MEDIEVO (Pueblos, Ritos y Tradiciones) - Documental
Durante la alta edad media la vida cotidiana se desarrolla en el mundo rural, el ser humano debió aprender adaptarse a las condiciones que le brinda la naturaleza y las costumbres de la vida medieval. Basada en ritos e ideas de supersticiones enlazas con el miedo hacia Dios.
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00:00In the Middle Ages, the production of wealth was based on the work of the field.
00:05The agrarian economy is basically a continuation of the past.
00:09The social stratum that conforms it is the one with the least changes after the fall of the Roman Empire.
00:30The effort to keep the environment under control and to occupy new spaces is a hard daily labor,
00:37which cannot be neglected in the face of the risk of losing the precarious domain that has been conquered with so much effort.
00:47To get an idea of how the colonized territories were during the High Middle Ages,
00:52even the densely populated ones,
00:55we must imagine a landscape totally different from the current one.
00:59A landscape that can be defined as a true kingdom of forests and swamps.
01:14The peasants represent the vast majority of the population.
01:18Their work is the productive base that sustains all society.
01:22Nature, which has not yet been domesticated, poses a great challenge for man,
01:27who sees in it a great possibility of resources.
01:30Land subtracted from agriculture and livestock.
01:34It is considered the home of social marginalized people and dangerous creatures.
01:49Let's imagine an immense uncultivated land from which some isolated elements arise.
01:55Small plots of crops, so to speak,
01:58which normally offer a subsistence to the limit.
02:03They are of low productivity and with very primitive agricultural tools.
02:12Peasant culture is the result of centuries of empirical and practical wisdom,
02:17woven into a true abstract and symbolic universe.
02:21It not only consists of knowledge about the way and the time of planting,
02:24harvesting and conservation of the products of the land,
02:27but it is a set of propitiatory practices and rituals,
02:31typical of pagan religiosity,
02:34a mixture tolerated by ecclesiastical authorities,
02:37which is even practiced by the rural clergy.
02:52At work, the strength of the animals and the hydraulic energy of the mills are used.
02:57But above all, the human being must trust his own energy,
03:01with the support of simple techniques and tools,
03:04in an endless body-to-body interaction with the environment.
03:08The landscape is changing slowly from generation to generation.
03:12In just a century, it will be the first time in history
03:16that the obtaining of increasingly large territories,
03:19the massive deforestation and the introduction of new agricultural techniques,
03:23will change the original appearance of many places.
03:47CURTES PRODUCTION SYSTEM
03:52In the 8th century, the production system of the Kurds was strengthened,
04:15which is based on the mixed use of the lands.
04:19A part of the land, the most fertile, is cultivated by the servants for the sustenance of the lord's family,
04:25while the other possessions are rented to the settlers.
04:29Normally, these forms of exercise of power that manifest themselves throughout the medieval era,
04:38are an extended reality, with a very varied phenomenology, but which fundamentally leads us to a principle.
04:46The owner of the land also becomes the lord of the men,
04:50and exerts over the men a variable and gradual power, depending on the situation.
05:00The settlers occupy small plots of land, also called mansos.
05:05Each of them covers the sustenance of a single family.
05:09The tenants are not only forced to work, but also to improve the living conditions of the manso.
05:15They have to pay a very high rent, which often consists of the best part of the harvest.
05:20They must also satisfy the corbeas, free labor in the lands of the lord.
05:27When we talk about the services that the settlers must provide,
05:30we refer to peasants who are in a situation of semi-freedom or semi-slavery, as one wants to express.
05:39These services are called corbeas, French word.
05:44In medieval texts, they are defined as labors.
05:47They consisted of a series of services that reflected the form of dependence of the settler with respect to the lord.
05:57The Carolingian system is a closed economy, self-sufficient,
06:01where the scarce trade exchanges are limited to the local markets.
06:06In the courts, everything necessary for work is usually manufactured,
06:10from the harvests to the clothing.
06:15In the 9th century, the concept of servant of the slave was created,
06:19a figure that is neither a free man nor a slave.
06:24It is a state of semi-freedom, whose servitude consisted of being anchored to the earth.
