Petrifying Wealth. The Southern European Shift to Masonry as Collective Investment in Identity, c.1050-1300

Project Information

PETRIFYING WEALTH

Grant agreement ID: 695515

DOI

10.3030/695515

Project closed

EC signature date 27 July 2016

Start date 1 January 2017

End date 30 June 2023

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 2 491 798,99

EU contribution

€ 2 491 798,99

Coordinated by

AGENCIA ESTATAL CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 4 - PETRIFYING WEALTH (Petrifying Wealth. The Southern European Shift to Masonry as Collective Investment in Identity, c.1050-1300)

Reporting period: 2021-07-01 to 2023-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Between the years 1050 and 1300 the European landscape turned to stone. It was a structural transformation that led to the birth of a new, long-lasting panorama that epitomizes the way we see European space and territory. The goal of Petrifying Wealth has been to rewrite the social history of the high Middle Ages, emphasizing the need to reassess from an untried perspective an element that has always been present in our vision of the period—the sudden ubiquity of masonry construction—but which has hardly been given the opportunity to provide in-depth explanations for complex social dynamics. What factors determined this epochal change? Is it possible to determine its course in time and space? Why precisely in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries did this change occur? Was the change caused not only by new institutional dynamics, but also by unprecedented social practices, as well as ideological concepts radically different from those that had prevailed until then? The project offered new explanations for hitherto unasked questions about wealth, building, and collective identity.

These questions and explanations are important for today's Europe, whose urban and rural landscape is still characterized by this massive transformation that took place in those centuries. Our goals were to combine disciplines to investigate and understand the great transformation that made so evident the structural link between private and collective wealth and investment in masonry structures built to last. The research identified the petrification process in different regions, proposing detailed case studies. Our publications have shown how and with what chronology buildings became more solid, more present, more visible, and therefore more capable of serving as one of the privileged tools for representing and affirming the political, cultural, territorial, and social identities of individuals, families, secular communities, religious institutions, and political powers. The complex nature of the petrification process became clear.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The design of our project identified two main sources of evidence: material sources and documentary sources of various types. In both types of sources, the chronology has been limited to the 11th-13th centuries and the area of study to that originally selected (Iberia, Italy, southern France). Based on the empirical observation, it was organised through two scales of research: a general scale, assisted by the handling of large data sets, and a case studies one where methodologies from different disciplines have been applied. Interaction among them has made it possible to obtain novel and relevant results. The major achievements of the project consist of scientific contributions published in monographs, journals and collective volumes, all in Open Access; publications in press or in preparation, already committed to publishers; scientific meetings which are in the foundations of the collective volumes. The technical and managerial skills related to TICs, include the design, development and maintenance of an open PostgreSQL database with an associated cartographic viewer and a Website created to support the new utilities and to show in multimedia form the results of the project. They are all accessible, searchable and reusable, as consigned in the Data Management Plan.
Ten monographs and fifty-nine scientific papers were published or are forthcoming and will be published in the next months. The large amount of data collected and systematised is being used in other publications currently in preparation. Ten international conferences have been held, with the participation of specialists who have contributed with relevant issues. The dissemination consisted in more than a hundred activities, including organisation and participation in workshops and training, joint activities with other EU projects, dissemination publications, press articles, radio and press interviews, Science Weeks, participation in audiovisual programs, video production and presence in social networks.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Our most significant achievements advanced the field beyond the state of the art. The most unexpected were:

-The study of lay urban construction revealed fundamental differences between the cities of Italy, southern France and Spain. The conflicts that marked cities from mid 11th century resulted in a strong fragmentation of urban space. However, the family and consortium towers that began to dot most Italian cities did not appear in southern France; conversely, the walls that in French cities, and also in Catalonia, divided spaces controled by ecclesiastical powers or by laymen did not appear in Italy. In short: if in very conflictual contexts, the outcomes of the 'petrification of conflict' were very different. In Iberia, the Christian conquests over Muslim powers hindered the internal competition among the urban chivalry: churches defined the space and diluted the ability of the laity to express their material identity on secular buildings.
-Buildings functional to production and trade established a characteristic of the late 12th century and 13th century economic take-off: albeit with regional differences, this economic boom was a largely secular phenomenon. The investment in productive structures undertaken by ecclesiastical landowners, appears to have been less significant than that of lay landowners. In economic life as a whole, they were destined to play a far less significant role than in the preceding centuries
- The systematisation of epigraphic evidence revealed its comparative capacity through common and identifiable forms and protocols. The great information potential on the petrification process constituted by epigraphic sources was ascertained and illustrated. The distribution of epigraphy in the study area has shown unequal petrification dynamics.
- The research discovered that Southern Italian regions were earlier in the spread of private urban towers than those in the centre-north; this reverses the traditional grand narrative about the backwardness of southern Italy compared to the centre-north.
- It also discovered that in Iberia densification occurs both in a regional and a local scale, and it evidenced the consolidation of an articulated system of territorial units. Chronologically, some areas took over from others in terms of building intensity.
- The destruction of buildings was no less a crucial activity than construction. The activity of destroying was attributed a particular value, even a symbolic one. It required considerable technical expertise, and important resources. Demolishing was a way to reaffirm the community and its rights, and also to open up for dialogue and reconciliation.
-The role of peasant communities appeared to be greater than expected. Their to take a central role in the construction and management of their churches - and to deal with the resulting conflicts - was found to be particularly great in Italy and Castile compared to other regions.
- The choice of building materials has been shown to be complex and not linked to the economic resources available. Brick as a reused element of prestige and emulation in Italy does not appear in the other samples studied. it provides information on different ways of constructing identities and legitimacy.

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