"In monte et in campis". Decime, paesaggi e stagioni in diocesi di Como nel basso medioevo

The essay focuses on the vast theme of tithes from the point of view of the practices generating territorial relations. The collection methods, in fact, reveal the minute processes of the concrete and symbolic construction of human landscapes, the actions and codes locating resources and establishing their boundaries. The evaluation and typological differentiation of taxes, for example, required empirical surveys of land tenure and its rent, and the classification, oral or written, of crops and ecological opportunities of the plains, hills or valleys. The landscape, however, continuously transformed also from below, could not be framed by rigid taxonomies: when new chestnut trees were planted or new lands were cultivated, new but controversial tithes were imposed. Finally, not all the products were harvested and stored at the same time, so that collecting fruits influenced the peculiar temporality of the agricultural calendar, which was defined by custom but also by conflicts and negotiations between the different parties.