2007 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Economic relationships for woodlands in documents of court cases < notitia > in northern Italy in the Carolingian period
| Project/Area Number |
16530230
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Economic history
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| Research Institution | Oita University |
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Principal Investigator |
KIDO Teruko Oita University, Faculty of Economics, Associate Professor (10212169)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2004 – 2005
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| Keywords | common land / silva stalaria / placitum / notitia / silvo pastral / Po valley |
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| Research Abstract |
Woodland and Po Marshes were very significant <incultum> parts for rural economy. Peasants could feed their cattle in these places. The <glandaticus> (the right to feed acorns to pigs in forests) was well recognized in this period as a custom of peasants. And moreover, peasants could hunt in woodland and Po Marshes, could chase deer and wild boar if they could pay <venatio>, a kind of due to land lord.
The complicated rights of usage of woodland and Po Marshes caused many conflicts and court cases. <Notitia>, documents of court cases were widespread in the northern Italy, and we can find many claims from monasteries, landlords and peasants in these documents. In general, monasteries wanted exclusive, full rights of property and peasants insisted on their rights of usage for forests as their common land.
But at tenth century, another kind of forests <silva stalaria > was notable. It was a piece of coppice woodland to take firewood and sticks. It wasn't common land but a personal strip of land of private property. In a rural society, common land and personal strips were compatible. In a rural landscape, whole woodlands were conserved, and owners could buy and sell their personal strips but they couldn't try to make land clearance.
We can find these situations based on <notitia>, documents of judicial meetings. These judicial meetings varied. Rural assemblies presided over by one of the count's delegates, and the <placita>, held by the <missi> during their journey were included in these meetings. Free peasants in northern Italy were so active that they could claim their right to judicial meetings. We have to reconsider the importance and impact of bi partite manorial system and cause of its quick declination in the tenth century in Italy from these active peasants' sides.
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