility of guilds concepts.

7)Medieval Domesticity:

Life was not as private as modern city. Social cooperation and the knowledge sharing among the members of the society was integral part of life.
Workshop was kind of family where merchants, craftsmen, members worked and ate together. Houses were built in the row while freestanding houses were rare. The materials used were locals. Houses were characterized as lack of differentiated spaces and functions. The lack of privacy in the medieval houses was what drove the radical movement of change. Desire for privacy was one of the basis for the fall of medieval house form.
“Privacy in sleep, privacy on eating, privacy in religious and social ritual and finally privacy in thought.” In medieval house there were no distinction of private of public space, private life flourished in the open public gardens or woods, in the darkness. Municipal bathhouse was used for private bathrooms. Desire for privacy, comfort and he more air and light lead to the paradox by the paradox of prosperity brought by modernity. But the author argues that as long as people live rude with communal feeling, the houses were less destructive.

8)Hygiene and Sanitation

Strong rural influence as part of the city, open private gardens, and practical rural occupations gave sound basis of health in medieval people. Customary building of row houses not only provided compactness, cheap construction but also provided maximum protection from cold. Usable open public space and outdoor living activities further enhanced the health benefits of the medieval people. The author further defends the health benefit of medieval houses suggesting, the open stretched gardens and backyards surpasses the health benefits over the narrow street. Further he strongly emphasis on the rural- urban continuum of medieval cities over the hygiene and health attributes.
“I lay strong emphasis on the rural character of the medieval towns for two reasons: first: because a false notions about its dinginess and overcrowding has grown up which has no foundation at all in most cities, except the notorious fact post medieval over crowding; and secondly because the existence of these open spaces shows the sanitary arrangements were not necessarily as offensive as they have been pictured, nor vile smells as uniformly ubiquitous.”Here the author sees no evidence that foul or pile dung has any harmful effects on health and suggest that there is no evidence that medieval cities were prone to epidemics as long as city was part of rural life.Whereas the city increased its size and isolate with the rural life, the increase in population density rose to sanitary difficulties. And by the seventeenth century Overcrowding, congestion of dead people, constituted serious sanitary menace.As long as the open spaces and the gardens remained as long as the countryside was easily accessible to the dung farmer, the normal smells of the medieval town were not more offensive than those of the farmyard, nor were the evils overwhelming.The author suggests the biological interdependence of human with animals on garbage and human excreta decompositions, while there were very less non-degradable wastes.
Public bathing in the public bathhouse was customary at least every fortnight, which shows the medieval attitude towards cleanliness.Unlike modern city, bathing was not merely a private activity, more than that it was family activity and social activity where people gossips, exchange their thoughts on various issues. However it has been synonymous to modern word brothel as there were also chance of sensual luring between men and women.
In medieval cities, the provision of drinking waster was also collective function through fountains and village pump. These water supplies in the public space served more for sociability and the display of artwork and meeting and gossiping of the people. But with the intrusion of private water supply art and sociability were disappeared whereas the lives were threatened due to danger of lead poisoning and with the rapid outgrow of population over technological means the cities were in verge of suffering from famines.
Hospitals were there in medieval cities as the part of holy order with municipal physicians making their appearance in 14th century. Medieval cities were not only vital for social environment but also for its adequacy to the population it served. Question of smelly and unhygienic medieval environment placed by its defamers are further challenged by the author questioning on the smell of the modern city filled with chlorinate water, gasoline exhaust and crowded subway.
While there were counter effects of diffusing the smell of dung, garbage’s and human excreta through fresh in the gardens and rural land, the modern city lack support of rural benefits. The medieval cities were sensuous in terms that they affected humans through calm and melodious effects to the sound of nature. Chirping of birds, chime of bells, crowing of the cock influenced human in a manner they get hold of the rhythm and music in their work.  And each work had their own work song, while visually medieval cities provided excitement and joys and inspirations through rural and urban life linkage. Life flourishes in the visual and musical senses.

