List of literary descriptions of cities (before 1550)

[3][4] 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.

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.

[1] Outside Italy, pre-1400 examples are known for Chester, Durham, London, York and perhaps Bath in England,[1][2][3][6] Newborough in Wales,[2] and Angers, Paris and Senlis in France.

[8] 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.

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.