Cultivating the City in Early Medieval Italy

ISBN-13: 9781108489119 / Angielski / Twarda / 2021 / 336 str.

Caroline Goodson (University of Cambridge)

Opis

Food-growing gardens first appeared in early medieval cities during a period of major social, economic, and political change in the Italian peninsula, and they quickly took on a critical role in city life. The popularity of urban gardens in the medieval city during this period has conventionally been understood as a sign of decline in the post-Roman world, signalling a move towards a subsistence economy. Caroline Goodson challenges this interpretation, demonstrating how urban gardens came to perform essential roles not only in the economy, but also in cultural, religious, and political developments in the emerging early medieval world. Observing changes in how people interacted with each other and their environments from the level of individual households to their neighbourhoods, and the wider countryside, Goodson draws on documentary, archival, and archaeological evidence to reveal how urban gardening reconfigured Roman ideas and economic structures into new, medieval values.

Recenzje

'… this book will become an essential text for every study on the urban phenomenon in medieval Italy.' Riccardo Santangeli Valencia, Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken

Spis treści

List of Figures and Tables; Acknowledgements; Terms and Measurements; List of Abbreviations; 1. Introduction; 2. Patterns and changes; 3. The shape of the phenomenon; 4. Alliances and exchanges; 5. Values and ideals; 6. Conspicuous cultivation; 7. Conclusions; Bibliography; Index.