Prologue: Uncommon ground. Transaction ; Foundation ; Population ; Exploitation ; Demarcation, eviction, possession ; Exploration -- Part I: Borderlines. When the worm forgave the plough ; The size of all the Earth ; Just where is everything ; At the edges of world ; Drawing a distinction --...

"This book examines the forms of estate management in the countryside of Florence and Lucca between the eleventh and the middle of the thirteenth centuries. It argues that their change reflects wider transformations of medieval economic patterns, and specifically the surge in overall demand that...