Oeconomia Alpium. II Oeconomia Alpium II: Economic History of the Alps in Preindustrial Times: Methods and Perspectives of Research 9783110522259, 9783110519235

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Oeconomia Alpium II: Economic History of the Alps in Preindustrial Times

Oeconomia Alpium II: Economic History of the Alps in Preindustrial Times

Methods and Perspectives of Research Edited by Markus A. Denzel, Andrea Bonoldi, and Marie-Claude Schöpfer

Kommission Stockalper für die Wirtschaftsgeschichte der Alpen Commission Stockalper pour I’Histoire économique des Alpes Commissione Stockalper per la Storia economica delle Alpi

ISBN 978-3-11-051923-5 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-052225-9 e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-051991-4 Library of Congress Control Number: 2021950691 Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston Cover illustration: Chute de Staubbach, dans la Vallée de Lauterbrunnen (Falls at Staubbach in the Lauterbrunnen Valley). Dated: probably 1776. (c) Heritage Images/Heritage Art/akg-images Typesetting: Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd. Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck www.degruyter.com

Preface From 30 March to 1st April 2017 the second workshop of StoAlp, the Commission for the Economic History of the Alps, organised by the Forschungsinstitut zur Geschichte des Alpenraums (FGA), took place in Brig in Switzerland. The wide-ranging and dense program of the conference served to develop the Commission’s main objective of the creation of an overview publication on the economic history of the Alpine area in a decisive way. The scientific concept of the future publication corresponds to the content-related and methodological basis of the workshop, which focused the following axes: I. Conceptual Delimitations, Question of Periodization, Publishing; II. Structures of the Natural Area, Societies, Politics and Law Systems of the Alpine Area; III. Trade within and with the Alpine Area; IV. Everyday life; V. Formalities. At the conference in Brig Christian Rohr (Bern) and Gregor Zenhäusern (Brig), with their contributions, discussed the field of natural disasters and the involved physiographic, settlement geographical, climatic, environmental historical, and pedological factors which decisively influenced the predominantly agriculturally characterised life of the Alpine societies. The presentation of Anne Montenach (Aix-en-Provence) with the title “Gender, law and commerce in the modern western Alps” analysed the political and economic preconditions of female manifestations of trade actions. On the field of everyday life of the Alpine populations Anne-Lise HeadKönig (Genève) presented the quotidian production modes of the agricultural sector, which during the preindustrial era was predominant within the Alps. The contribution especially described the specifics of the use of Alpine pastures and the production of exportable long-life food products, which constituted the major basis to build up economic networks with export regions. In addition, the economic activities of towns and municipalities, of churches and monasteries, which were presented by Luca Mocarelli (Milan), Luigi Provero (Torino), Giuseppe Albertoni (Trento) and Katharina Winckler (Vienna), also made an impact on the everyday life and economy of the rural Alpine areas. The material culture with money, currencies, measures and weights as essential elements as well as economic culture and ethics, which were approached by Mechthild Isenmann (Leipzig), were also in the centre of various considerations. The field of “Trade migration and communication” was discussed by Marie-Claude Schöpfer (Brig) within the opening paper of the conference while speaking about transport structures and markets in the Alpine area. Which markets or towns of the Alps and their surrounding regions had sufficient centrality to serve as stage and reloading points for the transit, the regional transportation and the import and export trade? Furthermore, Mark Häberlein’s (Bamberg) examples of Italian merchants operating north of the Alps illustrated the leading role of familiar, amicable and generally social networks in the creation of commercial compounds. The contribution of Cinzia Lorandini (Trento) asked the question of structural characteristics and operational mechanisms of commercial actions: How trade was structured and organized within and through the Alpine regions? How did Alpine trade exactly https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110522259-202

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work? In this regard, Andrea Bonoldi (Trento) discussed customs tariffs of the Alpine area as instruments of seigneurial economic policy. Finally, Michael North’s (Greifswald) paper presented the field of communication regarding the respective operations within the Alps or from the Alpine residents towards foreign regions. This volume contains the further developed conference papers of Giuseppe Albertoni, Mark Häberlein, Anne-Lise Head-König, Luca Moccarelli, Luigi Provero, Christian Rohr, Marie-Claude Schöpfer, Katharina Winckler and Gregor Zenhäusern. In addition, the scientific concept for the final publication of the Alpine economic history was significantly elaborated during the conference in Brig. Furthermore, important organizational steps towards its realization such as the closure of the fundamental discussion or the integration of further topics within the general concept etc. could be executed. How to geographically delimit particular topics of the economic history of the Alps, remains an open question and will be discussed at the third conference of the Commission for the Economic History of the Alps, which will take place in Trento from 7–9 October 2021 and complete the cycle of the StoAlp conferences. *** The editors of this volume offer their sincere thanks to the institutions who have contributed to the organization of the second conference of StoAlp in Brig and to the realisation of this publication: we thank the municipality of Brig-Glis, the Swiss Foundation of the Stockalper Castle, the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and the Section valaisanne de la Loterie Romande, which has generously granted a fund to publish this second volume of the Oeconomia Alpium. We also thank the staff members of the FGA, Christine Bregy-Witschard, Michaela Treyer-Imstepf, Philipp Kalbermatter, René Pfammatter and Gregor Zenhäusern. Finally, we would like to thank Claudia Heyer (acquisitions editor history of the de Gruyter publisher) as well as Franziska Streng (University of Leipzig), who accompanied the editorial process. Brig-Glis / Leipzig, April 9th 2021 For the StoAlp Commission Markus A. Denzel President

Marie-Claude Schöpfer Vice President finance and administration

Contents Preface

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Christian Rohr The Impact of Natural Disasters on Economic Life in the Eastern Alps. The Case of the Salzach-Inn and Traun river Catchment Areas 1 Gregor Zenhäusern Natural Disaster Prevention and Management in the Valais Alps from the Middle Ages to the Nineteenth Century 31 Katharina Winckler Roads, Tolls and the Development of Ecclesiastical Institutions in the Alps (400–900) 43 Giuseppe Albertoni Medieval Communication Networks in the Central Eastern Alps: Some Trend Lines 73 Marie-Claude Schöpfer Across the Passes. Transport Structures and Markets in the Alpine Area of the Pre-Industrial Period 89 Anne-Lise Head-König Structural Changes in Agriculture and Pastoralism in the Northern European Alps from Savoy to Vorarlberg (from the Eleventh to the Middle of the Sixteenth Century) 111 Luigi Provero Churches, Settlements and Resources in the Western Alps (Eleventh to Fifteenth Centuries) 129 Mark Häberlein Italian Merchants and Traders North of the Alps: Commercial Practices and Social Strategies 141

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Luca Mocarelli The Towns in the Alps: A Missed Protagonist Markus A. Denzel Oeconomia Alpium: A Concept Takes Shape

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The Impact of Natural Disasters on Economic Life in the Eastern Alps. The Case of the Salzach-Inn and Traun River Catchment Areas Abstract: Daily weather, seasonal weather conditions and anomalies, long-term climate change and natural disasters had an outstanding influence on premodern Alpine economies. In this paper, emphasis is placed on damage caused by floods and adaptation strategies to cope with them. The examples are mostly taken from the Eastern Alps, in particular from the Salzach and Lower Inn valleys, as well as from the Traun river. If the water levels in the rivers were too high or too low, the transport capacities of the rivers were significantly diminished, which, for instance, affected salt shipping along the Salzach and Lower Inn rivers. Furthermore, most mills could not work during such a time, causing a deep impact on local food production (flour, etc.) and on the processing of goods. Floods also had a crucial influence on the transport of timber by slog driving, in particular from Alpine forests to the mining districts and to the salterns in Tyrol, Salzburg and the Salzkammergut. If one of the wooden rakes (barriers to collect the trunks at the destination) broke due to the power of water, the trunks would flush down the river and became destructive, like ‘torpedoes’. Bridges and mills were destroyed. Due to the immense loss of firewood, the smelting furnaces and salt production had to be closed for weeks or even months. Another impact of recurrent floods was swamp formation in flat valleys, which were used for the grazing of cattle. Areas like the Upper Salzach Valley south of Lake Zell had been flooded up to ten times a year, which made the swampy meadows unfit for agricultural use any longer. However, premodern societies in the Alpine areas and the nearby foothills tried to cope with and adapt to this situation, with the means available to them. In case of a flood, warning systems existed, e.g. by local skippers. Parts of mills and bridges could be removed or reinforced quickly. Carpenters in the towns and cities became specialized in the permanent repairs of wooden bridges and realized 10–20 percent of their annual turnover by flood-related labour. Early straightening of water courses and drainage projects should make swampy floodplains reusable for agriculture.

Christian Rohr, University of Bern, Institute of History, Section of Economic, Social and Environmental History and Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, Länggassstrasse 49, CH-3012 Bern, e-mail: [email protected] https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110522259-001

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Introduction Some of the major tributary rivers of the Danube river in Austria – i.e. the Salzach, the Lower Inn and the Traun rivers – have provided wealth for the region since prehistoric times. The beginnings were a result of salt mining in the Hallein mines near Salzburg. From the twelfth century onwards, mining was intensified in Hallein and in nearby Berchtesgaden, transforming the Salzach and the Inn rivers into a major transport route to markets downstream. The same is true for the salt mines in the Salzkammergut region (Altaussee, Hallstatt, Bad Ischl), where salt was transported on the Traun river to the different Habsburg territories and beyond. Salt skipper communities with specific local knowledge developed and made small towns like Laufen, in the north of Salzburg, wealthy and important. Furthermore, these river systems gained high importance for wood drifting from the high Alpine forests to the lowlands. However, people living along the river had to face frequent floods, partly in spring after snowmelt, but mostly in summertime, when Vb weather constellations, i.e. massive low pressure cyclones over the Northern Mediterranean moving to the Northeast, brought heavy rain to the Eastern Alps.1 After an introduction to historical hydrological studies of the Alpine area in premodern times, this paper examines the perception, management and memory of floods, as well as their impact on local and supra-regional economies, focusing on the extreme events of the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Times. Alongside some examples of extreme floods, e.g. 1572 and 1598, emphasis is given to the frequency of ‘normal’ floods within ‘culture of flood risk’, which can be reconstructed in detail via the accounts of the bridge masters of Wels, Upper Austria. Another focus is on the marshiness of inner Alpine valleys due to frequent flooding and the economic consequences, such as in the Pinzgau district in the upper course of the Salzach river. Furthermore, the study will show how extraordinarily high and low water, due to both seasonal variation and extreme weather conditions, influenced the transport of timber, salt and other goods.

1 On the role of Vb weather constellations for central Europe, see Manfred Mudelsee / Michael Börngen / Gerd Tetzlaff / Uwe Grünewald, Extreme Floods in Central Europe over the Past 500 Years: Role of Cyclone Pathway “Zugstrasse Vb”, in: Journal of Geophysical Research, Atmospheres 109 (2004), D23.

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Historical Hydrological Studies and Natural Disaster Studies on the Alpine Region: A Short Survey Historical hydrology is both a sub-discipline and a neighbouring discipline of historical climatology.2 Similarly, different approaches from several disciplines complement to one another. The main issues of natural and engineering sciences are the reconstruction of extreme historical events, in particular focusing on peak discharges and affected areas, and the generation of data to calculate the recurrence probability of extreme floods. These findings serve to define areas endangered by floods. Social and cultural studies, however, are mainly interested in regional and supra-regional adaptation strategies, in the choice and change of settlement places due to floods or toolow water, and in building techniques and flood protection measures in general. In addition, they examine local and supra-regional memory cultures, and the economic and social impact on society. For a long time, historians mostly dealt with floods only on a local scale and related to the history of urban settlements, usually without collaborating with the natural and engineering sciences. Multi-authored interdisciplinary studies, special issues of hydrological journals and edited volumes, which assemble scholars from different disciplines arose only over the last twenty years.3 Historical climatologists such as Rudolf Brázdil and Rüdiger Glaser are also leading scholars in historical hydrology.4 Research teams dealing with historical floods are working in all central European and Alpine countries; they are developing innovative methods to combine anthropogenic documentary and instrumental evidence with data collected from the archives of nature.5 Literature on historical floods in the Alpine region and in the Alpine foothills, whose rivers originate in the Alps, has increased significantly in recent years. From a scientific and/or cultural history point of view, a majority of

2 On the state of the art of historical climatology, see the new referential handbook Sam White / Christian Pfister / Franz Mauelshagen (eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Climate History, Basingstoke 2018. 3 See, for instance, Rudolf Brázdil / Zbigniew W. Kundzewicz (eds.), Historical Hydrology (= Hydrological Sciences Journal 51/5, Special Issue), Basingstoke 2006; Rudolf Brázdil / Andrea Kiss / Jürg Luterbacher et al., Documentary Data and the Study of Past Droughts: A Global State of the Art, in: Climate of the Past 14 (2018), pp. 1915–1960; Rüdiger Glaser / Dirk Riemann / Johannes Schönbein et al., The Variability of European Floods since 1500, in: Climatic Change 101 (2010), pp. 235–256. 4 Rudolf Brázdil / Petr Dobrovolný / Libor Elleder et al., Historické a současné povodně v České republice (Historical and current floods in the Czech Republic), Brno 2005 (with a detailed summary in English). 5 On new methodological trends in historical hydrology, see, for instance, Oliver Wetter, The Potential of Historical Hydrology in Switzerland, in: Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 21 (2017), pp. 5781–5803.

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the studies is dedicated to the large river systems, but also, from a micro-history point of view, to small rivers whose destructive power can be enormous, albeit regionally limited.6 Historical disaster studies are related both to historical climatology and historical hydrology, and to other disciplines such as geology and sociology. Early historical studies on natural disasters were mostly connected with anniversaries. From the 1990s onwards, a new generation of historical disaster studies has appeared, which have not only been interested in the reconstruction of the event but also in cultural issues such as perceptions, interpretations and memory cultures.7 Most of these are case studies or collections of articles published in special issues or edited volumes,8 but some focus on a specific region and time-span, following comparative approaches to achieve more general results about patterns of disaster perception.9

6 See Christian Rohr, Measuring the Frequency and Intensity of Floods of the Traun river (Upper Austria), 1441–1574, in: Hydrological Sciences Journal 51/5 (2006), pp. 834–847; id., Extreme Naturereignisse im Ostalpenraum. Naturerfahrung im Spätmittelalter und am Beginn der Neuzeit, Köln / Weimar / Wien 2007; id., Floods of the Upper Danube River and Its Tributaries and Their Impact on Urban Economies (c. 1350–1600): The Examples of the Towns of Krems/Stein and Wels (Austria), in: Environment and History 19/2 (2013), pp. 133–148; Oliver Böhm / Karl-Friedrich Wetzel, Flood History of the Danube Tributaries Lech and Isar in the Alpine Foreland of Germany, in: Hydrological Sciences Journal 51/5 (2006), pp. 784–798; Petra Schmocker-Fackel / Felix Naef, Changes in Flood Frequencies in Switzerland since 1500, in: Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 14 (2010), pp. 1581–1594; Oliver Wetter / Christian Pfister / Rolf Weingartner et al., The Largest Floods in the High Rhine Basin since 1268 Assessed from Documentary and Instrumental Evidence, in: Hydrological Sciences Journal 56/5 (2011), pp. 733–758; For the nineteenth century, a period already influenced by large-scale river straightenings, see, for instance, Stephanie Summermatter, Die Überschwemmungen von 1868 in der Schweiz. Unmittelbare Reaktion und längerfristige Prävention mit näherer Betrachtung des Kantons Wallis, Nordhausen 2005; Melanie Salvisberg, Der Hochwasserschutz an der Gürbe – eine Herausforderung für Generationen. Ein Beispiel für die Umsetzung von Hochwasserschutzkonzepten vor Ort (1855–2010), Basel 2017. 7 A starting point for cultural history-based disaster studies is Manfred Jakubowski-Tiessen, Sturmflut 1717. Die Bewältigung einer Naturkatastrophe in der Frühen Neuzeit, München 1992. 8 See, for instance, Christian Pfister (ed.), Am Tag danach. Zur Bewältigung von Naturkatastrophen in der Schweiz 1500–2000, Bern / Stuttgart 2002; Dieter Groh / Michael Kempe / Franz Mauelshagen (eds.), Naturkatastrophen. Beiträge zu ihrer Deutung, Wahrnehmung und Darstellung in Text und Bild von der Antike bis ins 20. Jahrhundert, Tübingen 2003; Gerrit Jasper Schenk / Jens Ivo Engels (eds.), Historical Disaster Research. Concepts, Methods and Case Studies / Historische Katastrophenforschung. Begriffe, Konzepte und Fallbeispiele, Köln 2007 (= Historical Social Research 32/3, Special Issue); Gerrit Jasper Schenk (ed.), Historical Disaster Experiences. Towards a Comparative and Transcultural History of Disasters across Asia and Europe, Cham (CH) 2017. 9 See, for instance, Rohr, Extreme Naturereignisse; Christopher M. Gerrard / David N. Petley, A Risk Society? Environmental Hazards, Risk and Resilience in the Later Middle Ages in Europe, in: Natural Hazards. Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards 69/1 (2013), pp. 1051–1079; Thomas Labbé, Les catastrophes naturelles au Moyen Âge, XIIe–XVe siècle, Paris 2017.

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Cultural history approaches ask for the perception, interpretation, (risk) management and memory of natural hazards. A clear definition of what has been perceived as disaster in historical societies seems to be impossible to find.10 However, several factors are necessary for a natural hazard to be considered a natural disaster. Not all of them are necessarily relevant at the same time, but at least three or four should be applicable:11 (a) The helplessness of humans when attempting to cope with damage through available means. (b) An inability to explain and understand the event. (c) Material and personal suffering. (d) The unexpectedness of the event, which depends on how prepared a society is for single or recurrent threats. (e) Whether a series of natural hazards occurs within a short period of time, thereby raising the vulnerability of those afflicted. (f) Symbolic connotations and patterns of interpretation, such as connections to natural disasters described in the Bible. (g) The wider historical context in the form of economic, religious and climatic crises. Unexpected and sudden natural hazards, such as earthquakes, storm surges, severe thunderstorms with hail, or ice floods are typically perceived as disasters because people do not have time to install an effective system of prevention, which, in turn, means that the number of victims will be higher. In some cases, carelessness also plays a role – for example, if settlements are erected without a specific reason in dangerous places, or unsuitable building materials are used. In contrast, if a society is prepared to cope with an environmental hazard, people will deal with it throughout their daily lives and their socioeconomic system. Based on their communal experience, they adapt the design and layout of the settlement and their behaviour in order to minimize risks. Where the level of resilience in such a society is sufficiently heightened, the result may be a “culture of disaster” (Greg Bankoff)12 or, more correctly, a ‘culture of risk management’.13 For these communities, most natural 10 See some attempts in Enrico Louis Quarantelli, What is a Disaster? Perspectives on a Question, London 1998; Anthony Oliver-Smith, Theorizing Disasters, in: Susanna M. Hoffman / Anthony Oliver-Smith (eds.), Catastrophe and Culture. The Anthropology of Disaster, Santa Fe (NM) 2002, pp. 23–47; Keith Smith / David N. Petley, Environmental Hazards. Assessing Risk and Reducing Disaster, London 2009. 11 Rohr, Extreme Naturereignisse, pp. 56–62; Rohr, Floods of the Upper Danube River, p. 135. 12 Greg Bankoff, Cultures of Disaster. Society and Natural Hazard in the Philippines, London / New York 2003. 13 See C. Rohr, Extreme Naturereignisse, pp. 201–398; Gerrit Jasper Schenk, Human Security in the Renaissance? Securitas, Infrastructure, Collective Goods and Natural Hazards in Tuscany and the Upper Rhine Valley, in: Cornel Zwierlein / Rüdiger Graf / Magnus Ressel (eds.), The Production of

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hazards cease to be disasters at all, and their inhabitants understand the general reasons for these extreme events and the indications some days or hours in advance. They also actively undertake strategies of prevention. These can include building and regularly maintaining flood protection measures, locating settlements on relatively secure ground, and adapting building techniques to mitigate the risk. In addition, the concept of vulnerability is often used to assess societal impacts of climate and natural disasters.14 In this concept, a system is vulnerable to certain hazards (e.g. extreme weather conditions). The type and number of stressors, their root causes, the effects on the systems and the time horizon of the analysis are decisive.15 To assess the vulnerability of a certain part of a system such as an individual, household, society, state, or ecological system, it is necessary to know more about the exposure of the object and how often it is affected by a hazard. Furthermore, it is important to know the sensitivity of a system, or to what extent it will be changed by biophysical, socioeconomic and political processes caused by the hazard. Finally, the resilience of the object and its adaptation strategies must be considered.16

Human Security in Premodern and Contemporary History / Die Produktion von Human Security in Vormoderne und Zeitgeschichte (= Historical Social Research 35/4, Special Issue), Köln 2010, pp. 209–233 for riverine cultures; see also Jakubowski-Tiessen, Sturmflut; Marie-Luisa Allemeyer, “Kein Land ohne Deich . . . !” Lebenswelten einer Küstengesellschaft in der Frühen Neuzeit, Göttingen 2005; Adriaan M. J. de Kraker, Reconstruction of Storm Frequency in the North Sea Area of the Preindustrial Period, 1400–1625 and the connection with reconstructed time series of temperatures, in: History of Meteorology 2 (2005), pp. 51–69 for maritime coasts. 14 See, amongst others, W. Neil Adger, Vulnerability, in: Global Environmental Change 16 (2006), pp. 268–281; Hans-Martin Füssel / Richard J. T. Klein, Climate Change Vulnerability Assessments: An Evolution of Conceptual Thinking, in: Climatic Change 75 (2006), pp. 301–329; Greg Bankoff / Georg Frerks / Dorothea Hilhorst (eds.), Mapping Vulnerability. Disasters, Development and People, London 2007; Martin Voss, The Vulnerable Can’t Speak. An Integrative Vulnerability Approach to Disaster and Climate Change Research, in: Behemoth. A Journal on Civilisation 1/3 (2008), pp. 39–56; Christian Pfister, The Vulnerability of Past Societies to Climatic Variation. A New Focus for Historical Climatology in the Twenty-first Century, in: Climatic Change 101/1–2 (2010), pp. 281–310; Dominik Collet, “Vulnerabilität” als Brückenkonzept der Hungerforschung, in: Id. / Thore Lassen / Ansgar Schanbacher (eds.), Handeln in Hungerkrisen. Neue Perspektiven auf Soziale und Klimatische Vulnerabilität, Göttingen 2012, pp. 13–25; Daniel Krämer, “Menschen grasten nun mit dem Vieh”. Die letzte grosse Hungerkrise der Schweiz 1816/17. Mit einer theoretischen und methodischen Einführung in die historische Hungerforschung, Basel 2015, at pp. 192–212; Greg Bankoff, Remaking the World in Our Own Image: Vulnerability, Resilience and Adaptation as Historical Discourses, in: Disasters 43 (2019), pp. 221–239. 15 Hans-Martin Füssel, Vulnerability. A Generally Applicable Conceptual Framework for Climate Change Research, in: Global Environmental Change 17 (2007), pp. 155–167. 16 Krämer, “Menschen grasten”, pp. 205 s.

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The Economic Framework in the Catchment Areas of the Salzach and Lower Inn Rivers and the Traun River Salt production and salt shipping go back even to the prehistoric Celtic period and are well documented from the Early Middle Ages onwards,17 reaching their peak in the sixteenth century. Around 1530, approximately 24,700 tons of salt were produced annually in Hallein, 4,600 tons in Berchtesgaden and Schellenberg, and 12,500 tons in Reichenhall. For transport, the salt was pressed into large truncated cones (Fuder), which weighed around 64.4 kg when dry.18 The Erbausfergenrechungen (accounts of the officers dealing with ship transport) have been fully preserved for the years 1544 to 1576 and document the number of passes through the Salzach river loop near Laufen. Accordingly, 1,553 ships passed the site in the flood year 1572 and 3,327 ships in 1575, which corresponds to between 9 and 18 large salt ships per day with an average shipping season of 180 days a year (April to December).19 This important economic branch led to the development of its own trade, which was of course primarily concentrated in individual towns such as Laufen an der Salzach, located in the Archdiocese of Salzburg; other cities such as Salzburg itself, Tittmoning, Burghausen, Braunau, Oberndorf or Schärding were of only minor importance in the salt trade. The special position of Laufen resulted from a natural obstacle: the Salzach river forms a hairpin bend in this area and has numerous rapids; until 1783, there was also a rock in the middle of the river course, the Nocken. Ships were therefore piloted through the dangerous passage on a rope. As early as 1278, Friedrich II von Walchen, Archibishop of Salzburg (1270–1284), granted privileges to the Ausfergen, i.e. civil officer shipmen of the Archbishop of Salzburg working as guides in Laufen, which made the small town relatively rich.20

17 See, for example, the famous toll regulation of Raffelstetten (today in the community of Asten near Linz), which dates back to around 903/905 and is a so-called Weistum, i.e. a collection of judicial sentences serving as precedents in German law, dealing with tolls and toll stations along the Danube river. For an edition of the text see Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Capitularia regum Francorum 2, ed. by Alfred Boretius / Viktor Krause, Hannover 1897, pp. 249–252 and as the still valid reference works Michael Mitterauer, Wirtschaft und Verfassung in der Zollordnung von Raffelstetten, in: Mitteilungen des Oberösterreichischen Landesarchivs 8 (1964), pp. 344–373; Peter Johanek, Die Raffelstetter Zollordnung und das Urkundenwesen der Karolingerzeit, in: Helmut Maurer / Hans Patze (eds.), Festschrift für Berent Schwineköper, Sigmaringen 1982, pp. 87–107. 18 See Fritz Koller, Die Salzachschiffahrt bis zum 16. Jahrhundert, in: Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für Salzburger Landeskunde 123 (1983), pp. 1–126, at pp. 9 s. 19 Ibid., pp. 21–23 with Table 2, based on Salzburg, Salzburger Landesarchiv, Erbausfergenarchiv III, 6. 20 On the privileges for the shipmen of Laufen, see Heinz Dopsch, Die erzbischöflichen Ordnungen für die Salzachschiffahrt (1267 und 1278) und die Anfänge der Schifferschützen von Laufen-Oberndorf,

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Salt was also transported on the lower Inn river: it came from Hall in Tyrol and from there was shipped on the Inn river, through Upper Bavaria to Passau. Finally, the salt from the Salzkammergut (Altaussee, Hallstatt, Bad Ischl) reached the Danube river via the Traun river and became important for the markets from Linz down the Danube river. Transportation of timber, the most important material and fuel in the “age of wood” (Joachim Radkau)21 up to the early nineteenth century, was also carried out on a large scale via the Salzach and Inn river system. Wood was needed on the one hand as a building material for houses, bridges, and technical structures such as mills and protective structures of all kinds along the rivers, and on the other hand in huge quantities as fuel in the smelting process for metals, as well as in salt extraction and glass making. Transporting the logs was a logistical challenge, which led to the formation of a large-scale organized wood drift on the rivers from the mountains to the Alpine foothills. Large wood rakes finally served to salvage the tree trunks near the smelting works and salterns. The log driving was also permanently associated with the risk of damaging bank fortifications and bridges. As shown below using the example of the heavy flood of 1598, tree trunks breaking through by the wood rakes were the main cause of flood damage, destroying bridges, houses and barns like ‘torpedoes’. However, river shipping also had seasonal problems: on the one hand, it was too dangerous in the event of flooding, which occurred in the regions examined mostly in spring and summer; on the other hand, shallows during low water caused difficulties, especially in autumn and winter. Scraping up the riverbed with ploughs and dredging (in the local dialect, krampeln) deep spots with Kreilen (heavy forks)

in: Das Salzfass. Heimatkundliche Zeitschrift des Historischen Vereins Rupertiwinkel 12/2 (1978), pp. 56–80. On the transport of salt on the Salzach river in general, with an emphasis on the town of Laufen, see Karl Zinnburg, Salzschiffer und Schifferschützen von Laufen-Oberndorf, Salzburg 1977 (incorrect in many details: see the review article by Heinz Dopsch, in: Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für Salzburger Landeskunde 118 (1978), p. 382); Franz Heffeter, Die Salzachschiffahrt und die Stadt Laufen, unpubl. PhD thesis, Wien 1980; Koller, Salzachschiffahrt; Hans Roth, Laufen – die Stadt der Salzachschiffahrt. Die bauliche, wirtschaftliche und gesellschaftliche Entwicklung der Stadt als Ergebnis der Monopolstellung im Salzvertrieb – ein Überblick, in: Das Salzfass. Heimatkundliche Zeitschrift des Historischen Vereins Rupertiwinkel 29/1 (1995), pp. 1–24; Hans Roth, Lexikon zur Laufener Salzach-Schiffahrt. Begriffe, Gegenstände, Technik, Organisation und mundartliche Ausdrücke, in: Das Salzfass. Heimatkundliche Zeitschrift des Historischen Vereins Rupertiwinkel 29/1 (1995), pp. 25–64; Heinz Dopsch / Herbert Lämmermeyer, Laufen als Zentrum der Salzschiffahrt, in: Heinz Dopsch / Hans Roth (eds.), Laufen und Oberndorf. 1250 Jahre Geschichte, Wirtschaft und Kultur an beiden Ufern der Salzach, Laufen / Oberndorf 1998, pp. 61–92. For pictures illustrating the salt trade on the Salzach river, see Horst Hieble / Herbert Lämmermeyer / Heinz Schmidbauer, Die Salzachbrücke zwischen Laufen und Oberndorf. Von der ersten Erwähnung eines Salzachüberganges im Jahre 1278 bis zur Gegenwart, Laufen 2003, at pp. 14 s. 21 Joachim Radkau, Holz. Wie ein Naturstoff Geschichte schreibt, München 2007, at p. 21, based on the approach of economist Werner Sombart (1863–1941).

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and Gatzen (large shovels) should help to prevent the accumulation of bed load.22 Rapids and rocks like the aforementioned Nocken in the Salzach river near Laufen posed further dangers. After all, the towpaths on the riverbank had to be regularly maintained for towing upstream; after flooding, they were often so badly affected that their repair took weeks, if not months. The towns and cities on the Lower Salzach and the Lower Inn rivers benefited economically not only from trade along the Salzach river, but also from bridge tolls and transfer money; the latter occurred particularly when a bridge was destroyed or damaged and the wagons had to be transferred on a large ship called Farm. Bridge tolls and transfer money accounted for most of the towns’ and cities’ revenues: in the case of Laufen, the transfer money between October 1508 and June 1509 accounted for more than 255 pounds of pence (Pfund Pfennige), still more than 60 percent of the town’s annual revenues.23 The economic importance of the Salzach and Inn rivers for transportation of the salt extracted from Hallein, Berchtesgaden and Bad Reichenhall and wood from the upper reaches of the Salzach river raises the question of how much economic daily life has been influenced by floods, both small ones and those giving rise to major disasters. In premodern times, people lived by and with the river. The river made it possible for them to survive, and in many cases it led to a certain degree of prosperity. Constantly recurring floods must also have been part of people’s everyday lives. This study explores to which extent, why and how floods were experienced as disasters by the affected people from the thirteenth century onwards. In a next step, larger and smaller floods are examined from the perspective of perception, interpretation, management and memory cultures.

The Flood of 1572 on the Salzach River For the entire Bavarian-Austrian Danube region and its catchment area, severe floods are documented for July 1572, which was the most serious one since the ‘millennium flood’ of 1501. The floods of July 1572 on the Lower Salzach river caused even greater damage than the disastrous event of 1567, five years earlier.24 The bridge across the

22 See Rohr, Extreme Naturereignisse, pp. 319 s. with figures 25–27 on the upper course of the Salzach river in the Pinzgau district. 23 See Hans Roth, Die alte Laufener Salzachbrücke. Das Hochwasser als ständige Gefahr für Brücke und Stadt, in: Das Salzfass. Heimatkundliche Zeitschrift des Historischen Vereins Rupertiwinkel 31/ 1 (1997), pp. 5–32, at pp. 11 s. On the history of the bridge toll in the city of Salzburg, see Thomas Weidenholzer / Guido Müller, Salzburgs alte und neue Brücken über die Salzach, Salzburg 2001, pp. 13 s. 24 On the floods of 1501 and 1567, see Rohr, Extreme Naturereignisse, pp. 235–246.

