Page "Republic" Paragraph 4

In Medieval Northern Italy, a number of city states had commune or signoria based governments.

In the late Middle Ages, writers, such as Giovanni Villani, began thinking about the nature of these states and the differences from the more common monarchies.

These early writers used terms such as libertas populi, a free people, to describe the states.

The terminology changed in the 15th century as the renewed interest in the writings of Ancient Greece and Rome caused writers to prefer using classical terminology.

To describe non-monarchial states writers, most importantly Leonardo Bruni, adopted the Latin word res publica.