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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 December 2016
This article provides an overview of the evolution of the commons in the Italian peninsula during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It focuses on the connection between the phenomenon of growing community debt, the loss of property held in common and the evolution of the institutions appointed to govern such properties. The later sections of the article will discuss the situation found in each of the Italian States: Venice, Spanish Lombardy, the Kingdom of Naples and the Papal States. Two models will be used for reference; one characterised by state intervention; the second by the growth of institutions of self-governance.
Cet article donne un aperçu général de l’évolution des biens communaux dans la péninsule italienne aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles. Il insiste sur les rapports entre croissance de l'endettement des communautés, perte de biens communaux et évolution des institutions en charge de régir ces propriétés collectives. Dans les sections qui suivent, la situation spécifique de chacun des États italiens fait l'objet d'une étude critique: Venise, Lombardie espagnole, Royaume de Naples et États pontificaux. Deux modèles de référence sont utilisés: le premier est caractérisé par l'intervention de l’État; le second par la croissance des institutions autonomes.
Dieser Beitrag bietet einen Überblick über die Entwicklung kommunaler Ländereien auf der italienischen Halbinsel im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert. Im Zentrum steht zunächst der Zusammenhang zwischen der steigenden Verschuldung der öffentlichen Hand, dem Verlust von Grundstücken in kommunalem Besitz und der Entwicklung von Institutionen, die eingerichtet wurden, um solche Grundstücke zu verwalten. Die späteren Abschnitte des Beitrags behandeln die Situation in jedem der italienischen Staaten: Venedig, spanische Lombardei, Königreich Neapel und Kirchenstaat. Zwei Modelle dienen als Bezugspunkt: das erste ist durch Staatsintervention charakterisiert, das zweite durch das Anwachsen von Selbstverwaltungsinstitutionen.
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9 This is a very complex topic, which cannot be given justice here. For more on this topic, see Ongaro, Peasants and soldiers.
10 See, for example, Fusaro, Maria, Political economies of empire in the Early Modern Mediterranean: the decline of Venice and the rise of England 1450–1700 (Cambridge, 2015)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
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19 Municipal Archive of Gavardo (hereafter MAG), busta 57, fos. 20 r-v.
20 ASVe, Senato, Dispacci dei Rettori, Brescia e Bresciano, busta 15, letter dated 19 March 1615.
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38 The ‘prisoner's dilemma’ refers to a situation in game theory whereby two individuals, with no possibility of communication, have the option to cooperate or not, with outcomes dependent upon what the other individual does. The usual example is of two prisoners, each of whom will go free if he/she betrays the other, so long as the other remains silent. If they both remain silent (cooperate), the outcome (a lighter prison sentence) is better for both than if they both betray (a longer prison sentence). The dilemma lies in trying to predict what the other will do and thus illustrates the tension between individual and collective outcomes. Dawes, M. Robyn, The commons dilemma game: an N-person mixed-motive game with a dominating strategy for defection, ORI Research Bulletin 13 (1973), 1–12 Google Scholar; Dawes, M. Robyn, Formal models of dilemma in social decision-making, ORI Research Bulletin 14, 12 (1974), 8–13 Google Scholar.
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41 Ostrom, Governing the commons, 8–18.
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46 MAB, busta 4, registro 2, fos. 12 r-v.
47 Raccolta di Privilegi, Ducali, Giudizi, Terminazioni, e decreti pubblici sopra varie materie giurisdizionali, civili, criminali, ed economiche concernenti la città, e provincia di Brescia (Brescia, 1732), 298–301 Google Scholar.
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58 Ibid., 251–4.
59 Faccini, La Lombardia fra ‘600 e ‘700.
60 Colombo, Giochi di luoghi, 103.
61 Ibid., 103–8.
62 Ostrom, Governing the commons, 8–12.
63 Ibid., 98–9.
64 Ibid., 102.
65 Tabacchi, Il Buon Governo, 286.
66 Bulgarelli, La finanza locale sotto tutela, 287–93.
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76 Faccini, La Lombardia fra ‘600 e ‘700; Colombo, Giochi di luoghi.
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83 Ibid., 60.