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Salzach river in Salzburg again was badly destroyed, as the water level was “one man’s length higher” (“umb ein Manns-Läng höher”) than in 1567.25 To commemorate the flood, the Thenn brothers donated a memorial stone, which is now walled in at the Haus der Natur, a Salzburg museum. The objective information reports that it rained continuously from 5 to 8 July; the bridge was destroyed, and thirteen houses and barns were torn away by the floods.26 The restoration work on the bridge lasted for a noticeably long time, during which the butchers’ shops, normally located on the bridge, were moved inside the city walls. Repeatedly, there were complaints about the unpleasant smell in 1573.27 The butchers’ shops were consequently moved again to the so-called Gries in the area of today’s Hanuschplatz square from 1573; they stayed there until the construction of the new Salzach bridge in 1598/1599.28 In Laufen on the Lower Salzach river, the flood of 7 and 8 July 1572 also exceeded that of 1567 by far; the water level was “um acht Werchschuh” (more than two metres) higher than in 1567. As early as 30 June, it had become apparent that the water would rise sharply and the bridge could be carried away. Therefore, three salt ships were pulled onto the bridge, additionally loaded with 32 beer and wine barrels, and tied up with ropes. Filling the barrels with water alone employed 283 people, a fact that illustrates the haste in which this weighting of the bridge was carried out. The planks of the bridge deck were removed to offer the water as little resistance as possible.29 Nevertheless, the bridge was almost completely destroyed a week later: five yokes, around 70 Ennsbäume,30 and all the Streubäume on top (shorter wooden planks) were torn away, as well as the butchers’ shops and the gatehouse. The streets and paths were completely devastated. Fifty houses and barns were also drowned in the floods; parts of the town wall collapsed due to the strong undercutting.31

25 Franz Dückher von Hasslau zu Winckl, Saltzburgische Chronica, Salzburg 1666, repr. Graz 1979, p. 262. 26 For the memorial stone, see Weidenholzer / Müller, Salzburgs Brücken, p. 20, and in more detail Rohr, Extreme Naturereignisse, pp. 390 s. with figure 35. 27 For example, the Mayor of Salzburg Sebastian Althammer complained to the Archbishop’s Chamber in 1573 (Salzburger Landesarchiv, Hofkammer, Salzburg 1580 G). About this dispute, see Weidenholzer / Müller, Salzburgs Brücken, pp. 25 s. 28 See Weidenholzer / Müller, Salzburgs Brücken, p. 27. 29 See Roth, Laufener Salzachbrücke, p. 12; however, without detailed reference to the source. 30 An En(n)sbaum has a particularly long tree trunk of at least 36 feet (about 10.8 metres), which, in contrast to the so-called Rauchbaum, is hewn; it is used as a load-bearing base in wooden structures, especially as a connection between the bridge piers. See Altbayerische Flußlandschaften an Donau, Lech, Isar und Inn. Handgezeichnete Karten des 16. bis 18. Jahrhunderts aus dem Bayerischen Hauptstaatsarchiv. Ausstellung in München, 24. Juni bis 16. August 1998, Weißenhorn 1998, at p. 316. 31 Stadtarchiv Laufen, Az 5972 (petition to the Salzburg State Diet for financial support, 1572): “[. . .] 50 Häuser und Stadel gar hinweckhgerunnen und verwuest, die Pruggen mit 5 Jöchern, daneben Fleischpennkhen, Thorhaus, bey 70 Enspamen samt aller Strey darauf hinweg, auch die Weeg, Lanndtstrassen und Steig zerrissen. [. . .] die Stadtmauer, welche 10 Claffter lang, 4½ Schuech Tickh, in die

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With the destruction of the bridge, the water supply, which had led to the town from the Brunnenturm on the right side of the Salzach river since 1540, was interrupted, as in 1567.32 The interruption of the water supply was made even more precarious by the fact that at least 150 pieces of well pipe (Deicheln) made of pine wood, which were stored in a pond, were washed away by the flood from their storage place. Due to the extremely high water level, the entire upper town moat was filled so that a large ship could have been passed through. As in 1567, numerous springs in the town centre were devastated in 1572; the city’s Brunnenturm was so badly affected that makeshift retaining walls and repairs to the pump station did not promise any improvement in the long term. The bottom of the bridge leading over the moat to the upper gate was also washed away and damaged so much that it was no longer possible to provide the town with food in this way.33 The archiepiscopal government in Salzburg therefore ordered that the bridge over the town moat had to be repaired immediately. However, negotiations about the urgently needed reconstruction of a Brunnenturm dragged on until 1583, not least because the town had been heavily in debt since 1572. When the town of Laufen applied for an immediate loan to repair the damage to public buildings and bridges, this was calculated at 3,730–4,000 guilders, the destruction of private houses not yet included. The Salzburg State Diet initially granted 1,200 guilders, and additional advance payments later on. The extent to which the town’s economic performance was affected after 1572 is shown by the fact that nine years later, just 300 guilders of the loan sum were repaid.34 The clean-up and repair work were generally difficult. First, an attempt was made to secure as much as possible of the bridge wood torn downstream. On the day when the bridge was torn away (7 July 1572), a messenger was sent to Tittmoning and Wildshut so that the local authorities would prohibit the peasants from taking the washed

hech 1½ Claffter, eingefallen, auch zwei Arckher underwaschen.” Quoted in Roth, Laufener Salzachbrücke, p. 13. 32 Laufen, Stadtarchiv, Az 5977, and Hans Roth, Schicksalsschläge der Stadt und ihrer Vororte Überschwemmungen, Brände, Seuchen und kriegerische Ereignisse, in: Heinz Dopsch / Hans Roth (eds.), Laufen und Oberndorf. 1250 Jahre Geschichte, Wirtschaft und Kultur an beiden Ufern der Salzach, Laufen / Oberndorf 1998, pp. 169–179, at p. 169. 33 See Stadtarchiv Laufen, Az 5972 (petition to the Salzburg State Diet for financial support, 1572): “Daneben ist die Salzach im obern Stadtgraben dermaßen durchaus gerunnen, das man mit ainem grossen Schef [a large river ship] darinn woll hett faren mugen [. . .] Dazue die ober Pruggen undterwaschen, auch das Ertrich [soil of the city moat] abweg geflezt, daß halbe Pruggen eingangen, also daß weder Roß noch Wagen von hier aus noch alher mag, dadurch uns die Narung sambt andern gewerbe und sonderlich dem armen Schefmann sein Arbeit gespert ist.” Quoted in Roth, Laufener Salzachbrücke, pp. 12 s.; id., Schicksalsschläge, p. 169. 34 Stadtarchiv Laufen, Az 5983. See in detail Hans Roth, Die Anfänge der Laufener Wasserversorgung. Der Bau einer Wasserleitung von Oberndorf in die Stadt im Jahr 1540 und die Zeit bis 1600, in: Das Salzfass. Heimatkundliche Zeitschrift des Historischen Vereins Rupertiwinkel 30/2 (1996), pp. 81–104, at p. 94; Roth, Laufener Salzachbrücke, p. 13.

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up timber and other goods floating in the river. The following day, the district judge of Tittmoning agreed to support the inhabitants of Laufen in this respect.35 Finally, two bridge yokes were recaptured, which were brought back to Laufen for the impressive amount of 52 guilders.36 In order to clean the completely devastated surroundings of Laufen and to clear the town itself of rubble, gravel, sand and mud, a total of 606 workers, mostly peasants from the vicinity of the town, were required to perform socage services for almost three weeks. For the construction of the bridge, it was initially necessary to procure suitable wood, which turned out to be extremely difficult after the flooding, because there had been several floods in previous years. Solidarity could not be taken for granted if it was not ordered by the authorities. The abbot of the nearby monastery of Michaelbeuern, for instance, refused to donate or sell wood for the reconstruction of the bridge. However, the pastor of Reichersdorf (today part of the Bavarian municipality of Petting) provided wagons and servants for the new bridge.37 While rebuilding the bridge, one problem followed after another. First, the bridge builder, Andreas Egghardt(en) from Burghausen, did not appear in the town despite mediation by the Archbishop of Salzburg himself and despite repeated requests from the inhabitants of Laufen, although he had been guaranteed a high level salary. When he finally worked on the bridge from November 1572, he continued to offer his clients cause for criticism because of the slow progress of the work. In January 1573, an ice jam destroyed part of the bridge which had already been completed.38 A part of the scaffold called Hengst (stallion), which was built on a ship, was also pushed away by the ice floes and, despite great efforts, could not be saved. Further floods after Easter and in July 1573 also affected the half-finished bridge, so that work could only be brought to an end in May 1574.39 However, the new bridge did not last long either: parts of it were destroyed again in 1578 during the next heavy flood. The extent to which the destructive floods of 1572 impacted on economic life is also shown by the number of salt ships which passed through the dangerous hairpin bend of the Salzach river near Laufen: while in normal years between 2,500 and 3,300 ships passed the site, only 1,553 did in 1572. In addition, 28 ships sank at the Altach landing stage opposite of Laufen. In quiet years, one or two ships may have been damaged in traffic.40

35 Stadtarchiv Laufen, Az 6901. 36 Stadtarchiv Laufen, Az 7753. See Roth, Laufener Salzachbrücke, p. 13. 37 Stadtarchiv Laufen, Az 5972. See on this source Roth, Laufener Salzachbrücke, pp. 13 s.; id., Schicksalsschläge, p. 170. 38 On the ice flood of 1573 in the catchment area of the Danube river, see in detail Rohr, Extreme Naturereignisse, pp. 332–336; id., Floods of the Upper Danube River, pp. 136–139. 39 See id., Laufener Salzachbrücke, pp. 14–16; however, without detailed reference to the source. 40 Koller, Salzachschiffahrt, pp. 21–23 with Table 2. See also above p. [XX].

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The Flood of 1598 on the Salzach River The last severe flood of the sixteenth century occurred in mid-August 1598 and mainly affected the Danube river and its tributaries in what is now Austria, but also Bohemia and Central Germany. The availability of sources is excellent, since detailed reports in chronicles and archival documents deriving from economic administration are preserved for all major rivers.41 Rainfall in the mountains – for example, in the upper reaches of the Salzach river – had the most immediate effect, as the tributaries there swelled rapidly without warning. The damage caused by the floods was also enormous in the city of Salzburg. An anonymous chronicle on the era of Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau (1587–1612), written by an eyewitness from Salzburg, contains a very illustrative report: “Eben in diesem  Jar am Tag Maria Himelvardt hueb es an so starckh zu regen [!] und weret zwee tag aneinander, darauss ein überauss grosse Wassergiss angeloffen, das yberall in ganzen Landt grossen Schaden gethann und über die Bruckhn weidt gieng. Namb auch alle Brueckhen am ganzen Stramb hinwekh und zu Lauffen den hilzen Ganng wo man zu der Pfarkyrchen hinauf gieng, auch undder Bruckhen vast alle Heisser und Stätl, dessgleichen auch zu Burckhausen. Es runen an der Salzach vill Heisser und Stadl herab unnd soviel Holz von Hällä [Hallein] und Schelnperg ein ganzen Tag, das ein Stockh an dem andern floss ohne das schär Holz, das unndern Wasser gieng, das ein Hundt darüber lauffen het können. Es war erbärmlich zu sehen, dass es vill schenner Gärten umb die Stat zerriss, dass einem niemernd solt gelusten an das Wasser zu pauen.”

“In this year of [] on the Day of the Ascension of the Virgin Mary [ August] it began to rain so heavily and for two days that it resulted in a high flood, which brought severe damage to the whole territory and reached much higher than the level of the bridges. It swept away all bridges along the entire river, and in the town of Laufen also the wooden stairway up to the parish church, and in addition nearly all houses and stables under the bridge; the same was true for the city of Burghausen. On the Salzach river, numerous buildings and barns as well as driftwood from Hallein and Schellenberg ran downstream. One trunk beside another drifted downstream and in addition smaller wood parts under the water surface, so that a dog would have been able to cross the river. What a miserable view that many beautiful gardens around the city centre were destroyed. Nobody should consider building close to the water.”

The report thus begins objectively with the date of the flood. It rained for two days in Salzburg – significantly less than in the upper Pinzgau, for example, where the

41 For detail on the Eastern Alps as well as on the Bavarian and Austrian foothills, see Rohr, Extreme Naturereignisse, pp. 257–273; for Bohemia, see Brázdil et al., History of Weather and Climate, pp. 208–212, 355–357 (English summary). 42 The anonymous report is preserved in the manuscript Salzburg, Stiftsbibliothek Nonnberg, II, 25 Cb and is edited with annotations by Wilfried Keplinger, Eine unveröffentlichte Chronik über die Regierung Erzbischof Wolf Dietrichs, in: Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für Salzburger Landeskunde 95 (1955), pp. 67–91, at p. 74 for the quote. Translation by Christian Rohr.

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rains continued from 14 to 17 August. The over-irrigation was thus mainly limited to the inner Alpine region, but this was enough to cause the water level of the Salzach river to swell to extreme heights in Salzburg, Laufen and Burghausen. The wooden bridge in Salzburg was not only flooded, but, like all other Salzach bridges, torn away. The main reason for this was the huge amount of driftwood that had broken through after the wooden rake (Rechen) near Hallein had been destroyed, as well as the wood supplies that were already ashore and washed away, which were needed in the salterns of Hallein and Schellenberg. In addition to the Salzach bridge, the driftwood damaged and in some cases even crushed (“hingefletschet”) numerous houses, as the contemporary chronicler Johann Stainhauser from Salzburg reports.43 The water stood so high in the streets of Hallein and Salzburg that the people could go there by boat.44 Transfer from one bank of the Salzach river to the other was carried out by ferry boats for several days.45 The year 1598 was disastrous for the city of Salzburg in general, because after the August flood, another flood followed in October, which again destroyed the makeshift pedestrian bridges.46 In addition, on 11 December 1598, a major fire destroyed numerous buildings in Salzburg city centre, including the towers of the Romanesque cathedral. This rendered both the necessity and the space for an urban reorientation, which was to shape the early Baroque cityscape still typical in the following decades. Prince-Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau (1587–1612), who was also personally interested in hydraulic engineering, played a central role in this planning. The bridge was rebuilt in several phases. First, a makeshift wooden emergency bridge was built in 1599. In 1608, the construction of a representative stone bridge began, somewhat downstream of the previous wooden bridge, but only one pillar was completed, particularly since Wolf Dietrich was deposed in 1612. His

43 Johann Stainhauser, Das Leben, Regierung und Wandel des Hochwürdigisten in Gott Fürsten und Herrn Wolff Dietrichen, gewesten Erzbischoven zu Salzburg &c. &c. (ed. Willibald Hauthaler), in: Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für Salzburger Landeskunde 13 (1873), pp. 3–140, at p. 56, c. 61 on the year 1598: “In disem 1598 Jahr, den 15, 16 und 17. Manatstag Augusti, ist wegen des stätten unaufhörlichen Regenwetters allhie zu Salzburg die Salzach dermassen angeloffen, daß es die Prugken und die Jöcher, auch das Werch beim Bern und die Trait-Cästen daselbsten, wie auch den Lamberger Garten und etlich Heüser enthalb der Pruggen, sowo auch bei den Kumpfmüllthor Heüser und Stadl zerrüssen und zum Thail gar hingefletschet hat, wie es dann auch zum Hällein den Rechen zerbrochen und unsaglich vil Holz abweck geschwummen, also dick, daß ohne Schaden ainer aufn Holz droben gesessen etliche Meil gerunnen wär.” 44 Dückher, Saltzburgische Chronica, p. 276. 45 Stainhauser, Leben, Regierung und Wandel, p. 57, c. 62 on the year 1598. 46 Ibid., pp. 56 s., c. 61 on the year 1598: “Und da man gleich etliche Steg, Prüggen und dergleichen wider gemacht, oder das Holz darzue berait und gebracht, ist über etliche Tag wider ein grosser Gewässer angefallen, hat die neu gemachten Steg sambt den beraiten und geprachten Prugk- und Worrholz alles abweckgenomen und hat solcher Güssen das Erzstift und Statt Salzburg dar umb vil tausent Florin [guilders] Schaden genommen.”

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successor Markus Sittikus (IV.) von Hohenems (1612–1619) let the bridge pillar pull down and build a covered wooden bridge at the same place.47 Finally, the anonymous chronicle from Salzburg cited above also addresses Wolf Dietrich’s plan to change the cityscape in the area between today’s Griesgasse and the Salzach river, which resulted from the floods of 1598: “Als nun dye Bruckhen sambt den Fleischpenckhen unnd Kramerläden abprochen, muest die gemeine Stat dye  Fleischpenkh neben der Stadtmaur bauen. Dyeweil dye Güss den schönen Lamperger unnd Spitallgarten zerreissen, machet er dem Plaz alles freye Straßen auf dye Gstetten unnd sezet gryene Velperbaum darein. Auch ordnet er den Vischmarckt dahin, muess auch gemaine Stat ein schöne Prunstuben dahin machen. Er ordnet auch, dass man kundt auf der Seiten neben den Waser vom Clausenthor bis zum Kumpfmilthor einen Gangsteug gehen, welches vor nicht gewessen war.”

“When the bridge had been destroyed with all the butchers’ and other merchants’ shops located on it, the city was forced to rebuild the butchers’ shops close to the city walls. As the flood had also flushed away the beautiful Lamberg and hospital gardens, he [the Archbishop] ordered a free square to be built with roads on the Gstetten area and willows to be planted. In addition, the fish market should be located in this area, and the city officials should erect a beautiful water chamber there. Furthermore, he ordered a footbridge to be erected close to the river from the Klausentor gate to the Kumpfmühltor gate, which had not existed before.”

The two large gardens close to the Salzach river, the Lamberggarten and the Bürgerspitalgarten, had obviously been devastated by mud and debris as a result of the flooding in 1598, so that no more maintenance was being thought of. The Lamberggarten, which had been property of the Lamberg family since 1567, had been left in the condition that it remained undeveloped and unprotected against flooding. Since the Lamberg family showed little initiative in clearing the damage, Wolf Dietrich saw the property as having returned to the archbishop. He had the garden cleaned, replanted it and erected a new protective wall set back from the banks of the Salzach river.49 Behind this garden, the Griesgasse emerged as a broad connection between the new square (today’s Hanuschplatz) and the Bürgerspital; the area between Griesgasse and Salzach river was finally used to construct houses in the first third of the seventeenth century after the trees had been cleared.50 To sum up, the devastating 47 On the different projects to rebuild the bridge after 1598, see in detail Rohr, Extreme Naturereignisse, pp. 261–265. 48 Anonymous, Chronik über die Regierung Erzbischof Wolf Dietrichs, pp. 80 s. Translation by Christian Rohr. 49 See Rohr, Extreme Naturereignisse, p. 266 with colour Table 7a (copperplate print by Franz Hogenberg, 1581) and colour Table 7b (city prospect of 1635/1657, [by Daniel Miller?], Salzburg, Erzabtei St. Peter, Kunstsammlungen, Inv.-Nr. M 814). 50 Stainhauser, Leben, Regierung und Wandel, p. 58, c. 63 on the year 1598: “Es haben auch ihr hochfürstliche Genaden den Lamberger-Garten, der zuvor vil schonne Obstpaumb gehabt, an sich gebracht, die selben Paumb, was die Güß nit von der Wurzel ausgerissen, umbhauen, die Stock ausgraben und in

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flood of 1598 in the city of Salzburg also constituted a restart in urban planning, both in terms of the bridge(s) over the Salzach river and the area of the former Lamberg and Bürgerspital gardens. In Laufen, the entire town centre was affected between 15 and 17 August 1598, although it was elevated and located on the inside of the river loop. The water level exceeded that of 1572 again by “4 Werckschuh”, as could be formerly read by the flood mark at the Umgeherturm. The bridge was badly destroyed again: four yokes were completely demolished and the other four broke. Since all three ship mills had perished, there was also a lack of bread in the town. The entire town moat was so high under water that the access bridge to the upper gate was badly damaged, as in 1572. The wooden passage up to the parish church was also torn away.51 Most damages, however, were recorded on the outside of the Salzach river loop in the quarter of Altach (today belonging to the community of Oberndorf). All houses in the area of the shipping pier were destroyed, and in Oberndorf, the village opposite Laufen on the right riverbank, just nine houses out of 113 remained.52 Living conditions in Laufen were obviously catastrophic after the floods receded. Most of the residents were impoverished by the damage they suffered, numerous people were left homeless and unable to find accommodation, and the town itself lacked firewood.53 In principle, the clean-up work was carried out according to the same pattern and with the same problems as in 1572. First, attempts were made to find as many of the bridge parts as possible that were washed up in the communities located downstream. Subjects, primarily peasants from the Tittmoning and Lebenau districts, were put to clean-up work, especially for the removal of gravel, sand and sludge deposits. One reason that the construction of the new bridge was difficult was because the bridge builders from Braunau and Hallein were needed there. Even the big mallet (Schlögel) and hoist (Radzug) for driving in the wooden bridge piers, which they wanted to borrow from Hallein, were only given to the people of Laufen

die dreihundert ander kainnuze Paumb, als Eschen, Alber und dergleichen zeilweis eingraben lassen der Ursachen, wann solche erwachsen und in die Erde einwurzlen, sie gleichsamb vor dergleichen Gewässern der Statt ainen Schuz halten sollen.” 51 Anonymous, Chronik über die Regierung Erzbischof Wolf Dietrichs, p. 74 (see full quote in the main text above). Heavy damage in Laufen is also testified by Stainhauser, Leben, Regierung und Wandel, pp. 56 s., c. 61, for the year 1598. 52 Stadtarchiv Laufen, Az 6901 (report directed at Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau, 20 August 1598): “Auf der rechten Seite gegen den Perg [in the Altach quarter situated on the other side of the river] hat es alle Häuser samt dem Salzgeschirrgaden [a large wooden building, in which the tools necessary for salt shipping were stored], auch der Bürgerschaft gemaine Einlag ganzes Meistersalz ausgeschitt, im Oberndorf nur 9 Häuser stehen lassen, auch die Stadtmauer und im Pfarrhof in zimlich lenng die seitten Mauer [. . .] [damaged].” Quoted in Roth, Laufener Salzachbrücke, p. 17. 53 Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv München, Hochstift Salzburg, Hofkammer 4330. See Roth, Laufener Salzachbrücke, p. 18.

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after a waiting period of several weeks.54 Finally, in November 1598, the bridge was largely repaired again. With extreme effort, the worst damage was eliminated within three months. However, in spring 1599, another flood caused severe damage: a hundred houses are said to have been washed away in Laufen and Oberndorf.55 The total damage to the territory of the Archbishop of Salzburg was estimated at 300,000 guilders; the costs in the judicial district of Laufen alone was around 50,000 guilders.56 In the estuary of the Salzach river and the lower Inn valley, the damage caused by the flood was no less devastating. From a statement of the Churbavarian chamber (Hofkammer) dated 26 August 1598, which builds on the report of the responsible Rentmeister from Burghausen,57 it appears that there was great damage to the bridges, the toll and counter clerk’s house, and other places; any ferry services (“uhrfahr”) had to be stopped. In addition, the big storage building (Bruckstadel) and the stock stored in it, most importantly timber for quick reconstruction of the bridge, was completely destroyed. The report blames the losses in the Bruckstadel on the toll officer (Mautner), who had not undertaken evacuation measures at the right time due to his lazy behaviour (“unfleiß”).58 In the city of Burghausen itself, many houses were flooded up to the roof, for example, in the Schiffergasse. Numerous people and animals were drowned, and the salt stored in the municipal community hall (Tanzhaus) perished. Even the town

54 See in detail ibid. 55 Felix Guetrater, Hausß-Buech 1596–1634, ed. by Franz Martin, in: Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für Salzburger Landeskunde 88/89 (1948/1949), pp. 9–45, at p. 11 on the year 1599: “Umb dise Zeit [in spring 1599?] war die grosse Giss auf der Salza, welche zue Lauffen, im Oberdorf und Alta über 100 Häuser weckgetragen und eingeworffen.” We have to ask, however, whether the information about the houses that have been swept away is rather related to the flood of 1598. The wording “around this time” is interpreted somewhat further in annals and chronicles; otherwise, the meaning is that many people still lived in emergency quarters at the time, such as wooden barracks, which were seized by the floods in 1599. On this record, see Rohr, Extreme Naturereignisse, p. 268 with note 214, and referring to older literature as well. 56 Roth, Laufener Salzachbrücke, p. 18; id., Schicksalsschläge, p. 170; however, without reference to the source. 57 The so-called Rentamt acted as a middle-level financial and judicial authority. The director of this institution, the Rentmeister, among other things, did not only control the moral and religious life in the countryside during his annual inspection trips, but also the administration of the lower officials, such as the reeve (Pfleger), judge (Richter), granger (Kastner), toll officer (Mautner) and forester (Förster). For this purpose, he carried out surveys, checked official books and invoices and, especially when there were problems with roads and water protection structures, carried out local inspections. See in detail Anna Gugerbauer / Ernst Dürr, Vom Zorn des Inn. Hochwasserkatastrophen in Schärding und den bayerischen Nachbargemeinden, Wernstein 1999, at pp. 41–44. 58 Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv München, Kurbayern Hofkammer 135, fol. 178v: “Das(s) aber durch solche güß auch der Pruggstadl sambt allem darinn gewestem Vorrath erhebt und ver(r)unnen tragen wir ab sein Mautners dißfalls gebrauchtem unfleiß, das(s) er nit besser zuegesehen und den Stadl mit hefften und dergleichen (wie hiervor mehrmale geschechen) versorgt ein sonders missfallen.” Gugerbauer / Dürr, Zorn des Inn, p. 41.

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hall had to be bolstered to keep it from collapsing. The damage to the city was estimated at almost 60,000 guilders. The clean-up took about two months: above all, mud had to be removed from the houses. Peasants from the adjacent judicial districts had to help remove the sludge, with the immediate clean-up lasting just under two months until Saint Gall’s Day (16 October). The bridge with the butchers’ shops was completely torn away and had to be rebuilt from scratch; a cable ferry to the other side of the Salzach river was installed while no other river crossing was possible.59 The dimensions of the catastrophe also become clear by the fact that the surviving flood marks in Raitenhaslach, in Burghausen and at the Wassertor in Schärding begin in 1598, and the entries for 1598 are the highest of all.60

Swamping of Flat Alpine Valleys: The Case of the Upper Salzach River In the long run, the severe flooding was perhaps less devastating for the region’s economic basis than the progressing swamping of large agricultural areas. Especially in flat, wide valley landscapes, rivers tend to meander, e.g., when brooks flow out of the side valleys and with their gravel deposits push the river to the other side of the valley. This reduces the river’s velocity, so that in the event of flooding, the floods leave the region only slowly and spread across the entire flat valley. If such floods occurred several times a year, the soil could no longer dry out without artificially draining the water. In the damp valleys, mosses spread widely so that they were no longer suitable for landscape use, neither for grain cultivation nor grass and pasture management. Roads and paths often remained impassable for weeks. Finally, these wetlands were a breeding ground for numerous insect species, which in turn ensured the spread of the notorious swamp fever. In the long term, therefore, people only had the options of migration, which for subjects in the feudal system was only possible with explicit consent of the landlord, or drainage by the existing means of hydraulic engineering. In the Prince-Archbishopric of Salzburg, the Upper Pinzgau between Krimml and Kaprun, as well as the upper reaches of the Enns river in the Pongau and the upper reaches of the Mur river in the Lungau, had been particularly affected by swamping since the Late Middle Ages.61 With every major thunderstorm, the Alpine

59 Johann Georg Bonifaz Huber, Geschichte der Stadt Burghausen in Oberbayern. Aus urkundlichen und andern Quellen bearbeitet, Burghausen 1862, repr. 1993, at p. 213. 60 Rohr, Extreme Naturereignisse, pp. 90 s., 269. 61 For the Pinzgau in preindustrial times, see the detailed hydrological-orographical study Josef R. Lorenz, Vergleichende orographisch-hydrographische Untersuchung der Versumpfungen in den oberen Flußthälern der Salzach, der Enns und der Mur, oder im Pinzgau, Pongau und Lungau,

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tributaries of the Salzach river pushed more gravel into the flat Salzach valley, so that the course of the Salzach river itself was dammed up and meandered more and more. In the village of Bramberg, for example, the Salzach river was pushed to the north side of the valley by debris of the Habach, a brook coming from the south, and to the south side by two other brooks, the Weierbachl and the Mühlbach. In the village of Hollersbach, the Salzach river finally turned back to the north side through the confluence of a brook also named Hollersbach. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, verifiable countermeasures began, which consisted of clearing and deepening the Salzach riverbed and straightening the side brooks in order to keep the bed load as low as possible. Prince-Archbishop Matthäus Lang von Wellenburg (1519–1540) therefore straightened the Kapruner Bach brook in 1520.62 However, hydraulic engineering measures were subsequently restricted to the area between Kaprun, Zell am See, and Bruck, while the rest of the Upper Pinzgau was rather neglected and swamping progressed steadily. The local peasants therefore resorted to self-help and corrected the riverbed of the Salzach river in the section from Bramberg-Steinach to Mühlbach at their own expense.63 In 1583, they complained to Prince-Archbishop Johann Jakob Kuen von Belasy (1560–1586) that the river constantly, i.e. several times a year, burst its banks in the Bramberg area, so that the meadows were under water and the hay in the barns spoiled because the peasants had no access to it. Since the meadows were always damp and covered with mud, the peasants were no longer able to drive the cattle to pasture. As a result, they could no longer pay the requested levies.64 A commission set up by the archiepiscopal government finally conducted a local inspection on 30 August 1583 consisting of Wolf Pramberger, the local reeve (Pfleger), who held

in: Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, mathematischnaturwissenschaftliche Klasse 26 (1857), pp. 91–151, at pp. 105–133 (on swamping and gravel deposit in the Pinzgau), pp. 133–143 (Pongau) and pp. 143–151 (Lungau). 62 Rohr, Extreme Naturereignisse, p. 350, based on older regional literature such as Josef Lahnsteiner, Chronik des Pinzgaus, vol. 2: Unterpinzgau. Zell am See, Taxenbach, Rauris, geschichtlich und heimatkundlich beschrieben, Hollersbach 1960, at pp. 148 s. 63 See Rohr, Extreme Naturereignisse, pp. 350, 365–368 (further examples from the same region). 64 Salzburger Landesarchiv, Hofkammer, Mittersill 1583: “Die Nachbarschafften der vier Doerffer, Praemberg, Weixldorf, Wenns und Puechl, auch Besizer und Innhaber der Guetter Stainach, Schuett, Schiltern und etlicher anderer ledigen Grundtstuckh, in Praemberger Pfarr, und Mittersiller Gericht, langen Supplicando underthenigist an: [. . .] Daß Sie neben dem erhoechten Salzachfurt, zweischen vorgemeldten Doerffern, beederseits, Ire Gruendt und Poeden Heten, und das Inen in den Wasserguessen, die sich im Jar mermallen zuetragen, durch den Oberlauf des Wassers, nit allain das liebe Getraidt, Graß, Heu und andere fruecht, vederbt und hingerennt, sonndern auch bemelte Gruentt und Poeden ausgewaessert und ertrenckht. Also das die Paugruent zu Wißmaedern, und die wisen zu versetznen Moesern, Darneben die Landtstraß, Weeg und Steeg verderbt und zerrissen werden, derohalben sy Ire traidtdiennst und Narung nit mer erbawe, das Waßser auf dem erhoechten furt nit erhalten, und in sollichem Gewaesser die Pluemb mit Ihrem vich nit besuechen moechten. Mit underthenigsten biten, Dieweill Irem grossen schaden, und verderben, mit Uberlegung des Achfurts [= Salzach river]

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office in the small town of Mittersill, the Kellner65 Melchior Welser, and the judicial clerk (Gerichtsschreiber) Caspar Vogl from Zell. They stated that the sinuosity of the Salzach river was also responsible for flooding the country road so that neither humans nor cattle could get through. The straightening, which was decided in 1585, finally was carried out by the local farmers in Bramberg themselves, but the archiepiscopal officials obviously promoted the initiative.66 Further downstream to the east, the Salzach valley creates a basin between Kaprun and Bruck, which is traversed by the Salzach river in a west-east direction on its south side. Separated only by meadows, Lake Zell forms the north end of the basin; it is drained by only a narrow channel to the Salzach river. In the event of floods, there was always the risk in pre-industrial times that the Salzach river would break through to Lake Zell and further north to the Saalach river. Flooding the meadows of the basin had two consequences: swamping of the whole area and dangerously raising the water level of the lake. A particular risk of swamping was seen in the area of Bruck. There the Salzach valley and the basin around Lake Zell, respectively, are narrowed by the gravel and sand masses that the Fuscher Ache brook deposited in the Salzach valley over thousands of years. In addition, some rocky ridges extend into the valley, so that the runoff of the Salzach river is massively inhibited. Due to the frequent congestion of the Salzach river in the Bruck area, the land once used for cereal cultivation became more and more mossy in the Late Middle Ages and in the Early Modern period. As a result, land for agriculture not only was used significantly reduced, but also the socalled ‘Pinzgau swamp fever’ increased, also referred to as ‘Bruck fever’. From around 1500, there were plans to dry out the swamps in the Bruck area. In 1519, an archiepiscopal commission led by the archiepiscopal lord steward (Hofmarschall) Wiguleus von Thurn and two masters specialized in hydraulic engineering travelled to Zell for a local inspection. They stated that the Salzach river between Piesendorf (at the western end of the basin) and Kaprun was spreading considerably

geholffen, und die vorberuert Salzachen, ainer gericht, tief und Saiger nach, durch Ire maisten thails versessene moesserige gruendt ainen bessern und vill naecheren furt, und Rinsal gefuert, die wasserwehren abgekhuerzt, und dardurch das junge Holz zum Thail erspart werden moechte. Inen sollich Neuwerckh, auf Iren aignen Kosten anzurichten.” Füge Leerschlag vor “See” ein See Hans Hönigschmid, Bramberg am Wildkogel, 2 vols. Bramberg 1993, at vol. 1, pp. 30 s.; Bernhard Eder, Historische Entwicklung der Salzach einschließlich der baulichen Maßnahmen: Erstellung eines visionären Leitbildes, techn. Master thesis TU Wien, Wien 1998, pp. 41 s. with a sketch of the straightening implemented in 1583/85. 65 Kellner: administrator of the archiepiscopal chamber, who had similar tasks in the rural area as a reeve. 66 See Rohr, Extreme Naturereignisse, p. 366, based on Josef Lahnsteiner, Chronik des Pinzgaus, vol. 1: Der Oberpinzgau von Krimml bis Kaprun. Eine Sammlung geschichtlicher, kunsthistorischer und heimatkundlicher Notizen für die Freunde der Heimat, Hollersbach 1956, 31980, at pp. 326 s. [pages according to the first edition of 1956].

