Allevamento ovino e pensionatico: la gestione del diritto di pascolo in Veneto tra XVIII e XIX secolo

The purpose of this research was to bring to light a number of elements, data, information useful to analyze the pensionatico, namely the right to winter grazing existing in the Veneto area, such as collective resource that benefited both the transhumant shepherds coming from the Plateau of Asiago or Feltre and the farmers of the plains. Although the origins of pensionatico date back to the Middle Ages, the analysis focused only on the last century of existence of the right (from the mid-eighteenth century to its abolition in 1856) with the aim to focus on the effects that economic changes, on the one hand, and the political-cultural debate, on the other hand, have had on the role and the very existence of the ancient institution. To grasp the economic and social function of pensionatico and its evolution in relation to the historical conditions of the time it was necessary to examine the Veneto sheep breeding in the mid-eighteenth century, also in relation to the contemporary development of the woolen mill. Then the dissertation deals with the main characteristics of the grazing rights, describing the physical spaces in which it was practiced and the set of rules that governed its management. Finally, I reconstructed the policy of the Republic of Venice and of the nineteenth-century Austrian authorities until the final abolition of pensionatico in 1856.