- Département d'Histoire, Arts et Archéologie, Université libre de Bruxelles, CP 133/01 50 avenue Franklin Roosevelt, B-1050 Bruxelles, Belgium
- Ghent University, History, Department Memberadd
- My research studies different forms of economic inequality by focusing on land expropriation, commons management, ext... moreMy research studies different forms of economic inequality by focusing on land expropriation, commons management, extensive pastoralism and redistribution of land revenues via sharecropping in the Late Medieval Italy and Europe.edit
- Alexis Wilkin, Thijs Lambrecht, Koen Schoors, Guido Alfani, Erik Thoen, Gabriella Piccinni, Maria Ginatempoedit
This book explores the re-distribution of the impact of the late medieval crisis by studying the development of the transhumant pastoralism in Southern Tuscany between 1353 and 1419. Within this period, the city-state of Siena transformed... more
This book explores the re-distribution of the impact of the late medieval crisis by studying the development of the transhumant pastoralism in Southern Tuscany between 1353 and 1419. Within this period, the city-state of Siena transformed its surrounding territory depopulated by the Black Death (1348) in a vast grazing land for sheep flocks from the Apennines. The aim was to «gain as much revenues as possible» in order to cover increasing military expenses against decreasing fiscal revenues. Siena succeeded by reorganising the common pastures plundered from its rural communities through a monopolistic office, the so-called Dogana dei Paschi. Within 70 years, this institution gained over 300.000 golden florins, becoming the «most relevant source of revenue» of the Sienese city-state. In change, the monopoly of the common land reinforced the negative impact of the military, demographic and economic crisis on Southern Tuscany by influencing the resilience of settlements and by favouring the proletarianisation process among the peasantry. The book explores in the first chapter the development of the Dogana dei Paschi, in the second the forms of legal plundering of the collective resources and in the third the office and its balances. It provides also a comparison with other contemporary institutions to manage transhumant flocks and pastures developed in Central Italy. This way, it shows the uniqueness of the Sienese study-case in the context of the late medieval management of transhumance and its relevance to understand the mechanisms of the redistribution of the crisis of 14th century across European society.
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La Dogana dei Paschi di Siena è stata una delle istituzioni politiche ed economiche più rilevanti per la storia della Toscana e della Maremma fra Medioevo ed età moderna, incaricata del governo e della tassazione del bestiame transumante... more
La Dogana dei Paschi di Siena è stata una delle istituzioni politiche ed economiche più rilevanti per la storia della Toscana e della Maremma fra Medioevo ed età moderna, incaricata del governo e della tassazione del bestiame transumante proveniente dagli Appennini attraverso il monopolio dei pascoli tra le attuali provincie di Grosseto e Siena. Istituita dal comune di Siena a partire dal 1353, è stata abolita nel 1778 dal Granduca di Toscana Pietro Leopoldo di Asburgo Lorena: in questi quattro secoli di storia la Dogana è stata oggetto di una intensa attività normativa, culminata con le redazioni statutarie del 1419 e del 1572. Il presente volume propone una riedizione aggiornata e corretta dello Statuto quattrocentesco emanato dal comune senese e l’edizione prima degli Statuti Nuovi di età medicea, entrambi conservati presso l’Archivio di Stato di Siena. L’edizione è preceduta da un saggio introduttivo in cui si analizza il contenuto di ciascuno dei due testi statutari e la stratificazione di norme dei Paschi all’interno del più ampio contesto in cui furono redatti, ovvero le politiche di sfruttamento dei pascoli, espropriazione della proprietà collettiva e gestione della transumanza a fini fiscali perseguite dai regimi susseguitisi in Maremma fra la metà del XIV e la fine del XVI secolo.
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The essay, supported by an original cartography, offers a first comparative study of transhumance in the area that goes from the northern Apennines – between Montelfeltro and the Parmense – to the western Alps – from the Maritime to the... more
The essay, supported by an original cartography, offers a first comparative study of transhumance in the area that goes from the northern Apennines – between Montelfeltro and the Parmense – to the western Alps – from the Maritime to the Cottian Alps up to Provence. The analysis of the different forms of transhumance developed across this macro-region at the end of the Middle Ages is preceded by a discussion of the definition of transhumance. This is necessary to understand the relevance and diffusion of mobile pastoralism even where are little or not at all documented. The essay is concluded by some considerations on the influence of transhumant practices on mountain ecology and settlements between the late Middle Ages and the early modern times.
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The article reflects upon the relation between fiscal estates and medieval economic growth on the basis of the essays from the monographic section Dinamiche economiche e fisco regio: strategie gestionali e circuiti redistributivi. By... more
The article reflects upon the relation between fiscal estates and medieval economic growth on the basis of the essays from the monographic section Dinamiche economiche e fisco regio: strategie gestionali e circuiti redistributivi. By integrating the evidence found in the above-mentioned
texts for Italy – specifically Tuscany – and Lotharingia with those available in literature for the centuries 9th-12th, the article suggests fiscal estates as the main driver of the initial economic growth in centuries 9th-10th. Conversely, fiscal estates seem becoming a seigneurial tool to hitch onto the surrounding demographic, agrarian and commercial growth already in place
in centuries 11th-12th.
texts for Italy – specifically Tuscany – and Lotharingia with those available in literature for the centuries 9th-12th, the article suggests fiscal estates as the main driver of the initial economic growth in centuries 9th-10th. Conversely, fiscal estates seem becoming a seigneurial tool to hitch onto the surrounding demographic, agrarian and commercial growth already in place
in centuries 11th-12th.
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The paper provides a first comparison of the labour regulation enacted by the city-states of Florence and Siena between the aftermath of the Black Death and the third decades of the fifteenth century. Despite differences in chronology,... more
The paper provides a first comparison of the labour regulation enacted by the city-states of Florence and Siena between the aftermath of the Black Death and the third decades of the fifteenth century. Despite differences in chronology, target and measures, both series of policies played a major role in shaping rural economy and society in fifteenth-century Tuscany towards the development of an extractive sharecropping system called mezzadria. By integrating the main results of the existing literature with a new study of Florentine deliberations, the paper aims to measure the effectiveness of different labour and agrarian policies facing rising wages and land abandonment and to explain how and why they achieved to bind peasants to land as sharecroppers. The first section focuses on the laws to curb the rise of rural wages between 1348 and 1363. The second one covers the immigration and fiscal policies developed between 1364 and 1435 in order to cope with the second outbreak of the plague while the third section analyses and compare the reasons and the impact of the measures enacted.
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The article analyses the motivations, the contents and the historiographical perspectives of three recently published volumes about trees, woods and rural landscape in the late medieval and early modern Italy. Each volume intentionally... more
The article analyses the motivations, the contents and the historiographical perspectives of three recently published volumes about trees, woods and rural landscape in the late medieval and early modern Italy. Each volume intentionally places at the centre of its analysis the relation between man and environment, economy and ecology, resources and production: throughout different approach this relation is suggested as the key factor to re-interpret the rural history of preindustrial Italy.
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Sebbene la transumanza abbia fatto parte, anche se non esclusivamente, della filiera della produzione, trasformazione e commercio della lana nelle società del passato è assai problematico identificare i vari passaggi, gli attori, le... more
Sebbene la transumanza abbia fatto parte, anche se non esclusivamente, della filiera della produzione, trasformazione e commercio della lana nelle società del passato è assai problematico identificare i vari passaggi, gli attori, le dinamiche e i prezzi di questo percorso produttivo. Ciò per la difficile reperibilità delle fonti relative, non solo per il Casentino, dovuta al naufragio documentario oltre che al carattere orale e alla limitatezza temporale di molte delle operazioni tipiche dell’allevamento e della produzione della lana. Nella medievistica italiana, non a caso, si è ricercato e trovato notizie di greggi transumanti da un lato e di imprenditori, impianti e panni di lana dall’altro, senza necessariamente osservare all’unisono due ambiti naturalmente, anche se non sempre, connessi, ma privilegiando spesso l’uno o l’altro. Dunque, un filo (storiografico), il più delle volte, spezzato. Le pagine che seguono intendono contribuire a riannodare questo filo per il Casentino, ricostruendo lo sviluppo, il paesaggio, l’economia e le migrazioni stagionali della transumanza che da qui si recava in Maremma e che senza dubbio contribuì – quanto, resta ancora da stabilire – alla produzione laniera – ma anche di pelli e cuoiame, carne e formaggi – sia dell’alta valle dell’Arno, sia, è bene ricordarlo, della città e del distretto aretino e di Firenze. Il Casentino, infatti, fu uno dei principali, se non il principale, bacino di allevamento del bestiame ovino e bovino transumante in Toscana fra Medioevo ed età moderna, insieme alle aree confinanti della Valtiberina e dell’Appennino romagnolo. La Maremma grossetana, a sua volta, fu il punto di arrivo di buona parte delle migrazioni stagionali di bestiame provenienti da queste zone fino al secondo conflitto mondiale.
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Le vicende particolari di un borgo medievale possono far luce sulla storia generale della città in cui si è sviluppato, della sua gente, del «sentire collettivo» come delle «ambizioni e dei disegni dei suoi governanti». Il borgo sorto... more
Le vicende particolari di un borgo medievale possono far luce sulla storia generale della città in cui si è sviluppato, della sua gente, del «sentire collettivo» come delle «ambizioni e dei disegni dei suoi governanti». Il borgo sorto intorno a S. Pietro in Ciel d’Oro a Pavia ne è un esempio: l’evoluzione del quartiere, se letta integralmente dallo sviluppo nel XII secolo alla costruzione del castello visconteo nel 1360, racconta efficacemente i passaggi chiave della storia pavese nel basso medioevo. La ricostruzione del paesaggio urbano e della società sorta intorno a S. Pietro a cavallo del Trecento può aggiungere un ulteriore frammento all’immagine della Pavia tardomedievale, oggi in gran parte scomparsa. Allo stesso tempo, può apportare nuovi elementi per lo studio di alcune dinamiche economiche e demografiche avanti la sottomissione ai Visconti, anch’esse meno note a causa della perdita di gran parte della documentazione pubblica e privata e ora al centro di recenti ricerche. Infine, lo studio del borgo di S. Pietro fra Due e Trecento permette di esplorare la tensione fra laus e descriptio in alcuni passaggi del Liber de laudibus civitatis ticinensis, una delle più celebri «lodi di città» dell’Italia settentrionale, scritta da Opicino de Canistris entro il 1330.
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The paper presents the interdisciplinary approach developed for the TraTTo project (acronym of Transhumance and Territory in Toscana) related to the study of transhumance's paths and pastures in Southern Tuscany in a long-term... more
The paper presents the interdisciplinary approach developed for the TraTTo project (acronym of Transhumance and Territory in Toscana) related to the study of transhumance's paths and pastures in Southern Tuscany in a long-term perspective, from prehistory to modern times. The project is carried on by a research group of the Department of History and Cultural Heritage of the University of Siena in collaboration with the École Française of Rome. The TraTTo project is dedicated to analysing features of Tuscan transhumance through a landscape archaeology perspective and using a strong GIS structure for analyses and data-gathering based on historical, survey and archive researches.