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(due to the meandering during high water) and then running down the moss near Bruck. The mossy meadows would have to be drained by a new ditch, protected by numerous weirs, which was four fathoms wide, two fathoms deep and 2,500 fathoms long.67 The cost of this project was estimated to be at least 2,000 guilders. The surrounding communities also agreed to make a larger contribution (“ain zimbliche Hillf”) to the construction of the drainage ditch, and even the reeve of Mittersill in the Upper Pinzgau agreed to help. He had an interest in the drainage of the Brucker Moos area because a few years earlier he had also contributed to the construction of the road through the Taxenbach forest some kilometres east; this connection through the central Salzach valley only made sense if the way through the Brucker Moos was clear as well.68 To what extent the drainage work was carried out in the Brucker Moos is not known. Only the straightening of the Kapruner Bach brook in 1520 by Hans Diether, reeve of Kaprun, is proved by the sources.69 In any case, the measures were not really sufficient. From Walchen west of Piesendorf to the confluence of the Fuscher Ache and the Salzach river, the Salzach river continued to meander heavily and thus spread quickly to the Brucker Moos with every flood. Under the elected PrinceArchbishop Ernst von Bayern (1540–1554), straightening of the Salzach river was started.70 Since the planned straightening of the water course did not progress or did not achieve the desired success, a commission finally proposed in 1566 to build a new ditch for the Salzach river, and was to stretch from Walchen to Bruck so as to drain the area between Piesendorf, Kaprun and Bruck, which was to be two fathoms wide and 4,470 fathoms long.71 Already at that time it was recognized that this narrow ditch would be of no use in the event of a flood and that the Salzach river would rather break through northwards to Lake Zell in such an event.72 After the devastating flood of 1567, the workers quickly began to dig a 4,000 fathom (7,200 metres) ditch under the supervision of the reeve Virgil Diether. Originally, two trenches running in parallel were planned. Archbishop Johann Jakob Kuen von Belasy contributed 4,200 guilders for the construction, the judicial districts of Zell, Taxenbach and Saalfelden each between 200 and 300 guilders. The

67 This is equivalent to approximately 7.2 metres width, 3.6 metres depth and 4,500 metres length. 68 Salzburger Landesarchiv, Hofkammer, Kaprun 1519 M. See in detail also Lahnsteiner, Chronik des Pinzgaus, vol. 2, pp. 148 s. 69 Lahnsteiner, Chronik des Pinzgaus, vol. 1, p. 20; however, without quoting his sources. 70 Ibid. 71 This is equivalent to approximately 3.6 metres width and 8,046 metres length. 72 Salzburger Landesarchiv, Hofkammer, Kaprun 1566. See also Lahnsteiner, Chronik des Pinzgaus, vol. 2, p. 149.

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residents were ordered to maintain the riverbank structures and weirs.73 In addition, ponding of the basin and the breakthrough of the Salzach river to Lake Zell should be prevented by a dam north of the Salzach river, the Ferchwasen, which reached from Aufhausen to Bruck. Behind it, the country road should also be raised to form a second dam; this gave it the name Hochstraße (literally: high street). The work was conducted by Caspar Panicher, district judge (Landrichter) from Zell, and cost 4,876 guilders.74 Nevertheless, the Salzach river broke through to Lake Zell five times between 1598 and 1736. After the great flood of 1598, which also caused the level of the lake to rise dramatically because of the Salzach river breakthrough,75 several commissions from the archiepiscopal government advised how such catastrophes could be prevented in the future. They found that the dams were far too weak and too low; an increase by about three feet in height and a widening by four to five feet would be necessary. In addition, the Salzach river should be deepened east of Bruck to ensure better drainage of the water from the basin, not least because the Fuscher Ache changed its riverbed near the confluence again and deposited large stones and gravel banks.76 Marshiness in the upper Salzach valley, especially in the area of the communities of Bramberg, Mittersill, Stuhlfelden and Kaprun, was only effectively stopped in the first half of the nineteenth century, when the former territory of the Archbishops of Salzburg was already under Austrian rule and extensive corrections to the Salzach river and its tributaries remedied the situation.77

Cultures of Flood Management In addition, we have to ask about the perception and management of ‘ordinary floods’, i.e. those that occur frequently, because they constituted riverine ‘normality’. In most cases, these events are not recorded in annals or chronicles, because the affected people did not deem to be worth mentioning. Such events can only be reconstructed from economic sources, such as a series of municipal accounts.

73 Salzburger Landesarchiv, Hofkammer, Kaprun 1567. See also Lahnsteiner, Chronik des Pinzgaus, vol. 2, p. 149. 74 Lahnsteiner, Chronik des Pinzgaus vol. 1, p. 20; however, without quoting his sources. Most of the 4,876 guilders were raised by the archiepiscopal treasury (4,176 guilders); the community of Zell-Kaprun paid 300 guilders, the communities of Lichtenberg-Taxenbach and Saalfelden 200 guilders each. 75 See in detail Rohr, Extreme Naturereignisse, p. 259. 76 Salzburger Landesarchiv, Hofkammer, Kaprun 1598 and 1600. 77 See in detail Lahnsteiner, Chronik des Pinzgaus, vol. 1, pp. 20–22.

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Wels, a city with Roman origins, is situated by the Traun river. Close to Wels, the river widely branches out, an ideal place for a bridge, as a copperplate print by Matthaeus Merian from 1649 shows (Figure 1). As the capital of the Roman province Noricum Ripense, Wels (Ovilava) had been a flourishing civitas in the Roman period.78 Nevertheless, flooding was always a major problem. The first settlement here was severely damaged in the mid-second century. Little is known about the decline of the Roman settlement during the fifth century, although the city is mentioned in the famous Tabula Peutingeriana with its Latin name of Ovilava (Ouilia) and in early Christian epigraphical sources from around 400. It is, however, remarkable that there is no mention in the Vita Sancti Severini of 511, which describes the history of the province throughout the 460s to 480s. There is also no archaeological evidence of fire or invasions.79 One conclusion, which might be offered is that floods were responsible, at least in part, for the decline of the city in the fifth century. Hardly any trace remains of the Roman city walls adjacent to the river, and the loss of this section would have left the inhabitants defenceless.80 The medieval settlement was constructed further away from the river and dates to at least the ninth century.81 A bridge across the Traun river had existed in Roman times, while the earliest mention of the medieval bridge dates from the twelfth century.82 The 600 metre long bridge did not change its appearance significantly between the fourteenth and the nineteenth centuries. Rafts and large stockpiles of timber are shown in the centre. The shops of the butchers (fleischpenckh) are located on the bridge near the town gate. To the right of the bridge, situated on a gravel bank, stands the barn (bruckstadel). Along the riverside, protective wooden structures (schlachten) are intended to fortify the gravel banks. Within the river (left from the bridge and on the right near the city) wooden weirs (wuer) are erected to catch the driftwood. In 1899, the last wooden bridge was destroyed by a flood and was later replaced by a stone and iron construction. A great deal of information on floods along the Traun river can be gained from charters, of which six survived dating from 1352 to 1469. Among the privileges granted to the citizens of Wels by the Habsburg dukes of Austria were several designed to prevent damage from floods and to accelerate repairs.83 These were:

78 Kurt Holter / Gilbert Trathnigg, Wels von der Urzeit bis zur Jahrbuchs des Musealvereines Gegenwart, Wels 21985, at pp. 17–48. 79 See Renate Miglbauer, Neue Forschungen im römischen Wels, in: Ostbairische Grenzmarken 38 (1996), pp. 9–19. 80 Rohr, Extreme Naturereignisse, pp. 280 s. 81 Holter / Trathnigg, Wels, p. 58. 82 See in detail Kurt Holter, Die römische Traunbrücke und die Anfänge des Welser Bruckamtes, in: Jahrbuch des Musealvereines Wels 2 (1955), pp. 124–151. 83 Rohr, Extreme Naturereignisse, pp. 283–287 with a new edition of the charters; id., Floods of the Upper Danube River, pp. 139 s.

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Figure 1: Wels, Upper Austria, Copperplate Print by Matthaeus Merian (1649).84

(a) Taxes at the toll house in Wels on salt, wine and textiles, which were ringfenced for the construction of water defences (1352). (b) Taxes payable by the citizens of Wels, which were reduced by the Habsburg dukes. This allowed more money to be spent on dykes and other water defences (1409). (c) Landowners were obliged to permit the construction of water defences on their properties (1352). (d) Landowners, their bondsmen and two large monasteries in the neighbourhood were forced to assist in the clearing of debris after severe floods (1376, 1445 and 1469). While these charters are informative about the management of floods, they contain nothing about individual reactions or the collective memory of such events. In addition, the charters are best treated as an emergency response to disastrous floods, but they cannot be used to calculate the exact number of floods. However, the bridge master’s office (Bruckamt) was established from the thirteenth century with

84 Matthäus, Merian, Topographia Provinciarum Austriacarum. Austriae, Styriae, Carniolae, Tyrolis, etc. Das ist Beschreibung und Abbildung der fürnembsten Stätt und Plätz in den Österreichischen Landen etc., Frankfurt/Main 1649 [facsimile repr. 1963].

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responsibility for making repairs to the bridge and the protective structures associated with it. The annual budget of the bridge master was extracted from the revenue of the nearby Saint Aegidius church. The oldest accounts of the bridge master (Bruckamtsrechnungen) date from 1350, but there is a near complete series of accounts surviving in the Municipal Archive of Wels beginning in 1441. The incoming and outgoing accounts contain detailed information about timber purchases for the bridge and about the expenses paid to craftsmen to repair the bridge from damage caused by floods and other events. In contrast to the municipal accounts, which concern the city as a whole, the entries about the expenses of the bridge master only concern the bridge and were made on a weekly basis. All in all, the accounts for the years between 1441 and the end of the sixteenth century cover nearly 15,000 handwritten pages (Figure 2).85

Figure 2: The Accounts of the Bridge Master of Wels, Entry from 1443 (Stadtarchiv Wels, Bruckamtsrechnungen 1443, fol. 8v): “Item aus gebn iiii chnecht(e)n und dm zymman lxxvi d van ain täg daz sy enspawm haben inzogn und dy prukgt haben g zw gericht pey kreyz” (“And [after the flood] I have given to four servants and to the carpenter 76 pence for one day, because they had installed long timber and had repaired the [part of the] bridge near the Holy Cross”).

With the information on the repairs of the bridge to hand, it is possible to reconstruct the dates when floods occurred, as well as the beginning and end of works to repair or maintain the bridge. In this way, parameters for the intensity of the flood can be deduced:86 (1) Little or moderate floods without major damage. (2) Larger floods for which damage can be repaired within a month. (3) Extraordinary floods causing severe damage, such as the total destruction of bridges, which can be repaired within three months.

85 For the structure of the accounts, see in detail Holter, Römische Traunbrücke; Rohr, Extreme Naturereignisse, pp. 79–82. 86 Rohr, Measuring the frequency, p. 840; id., Extreme Naturereignisse, p. 206.

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(4) Extreme floods damaging and destroying economic and social infrastructure. There is often the perception of the event as a ‘disaster’. Flood marks may be recorded. In earlier studies on pre-modern floods, a three-category scale was introduced by Christian Pfister and Stefan Hächler,87 which has since been elaborated in greater detail by Mathias Deutsch and Karl-Heinz Pörtge.88 Their scale is based mainly on the water level, as measured by flood marks. In many cases, however, flood marks no longer exist or were only affixed after the largest floods. In addition, when the city or town is located on higher ground topographically and remained unaffected by the flood, these flood marks are totally absent. Repairs of bridges are therefore better indicators of the intensity of floods and better suited to the situation in Alpine or per-Alpine areas. Categories 1 and 2 are the same in both systems. The accounts of the bridge master show that ‘ordinary floods’ occurred nearly annually, and sometimes twice or three times a year. By far the majority of the floods occurred in summer (June to early September), and many more – but mostly only moderate to strong ones – occurred in spring (March to May). In contrast, the probability of floods in autumn and winter was much lower.89 Looking at the years around 1500, it can be seen that only one of the 14 years passed without a flood (Table 1). Some of the most significant events, such as the flood of 1499, go unmentioned in any narrative source. Floods and their management must have been an everyday part of life. We also have some clues that a simple warning system existed on the Traun river. Salt shippers from the upper Traun river valley, the Salzkammergut, advised the bridge master to remove the beams and the deck of the bridge when a major flood was expected due to heavy rain in the mountains and an already rising water level downstream of the Salzkammergut lakes. According to the accounts of the bridge master, such a system was in place during 1560, 1567 and 1572.90 High volumes of timber were bought every year, regardles of whether there had been a flood or not. Obviously, the bridge masters established large depots of construction materials, as can be seen in Figure 1. There are three sorts of timber mentioned in the accounts: oak or larch stems used for piles into the riverbed and banks; long trunks (enspawm, Ennsbaum) to connect the piles; and short planks (sträupawm) for the deck of the bridge and other water defences. Figure 3 demonstrates that the

87 Christian Pfister / Stefan Hächler, Überschwemmungskatastrophen im Schweizer Alpenraum seit dem Spätmittelalter. Raumzeitliche Rekonstruktion von Schadensmustern auf der Basis historischer Quellen, in: Rüdiger Glaser / Rory P. D. Walsh (eds.), Historical Climatology in Different Climatic Zones, Würzburg 1991, pp. 127–148. 88 Mathias Deutsch / Karl-Heinz Pörtge, Hochwasserereignisse in Thüringen, Jena 2002. 89 Rohr, Measuring the frequency, p. 839; id., Extreme Naturereignisse, pp. 209–213. 90 Rohr, Extreme Naturereignisse, p. 371.

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Table 1: Floods of the Traun River, 1497–1510, according to the accounts of the bridge masters of Wels. Year

Month

Flood

Intensity



May / early June

Flood with destruction

Strong ()



March, August?

Two floods

Moderate (/)



End of May / June

Flood with severe destruction

Very strong ()



April, May

Flood (two floods?) with destruction

Moderate / strong ()



July?, August

Disastrous flood

Extremely strong ()



No flood



September

Flood with severe destruction

Very strong ()



May

Flood

Moderate ()



May / June, August

Two floods

Moderate (/)



July

Flood?

Little ()



August?

Flood?

Moderate ()



July, August

Two floods with destruction

Very strong ()



Autumn?

Flood?

Little ()



No accounts

overall expenses for timber were reasonably constant from the 1470s to 1500. The prices for long and short timber per unit remained at the same level throughout this period. The varying expenses only refer to the different number of timbers bought year by year. As there is no direct connection to specific flood events, we may assume that the purchased amount of short and long timber depended on supply and demand. The price for oak trunks varied according to the diameter and quality. After the ‘millennium flood’ of 1501, large volumes of oak trunks were bought (40–50 per year). After the flood of 1503, no oak trunks were available on the market, and for a couple of years they were substituted by larch trunks. After the fourth major flood within a decade in 1508, overall expenses reached a new peak and remained very high for some years. From this time onwards, the price per item for short and long timber rose significantly. This can be put down to the fact that the demand for timber in the whole area had increased, rather than being a result of general price inflation. However, not everyone affected by the floods should be thought of as victims: there were also some beneficiaries – carpenters and other craftsmen earned a lot of money from carrying out repairs. When the number of weeks spent repairing the bridge is calculated, bridge works constituted 10–20 percent of the carpenters’ annual turnover. Fishermen were also able to increase their income

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Figure 3: Expenses of the Bridge Master of Wels for Timber, 1471–1520. The accounts for the years 1475, 1476, 1494 and 1510 are missing.91

when the river could not be crossed via the bridge. They established a ferry service and transported timber for the carpenters. After the ‘millennium flood’ of 1501, at least 14 different fishermen and their servants operated a service, which ferried passengers from one side of the river to the other and supplied the carpenters with timber.92 To sum up, urban economic life had grown accustomed to the frequently recurring floods and even the disastrous ones. Wood shortage at the beginning of the sixteenth century was not only a regional problem on the Traun river. The evidence in the sources for the Inn-Salzach area is not quite as comprehensive as for Wels, but a comparison with the floods of the sixteenth century reconstructed for Laufen shows a very high correlation of the years and months with damaging events.93 After the heavy floods at the beginning of the sixteenth century, the shortage of wood was dramatic, especially with regard to oak trunks used for the piles. For example, the carpenters who worked on the Lower Salzach river in 1507 were paid extra for getting driftwood from the river. Two messengers were sent specifically to the towns of Wildshut and Fridolfing downstream in

91 Id., Floods of the Upper Danube River, p. 143. For the exact amount of short timber, long timber and oak/larch trunks purchased, see id., Extreme Naturereignisse, pp. 558 s. (Appendix, Table 3). 92 Rohr, Extreme Naturereignisse, p. 239. 93 Ibid., pp. 560–562 with a comparative table.

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order to secure at least part of the worn-out bridge wood there and have it brought back by shipmen. The local authorities were also asked to ensure that the valuable timber was not appropriated by “vicious people” (“besen leithen”).94 Particularly after the floods of 1507 and 1508, it was difficult to find suitable oak wood for building bridges. Since the town’s communal forest above the Altach quarter on the right side of the Salzach river had insufficient wood that was to be cut down, the citizens of Laufen turned to the abbot of Saint Peter in Salzburg, to the abbess of Nonnberg, and to the provost of Salzburg cathedral, since in their forests at least some suitable oaks were found. After another flood in 1514, supply with oaks became even more precarious, so that after an apparently unsuccessful request to the Archbishop of Salzburg, the town of Laufen finally bought individual oaks and then had them cut and processed by peasants who received daily wages.95 At the time when Leonhard von Keutschach (1495–1519) was Archbishop of Salzburg, the assumption can be found in the sources for the first time that intensive harvesting of wood in the forests on the slopes in the Upper Salzach river catchment – for example, along the Hollersbach, the Obersulzbach and Untersulzbach brooks – might be responsible for the increase of severe floods.96 As already explained above, the increased need for wood was primarily due to the expansion of salt production in Hallein and the intensified gold and silver mining in the Gastein and Rauris valleys.

Conclusions Floods, as well as low water, had a strong impact on economic life. Firstly, this concerned the use of the rivers as a means of transport – for example, for driftwood or for export products such as salt and iron. Secondly, the destruction of bridges or the temporary inaccessibility of the same interrupted important transport routes. Thirdly, the failure of mills, both stationary on the riverbank and mobile ship mills, could lead to bottlenecks in the supply of flour. Finally, long-term swamping of valley levels previously used for agriculture might have had the deepest impact on regional economies, but so far little attention has been paid to research into this consequence of flooding. A comparative study of this phenomenon for the entire Alpine region is still a desideratum of research.

94 Ibid., p. 370, based on Stadtarchiv Laufen, Stadtkammerrechnungen 1507; Roth, Laufener Salzachbrücke, p. 7. 95 Roth, Laufener Salzachbrücke, p. 7. 96 See Eder, Historische Entwicklung, p. 35. On the connection of clearing in the mountains and flooding in the valleys (which is only partially correct from today’s perspective), see also Christian Pfister / Daniel Brändli, Rodungen im Gebirge – Überschwemmungen im Vorland. Ein Deutungsmuster macht Karriere, in: Rolf Peter Sieferle / Helga Breuninger (eds.), Natur-Bilder. Wahrnehmungen von Natur und Umwelt in der Geschichte, Frankfurt/Main et al. 1999, pp. 297–323.

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It is obvious that the inhabitants of Wels and other cities were well aware of the permanent risk posed by flooding, in the sense of premodern ‘cultures of flood management’. They established a municipal appointment to co-ordinate the maintenance of their long wooden bridge. The bridge master was responsible for buying large volumes of timber every year, whether a flood had occurred recently or not; large timber stores are shown in early modern depictions of the townscape (Figure 1). This continuous preventive purchase of timber concerned oak trunks for the piles of the bridge as well as other types of wood for bank structures and water pipes. If the stocks of timber and wooden water pipes were also destroyed by the flood, as in the case of Laufen in 1572, the catastrophe character of the event suddenly increased. Warning systems by salt barge skippers on the Traun river enabled the bridge master to dismantle the most structurally sensitive parts of the bridge before the flood arrived, at least on some occasions. There were, however, also individual crafts that could profit from the flood situation. As seen in Wels, carpenters and other craftsmen earned significant amounts from the repairs, roughly 10–20 percent of carpenters’ annual turnover. Due to the preparedness of the population, most of the floods were not perceived as disasters. Religious responses to floods, even disastrous ones, are mostly absent from the documentary evidence. There are no references in chronicles and other written sources to the Deluge or other Biblical floods. Also, no significant donations to churches or votive tablets have been found. One exception dates from the times around the severe flood of 1567, when people in the territory of the Archbishop of Salzburg became aware that the Latin expression DILVVIVM (deluge), when read as Roman numbers, adds up to the number 1567.97 However, accusations of witchcraft only occurred in the last third of the sixteenth century after heavy thunderstorms and unexpected local floods, which were caused by log and ice jams, and not after largescale floods.98 River floods, perhaps because they were part of everyday life, did not require supernatural explanations.

97 Rohr, Extreme Naturereignisse, p. 243, based on Lahnsteiner, Chronik des Pinzgaus, vol. 2, pp. 100, 375. 98 See Rohr, Extreme Naturereignisse, pp. 430–436 for the Eastern Alpine areas; see also Christian Pfister, Climatic Extremes, Recurrent Crises and Witch Hunts: Strategies of European Societies in Coping with Exogenous Shocks in the Late Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries, in: The Medieval History Journal 10/1–2 (2007), pp. 33–73, at pp. 56–60.

Gregor Zenhäusern

Natural Disaster Prevention and Management in the Valais Alps from the Middle Ages to the Nineteenth Century Abstract: As part of various scientific projects the Forschungsinstitut zur Geschichte des Alpenraums (FGA) in Brig has created a database on the past climate and natural disasters in the Valais Alps. The rich historical source material, collected in different archives of the region, emphasises in particular the vulnerability of the rural communities to weather and climate. Furthermore, it highlights people’s considerable efforts towards and measures taken on flood prevention and road maintenance despite the lack of a functioning government administration with regular financial resources during the Ancien Régime. An effective protection against the elements only became possible through the establishment of the “Department of Bridges and Roads” at the beginning of the nineteenth century with official state budget funds for river engineering and avalanche barriers. Thus, it can be shown that a certain helplessness towards meteorological and para-meteorological phenomena (e.g. droughts or long humid periods) threatening the traditional livelihood prevailed in the preindustrial society. Natural disasters were often traditionally and religiously interpreted as punishment by God. These interpretations, however, required adequate defence strategies which could be found in the Rituale Romanum (1614), such as for example extraordinary processions of devotion or even ritual ceremonies (evocation of glaciers). In order to be able to examine long-term developments, current scientific climate research increasingly focuses on the disasters of the past. However, the definition of the term “natural disaster” is controversial: for some time now, the natural sciences have been talking about “natural risks” in this context, thus emphasising the concept of danger as defined by the probability of harmful consequences and the possibility of their early detection for preventive purposes. In any case, the writer Max Frisch already has pointed out that a history of natural disasters can only pass through a history of their perception, interpretation and management by humankind.1 As a part of various scientific projects, the Forschungsinstitut zur Geschichte des Alpenraums (Institut de recherches sur l’histoire de l’Arc alpin) in Brig has developed a historical

1 Max Frisch, Man in the Holocene, San Diego / New York / London 1981. Gregor Zenhäusern, Forschungsinstitut zur Geschichte des Alpenraums, Alte Simplonstrasse 28, CH–3900 Brig, e-mail: [email protected] https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110522259-002

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database on climate and natural hazards in the Valais Alps.2 The rich historical source material, collected in different archives of the region, emphasises in particular the vulnerability of the rural communities to weather-related and climaterelevant processes in a variety of ways; it also provides insights into the strategies adopted to manage and prevent them. The following contribution aims to illustrate these strategies by means of selected examples. Priority is given to measures that deal with floods and avalanches, including “supernatural prevention”, and to the actors involved.

Floods Documentary evidence about floods can be derived from different sources. For the Late Middle Ages, indirect or documentary proxy data reflect the impact of hydrological extremes. In our region, the medieval principality of Savoy left historians with an outstanding legacy: the corpus of account rolls of its castellanies, the basic administrative units of medieval Savoy, bear a semblance to the Pipe Rolls of the Exchequer of medieval England. Written on rolls of parchment, this collection frequently records – from the mid-thirteenth century to 1500 – deficiencies in receipts due to meteorological phenomena (e.g. poor harvests caused by droughts or humidity) and additional expenditures for the reconstruction or repair of seignorial infrastructure (e.g. demolished bridges and mills after floods or damaged roofs of castles and farm buildings after heavy storms).3 Among the registers preserved in the State Archives of Turin for customs in Saint-Maurice d’Agaune, the accounts of the pedagium camini deserve to be noted, insofar as from August 1284 to April 1351 they record almost completely the tolls which were collected for the road section between Bex and Martigny and the expenses which were incurred for maintenance. There are numerous indications of remedied road damage caused by natural forces. For their repair, the expenses for work force and material were significant, yet often ineffectual, considering that e.g. between 1318 and 1346 the bridge over the river Avançon near Vionnaz had to be replaced no less than six times.4

2 Cf. Gregor Zenhäusern, Der Beitrag von Schriftquellen für eine Klimageschichte der Alpen unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des Wallis, in: Vallesia 67 (2012), pp. 193–218; id., Approche d’une histoire du climat de l’Arc alpin et spécialement du Valais (Suisse) d’après les documents d’archives, in: La gazette des archives 230/2 (2013), pp. 87–107. 3 Id., Der Beitrag, pp. 211–218; id., Approche, pp. 97–102. 4 Maria Clotilde Daviso di Charvensod, La route du Valais au XIVe siècle, in: Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Geschichte, 1 (1951), pp. 545–561; Franco Morenzoni, Le mouvement commercial au péage de Saint-Maurice d’Agaune à la fin du Moyen Âge (1281–1450), in: Revue historique 117 (1993), pp. 3–61.

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In the territories of the prince-bishop of Sion, the rival of the count of Savoy, attention was also paid to the maintenance of roads, dams and bridges. As the owner of the regalia the bishop was responsible for this.5 According to the order of Bishop Aymo von Turn (1323–1338) dating from May 1331, the supervision of the protective dams along the Saltina and the Rhône in Brig, which were built by the riparians, was entrusted to his Naters castellan; this directive at the same time is the oldest evidence of hydraulic engineering measures in the district of Brig.6 Bridge maintenance in many places was financed by ‘bridge money’. For example, in 1457, the maintenance of the Saltina and Rhône bridges in the former parish of Naters (which included the area of Brig and Glis) was given to a bridge master as a fiefdom: in addition to land property, the fiefdom included the right to demand the so-called Brückenbrot (literally: ‘bridge bread’),7 or alternatively, a denarius from each household within the parish. The bridge master, for his part, guaranteed the passability of bridges for horsemen and carriages in winter and spring, and during the flooding season in summer for pedestrians at least; he was responsible for minor repairs and their professional execution. However, the renewal of heavily damaged or destroyed bridges after a flood was incumbent on the local authorities. Unfortunately, no accounts have been preserved in this respect. From the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Zendenrat (the district council) nominated two bridge officers for Naters and Brig each year. The preserved accounts show the annual expenditure for bridge repair and maintenance.8 Even in those days, cooperatives for embankments, the so-called Wuhrgeteilschaften, were responsible for the maintenance of the Saltina and Rhône dams. Accounts from the eighteenth century attest to regular maintenance work on the embankments of the Saltina: as a rule, the costs were charged to the riparians on a pro rata basis according to the area of land concerned. In turn these cooperatives by majority vote issued protective provisions for endangered properties along the Saltina. They were to play a major role, especially during the river correction in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and were involved in no less than five bridge constructions between 1835 and 1927.9

5 Cf. Gregor Zenhäusern, Art. “Sitten, Fürstbistum”, in: Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz, vol. 11, Basel 2012, pp. 537–540 and map p. 537. 6 Cf. Gregor Zenhäusern, Brig im Banne der Naturgefahren, in: Stadtgemeinde Brig-Glis (ed.), 800 Jahre Brig, bearb. vom Forschungsinstitut zur Geschichte des Alpenraums unter der Leitung von Marie-Claude Schöpfer, Visp 2015, pp. 165–188, esp. pp. 170, 178. 7 The so-called Brückenbrot was “a fixed annual charge to be levied in kind, for which one [the payee] was exempted from paying the bridge toll”; Schweizerisches Idiotikon digital (https://idiot ikon.ch/woerterbuch/ idiotikon-digital bzw. https://digital.idiotikon.ch/idtkn/id1.htm#!page/ 50979/mode/1up). 8 Zenhäusern, Brig im Banne der Naturgefahren, p. 179. 9 Ibid., pp 182–184.

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Figure 1: Flood Chronology of the Rivers Saltina (Brig) and Vièze (Monthey), 1300 to 1900.

With regard to its vulnerability to flooding by the Saltina, Brig can be compared with the townlet of Monthey, which was periodically affected by the river Vièze (see Figure 1): around 1370, the river overflowed its bed, damaging the fortifications of the town bridge, despite the regular maintenance of the embankments ordered by the count of Savoy in 1315. In April 1478, the Vièze destroyed 22 dwellings and devastated 150 acres of land. This experience allowed the Savoy authorities, whose assistance to the inhabitants had until then been limited to relieve them of financial burdens and to grant additional income, to put the plan of river diversion into practice. On 12 June 1486, the inhabitants under Castellan Paërnat began to dig the river a new bed of approximately 10 to 20 metres’ width over a length of 280 metres; it was to pass the old castle, the seat of the castellan, on the south side and divert the Vièze away from the main settlement. However, accounts kept in the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris show that after 256 day works and various setbacks the project had to be abandoned as unfeasible.10 Despite the unsuccessful efforts of the Savoy dynasty, about 100 years later the Republic of Valais – which since 1536 had held sovereignty over eastern Chablais – commissioned its governor and specially appointed commissioners to correct the riverbed with the support of the riparians. The measures were met with little enthusiasm by the riparians: ongoing disputes between the mountain and valley communities, in particular over the division of the required material and the common corvals

10 Cf. Gregor Zenhäusern (ed.), Les sources du droit suisse (SDS/SSRQ), XXe partie: Les sources du droit du canton du Valais II/2/1: Le gouvernement de Monthey (XIIIe s.–1798), 2 vols., Zürich 2017, vol. 1, pp. LII s., 345–355, no 127 (references).

