Page 12 - Mocarelli, Luca, and Aleksander Panjek. Eds. 2020. Maize to the People! Cultivation, Consumption and Trade in the North-Eastern Mediterranean (Sixteenth-Nineteenth Century). Koper: University of Primorska Press
P. 12
maize to the people!
peasant life is a quite well-studied issue, mainly with regard to the great dif-
fusion of pellagra due to the exclusive consumption of polenta (De Bernardi
1984), although a proper chronology and geography of pellagra diffusion
are still lacking. At the same time, it would be important to also empir-
ically test the demographic consequences of maize diffusion and in par-
ticular the hypothesis that the widespread diffusion of maize, especially
from the eighteenth century onward, was crucial in diminishing famines
in Southern Europe, thus allowing a faster growth of the population than
before (Alfani, Mocarelli, Strangio 2017, 46-47). By shedding more light on
this aspect, it would be possible to conduct a more steady and convinc-
ing comparison between maize and its northern competitor, the potato,
whose demographic consequences are interpreted in an established man-
ner in northern European historiography (for example Nunn, Quian 2011).
The contributions of this volume give relevant insights into the afore-
mentioned issues. If we look at the chronology of diffusion, for example,
it is easy to find significant differences within countries, as the case of the
Italian Peninsula clearly shows. As a matter of fact, in northern Italy maize
was already known in the middle of the sixteenth century in some territo-
ries of the Venetian mainland, such as Rovigo and Este (in the Province of
Padua); the famines of the 1590s accelerated its diffusion (Alfani 2011), as
did the plague of 1630-1631. At the end of the seventeenth century, maize
was sown throughout the Venetian mainland – from eastern Lombardy,
that is the provinces of Bergamo and Brescia, to the Friuli region, in the
rest of the Lombardy region, in Piedmont, and in the Papal Legations south
of the Po River. During the eighteenth century it consolidated its advance
both in the countryside, as demonstrated by the frequent cases of pella-
gra in the State of Milan (Mocarelli 2015), and in the cities, where it was be-
coming more and more important on the urban regulated markets, main-
ly in towns close to the Alpine area such as Como or Bergamo (Costantini
2016 e 2019).
On the other hand, the situation was quite different in central Italy
where maize appeared later than in the northern part of the peninsula. The
new crop remained a botanic curiosity for a long time and its diffusion be-
gan only at the end of the seventeenth century in Tuscany and Marche,
reaching Umbria in the following century where it did not become truly
important until the nineteenth century (Vaquero in this volume). In south-
ern Italy, on the other hand, the situation was very different as the dry cli-
mate and the indisputable dominance of wheat in local agriculture left lit-
10
peasant life is a quite well-studied issue, mainly with regard to the great dif-
fusion of pellagra due to the exclusive consumption of polenta (De Bernardi
1984), although a proper chronology and geography of pellagra diffusion
are still lacking. At the same time, it would be important to also empir-
ically test the demographic consequences of maize diffusion and in par-
ticular the hypothesis that the widespread diffusion of maize, especially
from the eighteenth century onward, was crucial in diminishing famines
in Southern Europe, thus allowing a faster growth of the population than
before (Alfani, Mocarelli, Strangio 2017, 46-47). By shedding more light on
this aspect, it would be possible to conduct a more steady and convinc-
ing comparison between maize and its northern competitor, the potato,
whose demographic consequences are interpreted in an established man-
ner in northern European historiography (for example Nunn, Quian 2011).
The contributions of this volume give relevant insights into the afore-
mentioned issues. If we look at the chronology of diffusion, for example,
it is easy to find significant differences within countries, as the case of the
Italian Peninsula clearly shows. As a matter of fact, in northern Italy maize
was already known in the middle of the sixteenth century in some territo-
ries of the Venetian mainland, such as Rovigo and Este (in the Province of
Padua); the famines of the 1590s accelerated its diffusion (Alfani 2011), as
did the plague of 1630-1631. At the end of the seventeenth century, maize
was sown throughout the Venetian mainland – from eastern Lombardy,
that is the provinces of Bergamo and Brescia, to the Friuli region, in the
rest of the Lombardy region, in Piedmont, and in the Papal Legations south
of the Po River. During the eighteenth century it consolidated its advance
both in the countryside, as demonstrated by the frequent cases of pella-
gra in the State of Milan (Mocarelli 2015), and in the cities, where it was be-
coming more and more important on the urban regulated markets, main-
ly in towns close to the Alpine area such as Como or Bergamo (Costantini
2016 e 2019).
On the other hand, the situation was quite different in central Italy
where maize appeared later than in the northern part of the peninsula. The
new crop remained a botanic curiosity for a long time and its diffusion be-
gan only at the end of the seventeenth century in Tuscany and Marche,
reaching Umbria in the following century where it did not become truly
important until the nineteenth century (Vaquero in this volume). In south-
ern Italy, on the other hand, the situation was very different as the dry cli-
mate and the indisputable dominance of wheat in local agriculture left lit-
10