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Entre la fin du Moyen Âge et l’époque moderne, les animaux transhumants ont acquis une importance croissante dans le patrimoine zootechnique de la Méditerranée et des Alpes. La plupart des études concernant la transhumance portent sur la... more
Entre la fin du Moyen Âge et l’époque moderne, les animaux transhumants ont acquis une importance croissante dans le patrimoine zootechnique de la Méditerranée et des Alpes. La plupart des études concernant la transhumance portent sur la société et la culture pastorales, le rôle économique, l’impact environnemental ainsi que la gestion des pâtures liés à ce système d’élevage. Bien que les animaux de rente aient été les sujets de la pratique pastorale de la transhumance, leur place au sein de ces publications est très réduite. Le petit et le gros bétail sont pourtant une clé fondamentale pour comprendre les mécanismes de la transhumance et son évolution sur le long terme ainsi que la démographie pour l’histoire sociale et économique. En outre, le développement d’une perspective d’histoire des animaux peut contribuer aussi à une nouvelle réflexion sur l’élevage transhumant depuis sa récente reconnaissance comme Patrimoine culturel immatériel de l’humanité en 2019. Dans ce but, cet article explore la transhumance toscane en utilisant une double perspective, quantitative et qualitative, pour montrer la pertinence des animaux de rente comme sources pour une histoire socioéconomique de ce type d’élevage mais aussi pour une histoire de la biologie animale en relation avec l’économie et la société humaine. Notre analyse se fonde notamment sur les ovins-caprins: bien que les premiers soient normalement les plus nombreux, ils sont souvent dénombrés ensemble et représentent la majorité des animaux transhumant dans le contexte méditerranéen et toscan, ce qui donne un caractère très représentatif à notre étude. Cet intérêt est dû principalement à l’interaction entre les caractéristiques biologiques des animaux, l’environnement et la demande de laine et de viande sur les marchés urbains.
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The paper presents a preliminary evaluation of the survey activities undertaken in the Maremma area (Southern Tuscany), oriented to investigate pastoral landscapes of the past. The research is part of the «TraTTo» project, related to the... more
The paper presents a preliminary evaluation of the survey activities undertaken in the Maremma area (Southern Tuscany), oriented to investigate pastoral landscapes of the past. The research is part of the «TraTTo» project, related to the study of transhumance’s paths and pastures in a long-term perspective, from Prehistory to Modern Age. The study area is the southern part of Tuscany, in particular the Maremma district, mainly included in the province of Grosseto. The long-time perspective adopted by the project allows us to verify the continuity of this pastoral phenomenon and its variation over the centuries. This approach involved contributions from archaeological and historical studies analysed through the research perspectives of historical geography. Within a multi-disciplinary approach, the project involves the collection, the management and the analysis of large amounts of data from different types of sources. In this contribution we discuss problems and potentialities to collect information about pastoralism in field activities. How we can detect this kind of ephemeral traces in the materiality of landscape? Through surface survey we preliminary critically assess archaeological evidence of transhumance. Methodological questions arise on the individuation and evaluation of traces left by longue durée practices occurred in agricultural and pastoral spaces.
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The past and recent research on the florentine fiscal surveys from 14th to 18th c. has highly contributed to the current debate on economic inequality in pre-industrial times. Showing an increasing unequal wealth distribution also for... more
The past and recent research on the florentine fiscal surveys from 14th to 18th c. has highly contributed to the current debate on economic inequality in pre-industrial times. Showing an increasing unequal wealth distribution also for rural and urban Tuscany, characterised by economic stagnation in Early Modern times, it has allowed us to disentangle the effect of economic growth on inequality. However, a wide set of explanatory hypotheses of the increase of wealth concentration in the long-run still need to be verified: among the others, the role of institutions. This paper, presenting the first result of an ongoing research (GINI project), studies through a quantitative analysis at micro-scale (the pieve of San Giovanni in Petroio in Mugello) in 1427 the relation between the growing economic inequality of the Florentine rural society and its specific social-agro system. This system was based on a class of city-dwellers landowners and on a peculiar share-cropping system, the mezzadria. The paper, focusing on the mechanisms of wealth redistribution of this system, suggests its role whether in maintaining and increasing in the long-run the concentration of land property, and providing for, at the same time, the poorest social layers of rural population at subsistence level.
Research Interests:
“I nostri contadini solevano istare molto meglio per lo addrieto che ora”: mezzadria, proprietà cittadina e disuguaglianza economica in Toscana, sec. XV-XVI, in Economic inequality in pre-industrial societies: causes and effect, ed. G. Nigro, Firenze, 2020 («Datini Studies in Economic History», 1)more
This paper studies through a quantitative analysis at micro-scale (the pieve of San Giovanni in Petroio in Mugello) in 1427-1512 the relation between the growing economic inequality of the Florentine rural society found by recent research... more
This paper studies through a quantitative analysis at micro-scale (the pieve of San Giovanni in Petroio in Mugello) in 1427-1512 the relation between the growing economic inequality of the Florentine rural society found by recent research and a peculiar share-cropping system, the mezzadria. By focusing on the mechanisms of wealth redistribution of this system, the paper suggests the role of mezzadria whether in increasing in the long-run the concentration of land property and in providing for the poorest social layers of rural population at subsistence level. In this regard, the paper contributes to explore the role of institutions in increasing wealth concentration from Middle Ages to the Early Modern times.
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Obiettivo dell’articolo è tracciare un quadro generale delle varie forme di transumanza in Toscana al momento del loro sviluppo fra XII e XV secolo, integrando una ricerca su fonti di prima mano con la letteratura disponibile. Le pagine... more
Obiettivo dell’articolo è tracciare un quadro generale delle varie forme di transumanza in Toscana al momento del loro sviluppo fra XII e XV secolo, integrando una ricerca su fonti di prima mano con la letteratura disponibile. Le pagine che seguono, lungi dal ritenersi esaustive, intendono sottolineare continuità e differenze con quanto noto sulla transumanza per i secoli successivi – il Cinque-Settecento, l’età dell’oro di questo sistema pastorale – e, allo stesso tempo, delineare in modo più sistematico i pieni e i vuoti della storiografia toscana sugli spostamenti stagionali di bestiame e di uomini alla fine del Medioevo. Una breve trattazione delle fonti e degli studi utilizzati (1) è introduttiva alla ricostruzione cronologica dello sviluppo della transumanza in Toscana (2), alla ricognizione delle sue forme (3) come della continuità dei percorsi a lungo raggio fra Medioevo ed età moderna (4), per concludere con due sezioni su alcuni aspetti meno frequentati, per il Medioevo toscano, di questa peculiare forma di allevamento al momento della sua espansione. La prima sezione si sofferma sui tempi della transumanza, le attività, la vita quotidiana, la violenza del mondo pastorale oltre che su alcuni elementi zootecnici3 (5); la seconda affronta il tema dei capitali, delle strategie produttive e dei mercati a monte e a valle di questa pratica (6).
The paper aims to provide a general overview of the various forms of transhumance developed in Tuscany between 12th-15th centuries by integrating the literature with a recent research on primary sources. It intends to highlight continuity and differences in transhumant practices between medieval and early modern times, the golden age of this pastoral system, as well as to to outline the related gaps in Tuscan historiography. A brief discussion of the sources and studies used (1) serves as an introduction to the chronological reconstruction of the development of transhumance in Tuscany (2), to a survey of its various forms (3) as well as to an analysis of the continuity of long-distance routes between medieval and modern period (4). The paper ends by focusing on two relevant although less studied socio-economic features of Tuscan transhumance: first, the timing of seasonal practices, the daily life, the use of violence within shepherds groups as well as some zootechnical elements (5). Second, the macro-economic elements behind the development of transhumance in the late middle ages such as capital, trends and strategies of production as well as the role of the markets (6).
The paper aims to provide a general overview of the various forms of transhumance developed in Tuscany between 12th-15th centuries by integrating the literature with a recent research on primary sources. It intends to highlight continuity and differences in transhumant practices between medieval and early modern times, the golden age of this pastoral system, as well as to to outline the related gaps in Tuscan historiography. A brief discussion of the sources and studies used (1) serves as an introduction to the chronological reconstruction of the development of transhumance in Tuscany (2), to a survey of its various forms (3) as well as to an analysis of the continuity of long-distance routes between medieval and modern period (4). The paper ends by focusing on two relevant although less studied socio-economic features of Tuscan transhumance: first, the timing of seasonal practices, the daily life, the use of violence within shepherds groups as well as some zootechnical elements (5). Second, the macro-economic elements behind the development of transhumance in the late middle ages such as capital, trends and strategies of production as well as the role of the markets (6).
Research Interests:
“The role of marginal landscape for understanding transhumance in Southern Tuscany (twelfth-twentieth century AD.): a reverse perspective integrating ethnoarchaeology and historical approach” in Historical Archaeologies of Transhumance across Europe (EAA’s Themes in contemporary archaeology) 2018.more
Archaeological and historical studies of Mediterranean pastoralism have focused primarily on large-scale transhumance centred around a mountain-to-plain perspective. This particular concentration is the result of a variety of different... more
Archaeological and historical studies of Mediterranean pastoralism have focused primarily on large-scale transhumance centred around a mountain-to-plain perspective. This particular concentration is the result of a variety of different conditions. First, pastoral practices have always been considered highly mobile. As a result, they are virtually impossible to identify in the archaeological record. Moreover, it is not easy to detect different kinds of pastoralism through written sources. The case study discussed in this chapter takes the long-term historical phenomenon of transhumance in southern Tuscany (1100–1950) as its subject. In so doing, it diverges from the traditional image of pastoralism which is present in the extant literature. It sets aside mountain-to-plain ideas and promotes the concept of integrated agro-sylvo-pastoral practices. Analysis of the archaeological records and ethnoarchaeological and historical data show us the decisive role played by marginal areas in the history of late medieval and early modern transhumance in southern Tuscany. Those landscape zones which are humid, including both lagoons and marshes are markedly instable. We argue that mobility and seasonality are key concepts in creating an understanding of transhumance as a socio-economic phenomenon.
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The paper aims to analyse the conflicts in access to collective resources (pastures) at local level, focusing on their relation with the State-building process. Southern Tuscany was conquered and became part of the State of Siena during... more
The paper aims to analyse the conflicts in access to collective resources (pastures) at local level, focusing on their relation with the State-building process. Southern Tuscany was conquered and became part of the State of Siena during the 14th-15th c. It was reorganised through the Dogana dei Paschi of Siena, a fiscal institution in charge of managing transhumant flows in that area. The related take over of collective rights of pasturages and common land carried on by Siena in 1353-1419 lead to new levels of conflict for the management of commons. As a consequence, it created new asymmetric relations between the communities, the city-commune and the transhumant shepherds, usually damaging the formers. Through the analysis of the public archival records of Siena and of those of some communities it is possible to show to what extent this process was strong and ground-breaking in plundering and re-distributing collective resources. The paper aims, furthermore, to suggest applying both the micro-historical as well as the new-institutional approach to improve our understanding of socio-economic dynamics of commons within similar case-studies.
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Il progetto TraTTo (Transumanza e Territorio in Toscana) nasce nell’anno accademico 2014-2015 dalla collaborazione fra il Dipartimento di Scienze Storiche e dei Beni Culturali dell’Università degli Studi di Siena e l’École française de... more
Il progetto TraTTo (Transumanza e Territorio in Toscana) nasce nell’anno accademico
2014-2015 dalla collaborazione fra il Dipartimento di Scienze Storiche e dei Beni Culturali
dell’Università degli Studi di Siena e l’École française de Rome nell’ambito del Programme
scientifique 2012-2016 La transhumance en Italie centrale de la Protohistoire à nos jours (Axe 1.Parcours et échanges en Méditerranée; Thème 1. Espace économique), coordinato da Stéphane Bourdin (directeur des études pour l’Antiquité, École française de Rome ) e Saverio Russo (Università degli Studi di Foggia). Il lavoro di ricerca del biennio 2015-2016 si è concentrato sulla Toscana meridionale, in particolare sul comprensorio Monte Amiata-Maremma, all’interno dell’attuale provincia di Grosseto. Le azioni di ricerca svolte nell’area ed oggetto del presente contributo sono state la costruzione del sistema informativo e la ricognizione archeologica nell’area del Parco Regionale della Maremma presso Alberese (GR). In primo luogo è stata svolta un’ampia ricognizione della bibliografia storica, archeologica e geografica alla scopo di raccogliere i dati editi a disposizione sulle pratiche transumanti nella lunga durata per il territorio maremmano-amiatino. Inoltre sono stati consultati i risultati di due tesi di dottorato di ricerca in ambito storico e archeologico sulla transumanza per la medesima area e sono state svolte ulteriori ricerche sulla documentazione inedita negli Archivi di Stato di Siena e Firenze. Le caratteristiche delle diverse tipologie di dati e le problematiche relative al loro inserimento nel database e al dialogo con le altre fonti sono trattati nella sezione Fonti e Metodi. La progettazione e la costruzione della piattaforma e della banca dati del sistema informativo, sulla base dei dati a disposizione, è descritta nella sezione Banche dati e GIS, mentre la ricognizione archeologica è trattata nella sezione Ricognizione archeologica. Seguono alcune Osservazioni finali.