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to be provided, led to serious delays. The site chosen in 1586 for a new bridge over the Vièze proved to be a failure for Monthey as early as 1620, since the bridge, which was built there and considered safe, was washed away. A summer flood again caused considerable damage in 1632, but this was exceeded by the events of November 1651, when 140 acres of cultivated land were flooded. All other measures taken during the seventeenth century also combatted symptoms and proved to be inefficient. It was only after the flooding of 5 to 7 July 1726 that the government resumed the redirection of the Vièze. The work began under the supervision of Castellan Antonine du Fay on 15 August 1726 and, by virtue of episcopal permission, continued even through Sundays and feast days. The local authorities also supervised, and gave the necessary instructions. On 12 April 1727, on the eve of Easter, water was directed into the newly dug bed for the first time – under the sounds of the carillon. The next day the local youth celebrated the event with bonfires. At the end of December 1727 – after 531 days of uninterrupted effort – the work was completed. Nevertheless, on 14 September 1733, the Vièze broke through the new embankment, returned to its old bed and destroyed or damaged 46 buildings, including the town hall with its archives, the hospital and the choir of the parish church. The increase in size and reinforcement of the dam in 1734 solved the problem permanently; it enabled a gradual urbanisation along the now safe old river course.11 The example described may well be considered one of the most extensive hydraulic engineering measures in Valais prior to the first correction of the Rhône in the second half of the nineteenth century.

Avalanches Avalanches have always been one of the most threatening forces of nature for the inhabitants of the Alpine valleys. The particular topography is a determining factor: a cartographic representation (Figure 2) of the Upper Valais place names consisting of the word “avalanche” (-lawine, Lauwi-, -louwi) is significant in this respect.12 Although avalanches occurred frequently, they left few traces in local sources before the eighteenth century (Figure 3).13 However, they did not completely escape the notice even of medieval chroniclers. Unlike today, during the Middle Ages the Alpine passes – the Great Saint Bernard in particular – were crossed even in winter. Individual travellers and small groups of pilgrims took great risks if they were not accompanied by mountain guides, the so-called marons or marroniers, who were mentioned regularly

11 Ibid., pp. LXXXVII s.; Alfred Comtesse, L’innondation de Monthey de 1726 et la Percée du Château-Vieux, in: Annales valaisannes 1ère sér., 3 (1920–1921), pp. 76–111. 12 Oberwalliser Orts- und Flurnamenbuch, Brig (OWNB database). 13 Forschungsinstitut zur Geschichte des Alpenraums, Inventory of archival and printed sources for the study of climate and environmental history in the Valais, Brig (FGA database).

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Figure 2: Place Names (265) in Upper Valais Composed of the Word “avalanche” (Lauwi-, -lowi etc.) [OWNB].

from the ninth and tenth centuries. Resident in the villages on both sides of the pass and organized as transport cooperatives, the marons supported the Canons Regular of Saint Augustine of the famous Saint Bernard Hospice in the care of pilgrims and travellers; in a macabre way, the medieval charnel house near the hospice testified to the danger of a winter pass crossing, well into the first half of the twentieth century.14 According to sources in the hospice archive, between 1708 and 1874, 45 people died

14 Cf. Gregor Zenhäusern, Art. “Le Grand-Saint-Bernard”, in: Helvetia Sacra IV/1: Les chanoines réguliers de Saint-Augustin en Valais. Le Grand-Saint-Bernard, Saint-Maurice d’Agaune, Les prieurés

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Figure 3: Spatial and Temporal Distribution of Devastating Avalanches in Valais (2,408 events) by District.

in avalanches at the St Bernard Pass – not counting all those unfortunate persons who lost their lives in other circumstances along the way.15 Nevertheless, the seasonal fluctuation of transit of persons and goods was not decisively influenced by climatic and meteorological factors: according to the medieval customs registers, the transit of goods even in December was no rarity, although crossing the pass in winter was obviously riskier and movements of snow bore high costs.16 Local chroniclers registered avalanches chiefly in inhabited and agricultural areas. The decisive factor for registration was primarily the extent of the damage incurred. It is therefore not surprising that it were mostly catastrophes with numerous human victims and a high degree of destruction of buildings and settlements which found their way into the archive sources. However, continuous avalanche registrations, such as those of the peasant Johann Ignaz Inderschmitten from Binn between 1770 and 1812, which were recorded in detail according to snow cover, slope, place

valaisans d’Abondance, Bâle 1997, pp. 25–220 (with important bibliography), esp. pp. 47–49, 93–96 (references); Christopher Lucken, Exorciser la montagne. Saint Bernard de Menthon au sommet du Mont-Joux, in: Actes des congrès de la Société des historiens médiévistes de l’enseignement supérieur public 34 (2003), pp. 99–120. 15 Cf. Johann Coaz, Die Lauinen der Schweizeralpen, Bern 1881, pp. 101 s. 16 Cf. above fn. 4.

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and extent of damage, are the exception: bitter experiences and attentive observation taught the residents the correct assessment of risks and appropriate strategies, such as avoiding moving cattle when there was a danger of an avalanche.17 This may be one of the reasons why avalanche prevention was largely limited to passive measures until the beginning of the nineteenth century. The ban on the exploitation (or overuse) of the forests has always played an important role in protecting settlements. Knowing their importance, the communities in snow-rich mountain valley Goms, for example, have repeatedly issued regulations since the fourteenth century (30 have been handed down), in which the use of protective forests was severely restricted and placed under the control of forest guards.18 For its part, the parliament in the Ancien Régime intervened by means of regulations concerning the logging which endangered the main road and other infrastructures such as dams and bridges, the harvesting of the resin and wood exports, without however, enacting a general forest law; the latter only dates back to 1910 (effective as of 1 January 1911).19 Active avalanche prevention, for example in the sense of protective structures for settlements, has only been implemented since the beginning of the nineteenth century. In the village of Saas-Grund, for instance, people decided to build cellar-like vaults into the mountain slopes at the back of endangered houses, where residents could find shelter when in acute danger.20 In the eighteenth century, public efforts were still limited to the protection of exposed individual public buildings and only occasionally concerned entire settlement complexes: for example, the parish church of Oberwald, whose tower and sacristy had been damaged in the avalanche winter of 1719/20 (one of the deadliest in Switzerland ever),21 was protected by an avalanche wedge (Figure 4) which has been reinforced several times over the years.22

17 Cf. Gregor Zenhäusern, Witterung und Klima eines Walliser Alpentals nach Aufzeichnungen (1770–1812) des Weibels Johann Ignaz Inderschmitten von Binn, in: Blätter aus der Walliser Geschichte 40 (2008), pp. 141–328, esp. pp. 170–184; id., Die Wetteraufzeichnungen (1770–1812) des Weibels Johann Ignaz Inderschmitten aus Binn, in: Emmanuel Reynard / Myriam Evéquoz-Dayen / Gilles Borel (ed.), Le Rhône, entre nature et société, Sion 2015, pp. 99–107. 18 Cf. the respective statutes in SDS/SSRQ: Die Rechtsquellen des Goms (in preparation by the author). 19 Cf. Théodore Kuonen, Histoire des forêts de la région de Sion du Moyen Âge à nos jours, Sion 1993, pp. 71, 555. 20 Cf. Coaz, Die Lauinen, p. 102. 21 Cf. Christian Pfister, Wetternachhersage: 500 Jahre Klimavariationen und Naturkatastrophen (1496–1995), Bern 1999, pp. 256–261. 22 Cf. Die Kunstdenkmäler des Kantons Wallis, Bd. 1: Das Obergoms. Die ehemalige Grosspfarrei Münster, ed. by Walter Ruppen, Basel 1976, pp. 176 ss.

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Figure 4: Church of Oberwald, Goms, with Avalanche Wedge, 1921 (Leo Wehrli, ETHZ-Bibliothek, Bildarchiv).

The village of Leukerbad, which was very exposed to avalanches,23 tried to protect itself after the devastating event of January 1719 by a wall crossing the slope of the Torrentalpe. It was supplemented in 1791 and especially in the nineteenth century with further protective structures: a new protective wall, 215 feet in total length, was planned in 1827 by Ignaz Venetz, engineer of the canton, and built in 1830; the wall reached a height between 10 and 17 feet and the crown a width of two and a half feet. The government contributed 30 percent to the total cost of 16,500 Swiss francs; the remaining 70 percent was taken on by the municipality, the owners of the bath and the house and land owners within the danger perimeter.24 The outer part of the village was protected by other walls built between 1876 and 1878. These were part of a public programme under which, from 1873, eight other communities had also begun to build shelters made of dry-stone walls or long pile rows on artificial terraces above their settlements. Between 1873 and 1879, the investment in construction work for the canton amounted to 38,187.70 Swiss

23 Cf. Bruno Weber, Lawinen über Leukerbad: Historiographie und Quellenkritik, in: Blätter aus der Walliser Geschichte 42 (2010), pp. 23–64. 24 Cf. FGA (database); Isabel Furrer, Schadenslawinen im Oberwallis von 1500 bis 1900. Eine sozial- und kulturgeschichtliche Untersuchung, in: Blätter aus der Walliser Geschichte 51 (2019), pp. 47–161, esp. pp. 143–145.

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francs.25 In fact, public flood and avalanche prevention only received its decisive impetus through the creation of the Department of Bridges and Roads at the beginning of the nineteenth century, in connection with the construction of the Napoleonic army road over the Simplon and the necessary dams against the Rhône and galleries against avalanches in the Simplon area. Later on, the laws of 1818 and 1833 created the legal basis for effective protection against the elements, and the sum of 9,271 Swiss francs, representing 10 percent of government expenditure, was budgeted for measures against water hazards in 1834.26

“Supernatural Prevention” Pre-industrial society was at a loss when faced with meteorological or para-meteorological phenomena, especially when they harmed peoples’ harvests or their livestock and thus threatened their livelihoods. Because of the lack of conclusive explanations, religious patterns of interpretation were used to explain these events as punishments of a wrathful God for sins committed.27 Since 1614, the Rituale Romanum and the diocesan synodal legislation of 1635 provided the necessary instruments for the appropriate defence strategies: liturgical processions and benedictions.28 These acts of public piety were either ordered by the authorities or – in case of an acute emergency – spontaneously organised, especially processions. The most frequent motifs were weather phenomena such as prolonged drought or long periods of humidity, which threatened to damage the hay and grain harvest. In addition, worm and locust plagues gave rise to mass pilgrimages.29 The high presence of locust plagues in the Bible30 also favoured their interpretation as divine punishment.

25 Cf. Coaz, Die Lauinen, pp. 127 ss., 136; Furrer, Schadenslawinen, pp. 145–147. 26 Cf. Ernst von Roten / Philipp Kalbermatter, Ignaz Venetz als Ingenieur, in: Stefan Berchtold / Peter Bumann (eds.), Ignaz Venetz 1788–1849: Ingenieur und Naturforscher. Gedenkschrift, Brig 1990, pp. 34, 38. 27 Cf. Dieter Groh / Michael Kempe / Franz Mauelshagen, Naturkatastrophen – wahrgenommen, gedeutet, dargestellt, in: Dieter Groh / Michael Kempe / Franzs Mauelshagen (eds.), Naturkatastrophen: Beiträge zu ihrer Deutung, Wahrnehmung und Darstellung in Text und Bild von der Antike bis ins 20. Jahrhundert, Tübingen 2003, pp. 11–33; Christian Rohr, Historische Naturkatastrophen als Gegenstand einer kulturgeschichtlich orientierten Umweltgeschichte, in: Christian Rohr (ed.), Naturkatastrophen in der Geschichte: Wahrnehmung, Deutung und Bewältigung von extremem Naturereignissen in Risikokulturen, Wien 2008, pp. 2–13. 28 Cf. Rituale Romanum Pauli V, Pont[ificis] Max[imi], iussu editum, 1615, pp. 285–341; Constitutiones et decreta synodalia dioecesis Sedunensis in ecclesia cathedrali Seduni edita et promulgata di 25 aprilis anno Christi MDCXXVI, Fribourg 1635, pp. 65 ss. 29 Cf. FGA database. 30 Cf. for instance: Es 33,4; Am 4,9; Am 7, 1; Ps 105,34–35; 1 R 8,37; Jos 1,3; Js 2,25 and especially Ex 10,1–20.

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Preferred places of pilgrimage were churches and chapels within the parishes; in particularly urgent cases, people left their own parish or visited well-known foreign places of pilgrimage. In June 1698, 96 men from the parish of Münster set off on foot to Maria Einsiedeln, 150 kilometres away, to beg for better weather in the face of an imminent lack of hay.31 Collective processions of fourteen parishes were attested in July 1816, the year without summer,32 in Saint-Maurice d’Agaune.33 In the dry spring of 1893, 16 parishes visited Glis, the pilgrimage centre in the Upper Valais, to invoke rain.34 From the point of view of the chroniclers, these acts of piety usually did not fail to have an effect, but sometimes they also left desires unfulfilled. Some of the processions were institutionalised and sporadically repeated – in the sense of a vow – and others remained singularly and were accompanied by lasting benedictions. In May 1636, the Capuchin monks of Saint-Maurice were able to stop the raging little brook La Marre near Evionnaz only after its baptism and renaming as Torrent de Saint-Barthélemy.35 In 1653, the population of Naters trusted the Jesuits, who were experts in demonology, to stop the advance of the Aletsch Glacier. The mission seems to have succeeded after four hours of procession, a Mass with a sermon at the edge of the glacier and the erection of a column with the effigy of Saint Ignatius, later to be replaced by a cross.36 The vow of the people of Fieschertal to refrain from socage on Saturdays after vespers in the face of threats from the Fiescher Glacier should also be seen in this context; this vow was replaced in 1678, with the permission of the bishop, by the maintenance of a burning candle in the parish church of Fiesch and then, from 1860, by a procession on Saint Ignatius’ Day (31 July) to the chapel in Ärnerwald.37 However long and arduous this procession may have been, it was still less so then the one which was undertaken, sporadically in times of draught, and led from Orsières to the oratory of Orny, situated at an altitude of 2,696 metres in the eastern Mont Blanc mountain range. Probably dating back to the seventeenth century and passing through the valley of Arpette de Saleinaz, this procession usually required fourteen consecutive hours of walking to and from the site. These practices were banned by ecclesiastical authorities several times during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries due to superstitious practices and scandals, with the last procession taking place in 1882.38 It was not uncommon to see peasants from the valley 31 Cf. FGA database. 32 Cf. Charles Richard Harington (ed.), The Year Without a Summer? World Climate in 1816, Ottawa 1992. 33 Cf. FGA database. 34 Ibid. 35 Ibid. 36 Ibid.; Hanspeter Holzhauser, Zur Geschichte der Aletschgletscher und der Fieschergletscher, Zürich 1984, pp. 95–97. 37 Cf. FGA database. 38 Cf. Fabien Melly, La procession à Orny, in: Annales valaisannes 12 (1937), pp. 171–174.

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of Binn going to Baceno, in the Antigorio Valley, about 30 kilometres away, crossing the Albrun Pass at 2,400 metres above sea level.39 In 1787, following the devastating impact of the Bis Glacier on 8 January, the community of Randa renewed its vow to consider the feasts of Saint Francis Xavier (3 December) and Saint Margaret’s Day (20 July) as public feast days, in order to prevent similar risks in the future.40 On an unknown date, the municipality of Grächen did the same due to the dangers of the Ried Glacier.41 Since the nineteenth century, the communities of Reckingen and Ritzingen have held annual processions to the Ritzingerfeld Chapel on Saint Margaret’s Day against the threat of floods, landslides, and avalanches.42 Already in 1621, local statutes provided for an annual votive mass on Tuesday before Ash Wednesday and a donation of money by every hearth in Ernen against the avalanches and landslides of the Lerchschleif, a dangerous ditch above the village.43 Collective devotion to avert natural hazards can also take the form of public feedings with mountain dairy products. Thus, at Dorénaz, at the foot of the Dentsde-Morcles, stands a threatening rock called ‘le krépon de Fête d’août’. To preserve the village from the rock fall, bread, cheese, and soup are distributed to the poor foreigners on Saint Théodule’s day, the day after mid-August.44 Similar donations, whose origins date back to the Middle Ages, are also attested in the valley of Turtmann and in the Lötschental.45 If at the beginning of the nineteenth century at the latest, the Jesuit exorcists had to leave the field open to the cantonal engineer in the prevention of natural risks, these devotional practices nevertheless remain firmly anchored in the collective memory. Recently, political and tourist circles in the Upper Valais have rediscovered the suggestive power of religious rituals. Thus, in 2009, the inhabitants of Fiesch–Fieschertal modified their old vow with pontifical approval.46 This time it was with the intention of interrupting the retreat of the glaciers by a procession to the Ärnerwald Chapel (and not, as in past centuries, their advance) in a bid to stop climate change – undoubtedly a very ambitious project!

39 Cf. FGA database; Josef Bielander, Wallfahrten aus dem Oberwallis nach Oberitalien, in: Walliser Jahrbuch 34 (1965), pp. 20–26. 40 Cf. FGA database. 41 Ibid. 42 Ibid. 43 Cf. the respective statutes in SDS/SSRQ: Die Rechtsquellen des Goms (in preparation by the author). 44 Cf. article “Août”, in: Glossaire des patois de la Suisse romande, t. 1, Genève 1924, p. 487. 45 Cf. Arnold Niederer, Sinn und Form von Alpspenden, in: Louis Carlen / Gabriel Imboden (eds.), Alpe – Alm. Zur Kulturgeschichte des Alpwesens in der Neuzeit, Brig 1994, pp. 127–142. 46 Cf. “Da hilft nur mehr der liebe Gott”, in: Walliser Bote, 21 September 2009, p. 4.

Katharina Winckler

Roads, Tolls and the Development of Ecclesiastical Institutions in the Alps (400–900) When Christendom became the state religion of the Roman Empire in the year 380, it already relied on an established network of bishoprics that reached into the Alps as well. Notable were the activities of the Bishops Theodul of Sion and Vigilius of Trento (both lived around 400) or the fourth century monastic site and Christian sanctuary at Saint-Maurice d’Agaune. From the fifth century onwards, the Alps were fully divided into bishoprics. In addition, a monastic network had begun to develop. Main Christian centres such as Milan or Lyons and Vienne influenced nearby Alpine valleys.1 But what were the economic foundations of these Christian institutions and how did they generate income? From the first century on wealthy Christians gave to the Church property, goods or money in order to establish sites for Christian communities. Since Emperor Constantine the Church has been entitled to buy property, and since the fifth century this property (in theory) was inalienable.2 In the Alps we also find traces of accumulation of wealth. The evidence starts in the late fourth century. In the middle of the Provencal Alps, where today only sheep are grazing, along a remote road c.10 kilometres north of Sisteron, an inscription is preserved which tells us about Claudius Postumus Dardanus, his brother and his wife. They donated property here in order to build a Theopolis – a city of God. Without doubt, the donation was inspired by the ideas of Saint Augustine, with whom the donators exchanged letters. Unfortunately, only this inscription is left

1 Heinrich Berg, Bischöfe und Bischofssitze im Ostalpen- und Donauraum vom 4. bis zum 8. Jahrhundert, in: Herwig Wolfram / Andreas Schwarcz (eds.), Die Bayern und ihre Nachbarn. Berichte des Symposions der Kommission für Frühmittelalterforschung, Wien 1989, pp. 61–110; Heinrich Büttner, Frühmittelalterliche Bistümer im Alpenraum zwischen Großem St. Bernhard und Brennerpaß, in: Historisches Jahrbuch 84 (1964), pp. 1–33; Reinhold Kaiser, Das römische Erbe und das Merowingerreich, München ³2010, pp. 11–13; Jean Guyon, La Christianisation, in: Paul-Albert Février / Michel Bats / Michel Fixot / Jean Guyon (ed.), La Provence des origines à l’an mil, Évreux 1989, pp. 403–408; Katharina Winckler, Die ersten Christen in den Alpen, in: Histoire des Alpes / Geschichte der Alpen / Storia delle Alpi: Religion et confessions 18 (2013), pp. 13–30. 2 Jean-Pierre Devroey, Économie rurale et société dans l’Europe franque (VIe–IXe siècles), Paris 2003, pp. 274–276; Reinhold Kaiser, Die Mittelmeerwelt und Europa in Spätantike und Frühmittelalter, Frankfurt/Main 2014, p. 177. Katharina Winckler, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Institute for Medieval Research, Hollandstraße 11–13, A–1020 Wien, e-mail: [email protected] https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110522259-003

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of this community.3 Since the sixth century, income in the form of tithes (decimae) also became common for bishoprics. Our earliest source on this, coincidentally, stems from the Alpine area: in the Vita Severini. But it seems to have been a fixed part of ecclesiastical income only from the Carolingian era on.4 In the beginning of the 6th century the church was already an established economic agent in the Christian reigns of post-Roman Europe. The most important source of income for the ecclesiastical institutions was property, donated by kings, queens, other nobility and free peasants. In the seventh century Gaul bishoprics, churches and monasteries already amassed an enormous amount of land. New research by Ian Wood has confirmed older assumptions that in Merovingian Gaul nearly one third of the land belonged to the Church. In Italy the amount of property seems to have been slightly less, but nevertheless high.5 We can also assume that similar conditions were common in the Alpine bishoprics and monasteries. These possessions and granting of rights were subject to many fluctuations. Kings repeatedly attempted to secularize ecclesiastical land, for instance, the Merovingian King Dagobert (603–639) in the seventh century or the Carolingian major-domo Charles Martel in the early eighth century.6 Later Carolingian rulers tried to gain control over formerly autonomous bishoprics, e.g. in the Alpine bishopric Churraetia.7 Proprietary churches and monasteries, however, are another topic: these were founded and endowed by members of elite families. Formally, these properties were under the rule of the respective diocese (or monastery), yet the founders and their descendants could still exercise power over these institutions.8 In the

3 Martin Heinzelmann, Bischofsherrschaft in Gallien. Zur Kontinuität römischer Führungsschichten vom 4. bis zum 7. Jahrhundert. Soziale, prosopographische und bildungsgeschichtliche Aspekte, Zürich 1976, p. 206; Guyon, Christianisation, pp. 406 s. with an image of the inscription. 4 Eugippius, Vita Severini. In: Philippe Régerat (ed.), Eugippe – Vie de Saint Séverin. Introduction, Texte Latin, Traduction Notes et Index, Paris 1991, c. 17 and c. 18, pp. 226–230; Devroey, Économie rurale, pp. 190 s. 5 Ian Wood, Entrusting Western Europe to the Church, 400–750, in: Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 23 (2013), pp. 37–73, at pp. 44, 58; Devroey, Économie rurale, pp. 274 s., 279. According to his calculations, in the eighth century about 10–30 percent of the land was in the hand of the Church; Stéphane Lebecq, Le rôle des monastères dans les systèmes de production et d’échanges du monde franc entre le VIIe et le début du IXe siècle, in: Stéphane Lebecq (ed.), Hommes, mers et terres du nord au début du Moyen Âge, vol. 2: Centres, communications, échanges, Villeneuved’Ascq 2011, pp. 47–72, at pp. 48–51; For Italy see for example Paulus Diaconus Hist. Lang. II.16, IV.41, VI.18 for the Alpes Cottiae and esp. the monastery of Bobbio. On the cultivation of this land see Adriaan Verhulst, The Carolingian economy, New York 2002, pp. 31–57, esp. pp. 32 s. 6 Wood, Entrusting Western Europe, p. 53. 7 Reinhold Kaiser, Churrätien im frühen Mittelalter, Basel ²2008, pp. 58–60. 8 Devroey, Économie, pp. 276–278, Steffen Patzold, Den Raum der Diözese modellieren? Zum Eigenkirchen-Konzept und zu den Grenzen der potestas episcopalis im Karolingerreich, in: Philipe Depreux / François Bougard / Régine Le Jan (eds.), Les élites et leurs espaces. Mobilité, Rayonnement, Domination, Turnhout 2007, pp. 225–245; Wood, Entrusting Western Europe, p. 58.

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Early Medieval Alps these for example were monasteries founded by the Burgundian kings (St-Maurice), Bavarian dukes (Mondsee, Kremsmünster)9 or several monasteries by the influential Bavarian family of the Huosi, such as Innichen and Scharnitz/ Schlehdorf.10 But the influence of the Church reached beyond property: it also acted as a worldly authority and was granted the right to hold markets and fairs and to collect the tolls from these commercial activities.11 Rulers lend the right to impose taxes and tariffs to the ecclesiastical institutions, and even to have their own jurisdiction and immunitas.12 In return, the kings and other rulers could expect not only loyalty but also goods and military service: in 817 Louis the Pious ordered that the Alpine monasteries of Novalesa, Mondsee and Tegernsee – among others – had to give dona et militiam. On the north-eastern rim of the mountains Kremsmünster, Mattsee and Benediktbeuren had to deliver goods.13 All this served as means for the king, his entourage and his army to cross the Alps. This demonstrates the strong connection of the Alpine ecclesiastical institutions to the road network through the mountains.14 The roots of these involvements lie also in late Roman administrative toll structures and the survival of parts of the cursus publicus, the Roman system for public messengers.15 Control over the transalpine routes and passes meant also income through road charges, tolls and maybe also from carrier services (Sauma/Sagma or Marrones/Marruci, see also below at Staffelsee).16 In the late Roman and the Merovingian successor states, the civitates (in the Roman, administrative sense) were responsible for levying these charges. When the Roman Empire dissolved, the presiding bishop in several areas partly took over the rights and duties of the late Roman administration

9 Joachim Jahn, Ducatus Baiuvariorum. Das bairische Herzogtum der Agilolfinger, Stuttgart 1991, pp. 212–214, 519–521. 10 Wilhelm Störmer, Früher Adel. Studien zur politischen Führungsschicht im fränkisch-deutschen Reich vom 8. bis 11. Jahrhundert, Stuttgart 1973, pp. 44–46; Carl Hammer, Huosiland. A Small Country in Carolingian Europe, Oxford 2018, pp. 7–14, even sees a region within Bavaria under the control of this noble family. 11 Verhulst, Carolingian Economy, pp. 90 s.; Lebecq, Le rôle des monastères, pp. 64–68. 12 Barbara Rosenwein, Negotiating Space. Power, Restraint, and Privileges of Immunity in Early Medieval Europe, Ithaca (NY) 1999, pp. 3–9. 13 MGH Capit. 1, #171, Notitia de Servitio Monasteriorum, pp. 350 s. 14 In the same way, monasteries were also often founded at major waterways: Lebecq, Le role des monastères, pp. 51–53. 15 Anne Kolb, Transport und Nachrichtentransfer im Römischen Reich, Berlin 2000, pp. 53–60, 190–198, 225 s. for the fate of the cursus publicus after the end of the Western Roman Empire; Lionel Casson, Travel in the Ancient World, Baltimore 1974 (repr. 1994), pp. 182–190, on the roads over the Alps used by the Romans, pp. 165, 171. 16 Lebecq, Le rôle des monastères, pp. 59–60; Katharina Winckler, Die Alpen im Frühmittelalter, Wien 2012, pp. 156–160.

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including the levying of tariffs and taxes.17 Rightfully this income belonged to the Roman state and its successors, for example the Frankish kings, yet in many cases it was the bishop who managed to gain complete control over this income.18 Furthermore, the territory and borders of the late antique civitates were transformed often only with minor changes into the diocese of the bishop.19 The Roman toll system was highly developed and its administrative structure included tolls within the borders of the empire.20 Three major toll districts – Gallia with the quadragesima galliarum,21 Illyricum with the portorium illyricum22 and Italia – adjoined in the Alps. This led to a customs frontier stretching from Cemelenum (today Cimiez/Nizza) to Histria (today Slowenia). As we will see, it is not a coincidence, that next to many of these toll stations early medieval bishoprics and monasteries of the Alps were founded and started to flourish. A location in the Alps also meant that the local ecclesiastical institutions were far away from the centres of power and thus could often act independently. The Merovingian kings of the sixth and seventh centuries, who, in theory, nearly ruled over the whole Alps, were too busy to maintain their power in their immediate vicinity and thus could not take care of the regions at the fringes of the empire. King Dagobert seems to have been the last Merovingian king to have exercised some sort of power in the Central Alps.23 Farther east, the former Alpine bishoprics of Aguntum,

17 Reinhold Kaiser, Steuer und Zoll in der Merowingerzeit, in: Francia 7 (1979), pp. 1–18, at pp. 7 s; Stefan Esders, „Öffentliche“ Abgaben und Leistungen im Übergang von der Spätantike zum Frühmittelalter: Konzeptionen und Befunde, in: Theo Kölzer / Rudolf Schieffer (eds.), Von der Spätantike zum frühen Mittelalter. Kontinuitäten und Brüche, Konzeptionen und Befunde, Ostfildern 2009, pp. 189–244, at pp. 195 s. 18 Reinhold Kaiser, Teloneum episcopi. Du tonlieu royal au tonlieu épiscopal dans les civitates de la Gaule (VIe–XIIe siècles), in: Werner Paravicini / Karl Ferdinand Werner (eds.), Histoire comparée de l’Administration, München / Zürich 1980, pp. 469–485, at pp. 474–479; idem, Steuer und Zoll in der Merowingerzeit, at pp. 2–4, 11, 16 s.; Chris Wickham, Framing the Early Middle Ages. Europe and the Mediterranean 400–800, Oxford 2005, p. 114. 19 Nancy Gauthier, Le réseau de pouvoirs de l’évêque dans la Gaule du haut Moyen Âge, in: Gian Pietro Brogiolo / Nancy Gauthier / Neil Christie (eds.), Towns and their Territories between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, Leiden 2000, pp. 173–207, at pp. 173–178; Michel Lauwers, Territorium non facere diocesim . . . Conflits, limites et représentation territoriale du diocèse (Ve–XIIIe siècle), in: Florian Mazel (ed.), L’espace du diocèse. Genèse d’un territoire dans l’Occident médiéval (Ve–XIIIe siècle), Rennes 2011, pp. 23–65, at pp. 23–25. 20 Likewise its Merovingian and Carolingian successors, see François Louis Ganshof, Het tolwezen in het frankisch rijk onder de Karolingen, Brussel 1959, pp. 18 s. 21 Jérôme France, Quadragesima Galliarum. L’organisation douanière des provinces alpestres, gauloises et germaniques de l’Empire romain. Ier siècle avant J.-C. – IIIe siècle après J.-C., Rome 2001, at p. 293: map of the toll stations; Casson, Travel in the Ancient World, pp. 290 s. 22 Sigfried Jan de Laet, Portorium. Étude sur l’organisation douanière chez les Romains, surtout à l’époque du Haut-empire, Brugge 1949 (repr. 1975). 23 Herwig Wolfram, Salzburg, Bayern, Österreich. Die Conversio Bagoariorum und die Quellen ihrer Zeit, Wien 1995 pp. 44 s.; Kaiser, Churrätien, pp. 37–39.

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Teurnia and (if it existed24) Virunum fell under control of predominantly pagan Slavs and Avars by the end of the sixth century. They removed the bishops from their power and seem to have destroyed the Roman property structure in this area, though a simple church structure seems to have persisted.25 The Roman cities there perished nearly without a trace.26 The autonomy of Alpine bishoprics changed in the course of the eighth century, when under Carolingian rule for the last time the Alps were reigned by one sovereign. Suddenly the Alps were located in the centre of an empire and were crossed frequently, not only by the king and his retinue, but also by armies, merchants, pilgrims and other people doing business on either side of the Alps. The valleys along these traffic routes became a focus of the Carolingians who tried to confirm their power by regaining the rights over the roads and lands and by founding additional monasteries and churches. One example is the Carolingian church St Benedict in Mals (Vinschgau), were a unique portrait of a noble church founder, maybe even King Pippin of Italy, is depicted (Fig. 1).27 After this outline, I investigate the Alpine bishoprics and monasteries and their connections to Roman roads and tolls.

