The study discusses urban space in the medieval commune of Genoa as a place of cultural self-description. The analysis of early forms of erecting urban monuments and of written documentation processes in the areas of law and historiography reveal practices and procedures for conceptualising and securing the community. Taking the singular manuscript of the Genoese almanacs, the "Annales Ianuenses" and their 116 cameos as a starting point, the volume makes a substantial contribution on the remembrance culture of the urban environment, on the origins of the figurative language of the community, and on the benefits and political and economic representation of - self-accomplished - history in Italy during the High Middle Ages.