2025-08-18 The Square and the Tower

Just finished reading Niall Ferguson’s excellent book “The Square and the Tower”. Here he explores how human history has been shaped by two forms of organisation: networks and hierarchies. He delves into historical examples ranging from the printing press and the Reformation to the internet and social media. He draws on the imagery of the medieval town of Sienna with its tower symbolising hierarchies – top-down centralised forms of authority found in monarchies, bureaucracies and corporations. The square, on the other hand, stands for networks—horizontal, decentralized webs of relationships and communication, like markets, social circles, and digital communities. He finishes the book with a brief reflection on the extraordinary frescoes painted by Lorenzetti on the walls of the second floor Room of Nine within the Palazzo Publicco. Turning your back to window wall (undecorated) on the left is Allegory of Bad Governance, straight ahead and centrally located is the Allegory of Good Governance and to the left is Allegory of Peace.

I visited Sienna as a young person in 1982 but I don’t recall seeing the frescoes – or perhaps I did but didn’t register their significance - every reason to go back.