Landscape and Change in Early Medieval Italy: Chestnuts, Economy, and CultureThis innovative environmental history of the long-lived European chestnut tree and its woods offers valuable new perspectives on the human transition from the Roman to the medieval world in Italy. Integrating evidence from botanical and literary sources, individual charters and case studies of specific communities, the book traces fluctuations in the size and location of Italian chestnut woods to expose how early medieval societies changed their land use between the fourth and eleventh centuries, and in the process changed themselves. As the chestnut tree gained popularity in late antiquity and became a valuable commodity by the end of the first millennium, this study brings to life the economic and cultural transition from a Roman Italy of cities, agricultural surpluses and markets to a medieval Italy of villages and subsistence farming. |
Contents
Introduction1Trees Woods and chestnuts in early | 1 |
A natural history of the chestnut | 27 |
The triumph ofa tree 55 | 79 |
The poetics of the chestnut in the early Middle Ages | 88 |
Chestnuts in early medieval Campania | 130 |
Other editions - View all
Landscape and Change in Early Medieval Italy: Chestnuts, Economy, and Culture Paolo Squatriti No preview available - 2017 |
Common terms and phrases
agricultural ancient arboreal arboriculture archaeological Barbatus botanical Campania Carolingian Cassiodorus castagno Castanea sativa CDC,Vol charters chest chestnut cultivation chestnut groves chestnut trees chestnut wood chestnut woodland climate color coppice crop Cucciago cultivars cultural Dark Age difl-erent early medieval Italy early Middle Ages early modern ecological economic ed.A environmental history Europe European farm Fenaroli Filattiera find first millennium Florence flourish flowers forest fruit grafted chestnut grain grow Hasselrot Holocene Hrabanus Hrabanus Maurus human Italian Italy Italy’s land landowners landscape late antique late Roman Latin Lombard medievale Mediterranean Milan Montanari nature nell’alto medioevo northern Italy nuts oflflered ofthe Oxford Palladius Paris Pascoli peasants peninsula people’s Piacenza pigs Pitte plant Pliny pollen post—classical production Rackham reflected region riddlers Roman empire Rome Rome’s Rothari Rottoli seeds Settimane del CISAM siecle soil species specific Storia tenth century Terres tion tree’s vegetation vines vineyards vols vols.,Vol