2014-2015 dalla collaborazione fra il Dipartimento di Scienze Storiche e dei Beni Culturali
dell’Università degli Studi di Siena e l’École française de Rome nell’ambito del Programme
scientifique 2012-2016 La transhumance en Italie centrale de la Protohistoire à nos jours (Axe 1.Parcours et échanges en Méditerranée; Thème 1. Espace économique), coordinato da Stéphane Bourdin (directeur des études pour l’Antiquité, École française de Rome ) e Saverio Russo (Università degli Studi di Foggia). Il lavoro di ricerca del biennio 2015-2016 si è concentrato sulla Toscana meridionale, in particolare sul comprensorio Monte Amiata-Maremma, all’interno dell’attuale provincia di Grosseto. Le azioni di ricerca svolte nell’area ed oggetto del presente contributo sono state la costruzione del sistema informativo e la ricognizione archeologica nell’area del Parco Regionale della Maremma presso Alberese (GR). In primo luogo è stata svolta un’ampia ricognizione della bibliografia storica, archeologica e geografica alla scopo di raccogliere i dati editi a disposizione sulle pratiche transumanti nella lunga durata per il territorio maremmano-amiatino. Inoltre sono stati consultati i risultati di due tesi di dottorato di ricerca in ambito storico e archeologico sulla transumanza per la medesima area e sono state svolte ulteriori ricerche sulla documentazione inedita negli Archivi di Stato di Siena e Firenze. Le caratteristiche delle diverse tipologie di dati e le problematiche relative al loro inserimento nel database e al dialogo con le altre fonti sono trattati nella sezione Fonti e Metodi. La progettazione e la costruzione della piattaforma e della banca dati del sistema informativo, sulla base dei dati a disposizione, è descritta nella sezione Banche dati e GIS, mentre la ricognizione archeologica è trattata nella sezione Ricognizione archeologica. Seguono alcune Osservazioni finali.
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L’articolo è una sintesi delle tendenze principali della storia rurale e dell’agricoltura in Europa degli ultimi venti anni, in particolare per l’ambito medievistico e modernistico. Dopo una breve introduzione nei primi tre paragrafi sono... more
L’articolo è una sintesi delle tendenze principali della storia rurale e dell’agricoltura in Europa degli ultimi venti anni, in particolare per l’ambito medievistico e modernistico. Dopo una breve introduzione nei primi tre paragrafi sono ricostruiti i recenti percorsi di ricerca della storiografia inglese, francese e belga-olandese, tra i più innovativi su questi temi. Nel quarto sono analizzate le tendenze storiografiche diffuse a livello europeo, osservando i network, le conferenze internazionali e le collane editoriali più attive nel rinnovamento degli studi e nella loro diffusione.
The paper aims to concisely present the trends of the rural and agrarian history of Middle Ages and Early Modern period in Europe during the last twenty years. After a brief introduction, the first three paragraphs analyze the recent research paths of the British, French, Belgian and Dutch historiographies, among the most lively on those themes. The fourth paragraph explains the general trends of European research through the analysis of the most active networks, international conferences and book series in refreshing literature and spreading new debates.
The paper aims to concisely present the trends of the rural and agrarian history of Middle Ages and Early Modern period in Europe during the last twenty years. After a brief introduction, the first three paragraphs analyze the recent research paths of the British, French, Belgian and Dutch historiographies, among the most lively on those themes. The fourth paragraph explains the general trends of European research through the analysis of the most active networks, international conferences and book series in refreshing literature and spreading new debates.
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This paper aims to gather and summarize the studies on collective properties and the commons developed by historians of the Middle Ages and Early Modern times in Italy during the last two centuries. The paper also intends to focus on the... more
This paper aims to gather and summarize the studies on collective properties and the commons developed by historians of the Middle Ages and Early Modern times in Italy during the last two centuries. The paper also intends to focus on the influence of European and American literature on Italian historiography regarding the commons, with particular regard to the approaches of socioeconomic and environmental history. First, the paper focuses on the contributions and approaches of scholars of jurisprudence and of Medieval and Modern law. It also analyses the political and cultural context that provided the background for their research (§ 1). Secondly, it summarizes the main approaches of American social scientists on common pool resources – Garret Hardin’s Tragedy of the Commons and Elinor Ostrom’s Governing the Commons – as well as the chief environmental and eco-history contributions (§ 2). The paper then focuses on studies by historians of the Middle Ages and Early Modern times, analysing the most developed regional literature and the main contributions and collective works (§ 3), as well as the recent season of studies on the management of the commons (§ 4).
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The paper presents a project related to the study of transhumance's paths and pastures in Southern Tuscany in a long-term perspective, from Prehistory to the Modern Age, in collaboration with the École française of Rome. TRATTO is the... more
The paper presents a project related to the study of transhumance's paths and pastures in Southern Tuscany in a long-term perspective, from Prehistory to the Modern Age, in collaboration with the École française of Rome. TRATTO is the first project focused on the features of Tuscan transhumance as paths and pasturages with a cross-disciplinary approach (geographers, archaeologists and historians) and using a strong GIS structure for analyses and data-gathering. The information from literature, primary and cartographic sources, material culture, paleoenvironmental data will be integrated in a unique system and analyzed through different procedures,including predicting and postdicting analyses. The aim is reconstructing the transhumance's paths and the grazing land use in some case-study areas, understanding and explaining its different factors of influence and their role in the formation of territorial identities and landscape. The project is at its early stage, consequently we focus on critical questions and methodological problems necessary to carry on our goals.
Research Interests: Geography, Historical Geography, Classical Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Medieval History, and 8 moreEarly Modern History, Landscape Archaeology, Mediterranean prehistory, Medieval Archaeology, Geo-spatial analysis with GIS and GPS, Prehistory, Transhumance, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
This paper, presenting the first outcomes of a doctoral research, aims to demonstrate that the Statute of the Dogana dei Paschi of Siena of 1419 was not the foundation act of this institution but was the end of a normative process begun... more
This paper, presenting the first outcomes of a doctoral research, aims to demonstrate that the Statute of the Dogana dei Paschi of Siena of 1419 was not the foundation act of this institution but was the end of a normative process begun by the Sienese commune in Maremma in 1353 and connected with the 14th century’s crisis. This process re-organised a land with a strong pastoral and transhumant tradition where Siena have conquered, during his century-old expansion, many rights and commons of pasturage. Through the rich public Sienese records analysis we go over the construction of the Dogana during seventy years to show the administrative’s structures and the budget of this increasing fiscal and territorial control of transhumant flows, the influence over it of exogenous factors, the innovations, the causes and the outcomes of the many riformative periods.
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Economic inequality together with the so-called conjucture du 1300 – when European society was at the tipping point between its economic and demographic zenith and its impeding decline – have been at the core of historians’ research... more
Economic inequality together with the so-called conjucture du 1300 – when European society was at the tipping point between its economic and demographic zenith and its impeding decline – have been at the core of historians’ research agenda in the last decade. This seminar aims to gather and discuss the outcomes and the perspectives of these research fields to study a precise chronological, geographical and cultural space: Central-Northern Italy and Western Europe in 1270-1330. The objective is threefold: 1) to understand how and to what extent medieval society before the Great Plague of 1348 was unequal by focusing on specific case-studies or comparisons between cities, regions, economic sectors and social groups. This is pivotal 2) to explore and discuss the causal mechanisms of the socio-economic inequalities found, in particular, their relation with the economic growth and the transformation experienced by medieval society in those years. Finally, 3) the study of how socio-economic inequalities were perceived and conceptualized as well as addressed by contemporary medieval European societies is believed critical for the understanding of this phenomenon. All these themes will be addressed in two specific online sessions in June and October by gathering established scholars and young researchers, medievalists, archaeologists and economic historians.
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Economic inequality together with the so-called conjucture du 1300 – when European society was at the tipping point between its economic and demographic zenith and its impeding decline – have been at the core of historians’ research... more
Economic inequality together with the so-called conjucture du 1300 – when European society was at the tipping point between its economic and demographic zenith and its impeding decline – have been at the core of historians’ research agenda in the last decade. This seminar aims to gather and discuss the outcomes and the perspectives of these research fields to study a precise chronological, geographical and cultural space: Central-Northern Italy and Western Europe in 1270-1330. The objective is threefold: 1) to understand how and to what extent medieval society before the Great Plague of 1348 was unequal by focusing on specific case-studies or comparisons between cities, regions, economic sectors and social groups. This is pivotal 2) to explore and discuss the causal mechanisms of the socio-economic inequalities found, in particular, their relation with the economic growth and the transformation experienced by medieval society in those years. Finally, 3) the study of how socio-economic inequalities were perceived and conceptualized as well as addressed by contemporary medieval European societies is believed critical for the understanding of this phenomenon. All these themes will be addressed in two specific online sessions in June and October by gathering established scholars and young researchers, medievalists, archaeologists and economic historians.
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Since more than a decade, research on the causes of economic inequality has been at the centre of both societal and academic debates. In this regard, studies on economic inequality have mostly focused on measuring trends of wealth and... more
Since more than a decade, research on the causes of economic inequality has been at the centre of both societal and academic debates. In this regard, studies on economic inequality have mostly focused on measuring trends of wealth and income distribution and testing explanatory factors in contemporary and early modern societies. In this respect, the study of the late medieval period (often from the 15th c. on) has often been instrumental to identify the roots of the rising economic inequality observed in the long-run across Europe.
However, the historiographical focus and the scant evidence available has led economic historians to almost ignore wealth concentration and its trends at the peak of medieval development and before the broad socio-economic transformations expedited by the Great Plague of 1348. Medievalists, conversely, have often missed to measure, explain and compare the high inequality claimed in 1300, after two centuries of growth. Finally, we should notice that the need to include more diverse sources, data and indicators as well as to develop synchronic in-depth studies to explore socio-economic inequalities across pre-industrial society has been variously urged in recent publications and debates “for the sake of historicity, nuance and realism”.
In this session we aim to address these issues with studies bringing new sources, data and methodologies to shed light on historical evidence on inequality and the mechanism behind its evolution across European society between 1290-1348. Preference will be given to studies focusing on regional level and/or single urban or rural areas. The session is organized within the framework of the FWO Ghent University-based project on Economic inequality on the eve of the Late Medieval crisis (n. 12Z8221N).
However, the historiographical focus and the scant evidence available has led economic historians to almost ignore wealth concentration and its trends at the peak of medieval development and before the broad socio-economic transformations expedited by the Great Plague of 1348. Medievalists, conversely, have often missed to measure, explain and compare the high inequality claimed in 1300, after two centuries of growth. Finally, we should notice that the need to include more diverse sources, data and indicators as well as to develop synchronic in-depth studies to explore socio-economic inequalities across pre-industrial society has been variously urged in recent publications and debates “for the sake of historicity, nuance and realism”.