06:32In reality, according to some, this figure hardly exists or does not even exist.
06:39According to the latest opinions of the most modern medieval historians,
06:43it is said that there were no such servants of the slave.
06:47The inhabitants of the medieval rural areas had a fairly clear idea of what the lord of the castle could demand of them.
06:55This provided them with protection in exchange for a series of labors.
07:01For example, one of the tasks of the lord of the castle was to protect the slaves.
07:07The servants of the lord of the castle were the ones who had to protect the slaves.
07:13For example, one of the tasks was to keep the castle in good condition,
07:18because it was necessary for the defense of all.
07:22But they also had to pay other things as peasants, not as subjects.
07:27Within these borders, I entirely entrust to you and your children and heirs,
07:32the house with its upper floor, the patio, the gardens, the lands and the vineyards,
07:39the meadows, the forests, the rivers, the mountains, the mountains,
07:45the rivers, the forests, the mountains, the rivers, the mountains,
07:51the gardens, the lands and the vineyards, the meadows, the forests, the rivers and the pastures,
07:57the furniture and the furniture,
08:00everything that in the aforementioned household belongs by law to that portion,
08:05and that which I have added.
08:10I entirely entrust to you as a liberator,
08:14on condition that you and your children and heirs of that house and its goods
08:19perform corbeas and therefore work to improve the conditions of the house
08:26and not to worsen them.
08:33An important instrument of emancipation in the peasant world
08:37and the creation of a middle class was the so-called libelo or contract,
08:42which comes from libelus, small book, but which means written contract.
08:50In this document it is tried to alleviate the abuses committed by the Lord,
08:54which by law were not defined as crimes,
08:57through a written certificate in which the obligations of the Lord are defined and enumerated with precision
09:02with respect to his vassal.
09:08And if you do all these things,
09:11and if Peter, I or my heirs impose something on you with violence,
09:16my heirs and I promise to pay you or your children and heirs
09:21a fine of 100 gold coins.
09:24And you can leave this house with all the furniture,
09:29because it has been agreed among us.
09:47Monasteries and abbeys
09:52Centers of culture, art and innovation,
09:55the monasteries make great contributions to the evolution of agricultural techniques.
10:00The donations of the lords and the testamentary vows made with the hope of saving their own soul
10:06allow the monasteries and abbeys to accumulate large real estate properties.
10:13The abbey is the greatest monument to the piety and generosity of the counts of Colalto
10:19and we pray for the apostolic protection for the monastery founded by them.
10:28In the farms scattered by the large latifundia of the monasteries
10:32live entire families of peasants aware of enjoying some advantageous conditions.
10:38They place a blind trust in the protection of the monks.
10:41They resort to the blessing of the fields and crops to conjure plagues and bad weather,
10:47to prayer to invoke the rain, to fear the divine punishment to drive away the invaders.
11:11Monasteries and abbeys
11:41Agriculture
11:57Around the year 1000, rural areas experience a period of great changes,
12:02both in terms of productivity and in terms of cultivation techniques.
12:06Agricultural production increases spectacularly thanks to the effort made by monasteries,
12:12lords, rural communities and even from the cities.
12:17It is a large-scale investment whose advantages are not only economic but also administrative
12:23by creating new points of control over the territory.
12:28From the year 1000, deep renovation mechanisms are put in place in relation to the field and agriculture.
12:35The first and most striking is the phenomenon of the progressive expansion of crops.
12:42Finally, the relationship between the human being and the environment is reversed.
12:47The lords, the abbeys, the urban communities and rural peoples
12:52exerted a joint attack on large extensions of wild forests that still covered much of Europe.
13:02Apart from the fight against swamps and weeds, which allows to conquer small plots of land day by day,
13:09the peasants are gaining space in the forest by deforestation of old trees.
13:16Many lands are taken to swamps and seas, with important works of sanitation.
13:22At the same time, valuable irrigation systems are established.
13:28The small owners have an important function.
13:32They are known as the pioneers of rotting.
13:36They perform an important job by producing a very effective capillary rotting in large quantities,
13:43which explains the expansion of the agricultural territory around the year 1000.
