Carocci Sandro, Fiore Alessio (eds.) Building and Economic Growth in Southern Europe (1050-1300)

Brepols, 2024. — 268 p. — (The Medieval Countryside 26; Petrifying Wealth 2).The four-volume sub-series ‘Petrifying Wealth’ explores the sudden ubiquity of masonry construction between 1050 and 1300 in Southern Europe and its profound effect on the European landscape. New questions about wealth, society, and medieval building are explored, which highlight the link between construction in durable materials and the shaping of individual, collective, and territorial identities: the birth of a new, long-lasting panorama, epitomising the way we see the space and territory of Europe nowadays.Volume 2 of the ‘Petrifying Wealth’ series focuses on economic growth in Southern Europe between 1050 and 1300, discussing investments on buildings connected with production and trade. It examines buildings that served a primarily economic purpose, in various aspects: agricultural activity and the conservation and processing of its products, crafts, and exchanges and their material infrastructures. The growth in this period resulted in a multiplication of material structures closely linked with economic activity, such as mills, barns, canals, workshops, and arsenals. Focusing on the dynamics connected with these buildings thus offers a vantage point to better understand the contexts and characteristics of the ‘economic take-off’ in Southern Europe in this period.Sandro Carocci is Professor of Medieval History at the University of Roma - Tor Vergata (Italy) and is one of the Principal Investigators of the ERC-Advanced Grant Project Petrifying Wealth. He has written and edited numerous books on medieval Italy, including Lordships of Southern Italy (2018) and Social Mobility in Medieval Italy (2018).Alessio Fiore is Professor of Medieval History at the University of Turin. He has written or edited several books on medieval societies; among them Signori e sudditi (Spoleto, 2010), and The Seigneurial Transformation (Oxford, 2020).