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IMC 2011: Sessions

Session 1312: Wealth through Power?: Political Structures, Rural Economy, and Accumulation of Wealth in Italy in the Central and Late Middle Ages, 9th-15th Centuries

Wednesday 13 July 2011, 16.30-18.00

Organiser:Michele Campopiano, Onderzoekinstituut voor Geschiedenis en Cultuur (OGC), Universiteit Utrecht
Paper 1312-aLords and Landscapes: Political Structures and Land Clearance in the Po Valley in the 9th-11th Centuries
(Language: English)
Michele Campopiano, Onderzoekinstituut voor Geschiedenis en Cultuur (OGC), Universiteit Utrecht
Index terms: Economics - Rural, Geography and Settlement Studies, Politics and Diplomacy, Social History
Paper 1312-bThe Economic Development of the Monastery of Camaldoli in the Casentino Valley Area of Tuscany, 1300-1500
(Language: English)
Daniel R. Curtis, Universiteit Utrecht
Index terms: Economics - Rural, Geography and Settlement Studies, Politics and Diplomacy
Paper 1312-c'Ineffabiliter Opprimi?': Seigneurial and Economic Conflicts between Monastic and Lay Powers in Late 11th-Century Abruzzi
(Language: English)
Felim McGrath, Department of History, Trinity College Dublin
Index terms: Economics - Rural, Geography and Settlement Studies, Monasticism, Politics and Diplomacy
Abstract

In medieval society, land was an important source of wealth. The accumulation of wealth was connected to new methods of exploiting land, and expanding landed estates by purchase, inheritance, or force. It required enforcing the will of certain social groups on fixed territories and people and thus was strictly related to the evolution of the political structure. The three papers in this session will offer some examples of how the evolution of land exploitation in different areas of the Peninsula was inextricably related to changes in political institutions, resulting in different patterns of wealth distribution.