1 Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, Novalesa and the Mont Cenis The Roman road between Liguria and the provinces of Gallia led from the Rhône either via Grenoble (Cularo/Gratianopolis) and the Romanche valley or, further south, via Sisteron (Segustero), Gap (Vappincum) and Embrum (Eburodunum) along the Durance river over the Montgenèvre to Susa (Segusio) and further to Torino (Augusta Taurinorum). Another connection was via the Tarentaise and Little Saint Bernard to the Aosta Valley. These roads have an abundancy of vici and Roman finds along the way. They connected Upper Italy with the Provence, with Milan and Vienne being major centres of the late Roman Empire.28

24 This bishopric is only hypothetical; Berg, Bischöfe, pp. 53, 83. 25 Walter Pohl, The Avars. A Steppe Empire in Central Europe, 567–822, Ithaca (NY) / London 2018, pp. 183–185; Peter Štih, The Middle Ages between the Eastern Alps and the Northern Adriatic. Select Papers on Slovene Historiography and Medieval History, Leiden 2010, pp. 95 s. 26 Like Devroey, Économie 221, put it: “Entre 400 et 600, la présence ou l’absence d’un évêque fait toute la différence entre la survie et la mort des cités” – between 400 and 600 the presence or absence of a bishop made the difference between the survival or the death of the cities. 27 Herwig Wolfram, Grenzen und Räume. Geschichte Österreichs vor seiner Entstehung, Wien 1995, pp. 147–150. 28 Guy Barruol / Jean Dupraz, Les voies des Montgenèvre et de l’Oisans, in: Colette JourdainAnnequin (ed.), Atlas culturel des Alpes occidentales. De la Préhistoire à fin du Moyen Âge. Paris 2004, pp. 166 s.; A. Canal, Les voies du Grand et du Petit Saint-Bernard, in: Atlas Culturel, pp. 164 s.;

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Figure 1: The Carolingian Founder of the Church St Benedict in Mals.

From the sixth century on, the centre of power in Gallia shifted from the Provence further to the north to the centre of the Frankish realms. This changed also the main direction of the traffic: gradually, the Maurienne Valley over the Mont Cenis emerged as the main route. One important portion of the medieval traffic over the Alps stemmed from pilgrims from the British Isles and Francia flocking to Rome and beyond, to the Holy Land.29 For them, the Mont Cenis was the shorter way. Both routes – the old over the Montgenèvre and the new over the Mont Cenis – led through the Susa Valley, where the antique and early medieval border between Gallia and Italia was located. Soon, the ecclesiastical institutions in this area reflected the shift of traffic. In the sixth century the bishopric Saint Jean was founded in the Maurienne – a valley which has no significant Roman sites and archaeological finds. The legend of the foundation of Saint Jean is linked with the increased flow of the pilgrims. According to a legend, in the Maurienne once lived a pious woman called Tigris/Thekla who, inspired by the pilgrims traveling through the valley, also wished to make the voyage to the Holy Land. When she reached her destination, by an extraordinary strike

François Wiblé, Pässe und Verkehrswege, in: Vallis Poenina. Das Wallis in römischer Zeit. Ausstellungskatalog, Sitten 1998, pp. 75–81, at pp. 75–78. 29 McCormick, Origins, p. 153.

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of luck, she could acquire three fingers of Saint John the Baptist. She brought these digits back for her local church. Soon the relics were housed in an appropriate church and eventually at some point in the sixth century the bishopric was founded. For the pilgrims to Rome and the Holy Land this legend made the route via the Maurienne even more attractive. Soon this church became a centre of pilgrimage on its own.30 According to late antique church standards a bishopric should only be founded in a proper location which ideally was a Roman civitas.31 Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne hardly qualified for this, as there was no Roman civitas in the whole valley. However, in the aftermath of the crumbling Roman state these standards were mitigated and a proper place could also be a place of cultural or economic capital. The traffic through the Maurienne and over the Mont Cenis, enhanced by the pilgrimage to Saint Jean in the valley, was sufficient to generate significant income and power in order to make the site an appropriate place for an early medieval bishopric. The importance of the location is also demonstrated by the dispute in Carolingian times between the churches of Vienne and the Tarentaise and, later, Turin over the area.32 The adjacent bishops and archbishops had a vital interest to gain control over the ecclesiastical institutions situated at important roads over the Alps. On the other, eastern, side of the mountains, these roads through the Western Alps led into the Susa Valley. This valley was very romanised, with Susa (Segusio) as the main civitas. The famous Merovingian writer and monk Jonas of Bobbio (600–659) was born here.33 Nevertheless, no bishopric was founded in Susa. In 726, the rich Provencal aristocrat Abbo, a lieutenant of Charles Martell, founded the abbey of Novalesa. In 739 he donated to this monastery a huge endowment of property.34 The abbey was built directly at the foot of the Montgenèvre, but as Abbo was

30 Gregory of Tours, Liber in Gloria martyrum, MGH SS rer., Merov. 1.3, pp. 47 s.; Vita Tirgis Virginis Mauriennensis, MGH SS rer., Merov. 3, pp. 533 s.; Alexis Billiet, G.M. Albrieux, Chartes du diocèse de Maurienne, Chambéry 1861, pp. 8–10; also a certain Thomas of Farfa started in the Maurienne his journey to Rome and the Holy Land shortly before the year 700. McCormick, Origins, p. 172; Ugo Balzani (ed.), Constructio Farfensis, Fonti per la Storia d’Italia, Rome 1903, p. 33.1. For the shift see also the development of the so-called Via Francigena, Francesca Stasolla, Le Alpi cerniera tra popoli e culture: Le Vie di Lunga Percorrenza, in: Carlo Magno e le Alpi. Atti del XVIII Congresso internazionale di studio sull’alto medioevo, Susa, 19–20 ottobre 2006 – Novalesa, 21 ottobre, Spoleto 2007, pp. 253–268, at p. 262 and Fig. 8 and 9. 31 Florian Mazel, L’Évêque et le territoire. L’invention médiévale de l’espace, Paris 2016, pp. 33, 42–44. 32 Nathanael Nimmegeers, Évêques entre Bourgogne et Provence. La province ecclésiastique de Vienne au haut Moyen Âge (Ve–XIe siècle), Rennes 2014, pp. 67 s.; Mazel, L’évêque et le territoire, pp. 39, 198–201. 33 Jonas, Vita Columbani book II c. 5, MGH SS rer., Germ. 37, p. 237. 34 Patrick Geary, Aristocracy in Provence. The Rhône Basin at the Dawn of the Carolingian Age, Stuttgart 1985, p. 120–125, edition and translation of the charter pp. 38–79.

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Frankish, its property – villages, farms, vineyards, iron – and salt works and flocks of sheep spread over the whole Frankish Alps on the Western side of the mountains (Fig. 2).35 The border between the Frankish and the Lombard kingdoms was placed at the exit of the Susa Valley near Saint Michel, more or less the same place where also the Roman border between Gallia and Italia had been.36 Later, the famous monastery of Saint Michel de la Cluse was founded on this site.37 Some property of Novalesa was even positioned beyond the border, in Lombard territory (as the property of Saint Denis in Valtellina, see below).38 Despite of its location, the monastery was oriented towards the Frankish parts of the Alps until the times of Louis the Pious, when the monastery was subdued under the bishopric of Turino. Nevertheless, also as an Italian monastery Novalesa remained a frontier monastery39 – a function which it shared with many other Alpine monasteries. In the year 769 King Karlman freed Novalesa from all duties for anything which can be carried on “carra, saumas, navalis et ad dorsa” – on carriages, sumpter mules, boats and on the back – with a special mention of the sheep which in summer were driven to the pastures of the Alps.40 This charter probably applied to the products made by Novalesan agricultural units on the other side of the mountains. It also is an indirect evidence of tolls near the pass between the monastery’s property and the monastery itself. But in spite of the strategical position of the monastery at the exit / entrance of one of the most important Alpine passes in this area41 and the impressive list of property and agricultural activities in the adjacent Alpine valleys, we find no direct traces of route management such as hospices or a mention of tolls.42

35 See the map in Guy Barruol / Henri Falque-Vert, Les biens du patrice Abbon en 739. Atlas culturel, pp. 248 s.; Laurent Ripart, La Novalaise, les Alpes et la frontière (VIIIe–XIIe siècle), in: Frederi Arneodo / Paolo Guglielmotti (ed.), Attraverso le Alpi. S. Michele, Novalesa, S. Teofredo e altre reti monastiche, Bari 2008, pp. 95–114, at p. 103. 36 Inscriptions concerning the fines cotti where found in Avigliana (near Saint Michel), France, Quadragesima Galliarum, p. 86, Nr. 18. 37 Christian Lauranson-Rosaz, L’abbaye de Saint-Michel de La Cluse et le Midi de la Gaule, Xe– XIIIe siècles, in: Attraverso le Alpi, pp. 39–61, at pp. 42 s. 38 Geary, Aristocracy, p. 44, a small monastery “infra regnum langobardorum” and a farm at the valley of Dubbione “infra fines langobardorum”. 39 Ripart, la Novalaise, pp. 104–108. 40 MGH DD, Kar.1, Nr. 47, pp. 66 s., from October 769 and also Pepin the Short in 765, MGH leges 1, pp. 29 s. 41 Ripart, La Novalaise, pp. 99 s. The abbey was positioned not only at the foot of Mont Cenis, but also of the Mont Genèvre and the valley of Bardonecchia; Ripart, La Novalaise, p. 102. 42 Geary, Aristocracy in Provence, pp. 81–90.

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Finally, in 825 Louis the Pious ordered the monastery to donate property for the sustentation of a newly established hospice directly on the height of Mont Cenis.43 Presumably, he wanted to (re?)gain control over the pass. Moreover, this is our first medieval evidence of the re-introduction of the Roman practice to offer a safe space placed directly on top of a pass. After the crumbling of the Roman state institutions this practice ceased, because the maintenance of an institution on such marginal areas required a more evolved governmental (or ecclesiastical) organisation.

Figure 2: Property of Novalesa near the Monastery.

43 The hospice was built “in Cinisius monte” for the reception of pilgrims “ad peregrinorum receptionem eo iubente fieret constructum.” In 1200 the monastery could (finally) get the hospice at the top of the mountain. MGH DD, Lo 1, Nr. 4, AD 825, pp. 60 s.

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2 Saint-Maurice d’Agaune, Sion and the Great St Bernard Pass Further in the East, the Great Saint Bernard Pass was one of the main routes over the Alps, in Roman as well as in Medieval times. The Great Saint Bernard is with its 2,469 metres the highest pass of all main routes over the Alps. But it also offers the fastest ascend and descend: both the Valais and the Aosta Valley are among the lowest, warmest and therefore also most densely populated valleys of the Alps. In addition, the position of the pass in the middle of the Alps on the most direct route from Francia to Italy was a factor which added to the importance of this pass since Neolithic times.44 At the northern foot of the Great St Bernard in a strategic position at a narrow of the Rhône Valley, shortly before it flows into Lake Geneva, one of the oldest monasteries of the Alps is situated: Saint-Maurice d’Agaune.45 Around 400, Bishop Theodor or Theodul of Sion built a basilica at the supposed place of the martyrdom of Saint Maurice and the Theban Legion at the end of the third century. Thirty years later, Bishop Eucherius of Lyon wrote the widely distributed hagiography of these martyrs, in which he also tells us about the discovery of the relics and the first building of a church by Saint Theodor.46 Probably since that time a monastic community has existed at this site. In the year 515 the Burgundian King Sigismund formally founded a royal monastery here and enriched it with many possessions.47 After

44 Denis van Berchem, Du portage au péage: le rôle des cols transalpins dans l’histoire du Valais celtique, in: Museum Helveticum 13.4 (1956), pp. 199–208. 45 Anne Marie Helvétius, L’Abbaye d’Agaune de la fondation de Sigismond au règne de Charlemagne (515–814), in: Bernard Andenmatten / Laurent Ripart / Thalia Brero (eds.), L’abbaye de Saint-Maurice d’Agaune 515–2015, vol. 1: Histoire et Archaéologie, Gollion 2015, pp. 111–133, at p. 111. 46 Beat Näf, Eucherius von Lyon: sein Bericht vom Martyrium der Thebäischen Legion und die historische Topographie zur Zeit des Überganges von der Spätantike ins Mittelalter, in: Geschichte und Region 15 (2006), pp. 13–33, at pp. 18–30; Francois-Olivier Dubuis / Antoine Lugon, De la mission au reseau paroissial. Le diocèse de Sion jusqu’au XIIIe siecle, Sion 2002, p. 21. There exists also another, maybe even older, version of the hagiography by an anonymous. Eric Chevalley, La Passion anonyme de Saint-Maurice d’Agaune, Edition critique, in: Vallesia 45 (1990), pp. 37–120, at pp. 38–41 and idem / Cédric Roduit, La naissance du cult des saints d’Agaune et les premiers textes hagiographices, in: L’abbaye de Saint-Maurice, pp. 33–57, at pp. 35–38. 47 Marius von Avenches, MGH Auct., Ant. 11, AD 515, p. 234; Gregory of Tours, Histories book 3, c. 5, MGH SS rer., Merov. 1.1, pp. 100 s.; Näf, Eucherius, p. 29. The excavations show a large ecclesiastical complex well before the time of King Sigismund. Alessandra Antonini, Archéologie du site abbatial (des origins au Xe siècle), in: L’abbaye de Saint-Maurice, pp. 59–109, at pp. 66 s.; Barbara H. Rosenwein, One site, many meanings: Saint-Maurice d’Agaune as a Place of Power in the Early Middle Ages, in: Mayke de Jong / Frans Theuws (eds.), Topographies of Power in the Early Middle Ages, Leiden 2001, pp. 271–329, at pp. 273–280. For the possessions see below, FN 64.

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his death by the hand of Chlodomer in 523, his remains were buried in St-Maurice some years after. Eventually he also became a saint.48 The reputation of Saint Maurice, the Theban Legion and also King Sigismund as one of the most renowned saints in Francia made the monastery one of the most important of the Frankish empire.49 The whole area belonged to the ecclesiastical province of the archbishop of Vienne, as it is also attested in the presence of the well-known Bishop Avitus of Vienne at the consecration of the monastery St-Maurice in 515.50 Founded as a royal monastery it could soon act independently from the powers of the bishop of the Valais, to whom this place was officially subordinated.51 At first, this bishop had his seat in the Roman civitas of Octodurum, today Martigny, located at the foot of the Great Saint Bernard, only 10 kilometres away from the monastery. In the mid-sixth century, we read about a fight among the monks of this congregation and the bishop,52 and by the end of the sixth century, the bishop no longer resided in Martigny; he moved to today’s Sion.53 Reasons for this move are not explained in the sources. Sion could have been the safer location at the top of a hill in the middle of the valley – conveniently located near the Simplon Pass. The disputes and competition with St-Maurice might have been another factor.54 The significance of St-Maurice exeeded the spiritual realm. From the very beginning, it was an economic foundation as well.55 Gregory of Tours narrates a tale of greedy monks in an unnamed monastery in the Valais. In the year 563, a large landslide at a mountain called Tauredunum, located somewhere in the valley near the Lake Geneva, caused a tsunami which even hit Geneva on the opposite shore of the

48 See the passio of the eighth century, Beat Näf, Mauritius – der heilige Soldat: Geschichte einer Legende, Universität Zürich, Zürich 2017 [URL:https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-137803], p. 97. 49 Rosenwein, One Site, p. 271–273; the special liturgy installed in St-Maurice is called laus perennis and served as a matrix for other Merovingian monasteries. Chronicles of the so-called Fredegar c. 4.79 MGH SS rer., Merov. 2, p. 161; Rosenwein, Negotiating Space, pp. 63 s., 76, FN 6; Corbinian Gindele, Die gallischen laus perennis-Klöster und ihr ordo officii, in: Revue Bénédictine 69 (1959) pp. 32–48. 50 Näf, Eucherius von Lyon, p. 28; Marius of Avenches MGH auct., Ant. 11, AD 563, pp. 225–240, at p. 237; this is also mentioned in the nineth century “foundation charter”, Jean-Marie Theurillat, L’acte de fondation de l’abbaye de Saint-Maurice d’Agaune, in: Bibliothèque de l’école des chartes 110 (1952), pp. 57–88, at p. 80. 51 Rosenwein, One site, pp. 281–284. 52 Marius of Avenches, MGH Auct., Ant. 11, AD 565, p. 237. 53 As visible in the signatures at the Merovingian church councils, MGH Conc. 1, until the year 549 Octodurum (pp. 30, 96, 109), afterwards, from 585, Sedunum (Sion, pp. 173, 192, 213). 54 Hans Hubert Anton, Studien zu den Klosterprivilegien der Päpste im frühen Mittelalter. Unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Privilegierung von Saint-Maurice d’Agaune, Berlin / New York 1975, pp. 130–132. 55 Näf, Mauritius, p. 97.

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lake.56 Some monks found ores at the place where the mountain had slid down and started mining. Ignoring the ongoing noises and movements of the peak they dug for more and more. Suddenly, the mountain slid down again and all monks were buried. Due to the vicinity of the mountain to the monastery of St-Maurice it is very likely that this tale refers to its monks or a dependant cella. The morale of this story is that, according to Gregory, an ecclesiastical institution should not engage in economic activities as this is a deadly sin: cupiditas (avarice). However, we also learn, between the lines, that these monks possessed the knowledge of mining ores and, most probably, had already done so in this area.57 At the core of St-Maurice’s wealth stands the charter of the donations of King Sigismund for the monastery. Unfortunately, the transmission of the charter is difficult. The version we know stems from the Carolingian era. It is not clear, to which extent this charter used older ones or the original documents on the donations granted by the Burgundian king. These charters are lost completely.58 Also significant in this Carolingian charter is that the monks of Agaune had already forgotten (or had chosen to forget), that the bishop’s see once was so close to the monastery in Martigny, although the bishop continued to have property there.59 The charter shows that the monastery had property spread out over the whole Valais (and beyond) (Fig. 3).60 It was not only the endowment granted by the Burgundian king that made this monastery so powerful. From the sixth century onwards, monasteries in whole Gallia tried to gain more independence61 and one part of this was to obtain privileges, for example exemption from tolls and duties, and immunitas. St-Maurice often served as an example for exemptions and immunitas. In addition, the monastery’s income and donations remained fully within its power. The bishop had no access to it.62

56 Gregory of Tours, Histories book 4, c. 31, MGH SS rer., Merov. 1.1, p. 163; Marius of Avenches, p. 234; Traces in the lake’s sediments seem to verify these accounts, Katrina Kremer / Guy Simpson / Stéphanie Girardclos, Giant Lake Geneva Tsunami in AD 563, in: Nature Geoscience 5/11 (2012), pp. 756 s. 57 On the sources of early medieval monasteries and episcopates in mining production of the Alps see Rolf Sprandel, Die oberitalienische Eisenproduktion im Mittelalter, in: Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte 52 (1965), pp. 289–330, at pp. 298–301. 58 Theurillat, L’acte de fondation, pp. 68–70, Dubuis / Lugon, De la mission, p. 22. 59 Dubuis / Lugon, De la mission, p. 19. 60 Cf. the foundation charter of St-Maurice: Jean-Marie Theurillat (ed.), L’acte de foundation de l’abbaye de Saint-Maurice d’Agaune, in: Bibliothèque des Écoles des Chartes 110 (1952), pp. 57–88, at pp. 79–88. Cf. ibid., at p. 86 features the property (curtes) in the area of Geneva, Lyon, Grenoble, the Aosta Valley and in the Valais, “Contextis, Sidrio / Sidrium, Bernona, Leuca, Bramusio / Bramosium, Duodecimo Paterno”, and, according to a later transmission, in “Aulonum, Williacum, Wouregium, Actannis, Actunellum cum Silvano et omnes Alpes a capite laci usque ad Martiniacum”. The places were identified after Dubuis / Lugon, De la mission, p. 22. 61 Anton, Klosterprivilegien, pp. 2 s. 62 Ibid., p. 22; Rosenwein, One Site, p. 283.

55

Figure 3: Property of Saint-Maurice d’Agaune in the Valais.

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The monastery was also positioned near (or at) the very point where in the Roman Empire the Quadragesima Galliarum was collected.63 We do not know the exact site where the toll was levied: some suppose it was at the nearby village Massongex, in Roman times called Tarnaiae, where supposedly the main route crossed the Rhône.64 In the year 574, the Lombards plundered St-Maurice and met the Frankish army at Baccis (today Bex), opposite of Tarnaiae (Fig. 3). Marius of Avenches, when narrating this event, distinguishes between “clusas” and the monastery (“monasterium sanctorum acaunensium”) itself.65 The finding of a funerary stele mentioning the toll directly at StMaurice could mean that the toll had been levied right at the place of the monastery.66 The importance of St-Maurice for the travellers between Francia and the Italian peninsular is also illustrated by the travels of Pope Stephen II to King Pippin in 753: he stopped in St-Maurice, where the meeting with the king should have taken place.67 By using the example of the bishopric Maurienne, of the abbey Novalesa and the Abbey of St-Maurice we see that from the sixth century on, ecclesiastical institutions were located at strategic positions at the foot of the main passes and roads of the Alps. We can also identify a connection to the emerging traffic of pilgrims travelling to Rome or the Holy Land. However, we do not possess direct evidence that the monasteries did also levy tolls and thereby could generate an extra income. Their position at or near former Roman borders and toll posts suggests that tolls were part of their economic portfolio. This becomes more apparent when we investigate Churraetia.

3 Churraetia, the Julier Pass and the Septimer Pass In Roman and Medieval times, a vast and only thinly populated solitude of mountains and high Alpine valleys lay between the upper Valais and Alpine Rhine Valleys. Still, local routes over the Alps did exist, as we see from the archaeological remains.68 However, they do not appear in early Medieval sources. The Saint Gotthard Pass, highly

63 France, Quadragesima Galliarum, pp. 90–96, 330; François Wiblé, Saint-Maurice / Acaunus, in: Vallis Poenina, p. 163. 64 Gerold Walser, Summus Poeninus: Beiträge zur Geschichte des Grossen St. Bernhard-Passes in römischer Zeit, Wiesbaden 1984, p. 82 and inscription ILS 9035. 65 Marius von Avenches, p. 239. 66 François Wiblé, L’abbaye de Saint-Maurice, p. 69. 67 Liber pontificalis 94: Stephan II, ed. By Louis Marie Duchesne, Le Liber Pontificalis, texte, introduction et commentaire (Volume 1), Paris 1886, pp. 448 s. See also the MGH DD, Kar 1., Nr. 98: here, the monastery of Farfa is elevated into the list of the most illustrious monasteries of Francia, which are: Luxeul, Lérins and St-Maurice; Näf, Mauritius, pp. 104–106. 68 For example the Roman roadstation at the Iffigsee, Peter J. Suter / Albert Hafner / Kathrin Glauser, Lenk-Schnidejoch. Funde aus dem Eis – Ein vor- und frühgeschichtlicher Passübergang, in: Archäologie im Kanton Bern 6 (2005), pp. 499–522, at pp. 519–521.

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important since the thirteenth century, was only of local importance in earlier times. The foundation of the Disentis Abbey in 720 meant that the Lukmanier Pass from then on was also used by supraregional traffic.69 In 590 the Franks appeared at Bellinzona, at that time a heavily fortified Lombard castle. We do not know where exactly the Franks crossed the Alps. Gregory says they came “from the right”, with the other army on the left passing through and plundering the Etsch Valley.70 This means, they could have taken the Nufenen or even Saint Gotthard Pass. But it seems more likely that they reached Bellinzona via the Simplon (via the route Domodossola–Locarno) or, most probably, through Churraetia and by the Lukmanier (or San Bernadino). In Roman, Merovingian and Carolingian times the most important route from the Rhine and Lake Constance to Italy led through the Alpine valleys of the Rhine via Chur over the Julier and the Maloja Pass, less often via the Lukmanier, San Bernadino and Splügen.71 Again an ecclesiastical institution became the main power to control their roads and traffic: the bishops of Churraetia. This was the name given to an area that once had been part of the Roman province of Raetia. The lowlands and Eastern Alpine part were lost to the Bavarians and to the Alemanni in the course of the sixth century.72 The bishopric of Churraetia dates back at least to the mid-fifth century. We first read about a bishop of Churraetia, when the bishop of Como on behalf of the absent bishop Asinius of Curia signed a letter to Pope Leo I (d. 461).73 Churraetia was located on the eastern fringes of the Merovingian kingdoms. Due to the inner-Merovingian disputes in the seventh and early eighth century, Churraetia was not a major passage for the Frankish nobility and armies. The area was too far away from the Frankish centres of power. Therefore, the bishop of the former civic centre of this area Churraetia managed to become not only the spiritual but also the worldly leader of this bishopric. And, as in other Gallic cities, it was one family that could keep this power: the Victorides, who ruled until the mideighth century, with the last being Bishop Tello (d. 765).74 For Churraetia we have sources which explicitly tell us that the bishop also levied taxes, tolls and road charges on the passes of the Alps. And here we also meet a peculiarity of mountainous areas which are connected with tariffs: the so-called

69 Kaiser, Churrätien, pp. 135–138. 70 Gregory of Tours, Hist. Franc. 10.3; Paulus Diaconus, Hist. Lang. 3.31. 71 Kaiser, Churrätien, p. 177: the most usable route from the alpine Rhine Valley to Bellinzona is the Lukmanier. 72 The Alemannic bishopric of Constance was founded in the end of the sixth century; Kaiser, Churrätien, p. 84; east of the river Lech were the Bavarians. Wolfram, Salzburg, Bayern, Österreich, p. 25. 73 Elisabeth Meyer-Marthaler / Franz Perret (ed.), Bündner Urkundenbuch, Chur 1955, Bd. 2, p. 3; Kaiser, Churrätien, p. 70. 74 Ibid., pp. 45–55.

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claustra (in Roman times) and clusa/clusurae (in Medieval times and the Byzantine Empire). These claustra/clusa are the technical term for walls or other defensive structures at gorges and narrow parts in valleys at the foot of passes. Here, travellers were controlled, tolls were paid and – if necessary – a garrison stationed.75 In the Alps we first hear of these in Curia in 538. In one passage of the Variae, Cassiodorus wrote to the dux of Raetia: Raetiae namque munimina sunt Italiae et claustra provinciae (“because Raetia is the wall of Italy and the closure of the province”). Some 250 years later, between 790 and 796, the Anglo-Saxon adviser to Charlemagne, Alcuin, wrote an accompanying letter for one of his merchants. In this letter, Alcuin asked Remigius, the bishop of Curia and a personal friend, that his merchant may use the routes and passes through Curia save and sound and – most importantly – without paying the tolls. It is remarkable that Alcuin used the same word as Cassiodorus – claustra.76 In Alcuin’s time claustra designated the restricted areas where monks lived in their monastery. The mountainous blockades were called clusa/clusurae.77 But in this letter Alcuin did a play on words by combining the claustra of the monks with the one of the collectors of the tolls which was probably used up until his time for these structures in Churraetia. More importantly, this text is proof that the tolls and duties were fully in the hand of the Bishop of Curia: Alcuin did not turn to Charlemagne but to Remigius in order to be freed from the levies.78 Around the year 807, things changed: Charlemagne introduced the division between bishopric and worldly duchy/county, as also done in other areas of in his realm. This divisio inter episcopatum et comitatum probably also alienated much of the bishopric’s property, as we know from the laments of Bishop Victor III from around 830.79 The so-called Churrätisches Reichsguturbar, presumably created in 842, seems to be an outcome of this quarrel: it listed all regal property in Churraetia.80 This also meant that the income through tolls was given back to the king. However, the bishops regained the rights in the year 952 when King Otto I officially handed

75 Katharina Winckler, Between Symbol of Power and Customs Station: Early Medieval Fortifications in the Eastern Alps according to Written Sources, in: Atti dell’Accademia Roveretana degli Agiati A 2 (2012) pp. 107–128, at pp. 111–120. 76 MGH Epist. IV, p. 77. “Hunc nostrum negociatorem Italiae mercimonia ferentem, his litteris tuae paternitatis commendo protectioni, ut per vias vestrae patriae tutus eat et redeat; et in montium claustris a vestris non teneatus tolneariis constructus, sed per latitudinem caritatis latam habeat eundi et redeundi semitam.”, See also Kaiser, Churrätien, pp. 224 s. 77 On the clusaticum, the tariff levied at the clusae: Hildegard Adam, Das Zollwesen in fränkischer Zeit, Stuttgart 1996, p. 46; François Louis Ganshof, Het tolwezen in het frankisch rijk onder de Karolingen, Brussel 1959, pp. 11, 17, 24–27. 78 Kaiser, Churrätien, p. 53. 79 Ibid., pp. 53–58; Bündner Urkundenbuch, no 46, pp. 38–40. 80 Datation after Kaiser, Churrätien, p. 209; Otto P. Clavadetscher, Zum churrätischen Reichsgutsurbar aus der Carolingerzeit, in: Zeitschrift für schweizerische Geschichte 30/2 (1950), pp. 161–197, 178.

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over all toll privileges to the bishop of Curia. The phrasing in the charter could indicate that the bishop had already regained the rights to do so even before that time.81 The Reichsguturbar is also an important document for reconstructing the infrastructure of the eighth and early ninth century road-network which led through the Rhine Valleys over the Julier Pass to Italy. It featured supply stations in regular intervals as well as stables which served as changing station for the horses (Fig. 4).82 At the foot of the passes, the Valtellina had already played an important role in the Vita beati Antoni (of Lérins) by Ennodius. In contrast to other descriptions of the Alps it was depicted as a mellow valley with plenty of agricultural crop for the inhabitants. Here, Antonius founded a monastic community.83 We do not know what became of this monastery. After the second half of the sixth century, the Valtellina was part of the realm of the Lombards. In Carolingian times, the valley featured prominently again in a charter for to the royal monastery of Saint Denis: it had large possessions here, at the border of the Churraetian bishop’s influence sphere.84 This property seems to have been in the hands of Saint Denis since the times of the Merovingians. As in the case of Novalesa, these possessions demonstrate that the monasteries could have valuable property along important roads even in realms which belonged political enemies.85

4 Säben and the Brenner Pass Further east, the main connection from the Po plains to the garrisons at the Roman border along the Danube was the Via Claudia Augusta which led over the Reschen Pass and the Brenner Pass, and then along the river Lech to Augsburg (Augusta Vindelicorum) and further.86 The variant over the Brenner Pass, with an altitude of only 1,370 m, was the fastest one, but the steep valley of the Eisack which had to be crossed

81 MGH DD OI, pp. 228 s.; Kaiser, Churrätien, pp. 121 s. 82 Bündner Urkundenbuch, pp. 372–396; Kaiser, Churrätien, map 20 at pp. 174 s., 223; Otto P. Clavadetscher, Verkehrsorganisation in Rätien zur Karolingerzeit, in: Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Geschichte 5 (1955), pp. 1–30; Adam, Zollwesen, pp. 35, 86 s. 83 Magnus Felix Ennodius, De vita beati Antonii, ed. by Frank M. Ausbüttel, Darmstadt 2016, pp. 144 s. 84 MGH DD, Kar 1, #94, AD 775, pp. 135 s.; MGH DD, Lo 1., #80, AD 843, pp. 191–200 and #100, AD 848, pp. 238–240. 85 See also the commentary to the forged charter in DD. Mer. 2, dep. 254, p. 607. 86 Anselmo Baroni / Elvira Migliario, Dalle autostrade alle “viae” romane. Considerazioni di storia politica e istituzionale sull’uso diacronico di alcuni grandi assi viari transalpini, in: Transits. Infrastructures et société de l’antiquité à nos jours, in: Histoire des Alpes 21 (2016), pp. 13–26, at pp. 18–22; Kaiser, Churrätien, p. 282; Gerald Grabherr, Via Claudia Augusta – eine transalpine Verkehrsverbindung, in: Elisabeth Walde / Gerald Fuchs, Via Claudia Augusta und Römerstraßenforschung im östlichen Alpenraum, Innsbruck 2006, pp. 35−336.