In this session we aim to address these issues with studies bringing new sources, data and methodologies to shed light on historical evidence on inequality and the mechanism behind its evolution across European society between 1290-1348. Preference will be given to studies focusing on regional level and/or single urban or rural areas. The session is organized within the framework of the FWO Ghent University-based project on Economic inequality on the eve of the Late Medieval crisis (n. 12Z8221N).
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During the last four centuries of Middle Ages rural economy and society observed radical changes across Europe. In this regard, the role of institutions and socio-property relations such as seigneurial powers, leasing system, credit... more
During the last four centuries of Middle Ages rural economy and society observed radical changes across Europe. In this regard, the role of institutions and socio-property relations such as seigneurial powers, leasing system, credit market and peasant agency have been extensively researched by rural historians and medievalists, renovating the fields and its agenda during the last three decades. Such achievements, however, have not always been homogeneous across European historiographies. The Italian one, for instance, albeit a rich tradition in rural studies, have been scarcely challenged by the current agenda in rural history, apart from themes such as commons and economic inequalities (Alfani 2014). In this respect, however, a comparative exploration embedding institutions and socio-economic change in late medieval rural Italy within a European perspective is also missing. This panel contributes to fill this gap by addressing the role of institutions and the dynamics of social changes in rural countryside through case-studies and comparisons from the Italian peninsula and western Europe (France, England). More specifically, it aims to question and to explore, first, the role of seigneurial powers and credit market in shaping overall growth in 1100–1200 and, second, the impact of leasing system such as sharecropping as well as urban and seigneurial power relations and law enforcement in shaping economic inequalities and peasant resistance in rural society. For instance, research on the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries is often rife with the narrative of the expansion of urban mercantile classes into the countryside as one of the main factors of economic development – in both Italy and Europe. In this regard, however, several questions can be asked: what was the role played by rural aristocracies? Were they backward, ‘feudal’ lords? Or did they share the entrepreneurial attitude of the bourgeoisie? Similarly, Italian and European scholarship on the central and late Middle Ages has mostly focused on large-scale credit activities – the bedrock on which international networks of trade were built; petty credit to agriculturists has been comparatively less studied. Is the evolution of small-scale rural credit a symptom of economic growth? And how is it related to the transformations of land management? Finally, inequalities represent one of the major fields of investigation of current economic research, and the way these were shaped by – or else adapted to – extant ecosystems and farming regimes is of paramount importance for the understanding of society and economy as a whole. The wealth of information enshrined by late medieval sources does make room for new research: what was the interplay between different farming regimes (sharecropping, leasehold, seigneurial domain) and socio-economic inequalities in the countryside? And how did the institutional structures of urban governing bodies contribute to shaping debt relations between landlords and tenants? Addressing these questions, moreover, will contribute to throw light on how inequalities could lead to social unrest and peasant resistance.
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Since a long time, the divergency of economic development in Europe has been increasingly debated within academia. In recent years, it has rightly been linked to wealth and income inequalities that go back to the preindustrial period.... more
Since a long time, the divergency of economic development in Europe has been increasingly debated within academia. In recent years, it has rightly been linked to wealth and income inequalities that go back to the preindustrial period. However, most studies have been focusing on rather superficial, global and national comparisons. What is missing to large extent up to now, are in-depth source-based studies using (new) archival data as well as studies that are comparing regions with different institutional frameworks, originated in divergent historical and geographical contexts. Indeed, recent research, has been underlining the value of regional approaches for in-depth economic analyses. In this session we aim to address these issues with comparative studies about the relation between (and the extent of) social/economic inequalities and economic growth in the countryside across NorthWestern and Southern Europe from the Middle Ages on. Preference will be given to studies that focus on a regional level. The presented papers should be based on new sources and/or new comparative methodology. The session is organised by the Comparative Rural History Network (CORN) and by the Growth, Inequalities and Institutions project (GINI) of Ghent University.
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This paper aims to study the two main dynamics of agrarian change observed after the Black death – abatement and intensification – as part of larger process of reconstruction and adaptation of land rent to a new demographic and economic... more
This paper aims to study the two main dynamics of agrarian change observed after the Black death – abatement and intensification – as part of larger process of reconstruction and adaptation of land rent to a new demographic and economic landscape. This landscape, as we know, was boosted by the first plague and then worsened by the following epidemics waves between 1350-1450. At the same time, it was also the result of societal responses, such as landowners’ driven fiscal and labour policies and land expropriation as well as constant and asymmetric negotiations between who was controlling the land and who was cultivating and living on it. In this regard, a comparative study of the agrarian change in Florence and Siena between 1350-1430 allows us to carefully reconsider some general dynamics (rise of rural wages, grain-cropping vs. extensive husbandry, trend in land investment across urban and peasants society) of the second half of the fourteenth century through the societal responses they triggered at macro- (policies, tax) and micro- (contracts, investment) level. In particular, the paper will focus on two aspects. First, as an example of the intensification process, it will analyse the labour regulations, the fiscal policies and the land purchases enacted by urban élites in Florence and Siena to support share-leases against wage labour in the most fertile surroundings. Secondly, as an example of abatement process, the paper will focus on the fiscal and agrarian policies enacted by Siena in Southern Tuscany to exploit abandoned and uncultivated land as grazing pasture for transhumant (Florentine and Sienese) sheep flocks. The analysis will be conducted by using deliberations, laws, statutes, contracts and chronicles and by focusing on two periods: 1) the aftermath of the Black Death until the second epidemics of 1363; then, 2) the aftermath of the second plague until the beginning of the fifteenth century, when the institutional and economic framework of the agrarian change was definitively established.
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Une interprétation presque classique de l’exploitation du porc dans l’historiographie italienne du Moyen Âge et des temps modernes nous montre souvent l’evolution de cette pratique d’un élevage extensif dans le bois à chêne au 7e-10e s.... more
Une interprétation presque classique de l’exploitation du porc dans l’historiographie italienne du Moyen Âge et des temps modernes nous montre souvent l’evolution de cette pratique d’un élevage extensif dans le bois à chêne au 7e-10e s. vers une stabulation dans la ferme paysanne entre le 13e-18e s. Toutefois, cette interpretation risque de passer sous silence la forte demande de viande porcine qui, malgré des variations d’intensité entre régions et périodes, a caractérisé les marchés urbains italiens à partir du bas Moyen Âge et pour plusieurs siècles. Cette demande ne pouvait pas être satisfaite par un élevage à petite échelle orienté surtout vers l’autoconsommation paysanne ou celle du bailleur. En effet, elle doit être satisfaite par un élevage porcin à moyenne et à grand échelle par sa dimension et sa mobilité, pratiqué de façon extensive dans des regions marginales adaptées de bois et de pâtures, notamment, en Toscane, dans les Apennins et la Maremme (provinces de Grosseto et Sienne). Il s’agit d’un phénomène très similaire a celui déjà observé, par exemple, dans l’Ardenne-Eiffel entre le XIVe et le XVIIe siècle. L'article propose des prèmières reflections sur ce type d'élevage en focalisant sur les sources de l'Archive d'état de Sienne.
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By presenting the outcomes of personal research and recent and less recent literature, the paper analyses the different evidence about the development and the economy of transhumance across the Northern Apennines and the Western Alps... more
By presenting the outcomes of personal research and recent and less recent literature, the paper analyses the different evidence about the development and the economy of transhumance across the Northern Apennines and the Western Alps between 12th and 15th c. In particular, the paper is organized in four sections: 1) defining transhumance, 2) the development of transhumance in Central-Northern Italy, 3) a comparison of long and short.-distance pastoral practices among different mountain regions, 4) the economy of transhumance and the management of alpine pastures.
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The progress in previous research shows that the medieval society around 1300 is a relevant case-study to explore economic inequality, its mechanisms and causalities. In addition, evidence from recent studies suggests that economic... more
The progress in previous research shows that the medieval society around 1300 is a relevant case-study to explore economic inequality, its mechanisms and causalities. In addition, evidence from recent studies suggests that economic inequality might have played a relevant role in a context characterized by social hierarchies and constraints as well as by profound economic and demographic changes such as the early-fourteenth-century European society. Finally, as shown by specific case-studies, the gaps in archival records and geographical coverage highlighted above could be overcome by using both qualitative and quantitative methodologies and focusing on punctual observations and short-term trends as well as archaeological sources. In this way, the present workshop aims to understand, first, how and to what extent medieval society around 1300 was unequal. In this regard, it encourages contributions both on specific case-studies or comparisons between cities, regions, economic sectors and social groups in order to provide the most detailed and broadest picture of pre-Black Death economic inequality. Second, the workshop aims to explore and discuss the causal mechanisms of the socio-economic inequalities found. In particular, whether inequality in early fourteenth century was the result of the previous economic growth or of the impeding decline experienced by medieval society in those years. Third, the workshop aims to investigate the perceptions, the reflections and the responses that socio-economic inequalities fostered (or not) in the late medieval West both at the upper and (possibly) and the bottom layers of the society. All these themes will be explored by taking Northern-Central Italy together with some of the most advanced European regions (France, Iberian Peninsula, Low Countries, England) in the period 1270-1330 as case-studies.
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Lezione seminariale al 23° Laboratorio Internazionale di Storia Agraria di Montalcino
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Lo sviluppo della transumanza nel Medioevo mediterraneo è considerata dagli storici come il risultato di più fattori interdipendenti: i ben noti limiti geografico-climatico-ambientali dell’area, la domanda crescente di mercati e... more
Lo sviluppo della transumanza nel Medioevo mediterraneo è considerata dagli storici come il risultato di più fattori interdipendenti: i ben noti limiti geografico-climatico-ambientali dell’area, la domanda crescente di mercati e produzioni sempre più ampie e integrate, lo sviluppo della fiscalità pubblica. Il poster, presentando i risultati di ampie ricerche su fonti pubbliche e comunitative senesi, vuole apportare nuove evidenze e riflessioni sull’interdipendenza fra questi fattori e, sopratutto, sul loro ruolo nel determinare l’impatto e la sostenibilità ambientale di questa pratica allevatizia, già definita “ad energia solare”, nei territori fra Appennini e Maremma senese fra XIV e XVI secolo.
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The first half of the fourteenth century has been the historiographical arena for divergent economic and social theories, explaining the profound socio-economic transformations of this period. Conversely, recent studies on wealth and... more
The first half of the fourteenth century has been the historiographical arena for divergent economic and social theories, explaining the profound socio-economic transformations of this period. Conversely, recent studies on wealth and income concentration have identified the roots of early modern inequality in post-1348 period. Within this new wave of studies, however, the trends of wealth and income distribution before the Black Death have not been integrated yet, while the geographical and typological coverage of research on pre-1348 economic inequality can be further extended through cross-sectional comparisons. Finally, scholars do not have explained yet whether the high economic inequality found so far was the outcome of the preceding economic growth or of the impending economic transformation or of the decline of fourteenth-century society. This paper aims contributing to fill this gap through the analysis of the so-called Tavola delle Possessioni of Siena, an estimo made in 1316-20 to assess the wealth (immovables) of all the inhabitants of the city-state (city-dwellers, noblemen, rural inhabitants, religious and welfare institutions). By processing the data made available by the project Tabula of the University of Siena, the paper aims to provide new evidence of economic inequality among the lay owners of the city of Siena before the Black Death and to discuss it through regional comparisons. In this regard, the paper presents the preliminary results of a larger project funded by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) at Ghent University.