13:53The demographic expansion and the exponential increase in consumption
13:57drive municipal authorities to finance, at the end of the 12th century,
14:01works of sanitation kilometers away from the city.
14:04Thus, they exclusively close contracts with the peasants for the supply of food products.
14:11The landowners were rich in land, but they wanted to invest in those lands to make them more productive.
14:19Thus, they closed a series of contracts that benefited those who had the effective possession of the land,
14:25although not the property.
14:27They encouraged them to introduce elements of improvement, to devastate lands, to dig ditches,
14:33to cut down trees and bushes and to cultivate the so-called new lands,
14:38which, depending on each country, received a different name, Nomalia Ampli.
14:58One beautiful spring morning, towards the end of the reign of Charlemagne,
15:02the peasant gets up early,
15:04because it is the day on which he must go to work the land of the monks
15:08and he does not dare to be late for fear of the administrator.
15:16It is plowing day and he takes with him the big ox and his son,
15:21so that he walks next to him with a punch.
15:24And he joins the friends who arrive from a nearby farm.
15:28They are also going to work at the big house.
15:34In the agricultural field, the blacksmith is key in innovation.
15:37He establishes his workshop in rural villages and is in charge of the sawing of the animals,
15:42the metal parts of the instruments and the wheels of the cars,
15:47and of providing the workers with the tools necessary for the work of the blacksmith.
15:52He is also in charge of the construction of the mills,
15:55where the mills are located, where the mills are located,
15:59where the mills are located,
16:01and of the wheels of the cars,
16:03and of providing the plowing of metal parts, such as the fence,
16:07which allows the earth to be plowed with more depth.
16:13It is a plow with a very heavy metal tip,
16:17which rests on wheels and is deeply plowed in the earth,
16:21and stirs large earthquakes.
16:25This greatly improves the planting technique compared to the old plow,
16:29which only had a hardened tip and was limited to plowing a furrow in the earth.
16:38Water is a fundamental asset for the agricultural economy.
16:41The driving force of water is like medieval oil.
16:45Numerous mills arise on the banks of the rivers,
16:47all of them direct property of the feudal lords,
16:50who keep a part of the product,
16:52obviously the best part of the harvest.
17:00In the feudal era, so to speak,
17:02the mill becomes an important instrument of the feudal lord,
17:06of the great owner,
17:09who imposes on all peasants a series of conditions in exchange for using the mill.
17:16They must pay him for his right to grind the grain.
17:19Thus, the mill becomes an instrument of tax collection
17:23in some areas of the rural lordship.
17:30The mills replace the manual systems used daily by women
17:35to produce the flour necessary to feed their families.
17:38In fact, the lord sends soldiers to withdraw these individual use instruments,
17:43assuming a possible threat to their income.
17:46In the mills, barley and other cereals are ground,
17:49olives are squeezed, and even leather and other fabrics are worked.
17:53Multiple functions and a single source of energy
17:56that drives the whole society from the mill year.
18:26In the Middle Ages, it is very rare to see a house far from the farm or the land of cultivation.
18:46This is because the Middle Ages, whether high or low,
18:50is characterized by insecurity.
18:54In some way, peasants must live close to each other
18:59to defend themselves from external aggressions.
19:04The daily life of the medieval land is carried out within the villages,
19:08which are made up of houses similar to cabins,
19:11which stand out as islets in the middle of the plains and are exposed to danger.
19:17Near the settlements, the fields of cultivation are extended,
19:21in turn surrounded by forests, from which the necessary firewood is obtained,
19:25and also areas of pasture for animals and harvested wild fruits.
19:35The village is surrounded by defensive facilities,
19:38which at first can be stacked with wood,
19:41although more often they are real stone walls,
19:44depending on the abundance of work material.
19:47These walled villages, which can house a dozen or at most a hundred families,
19:55are called castles.
19:58This castle is not the medieval fortress that we imagine,
20:02but a settlement surrounded by walls that houses a certain number of families,
20:07often related to the cultivation of the land.
20:10Frequently, rural inhabitants are required to contribute to the construction and reinforcement of the wall
20:15and carry out work of restructuring the castle,
20:18while women weave under the attentive gaze of the lady of the castle.
