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Literary descriptions of cities (also known as urban descriptiones) form a literary genre that originated in Ancient Greek epideictic rhetoric.<ref name=Hyde_1966>Template:Citation</ref><ref name=Fulton>Template:Citation</ref><ref name=Schlauch /><ref name=Benson /> They can be prose or poetry. Many take the form of an urban eulogy (variously referred to as an encomium urbis, laudes urbium, encomium civis, laus civis, laudes civitatum; or in English: urban or city encomium, panegyric, laudation or praise poem) which praise their subject.<ref name=Fulton /><ref name=Schlauch /><ref name=Benson /><ref name=Faulkner_2011 /> Laments to a city's past glories are sometimes also included in the genre.<ref name=Schlauch /><ref name=Benson /> Descriptiones often mix topographical information with abstract material on the spiritual and legal aspects of the town or city, and with social observations on its inhabitants.<ref name=Hyde_1966 /><ref name=Benson /> They generally give a more extended treatment of their urban subject than is found in an encyclopedia or general geographical work. Influential examples include Benedict's Mirabilia Urbis Romae of around 1143.<ref name=Hyde_1966 />

The Greek rhetorician Dionysius of Halicarnassus, in the first century AD, was the first to prescribe the form of a eulogy to a city in detail. Features he touches on include the city's location, size and beauty; the qualities of its river; its temples and secular buildings; its origin and founder, and the acts of its citizens.<ref name=Schlauch /> The Roman rhetorician Quintilian expounds on the form later in the first century, stressing praise of the city's founder and prominent citizens, as well as the city's site and location, fortifications and public works such as temples.<ref name=Fulton /><ref name=Faulkner_2011 /> The third-century rhetorician Menander expands on the guidelines further, including advice on how to turn a city's bad points into advantages.<ref name=Schlauch /> These works were probably not directly available to medieval writers,<ref name=Hyde_1966 /> but the form is outlined in many later grammar primers, including those by Donatus and Priscian.<ref name=Fulton /><ref name=Schlauch /><ref name=Faulkner_2011>Template:Citation</ref> Priscian's Praeexercitamina, a translation into Latin of a Greek work by Hermogenes, was a particular influence on medieval authors.<ref name=Schlauch />

Surviving late Roman examples of descriptiones include Ausonius's Ordo Nobilium Urbium, a fourth-century Latin poem that briefly describes thirteen cities including Milan and Bordeaux.<ref name=Hyde_1966 /><ref name=Schlauch /> Rutilius Namatianus's De reditu suo is a longer poem dating from the early fifth century that includes a section praising Rome.<ref name=Schlauch />

Numerous medieval examples have survived, mainly but not exclusively in Latin, the earliest dating from the eighth century.<ref name=Hyde_1966 /><ref name=Schlauch /> They adapt the classical form to Christian theology.<ref name=Hyde_1966 /><ref name=Fulton /><ref name=Schlauch /><ref name=Faulkner_2011 /> The form was popularised by widely circulated guidebooks intended for pilgrims.<ref name=Hyde_1966 /> Common topics include the city walls and gates, markets, churches and local saints; descriptiones were sometimes written as a preface to the biography of a saint.<ref name=Hyde_1966 /> The earliest examples are in verse. The first known prose example was written in around the tenth century, and later medieval examples were more often written in prose.<ref name=Hyde_1966 /> Milan and Rome are the most frequent subjects, and there are also examples describing many other Italian cities.<ref name=Hyde_1966 /> Outside Italy, pre-1400 examples are known for Chester, Durham, London, York and perhaps Bath in England,<ref name=Hyde_1966 /><ref name=Fulton /><ref name=Schlauch>Template:Citation</ref><ref name=Abram /> Newborough in Wales,<ref name=Fulton /> and Angers, Paris and Senlis in France.<ref name=Hyde_1966 /><ref name=Gransden /> The form spread to Germany in the first half of the 15th century, with Nuremberg being the most commonly described city.<ref name=Blamires_1990 />

J. K. Hyde, who surveyed the genre in 1966, considers the evolution of descriptiones written before 1400 to reflect "the growth of cities and the rising culture and self-confidence of the citizens", rather than any literary progression.<ref name=Hyde_1966 /> Later medieval examples tend to be more detailed and less generic than early ones, and to place an increasing emphasis on secular over religious aspects. For example, Bonvesin della Riva's 1288 description of Milan, De Magnalibus Urbis Mediolani, contains a wealth of detailed facts and statistics about such matters as local crops. These trends were continued in Renaissance descriptiones, which flourished from the early years of the 15th century,<ref name=Hyde_1966 /> especially after the popularisation of the printing press from the middle of that century.<ref name=Blamires_1990>Template:Citation</ref>

Selected examples

The following chronological list presents urban descriptions and eulogies written before the end of the 14th century, based mainly on the reviews of Hyde<ref name=Hyde_1966 /> and Margaret Schlauch,<ref name=Schlauch /> with a selection from the many examples written from 1400 to 1550.

See also

• Guide book
• Travel literature