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In 1300, medieval European society was at the tipping point, starting to experience, after over two hundred years of demographic and economic growth a profound transformation of its main features expedited by events such as the Great... more
In 1300, medieval European society was at the tipping point, starting to experience, after over two hundred years of demographic and economic growth a profound transformation of its main features expedited by events such as the Great Plague of 1348 and a general worsening of climatic and environmental conditions. Such a period, especially that between the end of the thirteenth century and the first half of the fourteenth century, has been the historiographical arena for divergent economic and social theories (Drendel 2015). Conversely, recent studies on wealth and income concentration have identified the roots of early modern inequality in post-1348 period (Alfani 2018). Within this new wave of studies, however, trends of wealth and income distribution before the Black Death have not been integrated yet, especially for Northern Europe and rural areas. As a consequence, research still needs to definitively assess the high inequality claimed on the basis of scant evidence before 1348 as well as to explain whether it was the outcome of the preceding economic growth or of the impending economic transformation or of the decline of fourteenth-century society (Piccinni 2017). This paper aims contributing to fill this gap through the analysis of two royal tax collections levied in Artois (Northern France) between 1295 and 1300. The county of Artois was a core area of demographic development and cereal production in North-Western Europe before 1348. Furthermore, the county, under the rule of the King of France, was organised in a feudal system. Although such a system was characterised by political and economic decline in favour of the self-organisation of rural villages and towns in 1100–1200, it was still determining the rural economy and society of the county in 1300. Within this area, the two tax surveys under study provide a general measure of the wealth (as the sum of real estate and financial asset values) of all the rural population of 43 villages including landless wage labourers via assessing their daily wages. As a consequence, this paper aims through statistical analyses and social agro-systemic approach 1) to provide new evidence of economic inequality before the Black Death for North-Western Europe; 2) to explore different causal factors of wealth concentration across rural society such as demographic growth, economic development, agrarian systems and property relations.
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Recent studies on economic inequality have hitherto focused on measuring trends of distribution rather than testing potential explanatory factors. Among the latter, the role of agrarian system and property regime in shaping inequality... more
Recent studies on economic inequality have hitherto focused on measuring trends of distribution rather than testing potential explanatory factors. Among the latter, the role of agrarian system and property regime in shaping inequality have often been understudied despite large research on rural history. This paper explores the relation between economic inequality and agrarian systems by studying two villages (S. Giovanni in Petroio and Rifredi) in the territory of Florence between 1427 and 1512. This area was characterised by the development of a peculiar sharecropping system (mezzadria) driven by urban investment between 13th–20th c. Such development boosted after the Black Death of 1348, when scholars have observed an increasing proletarianisation (and less differentiation) among peasants. Besides, however, other lease-holding contracts survived together with small peasant property according to distance from cities and markets, soil quality and morphology, peasants expropriations of private and collective property, the socio-economic profile of the landlord. By selecting those villages according to the prevalent property regime, this paper aims to compare at cross-sectional and longitudinal level the impact on socio-economic inequality of a) sharecropping and b) tenancy. In fact, each lease-holding system could provide different level of formal and informal differentiation among peasantry. In this regard, inequality will be measured through quantitative analyses on proxies such as wealth concentration (Gini and Theil indexes), property distribution, estimated wheat consumption and access to resources such as land, credit and oxen. In addition, also the supplementary role of smallholding in integrating tenants’ agricultural rents within the two main lease-holding systems will be explored. All these proxies will be examined within each village society and between rural and Florentine landlords to take into account the influence of urban investment on inequality and differentiation among peasants. In this regard, the Florentine fiscal surveys of 1427 and 1512 provide in total comparable information for over 700 rural inhabitants and 300 Florentine landlords for the villages under study. The analyses, furthermore, will be done a) per village and b) per period in order to control for difference among territories and sources and to observe the relation between agrarian systems and economic inequality after the Black Death in the long-run.
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Il soggetto - i beni fiscali -, la prospettiva - la loro gestione - e la cronologia stessa - al cuore del grande balzo in avanti della società europea a livello economico, demografico, - rendono di grande interesse questo seminario e il... more
Il soggetto - i beni fiscali -, la prospettiva - la loro gestione - e la cronologia stessa - al cuore del grande balzo in avanti della società europea a livello economico, demografico, - rendono di grande interesse questo seminario e il progetto PRIN “Fiscal Estates in Medieval Italy: continuity and change” che ne è all’origine. Questo progetto e il seminario di questi giorni si inseriscono inoltre, come è stato detto, all’interno di una più ampia campagna di studi che da circa un decennio sta rivedendo i precedenti paradigmi storiografici rispetto all’economia dei poteri (économie des pouvoirs) nei secoli centrali del Medioevo attraverso metodologie di indagine interdisciplinare, un uso rinnovato e innovativo delle (poche) fonti scritte altomedievali disponibili, un livello di dettaglio, quando possibile, notevole nella ricostruzione dei contesti territoriali e nella definizione dei beni fiscali osservati. Si tratta dunque di un campo di ricerca di grande interesse anche per coloro che indagano altre cronologie e talvolta altri ambiti geografici, ma che hanno come principale interesse e ambito di indagine la connessione, per dirla con la triade coniata da Paul Warde in un suo volume, fra Ecology, Economy and State Formation, intendendo con questo ultimo termine, in senso certo diverso rispetto al significato datogli dallo studioso inglese, quei processi di formazione e trasformazione del potere pubblico in una determinata società e i suoi effetti su di essa.
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The paper summarises the contents of my PhD research (2012-2016) at the University of Siena, recently published as a book by the Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medioevo... more
The paper summarises the contents of my PhD research (2012-2016) at the University of Siena, recently published as a book by the Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medioevo (http://www.isime.it/index.php/pubblicazioni/nuovi-studi-storici/il-reame-di-siena-1171). In the book I explore the re-distribution of the impact of the late medieval crisis by studying the development of the transhumant pastoralism in Southern Tuscany between 1353 and 1419. Within this period, the city-state of Siena transformed its surrounding territory depopulated by the Black Death (1348) in a vast grazing land for sheep flocks from the Apennines. The aim was to «gain as much revenues as possible» in order to cover increasing military expenses against decreasing fiscal revenues.
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Cette intervention analyse la creation et la gestion des frontières ainsi que leur franchissement dans le territoire de la Douane de pâturages de Sienne (Toscane meridionale), entre XIVe-XVe siècle. Entre 1353 et 1419, le développement de... more
Cette intervention analyse la creation et la gestion des frontières ainsi que leur franchissement dans le territoire de la Douane de pâturages de Sienne (Toscane meridionale), entre XIVe-XVe siècle. Entre 1353 et 1419, le développement de la Douane et de la transhumance des troupeaux, dont elle avait soin et qu’elle protégeait en échange des revenus fiscaux, fut le critère principal de la réorganisation des territoires conquis par l’État Siennois naissant. Cette réorganisation se fit par l’appropriation et la gestion des biens communaux et des droits des pâturages, précédemment répartis entre les seigneuries locales et les communautés et qui, après 1353, étaient destinés principalement à l’entretien du bétail en transhumance en expansion. Cependant, le monopole de la Douane était incomplet, en concernant seulement les pâturages d’hiver: au-delà de l’état siennoise, les bergers transhumants étaient libres de mouvement, tandis que à l’intérieur des frontières siennoises, ils formaient une communauté pastorale soumis aux lois de la Douane pendant tout la durée de l’hivernage. Par consequence, l’interaction entre bergers transhumants et officiers siennoises oscillait entre négociation et conflict ouvert, lorsque les premiers cherchaient de négocier les péages avant de l’hiver ou de franchir les frontières pour éviter de payer les taxes dus à la Douane, et cela, évidemment, essaie de attirer les bergers dans ses pâturages, compter et taxer les troupeaux transhumants, collecter les revenues ou sanctionner les fraudeurs. En examinant les documents d'archives de Sienne du XIVe-XVe siècle, cet intervention explore les techniques de comptage, les taxes, les amendes, le statut juridique temporaire des bergers à la base du monopole de la Douane des pâturages et de ses frontières.
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Cette intervention analyse les transformations des modes de culture dans l’Italie de la fin du Moyen-Âge à travers le cas d’étude de la Douane de Pâturages de Sienne. En particulier, on va à analyser les politiques domaniales et de... more
Cette intervention analyse les transformations des modes de culture dans l’Italie de la fin du Moyen-Âge à travers le cas d’étude de la Douane de Pâturages de Sienne. En particulier, on va à analyser les politiques domaniales et de gestion de ressources collectives de la commune de Sienne et leur impact sur l’économie et l’écosystème agraire de la Toscane méridionale et de ses communautés, au milieu des plus profonds bouleversements de la crise du Moyen-âge. Entre 1353 et 1419, le développement de la Douane des pâturages et de la transhumance des troupeaux, dont elle avait soin et qu’elle protégeait en échange des revenus fiscaux, fut le critère principal de la réorganisation des territoires conquis par l’État Siennois naissant. Cette réorganisation se fit par l’appropriation et la gestion des biens communaux et des droits des pâturages, précédemment répartis entre les seigneuries locales et les communautés et qui, après 1353, étaient destinés principalement à l’entretien du bétail en transhumance en expansion. Il s’agissait de ressources stratégiques pour l’économie locale mais aussi pour les caisses siennoises grâce aux marges élevées de gain pour des investissements relativement bas. Il en résulté un « déséquilibre contrôlé » en faveur de la Douane qui, en participant au remodelage de l’organisation des pâturages et du système pastoral, accentua les effets de la crise économique, démographique et environnementale de la Toscane méridionale au Moyen-âge tardif.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Lezione per il dottorato in Studi Storici delle Università di Siena e Firenze sulla storia rurale nazionale di Inghilterra, Francia, Belgio e Paesi Bassi e sulle più recenti tendenze storiografiche a livello europeo.
Research Interests:
The paper presents the first results of a research on the mezzadria (share-cropping) impact on socioeconomic inequality trend in fourteenth-sixteenth century Tuscany. The research is part of the GINI (Growth, Inequality and Institutions)... more
The paper presents the first results of a research on the mezzadria (share-cropping) impact on socioeconomic inequality trend in fourteenth-sixteenth century Tuscany. The research is part of the GINI (Growth, Inequality and Institutions) project funded by Ghent University and supervised by E. Thoen,
Th. Lambrecht, K. Schoors (Ghent University) and G. Alfani (Bocconi University). In this text I will focus only on the results for one of the two study-area – Mugello, 20km north of Florence – in 1427. This way I can test the research methodology and sources, which I am currently using to study the second study-area – Rifredi, 5 km north of Florence, and offer some preliminary conclusion. The main goal of the thesis is exploring the role of leasing contracts such as mezzadria in driving socio-economic inequalities and economic development in the Late Medieval Tuscany. The cross-sectional (Mugello and Rifredi) and longitudinal analyses (15th-16th c.) will allow me to present robust and in-depth result, exploiting at the most the data entered from the Florentine fiscal sources. In this respect, the result of this paper will be part of the third chapter of my thesis, focusing on Inequality, production and productivity in the Florentine contado: Mugello and Rifredi in 1427. This paper will be published within 2019 with the title “Socio-economic inequalities in fifteenth-century Tuscany: the role of mezzadria system”, in Inequality(-ies) and economic development in rural societies (middle ages-early 20th century), ed. E. Thoen - G. Alfani, Turnhout, Brepols («Comparative Rural History Network Publications», n. 17) and it is currently waiting for the external peer-review.
