Page 42 - 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. 42
maize to the people!
if peasants owned or rented small plots, or if there were large estates culti-
vated by day labourers or salaried workers (Ongaro 2020).
Instead, we can confirm that maize tended to spread first in margin-
al fields (Fassina 1982, 55) and in areas located in the hills or close to the
mountains (Gasparini 2002, 34); indeed the villages where the first exam-
ples of its cultivation have been found were situated close to the Prealps, of-
ten in valleys that were not suitable for the cultivation of wheat. However,
in the mountains the cultivation of maize was more difficult. There, the
peasants consumed other crops, e.g. chestnuts in the Piedmont mountains
(Levi 1991, 160), or buckwheat in the Agno Valley. Similarly, we can confirm
that the difficulties in maintaining the delicate equilibrium between pop-
ulation and resources was exactly what facilitated the diffusion of maize
and its use for human consumption (Levi 1991, 162; Cazzola 2002, 236; 2014,
317-319); indeed, not only are the case studies in the Province of Vicenza
characterized by a relevant population density, but the chronologies of the
introduction and of the spread of maize cultivation are linked to two situa-
tions of relevant food scarcity: the famine of 1569-1572 and the far more se-
vere one in the 1590s.
Bibliography
Archival sources
ASCSVL: Archivio Storico Comunale di San Vito di Leguzzano, b. 4/I to 4/VI.
BCB, AT: Biblioteca Civica Bertoliana, Archivio Torre, b. 302.
Literature
Provincia di Vicenza. 2009. Piano Territoriale di Coordinamento Provinciale –
Rapporto Ambientale.
Alfani, G. 2010. Il Grand Tour dei Cavalieri dell’Apocalisse. L’Italia del «lungo
Cinquecento» (1494-1629). Venezia: Marsilio (English edition: Calamities
and the Economy in Renaissance Italy. The Grand Tour of the Horsemen of
the Apocalypse. London-New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).
Alfani, G. 2011. ‘The Famine of the 1590s in Northern Italy. An Analysis of the
Greatest “System Shock” of Sixteenth Century’. Histoire & mesure, XXVI
(1): 17-50.
Alfani, G., L. Mocarelli, and D. Strangio. 2015. ‘Italian Famines: An overview
(ca.1250-1810)’. Dondena Working Papers 84, December.
40
if peasants owned or rented small plots, or if there were large estates culti-
vated by day labourers or salaried workers (Ongaro 2020).
Instead, we can confirm that maize tended to spread first in margin-
al fields (Fassina 1982, 55) and in areas located in the hills or close to the
mountains (Gasparini 2002, 34); indeed the villages where the first exam-
ples of its cultivation have been found were situated close to the Prealps, of-
ten in valleys that were not suitable for the cultivation of wheat. However,
in the mountains the cultivation of maize was more difficult. There, the
peasants consumed other crops, e.g. chestnuts in the Piedmont mountains
(Levi 1991, 160), or buckwheat in the Agno Valley. Similarly, we can confirm
that the difficulties in maintaining the delicate equilibrium between pop-
ulation and resources was exactly what facilitated the diffusion of maize
and its use for human consumption (Levi 1991, 162; Cazzola 2002, 236; 2014,
317-319); indeed, not only are the case studies in the Province of Vicenza
characterized by a relevant population density, but the chronologies of the
introduction and of the spread of maize cultivation are linked to two situa-
tions of relevant food scarcity: the famine of 1569-1572 and the far more se-
vere one in the 1590s.
Bibliography
Archival sources
ASCSVL: Archivio Storico Comunale di San Vito di Leguzzano, b. 4/I to 4/VI.
BCB, AT: Biblioteca Civica Bertoliana, Archivio Torre, b. 302.
Literature
Provincia di Vicenza. 2009. Piano Territoriale di Coordinamento Provinciale –
Rapporto Ambientale.
Alfani, G. 2010. Il Grand Tour dei Cavalieri dell’Apocalisse. L’Italia del «lungo
Cinquecento» (1494-1629). Venezia: Marsilio (English edition: Calamities
and the Economy in Renaissance Italy. The Grand Tour of the Horsemen of
the Apocalypse. London-New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).
Alfani, G. 2011. ‘The Famine of the 1590s in Northern Italy. An Analysis of the
Greatest “System Shock” of Sixteenth Century’. Histoire & mesure, XXVI
(1): 17-50.
Alfani, G., L. Mocarelli, and D. Strangio. 2015. ‘Italian Famines: An overview
(ca.1250-1810)’. Dondena Working Papers 84, December.
40