20:41The weakness and inferiority of the feminine nature
20:45forces the scope in which women have a certain autonomy to be well delimited.
20:52Their trips and visits abroad must be reduced to very controlled routes.
20:58Church, laundry, public oven or spring.
21:03A good wife, a sensible, sweet and sober woman,
21:07must manage the goods that, by the work of her husband,
21:10arrive at home from abroad.
21:16The husband has the right to find the heat of the fire,
21:20the rest and the pleasures of the hot bath,
21:24the table set and the bed prepared.
21:33The old man is the depository of popular wisdom,
21:36experience and the factual power of the family.
21:39He is the head of the family and, along with his coetaneous,
21:42establishes the common life of the people in the frequent assemblies of deacons.
21:47They are the ones who hold the contractual power over the lords of the shift.
21:51They are the judges of the village, often sponsored by the parish,
21:55which is thus freed from making unpopular decisions.
22:00Within these villages, the main objective is to try to develop
22:05a certain contractual force, first with respect to the lords
22:09and then with the community.
22:12This contractual force does not usually depend on a village chief.
22:16In reality, the deciding factor are the meetings of the heads of the family,
22:20in a more empirical than political plan.
22:23In these meetings, the type of agricultural production
22:27that should be advised to the higher power is discussed,
22:30either of the community or of the lord.
22:33The old man exercises the power of doors to the outside.
22:37But the house is governed by the women, who maintain it,
22:40make products with the material that their husbands bring,
22:43sew and weave in the home and go to mass on Sundays to make social life.
22:56The young men take the animals to graze.
22:59They graze the oxen that drag the herds and grow in ignorance.
23:03The only knowledge they receive is the one transmitted by their parents
23:07and is related to agriculture and livestock.
23:56THE CIRCUMSTANCE
24:06From the 13th century, the urban authorities
24:09extend their control over the surrounding peasantry.
24:13It is a process of progressive subjugation of the countryside,
24:16which occurs through alliances with the rural communities
24:19and the landlords.
24:22Often it is the urban authority itself
24:25that releases entire communities of servants through the payment to their masters.
24:29It is not a humanitarian operation, but a simple financial maneuver.
24:34The free peasants, unlike the servants, are forced to pay taxes,
24:38produce more and are more chosen to repopulate the field
24:42in view of better conditions.
24:47With the development of municipal democracies,
24:50there are entire cities that make the decision to emancipate thousands of servants.
24:54On the one hand, to weaken the power of the lords
24:57who held the absolute power of large portions of the territory that did not correspond to them.
25:02And on the other hand, to reaffirm the citizens' competencies.
25:06In this way, cheap labor was obtained that flowed into the city.
25:12Those who were subject to servitude are emancipated.
25:15The settlers become landlords of full right,
25:18while many end up thickening the ranks of the lowest strata of the urban population
25:23in search of a better life.
25:27We have the example of Bologna.
25:29It is interesting to read the motivations of this text,
25:32known as the Liber Paradisus,
25:34where it is said textually that all men are born
25:38originally free by natural law.
25:41But as human evil grew, invading the rights of the peoples,
25:45it introduced servitude.
25:47With the acquisition of lands by the citizens,
25:50the figure of the tenant arises,
25:52the one who inhabits and cultivates the land of the owner.
25:55Expenses and production are divided into equal parts between both.
26:02The functioning that until that moment had characterized the system of courts is broken.
26:09They are no longer two parts that support each other.
26:13This determines the gradual change of the settlers,
26:16typical of the system of courts,
26:18to two different forms of land management,
26:21which are the lease and the partnership.
26:27The partnership already had its precedents.
26:32For example, when the lords were interested in changing a cereal crop for vineyards,
26:37they had already introduced contractual figures.
26:43The most interesting was the Pastinatio,
26:46and it consisted of delivering a plot to a settler.
26:50And if he managed to turn it into a prosperous vineyard,
26:53the settler became the owner of half of that plot.
27:01We want our villages, which we have founded for ourselves,
27:05to be fully used for our benefit and not for the benefit of others.