Th. Lambrecht, K. Schoors (Ghent University) and G. Alfani (Bocconi University). In this text I will focus only on the results for one of the two study-area – Mugello, 20km north of Florence – in 1427. This way I can test the research methodology and sources, which I am currently using to study the second study-area – Rifredi, 5 km north of Florence, and offer some preliminary conclusion. The main goal of the thesis is exploring the role of leasing contracts such as mezzadria in driving socio-economic inequalities and economic development in the Late Medieval Tuscany. The cross-sectional (Mugello and Rifredi) and longitudinal analyses (15th-16th c.) will allow me to present robust and in-depth result, exploiting at the most the data entered from the Florentine fiscal sources. In this respect, the result of this paper will be part of the third chapter of my thesis, focusing on Inequality, production and productivity in the Florentine contado: Mugello and Rifredi in 1427. This paper will be published within 2019 with the title “Socio-economic inequalities in fifteenth-century Tuscany: the role of mezzadria system”, in Inequality(-ies) and economic development in rural societies (middle ages-early 20th century), ed. E. Thoen - G. Alfani, Turnhout, Brepols («Comparative Rural History Network Publications», n. 17) and it is currently waiting for the external peer-review.
Research Interests:
La relazione intende contribuire al dibattito sulle cause della disuguaglianza economica attraverso il caso-studio della Toscana mezzadrile fra Tardo Medioevo ed Età Moderna. L’obiettivo è quello di ripensare la diffusione della... more
La relazione intende contribuire al dibattito sulle cause della disuguaglianza economica attraverso il caso-studio della Toscana mezzadrile fra Tardo Medioevo ed Età Moderna.
L’obiettivo è quello di ripensare la diffusione della mezzadria nel contado fiorentino fra Quattrocento e Cinquecento in relazione alla distribuzione della proprietà, delle rendite della terra e del credito, e verificare l’impatto di tale sistema agrario su queste dinamiche nel secolo della sua piena espansione. Tale periodo appare caratterizzato, secondo recenti ricerche, da una progressiva disuguaglianza e dall’inizio della stagnazione economica.
Per questo si intende, in un ottica comparativa, affrontare le seguenti questioni per l'area di studio di San Giovanni in Petroio in Mugello: misurare l’influenza della proprietà urbana e della mezzadria sulle disuguaglianze economiche; misurare e distinguere fra la distribuzione della ricchezza e quella delle rendite; mettere a punto stime della produzione e della produttività agricola.
L’obiettivo è quello di ripensare la diffusione della mezzadria nel contado fiorentino fra Quattrocento e Cinquecento in relazione alla distribuzione della proprietà, delle rendite della terra e del credito, e verificare l’impatto di tale sistema agrario su queste dinamiche nel secolo della sua piena espansione. Tale periodo appare caratterizzato, secondo recenti ricerche, da una progressiva disuguaglianza e dall’inizio della stagnazione economica.
Per questo si intende, in un ottica comparativa, affrontare le seguenti questioni per l'area di studio di San Giovanni in Petroio in Mugello: misurare l’influenza della proprietà urbana e della mezzadria sulle disuguaglianze economiche; misurare e distinguere fra la distribuzione della ricchezza e quella delle rendite; mettere a punto stime della produzione e della produttività agricola.
Research Interests:
Per ricostruire e analizzare le dinamiche della filiera della produzione della lana in Casentino occorre partire a monte, dalla transumanza che, sopratutto nei versanti occidentali, fu fondamentale per l'economia della vallata. In questa... more
Per ricostruire e analizzare le dinamiche della filiera della produzione della lana in Casentino occorre partire a monte, dalla transumanza che, sopratutto nei versanti occidentali, fu fondamentale per l'economia della vallata. In questa presentazione se ne ripercorrono i tratti fondamentali alla luce della documentazione della Dogana dei Paschi di Siena in Maremma, l'istituzione che dal XIV secolo affitto a vergari ed allevatori, anche Casentinesi, i pascoli della Toscana meridionale per svernare le greggi. Si cercherà dunque di osservare questa pratica e le sue dinamiche nei primi secoli del suo sviluppo su grande scala regionale,.
Research Interests:
The paper analyses the role of a fiscal institution (the Dogana dei Paschi) of the city commune of Siena to manage the transhumance development in Late Medieval Southern Tuscany. In that area, after the Black Death and until the early... more
The paper analyses the role of a fiscal institution (the Dogana dei
Paschi) of the city commune of Siena to manage the transhumance
development in Late Medieval Southern Tuscany. In that area, after
the Black Death and until the early 15th century, Siena carried on a
state-building process making a legal plunder of the commons from
the communities and lordships submitted. The commons were rented
out to flocks of thousands of sheep from Apennines for winter grazing,
providing increasing revenues to the communal balance. This way the
Sienese urban elites coped with the crisis, but as consequence they
hastened the decline of their territory.
Paschi) of the city commune of Siena to manage the transhumance
development in Late Medieval Southern Tuscany. In that area, after
the Black Death and until the early 15th century, Siena carried on a
state-building process making a legal plunder of the commons from
the communities and lordships submitted. The commons were rented
out to flocks of thousands of sheep from Apennines for winter grazing,
providing increasing revenues to the communal balance. This way the
Sienese urban elites coped with the crisis, but as consequence they
hastened the decline of their territory.
Research Interests:
The paper aims to present the first results of an in-depth and source-based research about socio-economic inequalities and agricultural growth in the Late Medieval Florentine society. This area has been intensively studied because of its... more
The paper aims to present the first results of an in-depth and source-based research about socio-economic inequalities and agricultural growth in the Late Medieval Florentine society.
This area has been intensively studied because of its economic relevance and the rise of a peculiar share-cropping system (mezzadria). Mezzadria lease contracts spread broadly in Tuscany at the end of the Middle Ages (13th c.), linked to the building of the regional city-state by the city-commune of Florence and its raising economy. The system developed before the demographic shocks of Late Middle Ages and continued to develop further during the decline of the Florentine economy in 15th-16th centuries. The role of mezzadria in shaping declining economic trends and socio-economic inequalities, as well as the causes of its rise, are still debated among scholars.
This research would offer an original contribute on these issues through a new in-depth consultation of the Florentine fiscal surveys of the 15th and 16th centuries (the Catasto of 1427 and the Decima repubblicana of the early 16th century) and the use of a social agro-systemic approach. The information entered from sources will be used to draw a picture of the social and property structure of four different sub-regional study-areas within the Florentine territory (characterized by differences in the importance of institutions, in property distribution, in environmental features), comparing the trends and their causal relations for regional differences. The goal is drawing: 1) a more complete figure of agricultural output of mezzadria – comparing different systems of exploitation and subregions –; 2) an in-depth figure of socio-economic inequalities – property and income distribution, ownership of oxen, access to credit and fiscal incomes. In this way it will be possible to offer a more detailed pattern of explanation of the main dynamics of Late Medieval rural Tuscany.
This area has been intensively studied because of its economic relevance and the rise of a peculiar share-cropping system (mezzadria). Mezzadria lease contracts spread broadly in Tuscany at the end of the Middle Ages (13th c.), linked to the building of the regional city-state by the city-commune of Florence and its raising economy. The system developed before the demographic shocks of Late Middle Ages and continued to develop further during the decline of the Florentine economy in 15th-16th centuries. The role of mezzadria in shaping declining economic trends and socio-economic inequalities, as well as the causes of its rise, are still debated among scholars.
This research would offer an original contribute on these issues through a new in-depth consultation of the Florentine fiscal surveys of the 15th and 16th centuries (the Catasto of 1427 and the Decima repubblicana of the early 16th century) and the use of a social agro-systemic approach. The information entered from sources will be used to draw a picture of the social and property structure of four different sub-regional study-areas within the Florentine territory (characterized by differences in the importance of institutions, in property distribution, in environmental features), comparing the trends and their causal relations for regional differences. The goal is drawing: 1) a more complete figure of agricultural output of mezzadria – comparing different systems of exploitation and subregions –; 2) an in-depth figure of socio-economic inequalities – property and income distribution, ownership of oxen, access to credit and fiscal incomes. In this way it will be possible to offer a more detailed pattern of explanation of the main dynamics of Late Medieval rural Tuscany.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The paper aims to address the conferences topics presenting the results of a recent PhD research about the development of transhumance and of the Dogana dei Paschi di Siena (Customs of Pasturages of Siena) between 14th and early 15th c.... more
The paper aims to address the conferences topics presenting the results of a recent PhD research about the development of transhumance and of the Dogana dei Paschi di Siena (Customs of Pasturages of Siena) between 14th and early 15th c. Studying the development of transhumance practices and the related fiscal institutions in Tuscany between 14th-15th c. could offer a broad perspective also on farm husbandry (bovines, sheep). Indeed, those phenomena are proofs of the Late Medieval commercialization and specialization process of the agricultural and market economy of that area. After the analysis of the transhumance development, the paper focuses on: a) the husbandry of transhumant bovines and its connection with the regional market of draught animals and dairy/leather products; b) the management, use and investment of oxen and buffalos for grain-cropping in Southern Tuscany; c) the competition in that area between the local cattle and the transhumant one to access the commons ruled by the Customs of Pasturages of Siena.
Research Interests:
The paper aims to present the first results of an in-depth research about socioeconomic inequalities and agricultural growth in the Late Medieval Florentine society. This area has been intensively studied because of its economic relevance... more
The paper aims to present the first results of an in-depth research about socioeconomic inequalities and agricultural growth in the Late Medieval Florentine society. This area has been intensively studied because of its economic relevance and the rise of a peculiar share-cropping system (mezzadria). The role of mezzadria in shaping declining economic trends and socioeconomic inequalities, as well as the causes of its rise, are still debated among scholars. This research would offer an original contribute on these issues through a new in-depth consultation of the Florentine Catasto of 1427 and the use of a social agro-systemic approach. The information entered from sources will be used to draw a picture of the social and property structure of four different sub-regional study-areas within the Florentine territory. The goal is drawing: 1) a more complete figure of agricultural output of mezzadria – comparing different systems of exploitation and subregions –; 2) an in-depth figure of socioeconomic inequalities – property and income distribution, ownership of oxen, access to credit and fiscal incomes. In this way it will be possible to offer a more detailed pattern of explanation of the main dynamics of Late Medieval rural Tuscany.
Research Interests:
The papers deals with the main agrarian changes in Late Medieval - Early Modern Southern Tuscany – the development of transhumance and the rise of urban élites investments in land market – which highly influenced the socio-economic... more
The papers deals with the main agrarian changes in Late Medieval - Early Modern Southern Tuscany – the development of transhumance and the rise of urban élites investments in land market – which highly influenced the socio-economic structure of rural communities. The aim is reviewing the literature about these topics as well as the methods and approaches used until now, discussing also original case-studies.
Research Interests:
Il comprensorio Maremma-Monte Amiata costituì nel Tardo Medioevo una nicchia ecologica ed economica allo stesso tempo autosufficiente e strettamente interrelata con la Toscana delle città e degli Appennini. Tra XIV e XV secolo fu... more
Il comprensorio Maremma-Monte Amiata costituì nel Tardo Medioevo una nicchia ecologica ed economica allo stesso tempo autosufficiente e strettamente interrelata con la Toscana delle città e degli Appennini. Tra XIV e XV secolo fu attraversata da grandi cambiamenti, legati alla fase di crisi trecentesca e all’avanzata politica, militare ed economica del comune di Siena, che ne completò la conquista nei primi decenni del Quattrocento.
La struttura demografica e degli insediamenti precedente al 1348 risultò fortemente stravolta dalla crisi, favorendo l’avanzata dell’incolto, del disordine idrogeologico e del pascolo e accentuando gli spazi naturali da sempre al centro delle attività agro-silvo-pastorali dell’area. La conquista senese ne sarà incentivata e favorita: il comune necessitava di pascoli per intercettare con la nascente Dogana dei Paschi lo sviluppo regionale della transumanza, mentre lo svuotamento di uomini diminuiva le capacità dei poteri territoriali concorrenti (Aldobrandeschi, Salimbeni).
