El periodo del Medievo, también conocido como la Edad Media, es una época fascinante que ha dejado una huella imborrable en nuestra cultura. En este documental, exploraremos los pueblos medievales, sus ritos y tradiciones que definieron una era. Desde la vida cotidiana en las aldeas hasta las majestuosas catedrales que adornaban el paisaje, cada elemento cuenta una historia única. Descubriremos cómo las festividades y rituales, como las ferias y celebraciones religiosas, unían a las comunidades y forjaban la identidad de sus habitantes. Además, analizaremos la influencia de la religión y la monarquía en la vida social, así como los oficios y costumbres que perduran hasta hoy. A través de imágenes cautivadoras y narraciones detalladas, este documental no solo informará, sino que también inspirará un mayor interés por el legado medieval. Sumérgete en la historia y aprende sobre la riqueza cultural de los pueblos, los valores y creencias que guiaron a generaciones pasadas. Si te apasiona la historia y quieres conocer más sobre esta fascinante época, no te puedes perder nuestro documental sobre el Medievo. Acompáñanos en este viaje a través del tiempo y revive las tradiciones que han dado forma a nuestra sociedad actual. ¡Descubre el Medievo hoy!
**Hashtags:** #Medievo, #HistoriaCultural, #DocumentalMedieval
**Keywords:** Medievo, pueblos medievales, ritos y tradiciones, Edad Media, vida cotidiana, festividades, catedrales, historia medieval, legado cultural, documentales históricos.
**Hashtags:** #Medievo, #HistoriaCultural, #DocumentalMedieval
**Keywords:** Medievo, pueblos medievales, ritos y tradiciones, Edad Media, vida cotidiana, festividades, catedrales, historia medieval, legado cultural, documentales históricos.
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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.