27:11That when our judges have to regulate the arduous tasks of our lands,
27:15to sow, to plow and to harvest the maize,
27:18to cut the hay or to harvest,
27:20each one in each locality,
27:22at the time of undertaking these tasks,
27:25applies the rules so that everything is carried out in the best possible way.
27:32That each judge fully fulfills his obligation, as it has been entrusted to him.
27:38And if it were necessary to work more,
27:41to calculate whether the workload or the working days should be increased.
27:47That our farmers, lumberjacks, plowmen,
27:50deans, inspectors and servants,
27:53make each one a certain amount of land,
27:56deliver pigs to their herds
27:59and contribute with diligence to manual work.
28:04And every farmer who obtains profit,
28:07who in turn sends a subordinate,
28:10who replaces him in manual work and other services.
28:18A very close relationship between owners and peasants,
28:21which requires mutual trust and respect,
28:24and which, as a consequence,
28:26causes not few conflicts between field and city.
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29:31On Sundays, all work activities are halted, people wear their best gowns and meet with
29:51the other members of the community in front of the church, under the tree tops.
30:00The endless religious processions are the best occasion for clandestine meetings,
30:05to arrange marriages and to make unresolved disputes.
30:10The different sacred events, such as Christmas, Epiphany and Holy Week,
30:15are a stop on the way to the field work.
30:18On these dates, festivities and celebrations happen in a dizzying way.
30:23The peasants assault the messengers, the wine runs in abundance, popular chants are sung
30:28and improvised and clumsy dances are organized, which allows people to enjoy a few moments
30:34of serenity and forget their sad existential condition.
31:28The Christian religion proposes an irrefutable truth.
31:32It creates a sharp division between good and evil, of difficult fulfillment in the rural world.
31:37Traditions and peasant customs are mixed with religious precepts.
31:42Fears and doubts find more concrete answers in folklore than in that distant and undefined God.
31:51That the church does not close in itself.
31:54It is necessary that pagan rites of worship to the devil are converted into devotion to the true God.
32:03Let us not forget that there is a plot of churches dedicated to religious worship,
32:08which are managed by the clergy.
32:11There are dioceses within the dioceses.
32:14They are basic cells of rural composition, the so-called parishes.
32:19The parishes are institutions propitiated by the Carolingians,
32:23which stand out for having a clergyman who performs a religious service to a group of faithful in a certain territory.
32:30These are the Filii Ecclesi of that parish.
32:33They have been baptized in that same parish.
32:36There they receive the sacraments.
32:38And to that parish they deliver the so-called Diezumo,
32:41that is, the tenth part of their products, for the religious service received.
32:49An adequate mixture of Christian faith and rural customs
32:52allows the priest to give his parishioners a feeling of security and stability.
32:58They are not infrequent the practices of exorcism on innocent babies with malformations,
33:03the blessing of wooded areas to ward off evil spirits,
33:07or the endless night vigil around the tombs
33:11to pray to the souls of the dead that do not interrupt the sleep of the living.
33:17The priest must act as an intermediary.
33:22From time to time he has to be with the people
33:25and in one way or another understand the daily needs.
33:33And when he is in front of the religion of the people,
33:36he must act, trying to direct it, change it or correct it.
33:43Thus the people will renounce their mistakes of heart
33:47and will come to know and worship the true God.
33:54All this we find in a long sequence of practices
33:57that are officially persecuted by the Church.
34:01But often the clergy, which was as uncultured as the people and shared their ignorance,
34:07sinned of the same superficiality, although at a strictly doctrinal level.
34:13For example, a priest of Verona blessed the apples
34:17and then distributed them accompanying the formula
34:20If you eat this, you will have a fever.
34:25Another example of this curious mixture of magic and religion
34:29we find in a very widespread custom, even in the north of the country,
34:33which consisted of lighting 12 candles.
34:36Each with a note in which the name of the different apostles was written.
34:43The candle that took the longest to be consumed gave the name of the apostle
34:47and in whose honor a mass was to be celebrated
34:50to ask for the healing of a person suffering from epilepsy.