Proprio la costruzione istituzionale della Dogana, durata 70 anni (1353-1419), permette di valutare le forme d’intervento del potere sull’unica risorsa rimasta nel territorio: gli spazi vuoti di uomini ma non di diritti (privati e sopratutto collettivi) e di attività economiche. Siena si trovò a dover scegliere volta volta se favorire la Dogana o riattivare la presenza degli uomini nei territori conquistati, cedendo loro beni, diritti ed esenzioni. Se la direzione prevalente fu la prima, il quadro appare dalla documentazione senese (delibere del Consiglio generale di Siena, delibere del governo senese o Concistoro, Statuti delle comunità rurali, capitoli di sottomissione delle comunità) assai più sfumato, con diverse eccezioni e la presenza di una costante attività negoziale delle comunità maremmane con Siena.
Il presente paper, estratto dalla tesi di Dottorato di chi scrive, intende analizzare, nelle modalità e negli effetti, i segni, lo sfruttamento e le delimitazioni delle aree pascolative, che ridisegnarono il territorio maremmano e la sua gerarchia degli insediamenti.
La struttura demografica e degli insediamenti precedente al 1348 risultò fortemente stravolta dalla crisi, favorendo l’avanzata dell’incolto, del disordine idrogeologico e del pascolo e accentuando gli spazi naturali da sempre al centro delle attività agro-silvo-pastorali dell’area. La conquista senese ne sarà incentivata e favorita: il comune necessitava di pascoli per intercettare con la nascente Dogana dei Paschi lo sviluppo regionale della transumanza, mentre lo svuotamento di uomini diminuiva le capacità dei poteri territoriali concorrenti (Aldobrandeschi, Salimbeni).
Proprio la costruzione istituzionale della Dogana, durata 70 anni (1353-1419), permette di valutare le forme d’intervento del potere sull’unica risorsa rimasta nel territorio: gli spazi vuoti di uomini ma non di diritti (privati e sopratutto collettivi) e di attività economiche. Siena si trovò a dover scegliere volta volta se favorire la Dogana o riattivare la presenza degli uomini nei territori conquistati, cedendo loro beni, diritti ed esenzioni. Se la direzione prevalente fu la prima, il quadro appare dalla documentazione senese (delibere del Consiglio generale di Siena, delibere del governo senese o Concistoro, Statuti delle comunità rurali, capitoli di sottomissione delle comunità) assai più sfumato, con diverse eccezioni e la presenza di una costante attività negoziale delle comunità maremmane con Siena.
Il presente paper, estratto dalla tesi di Dottorato di chi scrive, intende analizzare, nelle modalità e negli effetti, i segni, lo sfruttamento e le delimitazioni delle aree pascolative, che ridisegnarono il territorio maremmano e la sua gerarchia degli insediamenti.
Research Interests:
In matter of pastoralism, great prominence has been given to long-distance transhumance especially between the Appennines and the coastal plains. Little or no interest has been paid to local or short transhumance, or to farm-based... more
In matter of pastoralism, great prominence has been given to long-distance transhumance especially between the Appennines and the coastal plains. Little or no interest has been paid to local or short transhumance, or to farm-based pasturage. Archaeologically speaking, pastoral practices have been always considered highly mobile, and virtually impossible to identify in the archaeological record.
The present case-studies thus diverts from the traditional image of pastoralism by overturning the mountains-to-plain centered perspective and by promoting the point of view of integrated agro-sylvo-pastoral practice, in the light of the particular historical phenomenon of transhumance in central coastal Italy (Maremma).
From this perspective the landscape is not only a reified concept but is an active complex palimpsest of interactions produced by natural and human activities in time and space. Around the 14th-15th century the establishment of customs organizations for managing the large-scale transhumance (the so called Dogana dei Paschi of the commune of Siena), creates new spaces of interaction for common land, where several modes of exploitation co-exist.
The assumption of the present work is that the transhumance is part of a wider agro-sylvo-pastoral system.
Within this system natural resources serve as impulse for mobility, which can see manifested in the landscape by a peculiar archaeological record. Ethnoarcheological and historical data show us the decisive role played by a marginal zone in the history of post-classical transhumance in the region. The humid zones, the lagoons and marshes reflect a pattern of instability within mobility and seasonality are key concepts for understanding such socio-economic phenomena.
The present case-studies thus diverts from the traditional image of pastoralism by overturning the mountains-to-plain centered perspective and by promoting the point of view of integrated agro-sylvo-pastoral practice, in the light of the particular historical phenomenon of transhumance in central coastal Italy (Maremma).
From this perspective the landscape is not only a reified concept but is an active complex palimpsest of interactions produced by natural and human activities in time and space. Around the 14th-15th century the establishment of customs organizations for managing the large-scale transhumance (the so called Dogana dei Paschi of the commune of Siena), creates new spaces of interaction for common land, where several modes of exploitation co-exist.
The assumption of the present work is that the transhumance is part of a wider agro-sylvo-pastoral system.
Within this system natural resources serve as impulse for mobility, which can see manifested in the landscape by a peculiar archaeological record. Ethnoarcheological and historical data show us the decisive role played by a marginal zone in the history of post-classical transhumance in the region. The humid zones, the lagoons and marshes reflect a pattern of instability within mobility and seasonality are key concepts for understanding such socio-economic phenomena.
Research Interests:
The research uses the rich public Sienese records conserved in the Public Archive of Siena to analyze the founding of the Custom of Pasturages and the development of transhumance in Maremma as the end of a normative process begun by the... more
The research uses the rich public Sienese records conserved in the Public Archive of Siena to analyze the founding of the Custom of Pasturages and the development of transhumance in Maremma as the end of a normative process begun by the Sienese commune in 1353 and connected with the mid-fourteenth century crisis. The first aim is to understand the administrative, fiscal and institutional mechanism through which the Maremma, under Sienese control during the 14th and 15th centuries, was re-organised for transhumance on a large scale. The second aim is to discover features of medieval transhumance in Tuscany and the bases of its development. Finally, our third aim is to analyze the economic and environmental outcomes of this construction on Maremma territory and in the history of the ruling city: what Siena took from the Maremma, such as the fiscal revenues of the Dogana, and what Siena left to this land.
Research Interests:
The aim of the paper is to propose a first survey of conflict dynamics for the management of collective resources among the mountain and hill communities of southern Tuscany during the 14th and 16th centuries, when many of these, under... more
The aim of the paper is to propose a first survey of conflict dynamics for the management of collective resources among the mountain and hill communities of southern Tuscany during the 14th and 16th centuries, when many of these, under the control of the Sienese Republic, underwent strong State intervention, based also on a removal of commons and collective resources and a restriction of their use. Notwithstanding this, the communities’ exploitation of collective resources continued over the centuries and some of them survived, even if poor, depopulated, and oppressed by taxation, probably thanks to their commons, the management of these and their confrontations with Siena. We aim to understand how this State intervention affected conflict dynamics in the management and exploitation of collective resources (violation of boundaries, cessions of commons, opposition to foreigners or officials) within the community and between the community and Siena, focusing on some case studies.
Research Interests:
Si vuole dimostrare, presentando i primi risultati della ricerca di dottorato in corso, come lo Statuto della Dogana dei Paschi di Siena del 1419 non sia l'atto fondativo ma il termine di un processo normativo iniziato dal comune senese... more
Si vuole dimostrare, presentando i primi risultati della ricerca di dottorato in corso, come lo Statuto della Dogana dei Paschi di Siena del 1419 non sia l'atto fondativo ma il termine di un processo normativo iniziato dal comune senese in seguito alla crisi di metà '300 in Maremma, terra dalla forte tradizione pastorale e transumante sulla quale aveva acquisito a partire dal secolo precedente molteplici diritti di sfruttamento, in particolare di pascolo. Si ripercorre la ‘costruzione’ della Dogana per settanta anni attraverso l'analisi della documentazione inedita d'archivio per mostrare strutture, uffici e bilanci di questo tentativo di controllo fiscale e territoriale dei flussi transumanti, l'influenza su di esso di guerre e passaggi di compagnie mercenarie, i fattori innovativi, le motivazioni, le cause e gli esiti delle varie fasi riformatrici.
The aim of this paper, showing the first outcomes of my doctoral research, is to demonstrate that the Statuto of Dogana dei Paschi of Siena of 1419 not founded this institution but was the end of a normative process begun by the Siennese commune in Maremma - a land with a strong pastoral and transhumant tradition and in wich Siena have conquered, during his century-old expansion, many rights and commons of pasturage - and connected with the middle fourteenth century's crisis. Through the rich public sienese records' analysis we go over the building of the Dogana during seventy years to show the administrative's structures and budget of this process of fiscal and territorial control of transhumant flows, the influence over it of wars and mercenary companies, the innovative factors, the causes and the outcomes of the many riformative periods.
The aim of this paper, showing the first outcomes of my doctoral research, is to demonstrate that the Statuto of Dogana dei Paschi of Siena of 1419 not founded this institution but was the end of a normative process begun by the Siennese commune in Maremma - a land with a strong pastoral and transhumant tradition and in wich Siena have conquered, during his century-old expansion, many rights and commons of pasturage - and connected with the middle fourteenth century's crisis. Through the rich public sienese records' analysis we go over the building of the Dogana during seventy years to show the administrative's structures and budget of this process of fiscal and territorial control of transhumant flows, the influence over it of wars and mercenary companies, the innovative factors, the causes and the outcomes of the many riformative periods.
Research Interests:
Reviews of / Recensioni di Statuti della Dogana dei Paschi di Siena del 1419 e del 1572, edizione a cura di Davide Cristoferi, Firenze, Associazione studi storici Elio Conti - Editpress, 2021, pp. 160 («Studi e Fonti di storia... more
Reviews of / Recensioni di
Statuti della Dogana dei Paschi di Siena del 1419 e del 1572,
edizione a cura di Davide Cristoferi, Firenze, Associazione studi
storici Elio Conti - Editpress, 2021, pp. 160 («Studi e Fonti di
storia toscana», n. 8).
- L. Palermo, «Rivista di Storia dell’Agricoltura», LXII (2022), 2, pp. 1-2
Statuti della Dogana dei Paschi di Siena del 1419 e del 1572,
edizione a cura di Davide Cristoferi, Firenze, Associazione studi
storici Elio Conti - Editpress, 2021, pp. 160 («Studi e Fonti di
storia toscana», n. 8).
- L. Palermo, «Rivista di Storia dell’Agricoltura», LXII (2022), 2, pp. 1-2
Research Interests:
Reviews of / Recensioni di Il «reame» di Siena. La costruzione della Dogana dei Paschi e la svolta del Tardo Medioevo in Maremma (metà XIV-inizi XV sec.), Roma, Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medioevo, 2021, pp. XII, 345 («Nuovi... more
Reviews of / Recensioni di
Il «reame» di Siena. La costruzione della Dogana dei Paschi e la
svolta del Tardo Medioevo in Maremma (metà XIV-inizi XV sec.),
Roma, Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medioevo, 2021, pp. XII, 345
(«Nuovi Studi Storici», 121).
- L. Palermo, «Rivista di Storia dell’Agricoltura», LXI (2021), 2,
pp. 129-130 (IT)
- L. Rombai, «Geostorie. Bollettino e Notiziario», XXIX (2021),
2, pp. 144-145 (IT)
- S. Tognetti, «Archivio Storico Italiano», 670 a. 179 (2021), 4,
pp. 857-859 (IT)
- V. Costantini, «Studi Medievali», s. III, LXIII (2022), 2, pp.
893-900 (IT)
- D. Boisseuil, «Médiévales», 82 (2022), pp. 236-237 (FR)
- J-.B. Delzant, «Revue historique, 704 (2022), pp. 968-971 (FR)
- F. Kümmeler, «Agricultural History Review», 70 (2022), 1, pp.
