Cultivating the City in Early Medieval Italy

Demonstrates how food-growing gardens in early medieval cities transformed Roman ideas and economic structures into new, medieval values.

Caroline Goodson (Author)

9781108733458, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 30 May 2024

324 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.47 kg

'This is an interesting book, that draws attention effectively and comprehensively (with a full understanding of both the archaeological and the textual evidence) to an important feature of early medieval city life. It will deservedly feature in any subsequent history of the cities of early medieval Italy, and should also have an impact on wider debates over the nature of post-Roman urbanism.' Bryan Ward-Perkins, Early Medieval Europe

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.

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.

Subject Areas: Gardens [descriptions, history etc WMB], Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500 [HBLC], European history [HBJD]