34:57Away from the severe and rigid rules of the Church,
35:00religion manages to settle in rural society,
35:03presenting itself as a malleable and modifiable element
35:06according to the demands of society,
35:08capable of answering the ancestral doubts and fears of the peasant people.
36:04Vendimia is a time of happiness
36:06in which children, women and the elderly participate.
36:09It represents the end of the long task of caring for the vineyards
36:12and announces the joy of the future consumption of wine.
36:34Vendimia is a time of happiness
36:36in which children, women and the elderly participate.
36:39It represents the end of the long task of caring for the vineyards
36:42and announces the joy of the future consumption of wine.
37:03Vendimia is a time of happiness
37:05in which children, women and the elderly participate.
37:08It represents the end of the long task of caring for the vineyards
37:11and announces the joy of the future consumption of wine.
37:33Vendimia is a time of happiness
37:36in which children, women and the elderly participate.
37:39It represents the end of the long task of caring for the vineyards
37:42and announces the joy of the future consumption of wine.
37:45Vendimia is a time of happiness
37:48in which children, women and the elderly participate.
37:51It represents the end of the long task of caring for the vineyards
37:54and announces the joy of the future consumption of wine.
38:03A star element of the peasant table,
38:05wine contributes with its caloric contribution
38:07to the scarce and unnutritive rural diet,
38:09which is basically made up of cereals.
38:12The least appreciated, such as the salvado, the centeno and the cebada,
38:15are consumed in the form of bread of fiber or broth.
38:18The consumption of legumes provides proteins.
38:21The meat is very scarce
38:23and is only consumed on big occasions,
38:25parties, weddings and confirmations.
38:28It is then when real festivities are organized,
38:31sometimes even the reservations of a whole month are exhausted.
38:42Vendimia is a time of happiness
38:45in which children, women and the elderly participate.
38:48It represents the end of the long task of caring for the vineyards
38:51and announces the joy of the future consumption of wine.
39:13There are whole territories
39:15that have a particularly characteristic environment
39:18and enjoy a true political autonomy.
39:21In the Veneto, the alpine area only begins to open to the surrounding world
39:24at the beginning of the millennium,
39:27when the landowners and the cities are aware
39:30of the large amount of raw materials it offers.
39:33These are inhospitable territories,
39:36where the landowners and the cities
39:39It is about inhospitable territories,
39:42where agriculture is even more complicated than in the fields of the plain.
39:45However, livestock is practically self-sufficient
39:48due to the large amount and quality of the pastures.
39:51First they become the domain of the urban lords.
39:54Later, at the beginning of the 15th century,
39:57they pass to the hands of the Republic of Venice.
40:00The mountainous areas are governed by their own administrative policies
40:03and establish more or less close relations
40:06with the urban idiosyncrasy of reference.
40:09Throughout the Western European
40:12there are more static areas than others,
40:15where the influence of the cities is less intense.
40:18We can say that they are non-urban areas,
40:21which in their majority, although not exclusively,
40:24are circumscribed to the mountainous areas.
40:31For obvious geographical reasons,
40:34since we are referring to Europe,
40:37these are the territories where a social balance is preserved,
40:40a type of economy and, so to speak,
40:43a lifestyle and a very specific mentality,
40:46linked to conservatism and also to tradition.
40:56In this place we have four buoys with two yokes,
40:59two fences of plow,
41:02two carts, one hoe, one plow,
41:05two axes, three saws,
41:08eight wagons for sowing,
41:11seven containers for wine, 25 pigs.
41:14We have obtained 30 yokes of hay.
41:17Among the older and younger servants and maids,
41:20we have 62.
41:23The place is endowed with two hospices,
41:26of which five farms depend,
41:29and of which nine dependent settlers reside.
41:40The abundant wood reserves of the mountainous areas
41:43make them a coveted source of resources
41:46that many urban authorities try to monopolize.
41:49After the annexation to the Republic of Venice,
41:52the wood trade experiences a strong growth,
41:55which in many cases exerts a profound influence
41:58on local communities.
42:01An urban center like Venice,
42:04the new city par excellence,
42:07which arises from the lagoons,
42:10as has recently been shown by excavations
42:13in rugged and hilly terrain,
42:16must necessarily be supported
42:19on a true forest of foundations.
