Garrisoning the Borderlands of Medieval Siena: Sant'Angelo in Colle, Frontier Castle Under the Government of the Nine, 1287-1355 by Anabel Thomas

Author:Anabel Thomas [Thomas, Anabel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Medieval, Art, Social History
ISBN: 9781409426035
Google: RuctsDAkwWAC
Publisher: Ashgate
Published: 2011-09-15T20:36:09+00:00

Notes

1 For the production of wine and olive oil in the territory of Montalcino during the early modern period, with associated bibliography, see Alfio Cortonesi, ‘La vita e l’olivo nelle campagne di Montalcino (secoli 13–15)’, in Alfio Cortonesi (ed.), La Val d’Orcia nel medioevo e nei primi secoli dell’età moderna, Atti del Convegno internazionale di studi storici, Pienza, 15–18 settembre 1988 (Rome, 1990), pp. 189–212.

2 For a survey of the social structure of communities in the Sienese contado under the government of the Nine, see Andrea Barlucchi, Il ‘Contado’ Senese all’epoca dei Nove’, Asciano e il suo territorio tra Due e Trecento (Florence, 1997), p. 49 and especially Appendix VII, pp. 295–301. According to Barlucchi, it was commonly the case for about 30% of the population to have patrimonies of between 100 and 500 lire. It was also more often than not the case that some 60% fell in the category of having patrimonies lower than 100 lire. Those with patrimonies of between 500 and 1,000 lire amounted, if at all, to some five or seven percent of the population, whereas those with patrimonies of over 1,000 lire rarely rose above three or four percent. See also Giovanni Cherubini, ‘Proprietari, contadini e campagne senesi all’ inizio del Trecento’, in idem (ed.), Signori, contadini, borghesi. Ricerche sulla società Italiana del Basso Medioevo (Florence, 1974), pp. 241–42, 248, 252 and 286–87 for a consideration of patrimonies recorded for Sienese residents and institutions during the same period, and a comparison between these and those recorded for peasant proprietors. According to Cherubini, most of the patrimonies recorded in respect of Sienese residents exceeded 200 lire, although in the area around San Donato di sotto, where there were a large number of craftsmen, the average patrimony was in the region of 177 or 178 lire. In this context, an insight into average working salaries and the cost of daily necessities is offered by Silvana Balbi di Caro and Gabriella Angeli Bufalini, in idem, ‘Uomini e Monete in terra di Siena’, in La Collezione Numismatica della Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena (Pisa, 2001), pp. 30–133. Street workers engaged in the construction of a street in the borgo S. Maria in Siena in 1324 could expect, for example, to receive a daily salary ranging between 4 and 12 soldi. The highest annual salary a low-grade worker might therefore expect to receive would have been in the region of 40 or 50 lire. Balbi de Ciao and Bufalini also consider the cost of bread and the average percentage of salary that might have to be expended on this very basic daily necessity. From this, it emerges that a low grade worker, particularly in times of poor crops, might have had to spend as much as a quarter of his annual earnings solely in order to provide himself and his family with enough grain.

3 See Table 3.6.

4 A detailed consideration of the part played by absentee Sienese landlords in the early fourteenth century village follows in Chapter 6.

5

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