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Figure 4: Property mentioned in the Churrätische Reichsguturbar.

posed problems for the traveller. There, the Romans had built a road through the narrows. In contrast to this, the Reschen Pass is easily accessible. It also belongs to the Alpine passes with the lowest altitude (1,504 m).87 In the Roman Empire, the area south of the passes had been an internal tariff border, as the toll districts of Gallia and Illyricum adjoined here with the one of Italia.88 The bishopric of Trento is a very old one, with one of its bishops, Vigilius

87 Verena Gassner / Sonja Jilek / Sabine Ladstätter, Am Rande des Reiches. Die Römer in Österreich, Wien 2003, pp. 94 s. 88 Elena Banzi, Sistema daziario sulla rete viaria romana nel territorio altoatesino: vecchi et nuovi dati – Das Zollwesen entlang der römischen Verkehrswege in Südtirol: Alte und neue Schriftzeugnisse,

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(c. 355–405), being a correspondent with Saint Augustine of Hippo (354–430).89 In the late sixth century there are references in the sources to the bishops of Säben and Trento. Paul the Deacon (725/30 – before 800), citing Secundus of Trento, who lived in the first third of the seventh century, tells us about citizens of the Etsch Valley being held captive by the Franks. Bishop Ingenuinus of Säben (c. 570–605) and Agnellus of Trento (†595 or 618) could free them – they must have been influential people by then.90 From the early 6th century on this middle part of the Alps, which is today the Austrian province Tyrol and the Italian Alto Adige, were of strategic importance as it had become a boundary between the FrankishBavarian and the Lombard realms. However, it is not entirely clear, where this area belonged to in the sixth and seventh century. By the eighth century, the border between Bavarians and Lombards apparently shifted around the Vinschgau, Merano and Bolzano.91 But the valleys at the foot of the Brenner were not of special interest for the rulers and seemed to have enjoyed a larger autonomy in the seventh and early eighth century – maybe under the rule of the bishop of Säben. There are no mentions in the sources of a bishop in Säben until the year 769, when Bishop Alim (†800) was present at the donation of the monastery of Innichen by Duke Tassilo (III) of Bavaria (c.741–796).92 Although Innichen was in the diocese of Säben, it was given to the Abbot Atto of Scharnitz. After Atto became bishop of Freising (783/84–810/11), Innichen fell to the bishopric of Freising.93 The presence of Bishop Alim confirms that this area was part of his ecclesiastical territory and, in addition that his bishopric was from this time on part of the Bavarian church province. Curiously, when the Bavarian diocesan structure was created in 739, Säben was not part of it.94 So, where was the bishop? Of course, there is the possibility that the bishop’s seat had been vacant for a (long) while. However, archaeological remains show that

in: Gianni Ciurletti / Nicoletta Pisu (ed.), Il territori della Via Claudia Augusta. Incontri di archeologia, Trento 2005, pp. 173–189, at p. 184. See also France, Quadragesima Galliarum, pp. 152–159; De Laet, Portorium, pp. 144–160. 89 Luigi Franco Pizzolato, Studi su Vigilio di Trento, Milano 2002. 90 Paulus Diaconus, Hist. Lang. III., pp. 30 s.; Giuseppe Albertoni, Die Herrschaft des Bischofs. Macht und Gesellschaft zwischen Etsch und Inn im Mittelalter, Bozen 2003, pp. 54, 58s. 91 Albertoni, Herrschaft des Bischofs, pp. 56–60; Katharina Winckler, Grenzen in einer grenzenlosen Zeit? Frühmittelalterliche Herrschaftsräume in den Alpen, in: Geschichte der Alpen / Histoire des Alpes / Storia delle Alpi 23 (2018): Frontières – Grenzen, pp. 22–24. 92 Albertoni, Herrschaft des Bischofs, p. 59. 93 Jahn, Ducatus, pp. 423–425; With a short period under Salzburgian rule, c. between the end of the 8th century and 816. See the charter for the restitution to Freising, Joseph von Zahn, Codex Diplomaticus Austriaco-Frisingensis, Wien 1870, p. 11, Nr. 9, after a charter from Louis the Pious from 816. 94 Wolfram, Grenzen und Räume, pp. 110 s.

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the seat itself was continuously inhabited in that time.95 The bishop’s see of Säben lies south of the Brenner route and was situated high on a fortified hilltop near the location, were the Eisack Valley starts to be narrow. A Roman toll station was built nearby, probably near today Waidbruck, 5 km south of Säben.96 The name of the village at the foot of the mountain – Klausen – hints towards a fortified structure, but can also mean the narrows here, where also the medieval toll station was positioned.97 The Roman road through the Eisack Valley was probably destroyed in late antiquity and thenceforth the much more strenuous way over the Ritten to Bolzano had to be used.98 The path was rebuilt by Heinrich Kunter in 1314/15 and from then on called Kuntersweg. Curiously, the bishop’s seat of Säben is situated right at the limits of its territory, which ended somewhere before Bolzano, only c. 35 kilometres away. This is just slightly over one day’s walk. The other part of its territory extended east to the fringes of the Slavic and Avaric realms near Innichen and in the North up to the preAlpine hills of Bavaria.99 Like Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, it had no connection to any Roman civic centre, which does not make it an apt place for a bishopric after the Nicaean definition. So, why did the bishops of Säben chose this site as their seat? Also in this case it seems likely that this ecclesiastical institution chose the site because of the position near an important and often used transalpine road and a former Roman toll station, thus helping to generate enough income and power for Säben to make it a worthy place for a bishop. In the eighth century the main route from Bavaria to Italy had shifted from the Brenner Pass to the Reschen Pass and the Vinschgau.100 Sometime in the tenth century the bishop moved his seat from Säben to Brixen, at the road-junction to the Puster Valley, which leads into the eastern parts of the Alps.101 From then on, the

95 Hans Nothdurfter, Frühchristliche und frühmittelalterliche Kirchenbauten in Südtirol, in: Hans Rudolf Sennhauser (ed.), Frühe Kirchen im östlichen Alpengebiet. Von der Spätantike bis in ottonische Zeit, München 2003, pp. 273–354; idem, Der Burgberg von Säben in vor- und frühgeschichtlicher Zeit. Topographie und Stand der archäologischen Forschung, in: Der Schlern 51 (1977), pp. 25–42. 96 The exact location is unknown. Banzi, Zollwesen, p. 185; Baroni / Migliario, Dalle Autostrade, p. 20, esp. p. 21. 97 Martin Bitschnau / Hannes Obermair, Tiroler Urkundenbuch, Innsbruck 2009, pp. 183 s., charter #202, AD 1028 “[. . .] Clusas sitas in loco Sebona in pago Orital in comitatu Engilberti cum theloneo et cum omni utilitate [. . .]”; ÖN Ortsnamenbuch “Klausen”. The Honorantie Civitatis Papie maybe mentions a toll station at Bozen, but the wording is not that clear, MGH SS 30.2, p. 1451. 98 Karl Brunner, Herzogtümer und Marken. Vom Ungarnsturm bis ins 12. Jahrhundert, Wien 1994, p. 197. 99 Albertoni, Herrschaft des Bischofs, p. 178; Max Spindler / Gertrud Diepolder (ed.), Bayerischer Geschichtsatlas, München 1969, maps on pp. 14 s. 100 Additionally the Vinschgau connected via Müstair to Curia; Kaiser, Churrätien, pp. 145–149; for the ninth century see also Albertoni, Herrschaft des Bischofs, pp. 78 s. 101 The curtis there was donated by Ludwig the Child in 901, see MGH DD LK, #12, pp. 113 s.

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bishopric built its influence over the road through the Puster Valley to Carinthia.102 This transfer of interests could mean that the road through the Eisack narrows was destructed sometime in the early middle ages and therefore the bishop had to look out for other income opportunities. In a charter of 901 we learn of the royal donation of the curtis in Brixen and that Säben once had been a rich bishopric which had become poor through bad luck.103 And here it seems that the new allies – the duke of Bavaria and his Carolingian successors – and their newly appropriated land of Carinthia were a new area of interest for the bishops of Säben, who by then had relocated to Brixen.104 Finally, in 1028, the income through the tolls at Klausen came back to the bishop: Emperor Konrad II (1027–1039) endowed the women’s monastery, which now used the former bishop’s seat on the hills of Säben, the whole income of the tolls. These where levied “ad Clusas” and, thenceforward, where an important source of income for the bishopric again.105

5 Many Ways Lead to Rome: The Network of Bavarian Pre-Alpine Monasteries As stated above, the lowlands of Roman Raetia have no sources concerning the existence of Christian structures, with the exception of the Vita Severini. Archaeological findings suggest that there might have been a late antique bishopric of Augsburg.106 After the Bavarians became rulers of the area from the mid-sixth century onwards, we have archaeological traces of churches.107 Later, the sources tell us mainly about proprietary churches, monasteries and even court bishops, for example Liuti of the

102 This route was used by the Frankish armies in the fight against Ljudevit, see Annales regni Francorum MGH SS rer., Germ. [6], AD 820, p. 153. 103 MGH DD LK, #12, p. 144: “[. . .] quin potius incuria antiquorum illius provisorum admodum est minutum et attenuatum, sed et nimia parvitatis paupertate dinoscitur exiguum [. . .]”. 104 Albertoni, Herrschaft des Bischofs, p. 63. 105 Bitschnau / Obermair, Tiroler Urkundenbuch, #202 AD 1028, p. 183; Karl Wolfsgruber, Der Zoll in Klausen, in: Der Schlern 46 (1972), pp. 335–341. 106 Wolfram, Salzburg, Bayern, Österreich, pp. 111 s.; There are different views on the extent of the continuity in Augsburg, for example Büttner, Frühmittelalterliche Bistümer, pp. 6 s.; Friedrich Prinz, Peregrinatio, Mönchtum und Mission, in: Knut Schäferdiek, Die Kirche des frühen Mittelalters, München 1978, pp. 445–465, at p. 457. However, it is undisputed that early medieval Christianity in Augsburg has late antique roots. 107 Christian Later, Zur Archäologischen Nachweisbarkeit des Christentums im frühmittelalterlichen Baiern, in: Irmtraut Heitmeier / Hubert Fehr (ed.), Die Anfänge Bayerns. Von Raetien und Noricum zur frühmittelalterlichen Baiovaria, St. Otilien 2012, pp. 567–612, at pp. 592–599 for the example of Aschheim.

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Albina family and/or Duke Odilo of Bavaria (before 700–748).108 In 739, Boniface installed ‘official’ bishoprics, which became the foundation of the Bavarian ecclesiastical structures. These bishoprics were subordinated to the Pope and not to regional elites. They merged with the older, pre-existing network of proprietary churches, monasteries, like Chiemsee, and ecclesiastical sites such as Passau or Salzburg.109 Like in the rest of the Alps, also in Bavaria monasteries were established at the place, where a former Roman road – here the Via Claudia Augusta – reached the lowlands.110 There was, in contrast to the Western Alps and Curia, not one important monastery or bishopric but several, competing ones. The bishoprics of Freising, Augsburg, and Salzburg acted as founders of abbeys and churches in strategic positions, but also noble families like the Huosi and the Dukes of Bavaria tried to establish a network of monasteries on their own.111 The result of this competition was a chain of monasteries with different owners which led from the Lech to the Enns along the rim of the Alps. They all were located at various, more and less important, passages over the Alps (Fig. 5). A special focal point was the entry of the Via Claudia Augusta into the Alps near Murnau. Near this entry there was the Roman road station Coveliacis, known from the Tabula Peutingeriana.112 No less than four monasteries were positioned in this area, only ten to fifteen kilometres apart, at the former Roman road to the Brenner Pass and the Reschen Pass: Staffelsee, Schlehdorf (the new place of the older monastery of Scharnitz), Benediktbeuren and its dependent women’s convent in Kochel.113 Staffelsee was a monastery of the bishop of Augsburg,114 Schlehdorf belonged to the

108 Störmer, Früher Adel, pp. 357–374; Breves Notitiae c. 8.10; Fritz Lošek, Notitia Arnonis und Breves Notitiae. Die Salzburger Güterverzeichnisse aus der Zeit um 800: Sprachlich-historische Einleitung, Text und Übersetzung, Wien 2006, p. 99. 109 Stephan Freund, Von den Agilolfingern zu den Karolingern. Bayerns Bischöfe zwischen Kirchenorganisation, Reichsintegration und Karolingischer Reform (700–847), München 2004, pp. 9–24, 43–62. 110 For the exact route see Grabherr, Via Claudia Augusta, pp. 66 s., 72. 111 Wilhelm Störmer, Fernstraße und Kloster. Zur Verkehrs- und Herrschaftsstruktur des westlichen Altbayern im frühen Mittelalter, in: Zeitschrift für bayerische Landesgeschichte 29 (1966), p. 299–343, at pp. 306–313. 112 Karlheinz Dietz, Die Römerzeit, in: Alois Schmid (ed.), Das Alte Bayern. Von der Vorgeschichte bis zum Hochmittelalter, München 2017, pp. 45–120, at p. 102. 113 Störmer, Fernstraße, pp. 396–402. 114 For the position on the road see McCormick, Origins, p. 399. Other sources concerning Staffelsee are vague. They even speak of a bishopric of Staffelsee in the second half of the eighth century. The patron saint Michael is the same like Mondsee, Mattsee and Chiemsee and could mean also an Agolilfingan involvement in the foundation. Konrad Elmshäuser, Untersuchungen zum Staffelseer Urbar, in: Werner Rösener (ed.), Strukturen der Grundherrschaft im frühen Mittelalter, Göttingen 1993, pp. 335–369, at pp. 344–348.

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Figure 5: The Bavarian Pre-Alpine Monasteries and Bishoprics.

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bishopric of Freising and Benediktbeuren to the Agilolfingian duke and, later, to the Carolingian king. Schlehdorf/Scharnitz, Benediktbeuren and Kochel were also within the influence sphere of a local family, the Huosi. Thus, each institution had control over its own station, and maybe also its own road, to get there.115 In order to obtain an advantage the Huosi, under the important figure of Reginbert, founded a monastery in the mountains and not at their foot: the monastery of Scharnitz. Their first abbot was Arbeo (723?–784), who later (764) became bishop of Freising and as a consequence, the monastery fell to this bishopric.116 This monastery was built somewhere near the narrow of Mittenwald at the road which leads to the centre of the Inn Valley und thus is the fastest connection from Bavaria to the Brenner Pass. Excavations revealed the remains of a c. eighth century monastery in modern-day Klais, c. 10 kilometres apart from the village that which is called Scharnitz.117 Maybe this was the monastery under Arbeo’s rule, as the name Klais could also hint to the above mentioned clusa and clusurae of the Alps. However, as we know that there were so many small cellae along the rim of the Alps, there might as well have been an actor involved, who is unknown today. This unknown actor might have played a role in the further developments of the monastery Scharnitz. According to the foundation charter most of the property lay in a pagus desertus which literally means a ‘deserted place’. Since the property lay on such a strategic position, this seems not convincing: not only the name of the area was still known, also fishing grounds and villages existed at this pagus desertus at the time of the foundation. Even after the Inn Valley became Bavarian, there might have been enough space in this border area were the land did not belong to anyone anymore – at least not anyone of power.118 In 773, Arbeo relocated the monastery to Schlehdorf. In the charter, there is no indication of the reason of this move. Maybe the original inhabitants along the road won an argument over this area, like, for example, the genealogia Albina could win at least for some years against the bishop of Salzburg in the case of Bischofshofen. Or, alternatively, we have another powerful, but unknown actor, for example the owner of the monastery at Klais, who accomplished that there was no competitor for this important section of road.

115 Störmer, Früher Adel, pp. 284–291; idem, Fernstrasse, p. 309. 116 Theodor Bitterauf (ed.), Die Traditionen des Hochstifts Freising / The Deeds of the Bishopric Freising Freising, vol. 1, AD 744–926, München 1905, #19, AD 763 (or before), pp. 46–48; Störmer, Fernstraße, pp. 305, 309, 336 s. 117 Walter Sage, Das frühmittelalterliche Kloster in der Scharnitz: die Ausgrabungen auf dem “Kirchfeld” zu Klais, Gem. Krün, Landkreis Garmisch-Partenkirchen, in den Jahren 1968–1972, in: Beiträge zur altbayerischen Kirchengeschichte 31 (1977), pp. 11–133. Also Störmer sees the remains of this monastery as belonging to Scharnitz; Störmer, Fernstraßen, p. 336. 118 Störmer, Fernstraße, p. 336, FN 185; Wolfram, Salzburg, Bayern, Österreich, pp. 161 s.; Winckler, Alpen, pp. 316–318. See also the idea of leopard pattern of feudal vs. peasant mode formulated by Wickham, Framing, esp. at pp. 539–543.

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The economic foundation of these pre-Alpine monasteries can be grasped by a Carolingian document of the beginning of the 9th century, the so-called urbarium of Staffelsee. The urbarium lists, along precious items and an inventory of the monastery’s property, also a curtis and the workload of the dependents of this manor, who lived on their own farmsteads.119 Twenty farmsteads had to provide transport services and a special transport horse, the Parafredus. This noun, predecessor of the German word Pferd,comes from Latin paraveredus – the technical term for the horse of a messenger of the Roman cursus publicus. At some time in the Early Middle Ages, these functions along the Via Claudia Augusta had been transferred from the Roman state into the hands of a local ruler and later (or immediately thereafter) to the bishop.120 Another duty of the peasants of Staffelsee was to transport wine, probably over the Alpine passes, although carriage from regional vineyards seems also possible. But it is more likely that we catch a very early glimpse of the transport of the highly renowned transalpine, Italian wine to the bishop of Augsburg, as status symbol for his table and also as luxury item to be re-sold.

6 Salzburg and the Eastern Alpine Passes In Roman times, the vast area of the Eastern Alps was only sparsely populated. Eugippius may have exaggerated, when he spoke of a solitude of 200 miles between Teurnia and Lauriacum.121 We know that the old Roman station Immurium at the foot of the Radstädter Tauern Pass was active until the late fourth century,122 but seems to have decayed from then on, as did the carriage road. An obstacle in this part of the Alps is that the crossing here always meant that at least two passes or more had to be traversed. Therefore, the Romans preferred the way around the Eastern Alps and used the roads along the Danube to Carnuntum and then south, via

119 The text is transmitted in the so-called Brevium exempla, Elmshäuser, Untersuchungen, p. 348. The manor was built not directly at the monastery but near the major road there, maybe at Seehausen, idem, p. 356. Also mentioned is a Gynecaeum, a special working room for women which usually is interpreted as a sign of continuity of late antique structures. Esders, “Öffentliche” Abgaben, pp. 198 s., definition see Michael Lapidge, An Isidorian Epitome from Early Anglo-Saxon England, in: Michael Lapidge, Anglo-Latin Literature 600–899, London 1996, pp. 183–223, at p. 217. 120 The text reads “scaram facit, parafredum donat”: Esders, “Öffentliche” Abgaben, pp. 191–205 for “Paraveredus” in general, at p. 198 for Staffelsee. He calls it a “staatliches Transportdienstleistungspferd”. See also Kolb, Transport und Nachrichtentransfer, p. 195, FN 19; Elmshäuser, Untersuchungen, p. 365, FN 174. 121 Régerat (ed.), Eugippius, Vita Severini, c. 29.2, Régerat (ed.) p. 254. 122 Stefan Groh / Volker Lindinger, Neue Forschungen in Immurium-Voidersdorf / St. Margarethen in Salzburg. Die geophysikalische Prospektion, in: OJH 77 (2008), p. 89.

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Savaria and Poetovio, to the Adriatic ports – the ancient Amber road.123 The Vita Severini and archaeological findings tell us about an established church structure along the Danube and in one inner alpine area, the Carinthian Basin.124 Nearly all routes over the Eastern Alps from the North leading to Italy converged here. The mild climate and the ore-richness were additional factors for the development of a Roman network of towns and bishoprics in this area. As in other areas of the Roman Empire, by the end of the fifth century, the bishop had taken over many civic functions – and had also probably amassed already a fortune.125 After the Slavic takeover around the year 600 this Christian structure – and most likely all of its property – was completely lost.126 The sources of the early eighth century show, that Salzburg tried to gain control over the passes of the Tauern Mountains and East of it even before it was made a ‘proper’ bishopric in 739.127 In 711 locals found the relics of a Saint Maximilian and, with the help of Saint Rupert of Salzburg, founded a monastery in modern-day Bischofshofen – at least this was the official story.128 But this story of origin has flaws: the locals mentioned in the foundation myth were part of the highly connected genealogia Albina and this family had fought bitterly with Salzburg over this church and monastery. According to the idea of the Salzburgian bishop, and later archbishop of Bavaria, Arn (in office from 785–821), this monastery probably should have been as glorious as the other old monasteries of the Alps: the source even hints at the same monastic singing ritual (the laus perennis) like in Saint-Maurice d’Agaune.129 But it could, for various reasons, not develop properly. Firstly, as already outlined, the local elites did not fully stand behind this foundation. Secondly,

123 McCormick, Origins, pp. 68–70; Gassner / Jilek / Ladstätter, Am Rande des Reiches, p. 92, map at p. 91. 124 Régerat (ed.), Eugippius, Vita Severini, c. 17.4, 21.1, Régerat (ed.) p. 254, 236, Eugippius defines Teurnia as the centre of Noricum mediterraneum, omitting completely the sanctuary at the Hemmaberg. On the excavations there and at Teurnia Franz Glaser, Zeugnisse des Frühen Christentums auf dem Hemmaberg und in der Römerstadt Teurnia, in: Volker Grieb / Wolfgang Spickermann (ed.), Frühes Christentum im Ostalpenraum, Graz 2018, pp. 131–156. 125 Régerat (ed.), Eugippius, Vita Severini, Introduction, pp. 107–110; The sanctuary at the Hemmaberg had no less than six churches and must have been extraordinary rich. Franz Glaser, Der frühchristliche Kirchenbau in der nordöstlichen Region (Kärnten / Osttirol), in: Sennhauser (ed.), Frühe Kirchen, pp. 413–437, at p. 425. 126 Štih, The Middle Ages between the Eastern Alps, pp. 92–94. 127 The main sources used here are the so-called Breves Notitiae and Notitia Arnonis, both list property of the bishopric of Salzburg after the Carolingian takeover (in 788) and the establishment of Salzburg as archbishopric (798), Notitia Arnonis 8.8, Lošek, Notitia Arnonis und Breves Notitiae, p. 84. 128 Wolfram, Salzburg, Bayern, Österreich, pp. 132–134. 129 As hinted by the phrasing in Breves Notitiae 3.10, Lošek, Notitia Arnonis und Breves Notitiae, p. 92.

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this part of the Alps could be crossed at several, equally accessible points – at least, as long as there did not yet exist one good road. To gain control over all passes, the bishopric of Salzburg had founded several monasteries, but, assumable because of a lack in manpower, they were only small cellae.130 Bischofshofen served mainly the high passes of the High Tauern and only additionally the Radstätter Tauern Pass – as the monastery was located on the wrong side of the river Salzach and c. 2 kilometres south of the road junction which led the road eastwards towards the pass. This position was also due of the bad relations the Salzburgian church had with its Slavic neighbours of the Eastern Alps: shortly after the foundation, the latter destroyed the monastery. Also further south, in Innichen, relations with the Slavs were not good.131 At some time in the second half of the eighth century, Bavaria could gain control over this area of former Noricum mediterraneum but the area, now called Carantania (the later Carinthia) re-emerges in the sources only very slowly. The late Roman bishoprics were gone and not revived – although the Bavarian bishops knew that they had existed. Although first steps to re-Christianise the area were taken already in the eighth century,132 the area had stayed relatively void of ecclesiastical property for a long time – at least, property, we know of. Only around 50 years after the conquest, in 822, we hear about the first possessions in Carinthia. These possessions were given to the monastery of Innichen, which means, ultimately to the bishop of Freising.133 One reason for this might be that Bavarians, and later Carolingians, like the Romans, preferred to avoid the Eastern Alps altogether by using the antique roads around it. Also, from a Bavarian point of view, the fertile Carinthian Basin was not easy to reach – until the ninth century it was more orientated southwards than northwards. In the late eighth and early ninth century we are extensively informed about the situation in the western Pannonian plains, but the situation within the Alps is only a marginalia. This changes in the second half of the ninth century, and especially after Pannonia was lost to the Hungarians. After their conquest the routes through the Eastern Alps and the region as a whole gained importance. In a famous

130 Cellae at Zell am See, Kufstein and Bischofshofen (St Maximilian), Notitia Arnonis 6.2, 6.27 and 8, Lošek, Notitia Arnonis und Breves Notitiae, pp. 76, 80, 82–85; Wolfram, Salzburg, Bayern, Österreich, pp. 345–348. 131 Pohl, The Avars, pp. 373 s.; Bitterauf (ed.), Deeds of Freising, #34, AD 769, pp. 61 s.; Breves Notitiae 8.2, Lošek, Notitia Arnonis und Breves Notitiae, p. 97. 132 The Vita Severini was a well-known text in Carolingian times, Régerat (ed.), Eugippius, Vita Severini, Introduction, pp. 45–47. 133 Bitterauf (ed.), Deeds of Freising, #472, AD 822, pp. 403 s.: Matheri donates to the monastery of Innichen property in Trixen and Griffen in Carinthia.

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donation of 860, Ludwig II the German (c.806–876) endowed Salzburg with a large portion of properties in these areas, held before only as benefice (Fig. 6).134 The map shows that the property of Salzburg was lined up like a chain. This structure hints towards a road network for traveling through the Alps, used by Frankish officials, Salzburgian missionaries and church personnel to the political and economic centres in Greater Moravia and Pannonia.135 Also, the Adriatic ports and their growing economic importance were of interest. This indicates the function of this property not only as an agricultural asset but also as places of rest. And again, the respective kings entrusted the ecclesiastical institutions with this work – and not local or regional elites.136 However, in comparison with the Western and Central Alps it was not possible to make a connection with the former Roman infrastructure and toll, as the time span between the Roman times and the slow re-emergence of the area in the sources from the mid-ninth century onwards is too great.

7 Conclusion Bishoprics and monasteries of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages were important for the maintenance of transalpine route networks – as a provider for hospices and the establishment of new routes. In turn, in some areas the bishoprics and monasteries took over the levying of tariffs and tolls from the Roman administration, an income which formerly had belonged to the Roman state. This income was important for building the power and reputation of a bishopric, so that even valleys without a roman civitas, like the Maurienne or the Eisack Valley, could host a newly founded bishopric.

134 MGH DD LD, #102, AD 860, pp. 147 s.; McCormick, Origins, pp. 367–376, esp. p. 371; See also the map at the end of the volume Wolfram, Conversio, pp. 326–328; Fritz Posch, Zur Lokalisierung des in der Urkunde von 860 genannten Salzburger Besitzes, in: Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für Salzburger Landeskunde 101 (1961), pp. 243–260. The motive of this donation is not entirely clear: either the King had given this property as a gift to Salzburg, with the intention of gaining advantages by himself. Or, the bishopric had built these structures wherever it seemed appropriate for its objective without knowledge of the King and only afterwards got his consent, Erwin Kupfer, Krongut, Grafschaft und Herrschaftsbildung in den südöstlichen Marken und Herzogtümern vom 10. bis zum 12. Jahrhundert, St. Pölten 2009, p. 26. 135 As written down in the so-called Conversio Bagoariorum et Carantanorum, c. 10–c. 13 (pp. 73–81) edited and commented with additional texts by Wolfram, Conversio; Jiří Macháček, The Rise of Medieval Towns and States in East Central Europe. Early Medieval Centres as Social and Economic Systems, Leiden 2010, esp. map on p. 460. 136 Carolingians tended to bring relatives into high ecclesiastical office, Friedrich Prinz, Der fränkische Episkopat zwischen Merowinger- und Karolingerzeit, in: Settimane di studio del Centro italiano di Studi sull’alto Medioevo XXVII: Nascita dell’Europa ed Europa Carolingia, un’Equazione da Verificare, Spoleto 1981, pp. 101–146, at pp. 122–127.

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Figure 6: Map of the Possessions Confirmed for Salzburg in the Charter of 860.

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This network and income was contested. In Curia, though the Carolingian kings were in good terms with the bishop, they nevertheless aimed to get control over roads and tariffs. In Bavaria the competition led to many monasteries being built at the roads over the Alps, sometimes no less than four at the exit of the same route, like Staffelsee, Benediktbeuren/Kochel and Schlehdorf. The vast area of the Eastern Alps took a different turn in the later sixth century: the Slavic realms which developed there reduced Christian structures to some communities. The bishoprics and their properties were destroyed. When the area became fully Christianised again and the bishoprics were allowed to build structures here, it took the church (in this case mostly Salzburg and Freising) nearly half a century to rebuild a network of property and ecclesiastical institutions like churches, hospices and monasteries over the Alps. The distance of this property and the way it was structured hint towards a use for the transalpine traffic. From the 11th century on this route network, controlled by the church, was the foundation for wider economic activities of bishops, abbots and abbesses to organise and colonise regions of the inner Alps. Additionally, in the case of Salzburg, the groundwork was laid for what in the Middle Ages could be called a Passstaat: states which hat were founded and prospered upon their position at the roads over the Alps.

Giuseppe Albertoni

Medieval Communication Networks in the Central Eastern Alps: Some Trend Lines Abstract: The article focuses particularly on the southern slopes of the Alps. Methodologically, it starts from the notion of “area of a route” (area di strada) developed about 30 years ago by Giuseppe Sergi. Adopting this perspective, it relates each route to the political, economic and social history of the areas through which it passes. From a chronological point of view the article is divided into two parts. The first – entitled The Early Middle Ages: from fragmentation to unity - reconstructs the various phases that took place in the Early Middle Ages, with particular attention to the Carolingian age, when the Alps were subjected to a single political authority. The second part – entitled The High and Late Middle Ages: towards a new political fragmentation highlights how the end of the Carolingian Empire meant the simultaneous end of a political unity in the Alps. The article highlights, however, that the “vertical strips” which split the Empire after the Treaty of Verdun (843) and traversed the Alps continued to unite the northern and southern sides of the mountains at the regional level, centred around the main Alpine crossings. In this perspective, the article analyses the context in which the Reschen and the Brenner Pass gradually became more strategically important, a process which really took off from the middle of the 10th century. The article then explains how the political fragmentation of the Alps would have a profound effect on mobility and its safety, thus increasing trade traffic and other economic activities.

The title of this paper is very broad and refers not to detailed research findings, but rather to three key subjects which have to be dealt with by anyone who wants to tackle the question of the medieval trade routes of the Eastern Alps: the communication routes; those who used them, and those who lived near them. The actual area that I term the Central Eastern Alps is also rather broad; within it I include the mountain regions between the Saint Gotthard Pass and the Plöcken Pass, the area which makes up the area of comparison into which my paper fits, focussing in particular on the Reschen and Brenner Passes. From this perspective, I suggest an account which allows us to identify the articulations and periodizations within which more specific geographical and temporal phenomena can be placed. My gaze is

Note: Translation by Rachel Murphy Giuseppe Albertoni, Department of Humanities, University of Trento, Via Tommaso Gar 14, I–38122 Trento, e-mail: [email protected] https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110522259-004

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from the south, and I focus particularly on the southern slopes of the Alps. Methodologically, I draw on the notion of the ‘area of a route’ (area di strada) developed about 30 years ago by Giuseppe Sergi, but still often overlooked by academics in search of an elusive – and frequently non-existent – ‘real route’ of the medieval roads.1 Sergi’s ‘area of a road’ is not intended, in fact, as a simple line, but describes “the strip of territory which, over long periods, seems to have constantly been affected by the significant passage of traffic”. Consequently, a particular area “may – at times – contain a road, which varies its course over time, or may simultaneously contain almost parallel routes”. Adopting this perspective, we can relate each route to the political, economic and social history of the areas through which it passes. This is what I attempt to do in the following pages, always remembering that the Alpine routes contained different types of road, which were, however, often interlinked. There were the ‘great roads’, which often followed the course of the Roman roads, and led to the main crossings, the Brenner Pass, in our case. Then there were the ‘alternatives’ to these roads, which led to crossings other than those mentioned – the Reschen Pass concerns us here –, and roads that served mainly for internal mobility but which, at times of danger or need, could also be used by long distance travellers.