42:22These consisted of huge sticks
42:25on the ground on which the city arose.
42:33To increase the surface of the land
42:36of cultivation and pastures,
42:39thousands of hectares of forest were destroyed.
42:42In addition, apart from the fact that at that time
42:45wood was the main fuel for domestic and industrial use,
42:48it was also used in the construction of houses,
42:51water mills, bridges, military facilities,
42:54fortifications, defense walls
42:57and even barricades for the winemakers.
43:00Boats were made of wood,
43:03as well as the looms of the weavers.
43:11As means of transport,
43:14the bays of the main rivers of the Veneto are used,
43:17the Adigio, the Brenta, the Piave and the Tagliamento.
43:20For example, in Verona,
43:23there was a guild of woodworkers
43:26who drove the logs from the Trentino or Alto Adigio
43:29to Verona and the lower plain.
43:32There the wood was worked a lot.
43:35Woodworkers, added to river transport,
43:38woodworkers, locksmiths,
43:41all professions that draw this economic current.
43:44New population centers are born
43:47around the transit centers,
43:50at the same time that the environment
43:53experiences notable changes
43:56through the construction of dikes and the irrigation of riverbeds.
43:59At the beginning of the 14th century,
44:02almost 80% of the population lived in the countryside.
44:05Subsequent decades are characterized
44:08by a serious crisis.
44:11In the early 20th century,
44:14the population of the countryside
44:17was reduced to a small number of people.
44:20In the early 20th century,
44:23the population of the countryside
44:26was reduced to a small number of people.
44:29In the early 20th century,
44:32the population of the countryside
44:35was reduced to a small number of people.
44:38The terrible plague of 1348,
44:41which reached Venice in January of that year
44:44and spread immediately through the cities
44:47and rural areas in the mainland,
44:50causes serious human losses
44:53The Black Plague of 1348
44:56and the successive epidemics
44:59that are repeated in intervals of about a decade
45:02represent a traumatic break
45:05in the history of the medieval West.
45:08in the history of the medieval West.
45:11Large territorial extensions
45:14become forest and meadow areas again.
45:17Many villages are definitively abandoned
45:20and unhealthy.
45:23So abundant autumn rains fell
45:26that the fruit could not ripen.
45:29The famine that spread throughout the land
45:32followed the mortality of men,
45:35especially the poor,
45:38so that the dead could be buried
45:41with great sorrow.
45:50Knowing that you live in an area
45:53where there is an epidemic,
45:56but the nearest region is immune to it,
45:59generates a feeling of hope
46:02or a possibility of escape.
46:05Or you can also think
46:08that healing will come to you.
46:11But when a traveler arrives
46:14and tells you that thousands of people
46:17have been infected,
46:20it causes a general social outburst
46:23as there is in most cases
46:26no possibility of escaping the contagion.
46:29The Black Death catches society unawares
46:32that unable to face the disease
46:35or to give a medical and scientific explanation
46:38to the phenomenon,
46:41cannot take effective measures
46:44Many were skinned,
46:47as if a sacred fire devoured their viscera.
46:50The limbs, slowly corroded by evil,
46:53became black like coal.
46:56They died quickly among atrocious sufferings.
46:59In other cases,
47:02they continued to live without feet or hands,
47:05a life worse than death.
47:08Many others were convulsed with pain.
47:15In the middle of the 15th century,
47:18the fields began to recover.
47:21The quantity and quality of agricultural production increases.
47:24The population experiences a strong demographic growth
47:27and cities invest large capitals in the land.
47:30Contrary to what is believed,
47:33the peasant is the only one
47:36who does not benefit from the environment
47:39of renovation and renaissance of the field.
47:42Its condition continues to worsen.
47:45It even loses the small successes
47:48it had achieved through the popular uprisings.
47:51It becomes a victim predestined to the system again.
47:54The indissoluble union with the land,
47:57the obstacles to rise on the social scale,
48:00the material misery that is reflected in the moral misery,
48:03all this gives the rural environment
48:06a feeling of immobility
48:09and a need to take refuge in traditions and customs.