9)Principles of Medieval Town planning

Layout followed the similar patterns of the village. Earlier Medieval towns had geometrical patterns, with rectangle as the basis of the subdivision, late medieval towns various forms like circular patterns, irregular form coupled with natural terrains or plow culture could also been seen.
For some (Etruscan Priests) rectangle might symbolize cosmic laws while for the Hippodamus, it might symbolize the maximum possibilities for real estate speculations. Adaptation to the site and the practical needs made medieval towns present multiple form examples of Individuality. ‘The planner made use of the irregular, accidental the unexpected”. Determining elements of the medieval towns are the bounding walls and central open space where principle church is located, where the town hall, guildhall and the makes finally clustered.
Though walls were constructed for security, Psychologically walls helped in dividing people in and out of the city. While it helped create feeling of unity within the inhabitants of the city. Walls of customs, economic classes were present in the cities. The central position of the church or cathedral is the key to the layout of medieval cities, visible from every point the church were grandeur to the houses. Market place grows outside the church because it is the place where the citizens’ profoundly meet .One market place is connected with other through narrow lanes. The medieval planners tend to keep human dimensions except in church and the cathedral. Streets were essentially formed as connecting tissues essentially marked through foot works and connecting urban blocks of trade or institutional buildings. In the early medieval city the streets was a line of communication rather than a means of communication. There was a difference in width between Main Street and the subordinate ones. The dead end in the turning of streets broke the force of cold wind. Overhang if the house gave covered passage to the pedestrians.
"The closed narrow streets and the exposed shops were complementary: not till glass closed the second could new conceptions of town planning open up the firsts.”
With the introductions of the vehicles street started losing its rural under footing and more oriented itself becoming locomotive in nature. Public association was responsible for the caring of pavement, lighting, and piped water supply. While citizens were responsible for cleaning their streets repaired and cleaned, in front of their houses.

10)Control of growth and expansions

Technically, wall was not the limitation of the city’s growth. It could simply be broken down and towns could expand its limit as city grew. For example Florence, which built its third stretch of wall breaking down its previous walls.But no medieval towns were extended more than half a mile from its center. “The historic Mile". Limitations in the medieval city’s growth were catered by limitations in water supply, local productions, municipal ordinances and guild regulations, which prevented the uncontrolled settlement outside the city.
Contrary to common impressions, medieval cities were not static they charged as per the need if the settled towns were found physically hampered or inconveniently located for example: Salisbury moved for new energy resources
The typical medieval cities ranged from three or four hundred to forty thousand inhabitants.

              
11)The Stage and the Drama

He defines city as the stage on which various forms of cultural drama are enacted with the most skilled actors, in specially designed scenery .It presents the inner life realities through actual life and practical day-to-day occupations.
Church housing spirit of gods and the commoners’ house relates with sacred god and commoners as the medieval cities lies in the belief of life as succession of significant episodes in man’s pilgrimage to heaven. Towering height of Churches directs eyes visually to the heaven while the horizontal lines in the house forms not necessarily run upwards.
“Prayer, mass, life ceremony, baptism, marriage or funeral, the city itself was a stage for those separate scenes of the drama and the citizen himself was an actor. Once the unity of this social order was broken, everything about it was set in confusions: the great Church itself became a sect, and the city became a battleground for conflicting cultures, dissonant ways of life.”

12)What overthrew the medieval city?

Decline of Medieval city started from 16th century. Population pressure and the new capitalist economic reform transferred the inner spirit of the medieval city. . The insecure life in country and the superiority of the city protected the medieval city from declining. The disparity between country and towns were almost removed by the 16th century. Feudal dues were converted to monetary mode. Industry prospered, proportionally large part of population resided in towns giving rise to urban settlements. Monopoly broke into multiple sectors. Growing international trade took over the weak guild and merchant trade, which could not sustain new demands. In the earlier class rank were based on their local skills but all of them had common city, common religion, culture and belief. In medieval towns, rural people were treated as dependent and not as citizen and the rural contributions were undermined this was one of the weakness of the city. New territorial unification, freedom of movement and centralized power systems were developed in new town concept based on new hierarchical values, capitalist organization of society, and new spiritual power. Further, Mumford concludes this chapter with following statement and adding up with the recitation of Robert Crowly: “Its economic and social basis had disintegrated and its organic pattern of life had been broken up. Slowly, the form itself became dilapidated, and even when it continued to stand, its walls enclosed a hollow shell, and harboring institutions that were also hollow shells. It is only as it were by holding the shell quietly to ones’ ear, as with seashell, that can catch in the ensuing pause the dim roar of the old life that once lived with dramatic conviction and the solemn purpose, within the walls.”

Robert Crowly 

And this is a city
In name but in deed
It is a pack of people
That seeks after meed
For officers and all
Do seek their own gain
But for the wealth of the Commons
Not one taken pain
And hell without order
I may it well call
Where every man is for himself
And no man for all.

My understanding of Lewis Mumford ‘s  Book -"The Culture of Cities,"Chapter 1.

Note: Words in Italics are direct extract from the book .