The Early Middle Ages: From Fragmentation to Unity Bearing these facts in mind, it seems appropriate to start our journey in the period between the fifth and ninth centuries, when the northern and southern sides of the Central Eastern Alps were gradually becoming less politically disunited, a process which culminated in the quite considerable degree of unity that prevailed under Charlemagne (768–814).2 This area, having played an important role at the time of the Ostrogoths when, after the fall of the limes along the Danube, the region was crisscrossed by a network of defensive fortifications, was only ever partially under Lombard control, since the latter’s prime concern was to control the approaches to the mountains. The observation made some years ago by the North-American medievalist, Patrick J. Geary, in a paper on the Franks and the Alps, thus also applies to our area of interest: Geary claims that, for this historical period, it would not be

1 See Giuseppe Sergi, Alpi e strade nel Medioevo, in: Daniele Jalla (ed.), Gli uomini e le Alpi – Les hommes et les Alpes, Atti del convegno (Torino 6–7 October 1989), Casale Monferrato 1991, pp. 43–51, at p. 45, also for that which follows. 2 For a general account of the Alps in the early medieval history, see Katharina Winckler, Die Alpen im Frühmittelalter. Die Geschichte eines Raumes in den Jahren 500 bis 800, Wien / Köln / Weimar 2012. For a reconstruction of this shift from fragmentation to unity, see Giuseppe Albertoni, La politica alpina dei Carolingi, in: Carlo Magno e le Alpi, Spoleto 2007, pp. 49–74.

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“possible to include the political development of the Alpine regions in a general common denominator without risking banality.”3 Geary’s point is important to an understanding of how, after the fall of the Roman Empire, the never full inclusion of the Central Eastern Alps in the new “barbarian” kingdoms allowed – in very different ways and periods, the rise of local powers and communities who had de facto control of the routes and passes. Consequently, the real change on the Italian side of the Alps, after the period of Late Antiquity, occurred less under the Ostrogoths than with the arrival of the Lombards who, right from when they first arrived, focussed primarily on controlling the southern access routes to the Alpine passes, rather than attempting to secure the crossings themselves.4 This enabled the Franks, in particular the Merovingians who, after 567, had taken power in Burgundy, to fill the political vacuum which ensued, controlling the Alpine arc (more or less directly) – all the way from its western extremities to the area under consideration here.5 As part of this eastward push, in the last decades of the sixth century, the Merovingians organized two expeditions into Italy, in about 577 and 590, allying themselves with the Byzantines, during a political phase in which the establishment of the Lombards in northern Italy was still far from assured.6 The gains made by these expeditions were fleeting, owing both to the fragility of the accord with the Byzantines and the Lombard defensive strategies – the latter, according to the Historia Langobardorum of Paul the Deacon (725/30–before 800),

3 Patrick Joseph Geary, I Franchi sull’arco alpino, in: Ibid., pp. 1–16, at p. 2. 4 See Emanuela Mollo, Le “chiuse” alpine fra realtà e mito, in: I Longobardi e le Alpi, Torino 2005, pp. 47–66. 5 Geary, I Franchi sull’arco alpino. On the Franksʼ Alpine politics, see also Heinrich Büttner, Die Alpenpolitik der Franken im 6. und 7. Jahrhundert, in: Historisches Jahrbuch 79 (1960), pp. 62–88; Reinhard Schneider, Fränkische Alpenpolitik, in: Helmut Beumann / Werner Schröder (eds.), Die Transalpinen Verbindungen der Bayern, Alemannen und Franken bis zum 10. Jahrhundert, Sigmaringen 1987, pp. 23–49. On the role played here by Burgundy, see Annalena Staudte-Lauber, Carlus princeps regionem Burgundie sagaciter penetravit. Zur Schlacht von Tours und Poitiers und dem Eingreifen Karl Martells in Burgund, in: Jörg Jarnut (ed.), Karl Martell in seiner Zeit, Sigmaringen 1994, pp. 79–100. 6 Paolo Diacono, Storia dei Longobardi, Milano 1992, III, 9, pp. 134–137; III, 31, pp. 164–169. For a general overview, see Stefano Gasparri, Italia longobarda. Il regno, i Franchi, il papato, Roma / Bari 2012, pp. 3–9. More specifically on the Frankish incursions in 577 and 590, see Giuseppe Albertoni, Una giornata particolare e la sua memoria: l’incursione franca in campo Rotaliani tra storia e storiografia, in: Giuseppe Albertoni (ed.), p. 577. I Longobardi nel Campo Rotaliano, Trento 2019, pp. 21–40; Jörg Jarnut, Das Herzogtum Trient in langobardischer Zeit, in: La Regione Trentino-Alto Adige nel Medioevo, Rovereto 14–15–16 settembre 1984, vol. 1, Rovereto 1987, pp. 167–177 and (the more dated) Richard Heuberger, Frankenheere im Langobardenherzogtum Trient, in: Tiroler Heimat 4 (1931), pp. 137–173; Thomas Hodgkin, Italy and Her Invaders, 553–600, vol. 5: The Lombard Invasion, Oxford 1895, pp. 215–224.

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locked themselves in locis firmissimis.7 The fierce summer heat, and the diseases that the season harboured, contributed to the expeditions’ failure. For our purposes, however, it is important to remember that the areas around the main western and eastern Alpine passes were already under the influence of the Franks – particularly the approaches to the Col de Montgenèvre and the Great Saint Bernard Pass – it was no coincidence that, almost two centuries later, these were the passes over which the Frankish armies, led by Charlemagne and his uncle, Bernard, would come, on their way to conquer the Lombard kingdom.8 However, the Rhaetic (Saint Bernard, Splügen, Julier and Septimer) Passes were also, if indirectly, under the control of the Franks until the time of Charlemagne; these were the main alternatives to the two most important eastern Alpine crossings, the Brenner and the Reschen Passes mentioned above. The former were at the centre of an important – only apparently minor – road network which linked the Central Alps to the surrounding areas, both longitudinally and latitudinally.9 The route which crossed the Julier and Septimer Passes, in fact, linked not only Lombardy and Chur, but connected the latter – the centre of Raetia curiensis, which succeeded the old Roman province of Raetia prima10 – with the Vinschgau Valley and the valley basin of Merano, where the diocese of the bishop of Chur also ended. Here, throughout the Lombard period, the main settlement had been the castrum Maiense.11 The valley basin of Merano was definitely at the centre of an important ‘area of a route’, which was linked to the Brenner Pass over the Jaufen Pass, or, from Bolzano, via the Isarco Valley. The road between the castrum Maiense and Bolzano followed, if not the precise course, then at least the direction of the old via Claudia Augusta, the main artery of which followed the Adige, all the way back to its source near the Reschen Pass, from where the road then descended towards Füssen and the old Augusta Vindelicorum, while one of its main variants (the via Claudia Augusta Altinate) connected the area of the Veneto and Cadore with the Brenner Pass, via the Kreuzberg Pass and the Puster Valley.12 The route via the Reschen and

7 Diacono, Storia dei Longobardi, III, 31, p. 168. 8 A (still) illuminating account can be found in Georgine Tangl, Karls des Großen Weg über die Alpen, in: Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken 37 (1957), pp. 1–15. 9 See Winckler, Die Alpen im Frühmittelalter, pp. 138 s. 10 See Reinhold Kaiser, Churrätien im frühen Mittelalter. Ende 5. bis Mitte 10. Jahrhundert, Basel ²2008. 11 See Günther Kaufmann, Der Meraner Raum zwischen Spätantike und Frühmittelalter, in: Gustav Pfeifer (ed.), 1317: Eine Stadt und ihr Recht. Meran im Mittelalter. Bausteine zur Stadtgeschichte / 1317: una città e il suo diritto. Merano nel Medioevo. Materiali di storia cittadina, Bozen / Bolzano 2018, pp. 39–116. 12 On the via Claudia Augusta see the papers included in Rainer Loose (ed.), Von der Via Claudia Augusta zum Oberen Weg. Leben an Etsch und Inn, Westtirol und angrenzende Räume von der Vorzeit bis heute, Innsbruck 2006.

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Brenner Passes, however, was, until Charlemagne’s time, more uncertain than those further to the west, because the relationship between the Franks and the Dukes of Bavaria was far from stable. This situation changed with the arrival of the Carolingians, first as the mayor of the palace, then as kings. Even in the first half of the eighth century, in fact, the Frankish penetration of the Alps was characterized by the alternating of military action – such as the intervention of Charles Martel (718–741) to resolve the crisis which overwhelmed the Duchy of Bavaria in the 720s, or the subsequent conquest of the Duchy of Alemannia – with various forms of cooperation with local populations that involved a constant shifting of alliances between the aristocracy and the Franks, Lombards, Bavarians and Slavs.13 From this perspective, the process which led to the rise of the Carolingians as heads of the Frankish kingdom – and the increasing convergence of their interests with those of Rome – went hand in hand with the extension of the range of the Franks’ political influence, first in the western and central, then in the eastern Alps. The consequent increase in tensions between the Franks and the Lombard kings and Bavarian dukes came to a head with the conquest of Lombardy – in 774 – and the Duchy of Bavaria – in 788.14 Charlemagne’s conquest of the Lombard kingdom was a particularly decisive development in the history of the Alps. His attack brought the Lombard defence system (based on the closing of the southern access to the Alpine crossings) to a definitive end, although – right up until the Frankish conquest – it had continued to demonstrate its efficacy. When, for example, Pope Hadrian I (772–795), in March 773, had sent an embassy to Charlemagne, to request the King’s intervention in Italy, the fact that the access routes to the Alps had been closed by the troops of the Lombard King Desiderius (757–774, † after 786) meant that the party had to travel by sea, reaching the Rhineland via Marseilles.15 But this was one of the last appearances of a phenomenon which had already had its day. His conquest of the Lombard kingdom must have led Charlemagne and his entourage to turn their attention to the Alps themselves, and to plan the invasion which, as we have seen, involved two parallel expeditions. Given their impact on subsequent events in the Alps, it might be useful to recall these operations briefly here. Charlemagne and his men were clearly fully aware that the Lombard defences would be likely to weaken if faced with a constant attack on multiple fronts that took advantage of both main and secondary routes and thus managed to outflank the Lombard garrisons and avoid the clausae. This was what happened in 773,

13 For an initial overview, see Geary, I Franchi sull’arco alpino. 14 For an up to date synthesis of these dynamics, see Roman Deutinger, Das Zeitalter der Agilolfinger, in: Alois Schmid (ed.), Das alte Bayern. Von der Vorgeschichte bis zum Hochmittelalter (= Handbuch der bayerischen Geschichte, vol. 1), München 2017, pp. 124–212. 15 Georg Heinrich Pertz / Friedrich Kurze (eds.), Annales regni Francorum inde ab a. 741 usque ad a. 829 qui dicuntur Annales Laurissenses maiores et Einhardi, Hannover 1895, p. 34.

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when Charlemagne invaded Italy with two armies, one of which went via Mont Cenis, and the other, the Saint Bernard Pass, thereby rendering superfluous the defences in position at the mouth of the Susa Valley.16 The armies led by Charlemagne and his uncle, Bernard, mustered in, and departed from, Geneva, in the spring of 773. At the time, Geneva was of great strategic importance because it controlled the crossroads at the head of the Rhone, one of the most important centres in Burgundia. In fact, Pepin III (751–768), Charlemagne’s father, had taken this area under his direct control in 740/41, before he became king, in order to mark his rise to power militarily. The city was then to become the departure point for the subsequent expeditions which led, over thirty years, to the extension of Carolingian power across the whole of the Alpine arc. The principal stages of this expansion were the conquest (in 746) of the Duchy of Alemannia,17 which corresponds approximately to today’s southwestern Germany; the subduing (between 772 and 774) of Rhaetia Curiensis, the territory which controlled access to crossings through the Rhaetic and Lombard Alps,18 and the conquest of the Lombard kingdom in 774.19 The acquisition of Rhaetia Curiensis and Lombard Italy were very closely connected, and allowed Charlemagne to control both sides of the Central Alps, thereby gaining a firm anti-Bavarian base.20 However, while in Italy the king of the Franks had had to intervene militarily, in Rhaetia he used diplomacy, issuing an act which was formally presented as a ‘charter of defence’ of the populus Raetiarum, but which, in fact, brought them under Frankish authority.21 The new political structure based on the close tie between Rhaetia and northern Italy replicated the existing ecclesiastic ties, evidenced by the subordination of the bishop of Chur to the bishop of Milan. Charlemagne’s acute awareness of the importance of controlling the Alpine crossings is also evident from the first measures he took as rex Langobardorum, particularly the grant of a very considerable property (that included the Camonica Valley),

16 The description of the itinerary followed by the two forces which made up Charlemagne’s army in Tangl, Karls des Grossen Weg über die Alpen, is still valid. 17 For an initial overview of the political context of the conquest of Alemannia, see Rudolf Schieffer, Die Zeit des karolingischen Großreichs (714–887), Stuttgart 2005, pp. 38–42. 18 On the conquest of Rhaetia Curiensis, see Kaiser, Churrätien im Frühmittelalter, pp. 51 s., 174 s. 19 Among the many studies on the Frankish conquest of the Lombard kingdom, see, in particular, Stefano Gasparri, Il passaggio dai Longobardi ai Carolingi, in: Carlo Bertelli / Gian Pietro Brogiolo (eds.), Il futuro dei Longobardi. L’Italia e la costruzione dell’Europa di Carlo Magno, Milano 2000, pp. 25–53. 20 See Carlo Bertelli, Rezia e Lombardia carolingia, in: Ibid., pp. 390–401; Albertoni, La politica alpina dei Carolingi, pp. 49–74, in particular pp. 59–66. 21 Engelbert Mühlbacher (ed.), Pippini, Carlomanni, Caroli Magni Diplomata (MGH Diplomata Karolinorum I), Hannover 1906, n. 78 (772–774), hereafter cited as MGH DD Karol., I. See Reinhold Kaiser, Autonomie, Integration, bilateraler Vertrag – Rätien und das Frankenreich im frühen Mittelalter, in: Francia 29/1 (2002), pp. 1–27.

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which he made with his wife Hildegard (c.758–783), to the Abbey of Saint Martin of Tours, in July 774, just after his conquest of Pavia, and within a still extremely fluid political environment.22 With this donation, Charlemagne and Hildegard created a novel circumstance, one which was to have important repercussions for the control of the Alps through the alienation of fiscal estates: they formally renounced their estates which had, until then, been managed directly by their Lombard predecessors, greatly strengthening – in symbolic, strategic and economic terms – the beneficiaries, i.e. the Abbey of Saint Martin of Tours, with the transfer of the Camonica Valley and the castrum of Sirmione (which in the Lombard period had been an important outpost, significant for the control of the region between Garda, Brescia and the Camonica Valley itself).23 Charlemagne’s second donation to the Abbey of Saint Martin of Tours, in 790, which also involved fiscal estates located in the region of our interest, this time to the north, in Alemannia, was similarly motivated.24 In the turbulent period that followed his conquests, preventing fiscal estates – particularly when they were also of strategic importance – from being illicitly removed or placed under the control of local lords of dubious fidelity was clearly a wise move on Charlemagne’s part. And so, while the Camonica Valley was assigned to St Martin of Tours, the Tellina Valley was given to the Abbey of Saint Denis:25 Charlemagne thus ensured that the two most important alternative routes through the central Alps were in loyal hands. It is likely that he was also concerned by the political instability of the region east of Brescia, the heartland of anti-Frankish resistance linked both to Adelchis († after 788), the son of Desiderius, who had managed to escape capture when the Franks took Pavia, and to the Duke of Bavaria, Tassilo III (749/57–788, † c.796). A new phase thus began, which was to have a considerable impact on the growing political and economic role of the Central Eastern Alps, their crossings and the communication routes, both longitudinal, closely linked to the Rhaetic passes, and latitudinal. Examples of the latter include the ‘revival’ of the bishopric of Säben in the Isarco Valley, and the establishment, at the end of the eighth century, of the important transalpine ecclesiastic province of Salzburg, and other ecclesiastic and monastic foundations, like those which were to leave significant historical and artistic traces in the Vinschgau and Münster valleys. With the Franks’ conquest of the Lombard kingdom and then of the Duchy of Bavaria, for the first time in more than three hundred years the whole Alpine arc

22 See MGH DD Karol., I, n. 81 (Pavia 774 VII 16). 23 See Giuseppe Albertoni, Carlo Magno e la Valcamonica: il contesto politico della donazione al monastero di San Marino di Tours del 774, in: Giorgio Azzoni (ed.), La leggenda di Carlo Magno nel cuore delle Alpi. Ricerca storica e turismo culturale, Milano 2012, pp. 147–154. 24 MGH DD Karol., I, n. 167 (Kostheim 790 VIII 31). 25 MGH DD Karol., I, n. 94 (Quierzy 775 III 14).

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was united under a single political dominion, a very significant occurrence which, however – due to the paucity of the sources that remain – leaves us with almost nothing to say about trade across the Alps (other than with regard to the occasional dealer in relics!).26 Moreover, we must remember that, apart from the expedition which gave Charlemagne control of the Lombard lands, we have no certain evidence about the great Frankish king’s movements over the Alps in the years after he became rex Langobardorum. In fact, while we know the route that he took on his first, victorious, descent into Italy, we have no knowledge of his return journey, other than that it was only just over a month after he had set off that he was reunited with his wife and two small sons, Charles and Pepin, at the Abbey of Lorsch for the consecration of the local church, which took place on the first of September. Then, on the following day, he travelled a few kilometres to Worms, where he issued a charter in favour of the monastery there.27 Having reached present day Germany, therefore, he went back up the road that ran alongside the Rhine, which it was possible to reach from Italy either via the Lombard crossings of the Septimer and Splügen Passes, or over the Saint Bernard Pass, further to the west. It is perfectly possible that, given his points of departure and arrival, on this occasion he chose one of the Lombard passes, but unfortunately no documentary evidence of this journey remains. Nor do we have any precise knowledge of his four subsequent ‘descents’ into Italy (in 776, 780/81, 786/87 and 800/01); it is only possible to reconstruct his movements on the basis of the dates on the diplomas which he issued from time to time. In 776, when he arrived to quell the rebellion by Hrodgaud, Duke of Friuli (774–776), the first leg of his journey seems to have been the area of Cividale, and the last, Ivrea, from where he probably returned in Franciam over the Saint Bernard Pass.28 It is unlikely that on that occasion he would have crossed into Italy via the Lombard Alps, but much more probable that he did so on his subsequent ‘descent’ (in 780/81), when, before reaching Lombardy, he stopped at the important Abbey of Reichenau, on Lake Constance.29 He may well also have taken the same route home, since before leaving Italy his presence is attested in Pavia and Milan, while, on arriving in Franciam, he again appeared in Worms, for a general assembly.30 We have no idea of where he crossed the Alps on his next journey south, in 786/87, however, although

26 On this Albertoni, La politica alpina dei Carolingi. 27 Charlemagne’s movements can be traced by following the trail of document registers proposed in Johann Friedrich Böhmer (ed.), Regesta Imperii I: Die Regesten des Kaiserreiches unter den Karolingern 751–918, ed. by Engelbert Mühlbacher, Innsbruck ²1908, p. 77, for the question of his return to Francia. 28 Böhmer (ed.), Regesta Imperii I, pp. 85 s. 29 Ibid., p. 97. 30 Ibid., pp. 100 s.

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we do know that, once again, his last known destination in Italy was Pavia, and his first in Franciam was, once more, Worms.31 Even the route of Charlemagne’s best known journey down to Italy – which culminated in his imperial coronation on Christmas Day in 800 – is a mystery. The last documented leg north of the Alps brought him to Mainz, and, south of the mountains, he first appears in Ravenna, from where he went to Rome, and then Ancona.32 On his return, we know that he followed the course of the old via Flaminia, as far as Ravenna, from where he moved on to Bologna, Pavia, and Ivrea, before the journey in Galliam, quite probably via the Saint Bernard Pass (over which he was accompanied, in the following spring, by an elephant, a present from the Caliph Harun alRashid [786–809]).33 The Alps and the passes over them were also central to the balance of power between his sons that Charlemagne wanted to establish before his death, in order to try to prevent fraternal conflict. This, indeed, was also his intention when he issued his famous Divisio regnorum in 806.34 The capitulary – which never came into force because two of his three heirs predeceased him – would have provided for the constitution of a new kingdom made up of the regnum Langobardorum, Bavaria, “sicut Tassilo tenuit”, Alemannia south of the Danube and the Duchy of Chur, the successor to the ‘episcopal state’ of the Victorids.35 Had this plan come into effect, Pepin, King of Italy (781–810), would have controlled all the Central Eastern Alpine crossings, while Charlemagne’s two other sons, Charles the Younger (788/800–811) and Louis (781/814–840), would have been able to have a “viam in Italiam ad auxilium ferendum fratri suo, si ita necessitas extiterit”, through the Aosta Valley – assigned to Charles – and the Susa Valley “usque ad clusas et inde per terminos Italicorum montium usque ad mare”, which was to be Louis’. Charlemagne’s plan would – not by chance – have meant that Pepin’s kingdom extended over much of the territory from the Po Valley to the Danube which, at the turn of the sixth century, had been under the Ostrogoths. The early deaths of Pepin and Charles the Younger meant that the division of his kingdom that Charlemagne had dreamed of in 806 never took place. However, although unrealized, this plan was to play a key role in the control of the Alpine communication routes in the new political environment shaped by Charlemagne’s conquests, with figures linked to Charlemagne (churchmen like the Bishop of Chur,

31 Ibid., pp. 114–120. 32 Ibid., pp. 161–163. 33 Ibid., pp. 166–169. About the Charlemagne’s elephant see Achim Thomas Hack, Abul Abaz. Zur Biographie eines Elefanten, Badenweiler 2011 and Giuseppe Albertoni, L’elefante di Carlo Magno. Il desiderio di un imperatore, Bologna 2020. 34 See Capitularia regum Francorum I, ed. by Alfred Boretius (MGH Legum Sectio II), Hannover 1883, n. 45 (806 II 6). For an initial overview of this division, see Rosamond McKitterick, Charlemagne. The Formation of a European Identity, Cambridge 2008, pp. 96–103. 35 MGH Capit. regum Francorum, I, n. 45, c. 2.

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Remedius [†820?], and the Patriarch of Aquileia, Paulinus II [776–802], in particular) exerting great influence – having been put in charge of either key bishoprics or important estates. Although not in the ways intended by Charlemagne in 806, the political link between the two sides of the Central Eastern Alps continued through most of Lothar I’s (822–855, the son of Louis the Pious [814–840] who ruled Carolingian Italy and part of Rhaetia) reign, while the two sides of the Brenner Pass came under the control of Louis the German (843–876), another of Louis the Pious’ sons. This political context reveals a certain coherence between provisions that initially appear to be unrelated, such as the assignation in 825, by King Lothar, of the monastery of Pegno to the Abbey of Novalesa, as ‘compensation’ for the property that Louis the Pious had previously taken from the Abbey for the construction of a new hospice on Mont Cenis, or the transfer, again by Lothar, of the clausae and bridge of Chiavenna to the Church of Como.36 This configuration only changed after the death of Louis the Pious, in 840, and the subsequent conflict between his three surviving sons – Charles II the Bald (843–877) and the already mentioned Lothar and Louis – which was not resolved until 843, with the Treaty of Verdun, which “split the empire into three vertical strips, with Charles receiving the western portion, Lothar the middle, and Louis the eastern.”37 These “vertical strips”, of course, also traversed the Alps. Although unfortunately no detailed evidence of the arrangements made at Verdun has been preserved, we know that an Eastern Frankish kingdom was created, which included the lands to the east of the Rhine with the eastern Alps (but not the southern slopes); a Western Frankish kingdom – west of the Rhine – and, lastly, a rather oddly shaped kingdom, made up of Italy, part of what is now the west of Switzerland, and the territory on either side of the Rhine as far as its delta.38 This subdivision gave particular importance to the area around Geneva and Lake Geneva, very much the hub of the routes which led in one direction to the upper reaches of the Rhone and the Saint Bernard Pass and Mont Cenis, and, in the other, to both the Rhaetic passes and the Reschen Pass, while the Brenner Pass continued to occupy a relatively marginal and uncertain position, along an ill-defined border

36 Lotharii I. et Lotharii II. Diplomata, ed. by Theodor Schieffer (MGH Diplomata Karolinorum III), München 1966, n. 3 (Compiègne 824 I 3) and n. 4 (Marengo 825 II 14). 37 Marios Costambeys / Matthew Innes / Simon MacLean, The Carolingian World, Cambridge 2011, p. 381. 38 On the context of the Treaty of Verdun, see Philippe Depreux, Le partage de l’Empire à Verdun (843) et les conditions d’exercice du pouvoir au haut Moyen Âge, in: Marianne Besseyre / AnneOrange Poilpré (eds.), L’écrit et le livre peint en Lorraine, de Saint-Mihiel à Verdun (IXe–XVe siècles), Turnhout 2014, pp. 17–41, and the now classic work, Janet L. Nelson, The Last Years of Louis the Pious, in: Peter Godman / Roger Collins (eds.), Charlemagne’s Heir. New Perspectives on the Reign of Louis the Pious (814–840), Oxford 1990, pp. 147–159.

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which ran along one side of the Bolzano valley basin and divided the regnum Italiae from the Eastern Frankish Kingdom. In this period, too, the internal connections within the regions that ran between Lake Geneva, Lake Constance and the Vinschgau Valley seem to have been linked to the interests of groups of aristocrats and to the role played by some abbeys of ‘international’ importance, such as the famous Reichenau on Lake Constance, Saint Gall and Saint John’s of Müstair, while the marginal position of the area which led to the Brenner Pass appears to be further evidenced by the absence of any significant monastic establishments, with the exception of some outposts such as, for example, the monastery of Inticha, the future collegiate of Innichen, in Puster Valley.39 In this context, a north-south axis was gradually established, between Aquisgrana and Lake Geneva, over the Saint Bernard Pass and Mont Cenis, finally reaching the Po Valley. Within this network, the Reschen Pass remained an alternative used only in emergencies, while the Brenner Pass seems just to have been used for local transit, in close connection, however, with the horizontal axis of roads, and especially with the route between the Isarco Valley and Carinthia, which was becoming more and more closely integrated into the Carolingian world and the Julian Alps, through the Puster Valley and the ‘areas of a route’ that led on from it. The Treaty of Verdun, and its dispositions, as we know, failed to prevent the final crisis of the Carolingian empire; this was largely due to the power that local aristocracies, including those in the Alps, managed to accrue. Indeed, the Alps were often the stage for key events, which indicates their ongoing significance. For example, when the conflict between the different branches of the Carolingian family and their entourage exploded again in 875 after the death of Louis II (855–875), who had no direct successor, the Alps became the dramatic backdrop for the death of Charles the Bald, in 877, as he attempted to flee from the army of Karlman. Having crossed the Po Valley and Mont Cenis, he was killed in Nantua (Avrieux), Savoy. Just one year later, this same pass would be the stage for another drama, this time involving Pope John VIII (872–882), on his way home from western France.40 In one of his letters, the Pope complained about the fact that Duke Suppo II, Count of Camerino, supposedly an ally, rather than coming to welcome him, as planned, had blocked his passage, thus returning to the old Lombard ploy of closing access to the Alpine crossings, a practice which (under the Carolingians) had long been a pointless gesture. The deaths of Charles the Bald, on Mont Cenis, and Charles III the Fat (876–887), on the shores of Lake Constance in 888, marked the beginning of a new phase, which was to last until the time of Otto, and which saw the fragmentation of control in the Alps, the consolidation of local powers and the reappearance of a north-south Alpine frontier, separating the western Alps from the centre and east of the range. The

39 On this, see Katharina Winckler’s paper, in this volume. 40 On this, and the next episode, see Albertoni, Politica alpina dei Carolingi, p. 72.

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Carolingian Arnulf of Carinthia’s (887–899) difficulties in attempting to cross the western Alps demonstrate this frontier in action. Arnulf’s network of control in the eastern Alps had been one of the factors which allowed him to eclipse Charles III the Fat; nevertheless, when he reached present day Piedmont, intent on leaving Italy, he was forced to face the fact that his enemies wanted to prevent him from escaping from the regnum Italiae.41 Count Anscarius I, the first Marquis of Ivrea (879–887), was particularly active in obstructing the passage of King Arnulf’s army, which he did from his position within a castle close to Ivrea, by defending the nearby clausae – the castle had, in fact, been built for the express purpose of such defensive action. Arnulf, however, was not easily daunted, and, on the advice of some guides, he forced his cavalry over the mountains and managed to get to the Aosta Valley, and thence to Burgundy and, finally, Alemannia. Two years later he returned to Italy to be crowned emperor. Even from this lofty position, however, neither he nor his successors managed to restore political unity to the Alps.

The High and Late Middle Ages: Towards a New Political Fragmentation The end of the Carolingian Empire meant the simultaneous end of political unity in the Alps.42 However, the aforementioned ‘vertical strips’ did not disappear, and continued to unite the northern and southern sides of the mountains at the regional level, centred around the main Alpine crossings. This was the context in which the Reschen and, to a greater extent, the Brenner Pass gradually became more strategically important, a process which really took off from the middle of the tenth century with the struggles for the kingdom of Italy which led to the coronation of the Teutonic king, Otto I (936–973) – who became both King of Italy and Emperor – in 961/62. This coronation was to mean that the histories of the Italic and Teutonic kingdoms were closely interwoven for almost three centuries, a tie which gave the whole question of crossing the Alps new strategic importance. New territorial ‘hegemonies’ formed as a result of the changed political dynamic, created either by local aristocrats or royal or imperial delegates around the ‘areas of routes’ which converged on the Reschen and Brenner Passes. These political formations would have a profound effect on mobility and its safety, thus (both directly and indirectly) increasing trade traffic and other

41 Annales Fuldenses sive Annales regni Francorum orientalis, ed. by Friedrich Kurze, Hannover 1891, p. 124. 42 Unfortunately, no summary of the history of the Alps, or the role of the Brenner Pass, in the High Middle Ages exists. Nevertheless, for an overall picture, the essays collected in: Die Alpen in der europäischen Geschichte des Mittelalters, Reichenau-Vorträge 1961–1962, Stuttgart 1965, are still useful.

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economic activities, such as, where possible, mining. This was what happened between the eleventh and twelfth centuries in the territories around the Brenner and Reschen Passes, first with the bishops of Säben-Brixen and Trento, then with the counts of Tyrol.43 But before investigating the details of the dynamics in this particular area, we must remember that often, more generally, the claims on the Alpine territories that affected the area’s crossings and passes were made by noble families who often (literally) embodied the fragmentation and localization of the great family clans from whom the Carolingians had drawn their ‘officials’. These families were ‘jumping on a bandwagon’ that had been initiated by Church institutions such as the abbeys and, above all, the bishoprics, which, in the dialectic of collaboration and contraposition which marked the relations between the ‘elite’ of the kingdom and its sovereigns, quite often succeeded, particularly from the early eleventh century on, in gaining the powers otherwise exercised by royal officers, often counts.44 These clans began to self-designate as counts in order to legitimate their seigneurial power, made manifest also in their residences, the castles, which in just this historical period – and thus ‘late’ in comparison with the fortifications of the Po Valley or the Apennines – began to spring up in the valleys, usually half way up their slopes, at a vantage point from which it was easier to control the passing traffic.45 It was often thanks to the efforts of these local lords that regional mobility in the eastern Alps was increased: their power – assumed either by royal mandate or ‘spontaneously’ – enabled them to exercise a level of control which ensured the safety of travellers in exchange for the payment of tolls. These payments were enforced by customs posts located in strategic positions, such as at valley mouths or near passes, where both lords and churchmen began to have hospices constructed, in which travellers could find shelter. These developments were all, however, taking place in an ‘open’ context, where even similar conditions could lead to very different outcomes. Among those crossing the Central Eastern Alps during the new political and economic dynamism of the High Middle Ages, one particular category of traveller was, as elsewhere, particularly encouraged not only to travel but also to stop off in

43 For a concise account of this process, see Walter Landi, Der Brennerweg von der Antike bis zur Frühen Neuzeit / La via del Brennero fra Antichità e prima Età moderna, in: Elisabetta Carnielli / Walter Landi (eds.), Die Brennerroute. Eine europäische Verbindung zwischen Mittelalter und Neuzeit / Sulla strada del Brennero. Una via d’Europa tra Medioevo ed età moderna, Bozen / Bolzano 2018, pp. 11–31. 44 I tried to reconstruct these dynamics for the territory around the Brenner Pass in Giuseppe Albertoni, Le terre del vescovo. Potere e società nel Tirolo medievale (secoli IX–XI), Torino 1996. 45 For a valuable overview of these processes, see Daniele Jalla (ed.), Gli uomini e le Alpi / Les hommes et les Alpes, Casale Monferrato 1991; Gian Maria Varanini (ed.), Le Alpi medievali nello sviluppo delle regioni contermini, Napoli 2004, also for the following.

