Una storia locale: l'organizzazione del territorio veronese nel medioevo. Trasformazioni della realtà e schemi notarili (IX-metà XII secolo)

This dissertation deals with a classic Italian subject in historiographic studies of the second half of the twentieth century; the subject is the organization of rural areas in the early part of the Middle Ages and its observability through techniques of location used by notaries in land transactions and, generally, in the current document. It is assumed that these formulas are organised into patterns resulting from a dialectic between notary’s culture and perception of the space organization, which should be the result of the relationship between human communities and the territory where these live. The dissertation is based upon the documentation on the Veronese area as a case study: this choice is adopted in order to provide a complex analysis that must consider several variables (geographical area and the consequent demographic differences and the degree of anthropic territory; chance of survival of documentation; high degree of fluidity of the notary’s formulas, etc.). The high concentration in the city of ecclesiastical institutions which were able to keep written records and the absence (with the partial exception of San Silvestro of Nonantola and Santa Giulia of Brescia) of institutions well established in the territory – for what concerns heritage as well as the production of documentation – allows, in the case of Verona, a systematic analysis of a remarkable documentary mass which is at the same time elusive and polymorphous. The variety of geographical context, equally divided among a hill of significant size, a dry and irrigated high plain and the lowlands, is proposed here as a positive element. Furthermore, research by Vito Fumagalli, Andrea Castagnetti and Gian Maria Varanini were a significant starting point. The approach of the dissertation, the ending of which was to work towards a comprehensive analysis of the documentation, has required a necessary preliminary work through the production of intermediate tools, listed in the Appendices (Archives in Verona with documentation within eight and twelfth century; Repertoire of legal acts; Population of the notaries; Summary of location pattern). This preliminary analysis is described in the first section, where the discussion is the ‘basis’ for the analysis of the work of notaries and a ‘vocabulary’ of terms that notaries of a major italian city have at their disposal to define (between archaisms always possible, and – equally possible – plastic adherence to new situations) spatial frameworks, in which they insert the micro-toponymic references. This discussion is the starting point for some considerations in the second section. The three geographical areas, quite clearly identifiable (i.e. hilly valleys, the dry high plains, the lowlands) are analytically analyzed, with attention to the choices taken by single notaries (particularly in those cases where a significant professional activity and a rich documentation could suggest more detailed studies ad personam). The final part is dedicated to the explicit comparison with historiographic research dealing with the Verona area and with a sample of areas (with reference to north-central Italy) object of recent studies, with the aim of highlighting factors which were found to underlie the formation of village territories. These hypotheses were then verified for the case of Verona: in particular, the conclusions related to the multiplicity of factors which defined this process of territorialization. This is the more elusive and less considered level by italian historiography, which has traditionally focused on the jurisdictional one (both landlord and ecclesiastical) or fiscal and, therefore, the relationship between power and territory. The comparative reading of location practice as a system of relations between the words – elaborated by a diachronic as well as a synchronous topographic level –, allows instead to highlight their links with the different practices in the territory: not only through the presence of landlordship, but also through the structure of habitat, the forms of solidarity and the access to common resources.