Page 30 - 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. 30
maize to the people!
presence of small estates and ones where wheat and grapevines were culti-
vated experienced a strong resistance” (Levi 1979, 1096). Furthermore, both
Cazzola and Finzi have underlined that even if the arrival of maize often
coincided with conflicts that involved landowners and peasants, and with
situations of relevant changes in the power relationships and in the con-
tracts, they did not happen because of the introduction of the new cereal,
even if maize did play a role in these transformations. Finzi, in particular,
wrote that “maize cultivation, far from being the cause of changes in the
production relationships, seems to be used within processes that started
because of other causes” (italic in the original text Finzi 2009, 67; Coppola
1979, 76-77, 105-134).
That being said, when did maize reach the Province of Vicenza?
Messedaglia asserted that this happened at the beginning of the seventeenth
century (Messedaglia 2008, 174); the subsequent research by Fassina on
Lisiera and Mason Vicentino seem to confirm this periodization (Fassina
1982, 45; 1981). Danilo Gasparini recalls Fassina but at the same time refers
to a book published by Silvano Fornasa and Sergio Zamperetti on the his-
tory of Castelgomberto (a village in the area of the province close to the
mountains) (Fornasa 1999, 168-169), where maize was found as early as in
1595, “in inventories and in leases where the landowner reserved the stram-
mi [i.e. the mulch] of the previous harvest, including the canes of the sor-
go rosso and of the sorgo turco [i.e. the maize]”. Then, recalling Gasparini,
since the beginning of the seventeenth century maize played a prevalent
role in shaping the food provisions of the peasants of Vicenza (Gasparini
2002, 27-28). These few lines show that in the Province of Vicenza too, as in
other areas, the history of maize is a history of gradually moving the chro-
nology of its diffusion further back, and this paper is no exception.
Before maize: food consumption and characteristics
of the Province of Vicenza in the sixteenth century
In order to understand when, where, how and why maize spread through-
out the Province of Vicenza, we should first reconstruct the geographical,
economic and demographic context in which this process happened. In
the early modern period, the Province of Vicenza was a bordering prov-
ince of the Republic of Venice, and it was characterized by the presence
of many “almost cities” (rural villages with thousands of inhabitants) and
by a morphology that was mainly hilly and mountainous. In its northern
part, there was the Asiago upland and mountains more than 2,000 metres
28
presence of small estates and ones where wheat and grapevines were culti-
vated experienced a strong resistance” (Levi 1979, 1096). Furthermore, both
Cazzola and Finzi have underlined that even if the arrival of maize often
coincided with conflicts that involved landowners and peasants, and with
situations of relevant changes in the power relationships and in the con-
tracts, they did not happen because of the introduction of the new cereal,
even if maize did play a role in these transformations. Finzi, in particular,
wrote that “maize cultivation, far from being the cause of changes in the
production relationships, seems to be used within processes that started
because of other causes” (italic in the original text Finzi 2009, 67; Coppola
1979, 76-77, 105-134).
That being said, when did maize reach the Province of Vicenza?
Messedaglia asserted that this happened at the beginning of the seventeenth
century (Messedaglia 2008, 174); the subsequent research by Fassina on
Lisiera and Mason Vicentino seem to confirm this periodization (Fassina
1982, 45; 1981). Danilo Gasparini recalls Fassina but at the same time refers
to a book published by Silvano Fornasa and Sergio Zamperetti on the his-
tory of Castelgomberto (a village in the area of the province close to the
mountains) (Fornasa 1999, 168-169), where maize was found as early as in
1595, “in inventories and in leases where the landowner reserved the stram-
mi [i.e. the mulch] of the previous harvest, including the canes of the sor-
go rosso and of the sorgo turco [i.e. the maize]”. Then, recalling Gasparini,
since the beginning of the seventeenth century maize played a prevalent
role in shaping the food provisions of the peasants of Vicenza (Gasparini
2002, 27-28). These few lines show that in the Province of Vicenza too, as in
other areas, the history of maize is a history of gradually moving the chro-
nology of its diffusion further back, and this paper is no exception.
Before maize: food consumption and characteristics
of the Province of Vicenza in the sixteenth century
In order to understand when, where, how and why maize spread through-
out the Province of Vicenza, we should first reconstruct the geographical,
economic and demographic context in which this process happened. In
the early modern period, the Province of Vicenza was a bordering prov-
ince of the Republic of Venice, and it was characterized by the presence
of many “almost cities” (rural villages with thousands of inhabitants) and
by a morphology that was mainly hilly and mountainous. In its northern
part, there was the Asiago upland and mountains more than 2,000 metres
28
