| This dissertation undertakes to answer the question: how did the new municipal government of Toulouse, with pretensions to jurisdiction over the entire town, find or create a place for itself in a town which was centuries old, and already formed and transformed by previous institutions? In the case of Toulouse the answer lay in the use of new conceptual tools and a new idea of urban space.; From 1180 to 1210, the municipal government of Toulouse carried out several planning projects, reorganizing the fabric of the town in accordance with their own plans. An examination of these ventures reveals the development of many ideas and methods necessary to effect these plans. Putting their program into effect required a concept, an organizational strategy, and the legal and financial means of carrying it out. The history of this period in Toulouse discloses not only the development of an administration capable of undertaking large planning projects, but more importantly the emergence of novel ideas.; The consuls successfully reshaped the town, transforming its earlier configuration. In the years from 1201 to 1205, with the advent of the new consulate, a change was brought about. In those few years, a new mental, political and physical structure was imposed on the older forms. In a quite remarkable series of moves, the consuls had reworked the fabric of the town, reorienting it to their own ends. |