151-152 (EN)
- C. Villanueva Morte, «Medievalismo», 31 (2021), pp. 443-446
(ES)
Il «reame» di Siena. La costruzione della Dogana dei Paschi e la
svolta del Tardo Medioevo in Maremma (metà XIV-inizi XV sec.),
Roma, Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medioevo, 2021, pp. XII, 345
(«Nuovi Studi Storici», 121).
- L. Palermo, «Rivista di Storia dell’Agricoltura», LXI (2021), 2,
pp. 129-130 (IT)
- L. Rombai, «Geostorie. Bollettino e Notiziario», XXIX (2021),
2, pp. 144-145 (IT)
- S. Tognetti, «Archivio Storico Italiano», 670 a. 179 (2021), 4,
pp. 857-859 (IT)
- V. Costantini, «Studi Medievali», s. III, LXIII (2022), 2, pp.
893-900 (IT)
- D. Boisseuil, «Médiévales», 82 (2022), pp. 236-237 (FR)
- J-.B. Delzant, «Revue historique, 704 (2022), pp. 968-971 (FR)
- F. Kümmeler, «Agricultural History Review», 70 (2022), 1, pp.
151-152 (EN)
- C. Villanueva Morte, «Medievalismo», 31 (2021), pp. 443-446
(ES)
Research Interests:
Review of the volume: L. Tabarrini, Estate Management around Florence and Lucca 1000 – 1250 (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2023). Pages xviii + 234 + figures 15. £83.00 hardback.
Research Interests:
Review of the volume: Ch. Wickham, The Donkey and the Boat. Reinterpreting the Mediterranean Economy, 950-1180 (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2023). Pages xl + 795 + figures 46. £40.00 hardback.
Research Interests:
Review of the volume: Papacy, Crusade, and Christian-Muslim Relations. Essays in Memory of James M. Powell, edited by Jessalynn Lea Bird, Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press, 2018, pp. 254 (Pope Church, Faith and Culture in the Medieval... more
Review of the volume: Papacy, Crusade, and Christian-Muslim Relations. Essays in Memory of James M. Powell, edited by Jessalynn Lea Bird, Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press, 2018, pp. 254 (Pope Church, Faith and Culture in the Medieval West)
Research Interests:
Review of the volume: Beni comuni e strutture della proprietà. Dinamiche e conflitti in area toscana fra Basso Medioevo ed Età contemporanea, a cura di G.V. Parigino, Firenze, Associazione di Studi Storici Elio Conti, 2017, pp. 339 (Studi... more
Review of the volume: Beni comuni e strutture della proprietà. Dinamiche e conflitti in area toscana fra Basso Medioevo ed Età contemporanea, a cura di G.V. Parigino, Firenze, Associazione di Studi Storici Elio Conti, 2017, pp. 339 (Studi e fonti di storia toscana, 3)
Research Interests:
Review of the volume: Crusading on the Edge. Ideas and Practice of Crusading in Iberia and the Baltic Region, 1100-1500, a cura di Torben Kjersgaard Nielsen - Iben Fonnesberg-Schmidt, Turnhout, Brepols Publishers, 2016, pp. xv-410... more
Review of the volume: Crusading on the Edge. Ideas and Practice of Crusading in Iberia and the Baltic Region, 1100-1500, a cura di Torben Kjersgaard Nielsen - Iben Fonnesberg-Schmidt, Turnhout, Brepols Publishers, 2016, pp. xv-410 (Outremer. Studies in the Crusades and the Latin East, 4).
Research Interests:
Review of the volume: Agricoltura e allevamento nell’Italia medievale. Contributo bibliografico, 1950-2010, a cura di Alfio Cortonesi - Susanna Passigli, Firenze, Firenze University Press, 2016, pp. vi-226 (Reti Medievali E-Book.... more
Review of the volume:
Agricoltura e allevamento nell’Italia medievale. Contributo bibliografico, 1950-2010, a cura di Alfio Cortonesi - Susanna Passigli, Firenze, Firenze University Press, 2016, pp. vi-226 (Reti Medievali E-Book. Monografie, 26).
Agricoltura e allevamento nell’Italia medievale. Contributo bibliografico, 1950-2010, a cura di Alfio Cortonesi - Susanna Passigli, Firenze, Firenze University Press, 2016, pp. vi-226 (Reti Medievali E-Book. Monografie, 26).
Research Interests:
Review of the volume: Erbe, carni e pesce. L’alimentazione nella Valdinievole medievale e moderna, Atti del Convegno, Buggiano Castello 30 maggio 2015, a cura dell’Associazione Culturale Buggiano Castello, Buggiano – Firenze, Comune... more
Review of the volume:
Erbe, carni e pesce. L’alimentazione nella Valdinievole medievale e moderna, Atti del Convegno, Buggiano Castello 30 maggio 2015, a cura dell’Associazione Culturale Buggiano Castello, Buggiano – Firenze, Comune di Buggiano – Edizioni Polistampa, 2016, pp. 173, (Buggiano e la Valdinievole. Studi e ricerche. Nuova serie, 14)
Erbe, carni e pesce. L’alimentazione nella Valdinievole medievale e moderna, Atti del Convegno, Buggiano Castello 30 maggio 2015, a cura dell’Associazione Culturale Buggiano Castello, Buggiano – Firenze, Comune di Buggiano – Edizioni Polistampa, 2016, pp. 173, (Buggiano e la Valdinievole. Studi e ricerche. Nuova serie, 14)
Research Interests:
This research aims studying the mezzadria (share-cropping) system in the contado of Florence between the 15th and the 16th centuries and its impact on agricultural production, labour productivity and socio-economic inequalities. Mezzadria... more
This research aims studying the mezzadria (share-cropping) system in the contado of Florence between the 15th and the 16th centuries and its impact on agricultural production, labour productivity and socio-economic inequalities. Mezzadria is a peculiar leasing contract spread broadly in Tuscany at the end of the Middle Ages (13th c.), linked to the building of the regional city-state by the city-commune of Florence and its raising economy. The system developed before the demographic shocks of Late Middle Ages and continued to develop further during the decline of the Florentine economy in 15th-16th centuries. In that perspective, studying mezzadria allows to understand the influence of the complex institutional framework behind it and the short and long-term consequences on the rural society and economy. The share-contracts appear to have been tools of the Florentine urban elite being an interesting negotiation pitch between landowners and peasants, influenced by the changing socio-economic, institutional and demographic context of Late Medieval Tuscany. My research will try to answer to the following questions, providing new source-based data: 1) Why did mezzadria rise? 2) Why, how and to what extent did mezzadria influence the economic evolution of Tuscany? 3) Why, how and to what extent did mezzadria shape the socio-economic inequalities in (rural) Tuscany? And what is the link between inequality(-ies) and (non) development? The research aims to measure its impact using ‘modern’ criteria of growth and inequality. At the same time, it will verify if, how and to what extent the mezzadria answered to the issues of its times. I will use the following methodologies to provide an original contribute to the academic debate: the social agro-systemic and comparative-explanatory approach, the bottom-up source-based approach as well as the institutional approach. Focusing on institutions will allow us to better understand how functioned the mezzadria and the institutions behind it (markets, property rights, tax regulation, social protection, family structures) and how did they interplay with environmental factors (fertility, morphology, soil erosion, weather), productive factors (land, capital, labour) and demographic factors (shocks and recovery) in the long run.
Research Interests:
La tesi ha per oggetto la Dogana dei Paschi di Siena, l’istituzione comunale per la gestione dei pascoli e della transumanza in Maremma, prima della redazione del suo Statuto del 1419. Essa si sviluppò a partire da una riforma del 1353,... more
La tesi ha per oggetto la Dogana dei Paschi di Siena, l’istituzione comunale per la gestione dei pascoli e della transumanza in Maremma, prima della redazione del suo Statuto del 1419. Essa si sviluppò a partire da una riforma del 1353, nel contesto della crisi trecentesca, come già Imberciadori aveva intuito.
Obiettivo della ricerca è la ricostruzione 1) del percorso istituzionale e finanziario della Dogana e 2) del processo di appropriazione e riorganizzazione degli usi di pascolo delle comunità maremmane fino allo Statuto del 1419. Assieme, si è cercato di 3) verificare l’impatto delle politiche senesi in materia di transumanza sulla Maremma e 4) illustrare le caratteristiche di questa pratica pastorale nella Toscana tardomedievale.
La ricerca ha utilizzato la documentazione pubblica inedita dell’Archivio di Stato di Siena: deliberazioni di consigli, raccolte normative, statuti comunitativi, petizioni al governo senese, sottomissioni di comunità, revisioni dei bilanci degli uffici del comune di Siena. Si è aggirata così la mancata conservazione per il Tardo Medioevo di fonti prodotte dalla Dogana.
La parte centrale della tesi è suddivisa in cinque capitoli, dedicati rispettivamente al percorso istituzionale della Dogana senese tra 1353 e 1419, alla struttura e ai compiti del suo ufficio, all’andamento dei bilanci di quaranta esercizi tra 1361 e 1418, al prelievo e riuso dei beni comuni maremmani, ai principali aspetti delle transumanze praticate in Maremma in quel periodo.
Le conclusioni sottolineano la profondità della costruzione doganale senese nel tessuto socio-economico maremmano, già in forte crisi a partire dalla peste del 1348. La Dogana non causò, ma assecondò questo declino, creando un monopolio in cui spazi e diritti comunitativi vennero destinati al settore in espansione della transumanza. Ciò permise a Siena di far fronte alla crisi tardomedievale assicurandosi una rendita, seppur incostante fino al Quattrocento, ma potenzialmente consistente. Le comunità dovettero riorganizzarsi entro una nuova gerarchia di relazioni con Siena, assecondando il settore pastorale con la gestione dei beni collettivi rimasti e con lo sviluppo di contratti di soccida con investitori esterni.
Obiettivo della ricerca è la ricostruzione 1) del percorso istituzionale e finanziario della Dogana e 2) del processo di appropriazione e riorganizzazione degli usi di pascolo delle comunità maremmane fino allo Statuto del 1419. Assieme, si è cercato di 3) verificare l’impatto delle politiche senesi in materia di transumanza sulla Maremma e 4) illustrare le caratteristiche di questa pratica pastorale nella Toscana tardomedievale.
La ricerca ha utilizzato la documentazione pubblica inedita dell’Archivio di Stato di Siena: deliberazioni di consigli, raccolte normative, statuti comunitativi, petizioni al governo senese, sottomissioni di comunità, revisioni dei bilanci degli uffici del comune di Siena. Si è aggirata così la mancata conservazione per il Tardo Medioevo di fonti prodotte dalla Dogana.
La parte centrale della tesi è suddivisa in cinque capitoli, dedicati rispettivamente al percorso istituzionale della Dogana senese tra 1353 e 1419, alla struttura e ai compiti del suo ufficio, all’andamento dei bilanci di quaranta esercizi tra 1361 e 1418, al prelievo e riuso dei beni comuni maremmani, ai principali aspetti delle transumanze praticate in Maremma in quel periodo.
Le conclusioni sottolineano la profondità della costruzione doganale senese nel tessuto socio-economico maremmano, già in forte crisi a partire dalla peste del 1348. La Dogana non causò, ma assecondò questo declino, creando un monopolio in cui spazi e diritti comunitativi vennero destinati al settore in espansione della transumanza. Ciò permise a Siena di far fronte alla crisi tardomedievale assicurandosi una rendita, seppur incostante fino al Quattrocento, ma potenzialmente consistente. Le comunità dovettero riorganizzarsi entro una nuova gerarchia di relazioni con Siena, assecondando il settore pastorale con la gestione dei beni collettivi rimasti e con lo sviluppo di contratti di soccida con investitori esterni.