The concept of urbanity, of the characteristically citified view of life, referred originally to the view of the world from Rome, and the popes who took Urbanus for a pontifical name were expressing their solidarity with the city they ruled as Bishop of Rome. The converse of Urbanus is Rusticus. Urbane bears a relationship to urban similar to the relationship humane bears to human, the OED notes.

In language, urbanity still connotes a smooth and literate style, free of barbarisms and other infelicities. In Antiquity, schools of rhetoric flourished only in the atmosphere of large cities, to which privileged students flocked from smaller cities in order to gain polish.

Modern concepts of "urbanism"

• Lewis Mumford
• Henri Lefebvre

'Urbanity' as a word has also been used in recent years to describe the 'insanity' of urban life, as in the novel Urbanity by Francis Murphy.

See also

• Urbanism
• City planning

Reference

• Lewis Mumford, The City in History : Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects

External links

• Urbanity: a historical perspective
• Sixth International Conference on Urban History: Power, Knowledge and Society in the City, Edinburgh September 5 - 7, 2002

History of ideas | Cities

Urbanitet | Urbanitet