Chronicles of the city of Siena of the XIV century as the sources for researching the сoncepts of society and of the pow-er of the "popolani"

The article gives a brief outline of the main directions of the study of the mentality of popolani and discusses modern research problems regarding their worldview. The author focuses on the scientific significance of the study of the Siena’s urban chronicles of the XIVth - XVth centuries as the sources characterizing the views of the Siena chroniclers about society and power. The implementation of such an approach to the study of narrative sources complements the idea of the mentality of the popolans, makes it possible to study the history of Siena of the era of Trecento through the prism of ideas about society of the authors of this time, allows us to comprehend the history of the city from the standpoint of modern historical science as one of the unique examples of the multivariate development of European medieval cities.