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specific places. These were the merchants, who were usually attracted by the establishment of new towns, founded for the express purpose of trade, as evidenced by the fact that they were clearly constructed around the central foci of market places and shops. These towns were soon integrated within networks of existing trade relations whose main urban centres were situated in the plains near the Alps: Verona and Milan, for instance, and the network of Alpine cities linked to them. These were trade relations which generally followed the main north-south routes, but quite often involved more local, east-west, commerce, in contexts which integrated the principal routes with local – road and river – connections. The changes to habitat encouraged in the valleys of the Central Eastern Alps by the local lords during the High Middle Ages were part of a rather complex social context, in which merchants, pilgrims and armies were moving past – and through – the more sedentary lives of farmers and shepherds. The realities of these mountain dwellers varied too, of course, according to the type of settlement in which they lived – whether it was compact or spread-out, its altitude, the population density of the area in general. In these rural environments, communities often formed whose spheres of activity and relations with the seigneurial authorities have only begun to be re-examined in the last few decades, with the decisive abandonment of the mythologizing visions which long coloured perceptions of them, and tended to overemphasize their liberty.46 These communities were sometimes valuable allies for rulers who wished to cross the Alps and were, not infrequently, forced by the hostility of the local lords who controlled stretches of road and/or the passes, to take alternative routes. Not many merchants or travellers, however, have left us documentary evidence of any importance. The well-known parchments on which Wolfger von Erla, the Bishop of Passau (1191–1204) and the Patriarch of Aquileia (1204–1218), recorded the expenses he incurred on a journey from Vienna to Rome in 1204 are an exception: we learn that he went south through Friuli, and that, returning from Rome, he crossed the Alps over the Brenner Pass, to Regensburg.47 There is also the famous ‘guide’ written in the middle of the thirteenth century, in the form of a dialogue, by the monk Albert of Stade, intended for pilgrims travelling from Germany to Rome.48 Both accounts testify to the existence of alternative routes leading to the Brenner Pass, which linked ‘minor roads’ through the valleys with the more heavily used roads that led along the Adige to Bolzano. Unlike Wolfger von Erla, who reached the Brenner after

46 Such an account can be found in Luigi Provero, Le parole dei sudditi. Azioni e scritture della politica contadina nel Duecento, Spoleto 2012. 47 See Egon Boshof, Wolfger von Erla, Bischof von Passau. Patriarch von Aquileia, in: Id., Königtum, Kirche und Mission im Südosten des Reiches, Passau 2012, pp. 399–416; Hedwig Heger, Das Lebenszeugnis Walthers von der Vogelweide. Die Reiserechnungen des Passauer Bischofs Wolfger von Erla, Wien 1970. 48 Annales Stadenses, ed. Johann Martin Lappenberg, in: MGH SS, XVI, pp. 238–378.

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having travelled via Florence, Bologna, Modena and Verona, Alberto di Stade advised those returning to Germany from Rome to cross Italy ‘diagonally’: to head first to the area of Ravenna, and from there either to Padua and then Trento (up the Valsugana), or towards Venice and thence north east to Treviso, the Cadore, before turning into the Puster Valley, which led towards the Brenner Pass. The pass was not easily reached from Bolzano because of the geological instability of the lower Isarco valley and the relative difficulty of the high-altitude roads which left from the Ritten plateau. While more and more merchants and pilgrims were travelling along the roads that followed the Adige and Isarco rivers, emperors and their armies became an increasingly rare sight. In fact, after the numerous conflicts which had marked the reigns of Frederick I Barbarossa (1152–1190) and Frederick II (1198/1212–1250), the idea of an empire that would unite the German and Italian dominions was gradually fading. This naturally meant that the need for emperors to travel over the Brenner Pass route was also decreasing. This period was also marked by dramatic changes in the political environment in the valleys between the Inn and the Adige. Between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, in fact, a noble family of obscure origin, the Tyrols, had – at the expense of the bishops of Brixen and Trento – succeeded in building and consolidating their hegemony over much of the region which carries their name to this day.49 Of particular note was Count Meinhard II (1258–1295) who, in the second half of the thirteenth century, gave commercial activities a considerable boost and took control of the main communication routes, thereby guaranteeing that travellers journeyed in safety – as long as they paid the high tolls he exacted. Meinhards’ son, Henry II (1310–1335), continued his father’s policy: in order to facilitate the passage of merchants and their goods through the Isarco Valley, he hired a man called Heinrich Kunter (†1317) to maintain security in the lower reaches of the valley, thus obviating the need for travellers to go over the Ritten plateau. Kunter made it his business to keep this short but critical stretch of road open and safe, and it was subsequently actually called after him, and known as the via Chuntronis.50 Innsbruck and Bolzano increasingly became the most popular destinations for those travelling – north or south – over the Brenner, and it was in these years that these towns became important mercantile hubs, thereby diminishing the significance of other centres, Merano in particular. In the early fourteenth century, during the time of the Tyrolean Count Henry II, the traditional loyalty of the Tyrolean counts to the emperor weakened, a shift which

49 For an up-to-date account of the counts of Tyrol, see Walter Landi, Die Grafen von Tirol. Ein historisch-familiengeschichtlicher Überblick (10.–14. Jahrhundert), in: Walter Hauser / Martin Mittermair (eds.), Schloss Tirol – Baugeschichte. Die Burg Tirol von ihren Anfängen bis zum 21. Jahrhundert, Bd. 1, Bolzano 2017, pp. 110–135. 50 On this, see Gustav Pfeifer, Spätmittelalterlicher Verkehrswegebau in den Südalpen. Der Kuntersweg im unteren Eisacktal, in: Kurt Andermann / Nina Gallion (ed.), Weg und Steg. Aspekte des Verkehrswesens von der Spätantike bis zum Ende des Alten Reiches, Ostfildern 2018, pp. 169–194.

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was soon to have important political consequences. When the King Henry VII (1308–1313) decided to travel down to Italy – thereby raising the hopes of so many, including, famously, Dante – he was – unexpectedly – prevented from crossing the Brenner Pass, and had to ‘change course’, and go over the – less convenient – Mont Cenis Pass, which was controlled by his allies, the Savoys. Henry VII’s ‘change of course’ thus brings us back to Mont Cenis, where our account began, with the description of Charlemagne’s arrival in Italy. We now have, I hope, a sense of the extent to which the crisis of the great universal powers – the Papacy, the Holy Roman Empire – also led to crisis in the Central Eastern Alpine valleys, which increasingly came to be dominated by fragmented local powers.

Marie-Claude Schöpfer

Across the Passes. Transport Structures and Markets in the Alpine Area of the Pre-Industrial Period Abstract: Despite its function as a natural barrier within the continental transport system the Alps as the most extensive European mountain range constantly served as an important corridor of exchange in economic contexts. Natural environment and climate as outlining basic preconditions significantly characterised the Alpine transportation system. The generally difficult natural and climatic conditions required specific solutions concerning the means of transport used on Alpine routes which led to typical structural characteristics of the respective networks as well as to massive transport costs. Alpine road construction and maintenance as a permanent struggle with the natural force presented a particular challenge. Tolls, fees for escort and further duties which were raised for the administration of roads, ways and traffic infrastructure ensured the further works and a certain offer of services which were the preconditions for the smooth running of goods traffic. In the course of the traffic expansion of the 13th century, the Alpine sumpters and wagoners began to organise themselves into corporations. Economic growth with its increased consumption needs and its demands for sales markets on both sides of the Alps resulted in more regular and intense transAlpine exchange. In the course of the pre-industrial centuries, economic processes transformed the system of the Alpine passes, the axes of the international transit, its feeder routes, the secondary transport networks and connection routes to smaller markets which led to important changes of the traffic flows. Until the construction of trans-Alpine railway lines, the fluctuations of the European economy and the shifts of economic focus areas profoundly affected the choice of routes, as well as the quantity, composition and frequency of goods flowing across the Alps. Despite remarkable shifts, during the entire pre-industrial era the system of Alpine passes remained by far the most important connection between the Mediterranean region and the North Alpine countries and therefore had a central function in European economy.

1 Introduction Stretching 1,200 kilometres in length and 250 kilometres in width from the Col de Tende in Savoy to the Tarvis Pass in Slovenia, the Alps are the most extensive European

Marie-Claude Schöpfer, Forschungsinstitut zur Geschichte des Alpenraums, Alte Simplonstrasse 28, CH–3900 Brig, e-mail: [email protected] https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110522259-005

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mountain range. Despite its function as a natural barrier within the continental transport system, this mountainous area, with their considerable topographical and climatic challenges over the centuries, has served as an important corridor of exchange in economic contexts. Various and constantly changing meta-economic and economic parameters of international and European as well as of regional and local character have affected commercial Alpine transport operations and determined which Alpine passes and transit corridors were used during the pre-industrial era.1 This paper, in a first step, discusses the Alpine transportation system by reviewing the state of research and outlining basic preconditions and typical structural characteristics of the respective networks. In a second step, the system of the Alpine passes, the axes of the international transit and its feeder routes as well as the secondary transport networks and connection routes to smaller markets are be addressed. By this means, the most important changes of the traffic flows, interacting with superordinate processes, and their conjunctions to the respective scenes of economic life are be pointed out.

2 State of Research As for further fields of the economic history of the Alps, a recent general overview of the special theme of Alpine transport and its economic reference points is lacking. Though countless anthologies and monographs have been published during the past decades, it would be useless to give a complete synopsis of this thematic field. Therefore, the following approach only points out some important landmarks. In 1900, with his milestone book on Medieval commerce and transport between Germany and Italy, Aloys Schulte set new benchmarks.2 Fascinated by the high Alpine traffic across the passes, he predominantly envisaged the ways through the Central Alps and therewith created the idea of the Alpine area as a typical transit area – an idea which has dominated previous research. Early historiography on Alpine traffic, such as Paul Hugo Scheffel’s cross-epochal work about transport history of the Alps,3 was not only characterised by this predominance of long-distance transport but also by its focus on political history. Emulating these major achievements,

1 Herbert Hassinger, Zur Verkehrsgeschichte der Alpenpässe in der vorindustriellen Zeit, in: Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte 66 (1979), pp. 441–465, at p. 441; Katharina Winckler, Die Alpen im Frühmittelalter. Die Geschichte eines Raumes in den Jahren 500 bis 800, Wien /Köln / Weimar 2012, p. 114: As the Alpine transport routes, in contrast to the valleys and territories, were considered as known, the sources often do not mention the passages and ways chosen by travellers. 2 Aloys Schulte, Geschichte des mittelalterlichen Handels und Verkehrs zwischen Westdeutschland und Italien, 2. vols., Leipzig 1900. 3 Paul Hugo Scheffel, Verkehrsgeschichte der Alpen, 2 vols., Berlin 1908.

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the following generation of historians primarily analysed the supraregional traffic axes, the transit, its economic, manorial and political as well as its trade-related conditions and consequences. Regarding the access to markets, they especially studied the major European centres of trade which had a strong pull effect on transalpine long-distance traffic.4 Since the 1960s at the latest, the upturn of economic and social history brought new stimulating impulses. Special mention should be made of the studies of Otto Stolz and Maria Clotilde Daviso di Charvensod, of Jean François Bergier, Fritz Glauser, Herbert Hassinger and Werner Schnyder, who left abundant œuvres.5 Studies on markets, for example, began to analyse local and regional marketplaces instead of only examining the markets of cities and small towns.6 In the second half of the 20th century, the research field was additionally stimulated by studies on the history of travel and mobility as well as interdisciplinary works in the field of historical geography and archaeology.7 For the area today known as Switzerland, the “Inventar historischer

4 The starting point was the œuvre of Frédéric Borel, Les foires de Génève au XVe siècle, Paris 1892. 5 Cf., for example, Otto Stolz, Geschichte des Zollwesens, Verkehrs und Handels in Tirol und Vorarlberg von den Anfängen bis im 20. Jahrhundert, Innsbruck 1953; Maria Clotilde Daviso di Charvensod, I pedaggi delle Alpi occidentali nel medio evo, Torino 1961; Jean-François Bergier, Les foires de Genève et l’économie internationale de la Renaissance, Diss. Genève, Paris 1963; Fritz Glauser, Der internationale Gotthardtransit im Lichte des Luzerner Zentnerzolls von 1493 bis 1505, in: Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Geschichte 18 (1968), pp. 177–245; Herbert Hassinger, Der Verkehr über Brenner und Reschen vom Ende des 13. Jahrhunderts bis in die zweite Hälfte des 18. Jahrhunderts, in: Neue Beiträge zur geschichtlichen Landeskunde Tirols, München 1969, pp. 137–194; Werner Schnyder, Handel und Verkehr über die Bündner Pässe im Mittelalter, Zürich 1973, etc. 6 Cf., for example, Markus Fürstenberger / Ernst Ritter, 50 Jahre Messe Basel, Basel 1971, pp. 329–348; Hans Conrad Peyer, Gewässer, Grenzen und Märkte in der Schweizergeschichte, Zürich 1979; Anne Radeff, Du café dans le chaudron: économie globale d’Ancien Régime (Suisse occidentale, Franche-Comté, Savoie), Lausanne 1996; eadem, Grandes et petites foires du Moyen Age au XXe siècle, in: Nuova Rivista Storica 75 (1991), pp. 329–348; Martin Körner, Das System der Jahrmärkte und Messen in der Schweiz im periodischen und permanenten Markt 1500–1800, in: Jahrbuch für Regionalgeschichte und Landeskunde 19 (1993/94), pp. 13–34; idem, Le système des marchés annuels et des foires en Suisse dans le cadre du marché périodique et permanent (1500–1800), in: Franz Irsigler (ed.), Messen, Jahrmärkte und Stadtentwicklung in Europa, Trier 2007, pp. 135–160, etc. 7 Cf., for example, Xenja von Etzdorff / Dieter Neukirch (eds.), Reisen und Reiseliteratur im Mittelalter und in der frühen Neuzeit, Amsterdam / Atlanta 1992; Norbert Ohler, Reisen im Mittelalter, München / Zürich3 2002; Dietrich Denecke, Methoden und Ergebnisse der historisch-geographischen und archäologischen Untersuchung und Rekonstruktion mittelalterlicher Verkehrswege, in: Herbert Jahnkuhn / Reinhard Wenskus (eds.), Geschichtswissenschaft und Archäologie. Untersuchungen zur Siedlungs-, Wirtschafts- und Kirchengeschichte, Sigmaringen 1979, pp. 433–483; idem, Altwegerelikte: Methoden und Probleme ihrer Inventarisation und Interpretation. Ein systematischer Überblick, in: Wege als Ziel. Kolloquium zur Wegeforschung in Münster, 30. November 2000, Münster 2002, pp. 1–16 [special print]; idem, Zur Entstehung des Verkehrs, in: Alois Niederstätter (ed.), Stadt. Strom – Strasse – Schiene. Die Bedeutung des Verkehrs für die Genese der mitteleuropäischen Städtelandschaft, Linz / Donau 2001, pp. 1–26; idem, Linienführung und Netzgestalt mittelalterlicher Verkehrswege – eine raumstrukturelle Perspektive, in: Rainer Christoph Schwinges (ed.), Strassen- und Verkehrswesen im hohen und späten

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Verkehrswege der Schweiz IVS” (Inventory of Switzerland’s historic traffic routes)8 has been compiled, which after twenty years of recording offers rich information on historical roads and ways of national, regional and local importance. With short monographs on roads and ways, the compilation presents the crucial historical sources as well as the results of fieldwork. The large number of studies on Alpine transport history of the last few years has brought a diversification of themes and new perspectives at the level of regional and local history. Anne Radeff’s study “Du café dans le chaudron” on trade and markets of a vast area of the Western Alps, published in 1996, can be identified as a valuable example of this development.9 Altogether the composition of a general scientific overview which shows the most important research findings for different periods and regions gained so far can be identified as the central desideratum of Alpine transport history.10 In this context, it will certainly be necessary – at least for certain research fields – to include essential connecting factors concerning adjacent areas. The implementation of this priority will not only be complicated by the divergent state of research for different regions but also by the differing availability of historical sources of the pre-industrial transport history of the Alps. The complexity and variety of sources as well as, at least for certain places, the lack of historical records probably are the most difficult challenges a comparative study of the transport structures of the different Alpine areas will have to face.11

Mittelalter, Sigmaringen 2007, pp. 49–70; Klaus Aerni, Die alten Passwege Albrun, Grimsel, Gries, Mt. Moro und Loetschen. Kartierung der Routen und erste Hinweise auf deren Entstehung, Hofwil / Merligen 1961; idem, Die Passwege Gemmi, Lötschen und Grimsel. Topographie, Teichographie und Geschichte der Weganlagen, 2 vols., Bremgarten 1971, etc. 8 ViaStoria. Inventar historischer Verkehrswege der Schweiz (IVS). Dokumentationen nach Kantonen, Bern 2003. For further information cf. [https://www.ivs.admin.ch/bundesinventar]; Klaus Aerni / Hanspeter Schneider, Alte Verkehrswege in der modernen Kulturlandschaft – Sinn und Zweck des Inventars historischer Verkehrswege der Schweiz (IVS), in: Geographica Helvetica 3 (1984), pp. 119–127; Klaus Aerni, Ziele und Ergebnisse des Inventars historischer Verkehrswege der Schweiz (IVS), in: Die Erschliessung des Alpenraums für den Verkehr im Mittelalter und in der frühen Neuzeit / L’apertura dell’area alpina al trafico nel Medoevo e nella prima Era Moderna. Historikertagung in Irsee 13.–15.9.1993, Bozen 1996, pp. 61–83; Cornel Doswald, Bestandesaufnahme historischer Verkehrswege am Beispiel der Schweiz. Auftrag, Methoden und Forschungsergebnisse des Inventars historischer Verkehrswege der Schweiz, in: Räume – Wege – Verkehr – historisch-geographische Aspekte ländlicher Verkehrswege und Transportmittel, Blankenhain 2000, pp. 11–50. 9 Radeff, Du café. 10 In 1995, on the occasion of the foundation of the International Society for Alpine History, the Swiss historian Jean-François Bergier already noticed a significant lack of overviews and summaries for most of the research fields. Cf. Jean-François Bergier, Des Alpes traversées aux Alpes vécues. Pour un projet de coopération internationale et interdisciplinaire en histoire des Alpes, in: Des Alpes traversées aux Alpes vécues, Zürich 1996, pp. 11–21, at pp. 16 s. 11 Idem, Le trafic à travers les Alpes et les liaisons transalpines du haut moyen âge au XVIIe siècle, in: Le Alpi e l’Europa, vol. III: Economia e transiti, Bari 1975, pp. 1–72, at p. 8: “Non point que

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3 Alpine Transport of the Pre-Industrial Period Natural Environment and Climate The crossing of one or several mountain passes is the most dominant characteristic of the commercial Alpine transport of the pre-industrial period. In the Western Alps these naturally given barriers are far higher than in the Eastern parts of the Alpine area. Routes with access to navigable rivers and lakes had an advantage in providing fast and cost-effective transportation of goods.12 With increasing distance from the central zone of the Alps, the importance of commercial shipping was more significant. In the flatter areas, the natural circumstances, such as seasonally strongly fluctuating water levels, were more moderate, as the map of the historical river transportation in the Valais and in Berne shows (cf. Figure 1).13 Most of the rivers of the Alpine zone almost exclusively served for timber rafting or for the shipping of heavy, weather-proof goods in the service of transportation of regional significance. By way of example, on the Inn River, wood for the use of the Tyrolian mines was transported since the 15th century, whereas on the Upper Rhine salt, wine, steel, iron, herring, cere, lead and wool were shipped in the Late Middle Ages.14 The crossing of the Alpine passes during the winter months is well documented in historical records. It is significant that the first annual cycle of the Geneva fairs started on Epiphany. In the 15th century, these fairs were frequently visited by Italian merchants who had to cross the Alps to reach the city on the shores of Lake Geneva. The Savoyard toll accounts of Montmélian document that between 22 January and 1 May 1300 a remarkable quantity of 2,226½ wagonloads crossed the Mont Cenis Pass.15 Sure-footed oxen blazed trails to the snowed-in passes.16 For the Valais, the account books, for example the so-called Libri d’entrata e di sortita of the Loscho Company in Brig, mention snow-plough men (“Schneeweger”), who removed the snow from the Simplon Pass road. The mercantile records show that in the 19th century, in addition to the costs of transportation and tolls, merchants had to pay a special

celles-ci [the historical sources] soient peu abondantes, bien au contraire. Mais elles sont incomplètes, dispersées, non cohérentes.” 12 Bergier, Le trafic, pp. 41 s. 13 Marie-Claude Schöpfer, Verkehrspolitik im Mittelalter. Bernische und Walliser Akteure, Netzwerke und Strategien, Ostfildern 2011, p. 313. 14 Bergier, Le trafic, pp. 31 s. 15 Peter Spufford, Handel, Macht und Reichtum. Kaufleute im Mittelalter, Darmstadt 2004, p. 123; see also Maria Clotilde Daviso di Charvensod, I pedaggi delle Alpi occidentali nel medio evo, Turin 1961. 16 Fritz Glauser, Ochsen und Pferde. Voraussetzungen des mittelalterlichen Alpenverkehrs, in: Beiträge zur alpinen Passgeschichte. Akten der 4. Internationalen Tagung zur Walserforschung in Splügen 6. September 1986, Anzola d’Ossola 1987, pp. 109–119.

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Figure 1: Historical River Transportation in the Valais and in Berne. © Forschungsinstitut zur Geschichte des Alpenraums, Brig.

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schneveg fee for their snow clearance work.17 In this regard the enhanced availability of local guides, sumpters and wagoners during the winter months, when agro-pastoral production made fewer demands, surely had an impact. Archaeological finds on high medieval Alpine routes, like the Antrona Pass, the Theodul Pass or the Lötschen Pass, prove that the altitude was not the only substantial factor concerning the use of an Alpine transport route. Particularly in the period of the Climate Optimum (c. 900–13th century)18 in the Middle Ages, those passes had high levels of traffic. With the progressive melting of glaciers during the European summer heat wave of 2003 various, prehistoric and medieval objects were discovered on the theretofore unknown Schnidejoch route in the northern Alps.19 Many of these ancient ways fell into oblivion during the Little Ice Age with its maxima from 1300 to 1500, from 1560 to 1670 and from 1800 to 1860.20 Others, like the passes of the Saas Valley, were further used for the regional exchange of goods. In 1559 a treaty between Macugnaga on the Italian side and Visp on the Valais side governed the pasture management modalities under adverse weather conditions and during snowfalls as well as under further unfavourable conditions, which made crossing the mountains impossible. As the annual period of time to cross the higher Alpine passes was limited and the possibilities to supply were difficult, the supraregional traffic and the transit generally preferred to flow over passes with a maximum altitude of 2,000 m a.s.l., which usually had an infrastructure.

17 See for example Archiv des Geschichtsforschenden Vereins Oberwallis / Forschungsinstitut zur Geschichte des Alpenraums (AGVO/FGA), Fratelli Loscho, FL-9: Libro d’Entrata e Sortita, p. 105. 18 Research of a team of experts from England, Wales and the USA as well as from the WSL (Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research) offers insightful findings concerning the causes of the medieval warm period. By comparing growth-ring data of Moroccan trees with the growth zones of stalagmites in Scotland, the scientists reconstructed the annual NAO index (North Atlantic Oscillation), which is based on the differences in atmospheric pressure abnormalities between the Azores and Iceland, back to the 11th century. As the low-pressure system over Iceland and the high-pressure system over the Azores determine whether the winter weather is warm and humid or cold and dry, this pressure ratio has a significant impact on the European climate. The study shows that between 1000 and 1400 A.D. the NAO index was extremely high. Warm air from the Atlantic Ocean between the Azores and Iceland was blown towards the cold European continent and warmed the mainland. Cf., for example, Valérie Trouet / Jan Esper / Nicholas E. Graham / Andy Baker et al., A Multi-proxy Reconstruction of Winter NAO Variability since AD 1050, in: Giles Young / Danny McCarroll (eds.), European Climate of the Past Millennium, Proceedings Volume, Calla Millor 2008, pp. 116–117. 19 Schöpfer, Verkehrspolitik, p. 320. 20 So far, certain authors only identified the period between 1560 and 1860 as the Little Ice Age. Cf. Heinz Wanner / Jürg Luterbacher et al., Klimawandel im Schweizer Alpenraum, Zürich 2000, pp. 76 s., 101–103; for more information about the Medieval Climate Optimum and the Little Ice Age in general see ibid., pp. 73–87.

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Means, Duration and Costs of Transport The difficult natural and climatic conditions required specific solutions concerning the means of transport used on Alpine routes. The cart traffic in the flat valleys which led to the starting points of the pass routes had capacities up to 250 kilograms. The transport vehicles were pulled by teams of horses, mules and oxen. With the introduction of the four-axle wagon in the 12th century and the doubling of the load capacity, carrier services were established at least in the pre-Alpine region. As until 1500 the front axle was rigid, the wagons were not universally usable; only at the end of the Middle Ages were these kinds of vehicles slowly introduced in different Alpine regions. The invention of the collar harness as well as of the offset rim and the wheel chamber supported this development. The use of wagons is documented in the late 15th century for the Brenner Pass, across which since 1480 a road has been built on the so-called Kuntersweg and improvements of certain segments have been realized between Bolzano and Klausen. However, in general, until the early modern period, Alpine traffic combined wagons on the suitable access roads and pack animals on the pass routes. In the case of frost, sledges and pull skins were additionally used. The packaged goods passing the Alps on mule or horseback determined the relevant load unit of the transit. The summage (from Latin sagma = load or sauma = pack saddle),21 called “Saum” in German, usually included two bales or two alternative transport units.22 These further divisions of the summages, the so-called colli (Italian “collo”), were classified according to the different types of goods and types of packaging. It was, in particular, “the bearing capacity of the pack animals, which determined the range of the weights used for the packages in the Alpine long-distance trade. This is mainly due to the fact that carriages by carts and wagons were – for longer distances – impossible in this highly situated mountain area”.23

21 Michael Moissey Postan, Medieval Trade and Finance, Cambridge 1973, p. 115: “Carrying services on medieval estates [. . .] consisted of both summage, i.e. carriage by horseback (indeed sometimes on human backs), and cartage.” 22 According to circumstances, a sumpter regularly carried two bales, barrels, chests, etc., which were fixed on both sides of the pack animal. This practice allowed the tying of another smaller additional load onto the back of the animal. The specific weights of a summage, composed of the two carrying weight units, varied from region to region: one sack of English wool, for example, corresponded to 364 pounds (c. 165.5 kg), which were usually further divided into two bales. Allan Evans (ed.), Francesco Balducci Pegolotti, La Pratica della Mercatura, Cambridge (MA) 1936, p. 257: “1 sacco di lana, che se ne fanno 2 balle, che sono una carica, cioè 1 soma.” For the etymology of “Saum”, cf. Miscellen, in: Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie 3 (1879), pp. 73–106, p. 102 s. (Romanische Eytmologien). 23 Gabriel Imboden / Marie-Claude Schöpfer, Packages in the Alpine Long-distance Trade up to the Introduction of a Standardised Metric System, in: Scripta Mercaturae 43 (2009), pp. 111–140, at p. 140.

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For the time around 1380, the fürleite tariff of Bellinzona mentions horses on the Monte Ceneri route. The statutes of Biasca from 1334 document oxen which were used for the transalpine goods transport. Archaeological finds at the forge of the hospice of the Lukmanier Pass confirm the use of these animals.24 Particularly on the high-altitude routes, robust and sure-footed oxen were used to groom the snow’s surface and to beat the path down during the winter months. Mules with pack saddles replaced the horses from the 16th century on. At the technical level, the introduction of the horseshoe and of the oxen shoe in the Late Middle Ages brought significant improvements. Whereas medieval pack animals were able to carry loads between 127 and 170 kilograms and oxen up to 200 kilograms, breeding successes seem to have enlarged the pack capacities of the loads until the 19th century. Researches on the transport over the Simplon Pass have shown that the summages went up to loads of 170 to 200 kilograms. The routes of the Alpine passes which followed watercourses, the probably artificial lakes near pass hospices and the numerous wells reveal the water needs and supply difficulties encountered while using pack animals. The transalpine traffic inner-Alpine economy contributed to change the inner-Alpine economic system in multiple ways: the transports, for example, had an impact on the process of the successive replacement of sheep breeding with stock breeding and of the area used for agriculture with pastures reaching a higher altitude. The accounts of the company Koler-Kreß-Saronno prove that around 1500 the horseback ride from Nuremberg to Milano to deliver letters generally took between 12 and 14 days.25 The transportation of goods usually required more time. The average daily distance for travellers through the Alps, regardless of the chosen means of transport, was between 20 and 40 kilometres. Interestingly, this measure corresponds to the distance of the so-called Susten (roadhouses or warehouses)26 for the transit.

24 Urs A. Müller, Von Trägern und Säumern. Zur Funktion von Wegbegleitern im Transportwesen, in: Bulletin IVS 1 (1994), pp. 5–33, at p. 31. 25 Schulte, Geschichte des mittelalterlichen Handels und Verkehrs, vol. I, p. 386. 26 The Susten were identical with the official stage points where the merchant goods needed to be exclusively unloaded. Anybody who violated the regulations was given at least a financial penalty. The transit route through the Valais had several places which were privileged with roadhouse rights, entrepôt rights (German: “Niederlagsrecht”) and transportation rights. As a rule, the distance between these points corresponded to the approximate distance which pre-modern mule and cart/wagon transport was able to manage per day. The establishment of cooperative transport organisations at these points followed the traffic upturn of the 12th and 13th centuries and at some places even persisted up until modern road construction across the Alpine passes were taken up. Cf. Ferdinand Schmid, Verkehr und Verträge zwischen Wallis und Eschenthal vom 13. bis 15. Jahrhundert, in: Blätter aus der Walliser Geschichte I/II (1889/1890), pp. 143–174, 164–167; Schulte, Geschichte des mittelalterlichen Handels und Verkehrs, vol. I, p. 459 s.; Peter Arnold, Der Simplon. Zur Geschichte des Passes und des Dorfes, Brig 1984, pp. 33 ss.; Hans Peter Nething, Der Simplon. Saumweg, Fahrstrasse, Eisenbahn, Chavez’ Simplonflug, Autostrasse, Nationalstrasse N9, Thun 1977, pp. 17 s.; Antoine Lugon, Le trafic commercial par le Simplon et le désenclavement du Valais

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On the Simplon Pass road, these official points had an average distance of about 30 kilometres. As the complaints of merchants illustrate, the transport of goods between South Germany and Northern Italy took up to three months due to bad weather and other obstructions.27 But contrary to the sea route through Gibraltar, which since the 13th century particularly was used for the shipment of heavy goods, travel over the Alps was usually predictable and relatively short. The massive transport costs led to the fact that only the transit of luxury and semi-luxury products was profitable. When the company del Bene bought fine French textiles at the fairs of Troyes in 1319, the costs for the transport to Florence, for the packaging, tolls and insurance fees amounted to an additional 16–20 % of the merchandise value.28 The study of Alain Dubois on the salt transport in the Valais of the 16th century documents offers even more spectacular sums.29 Recent researches on the transport business across the Simplon Pass at the end of the Ancien Régime have confirmed that prior to the construction of the engineered road the costs remained at an unchanged high level.30

oriental (fin du XIIe – milieu du XIVe siècle), in: Pierre Dubuis (ed.), Ceux qui passent et ceux qui restent. Études sur les trafics transalpins et leur impact local. Actes du Colloque de Bourg-SaintPierre 23–25 septembre 1988, Saint-Maurice 1989, pp. 87–99, at p. 93, etc. 27 Hermann Pfister, Das Transportwesen der internationalen Handelswege von Graubünden im Mittelalter und in der Neuzeit, Chur 1913, p. 71; Maria Strasser-Lattner, Der Handel über die Bündner Pässe zwischen Oberdeutschland und Oberitalien im späten Mittelalter, Magisterarbeit, Konstanz 2002, p. 101. 28 Spufford, Handel, p. 151; Armando Sapori, Una compagnia di Calimala ai primi del Trecento, Firenze 1932. 29 Alain Dubois, Die Salzversorgung des Wallis 1500–1610. Wirtschaft und Politik, Winterthur 1965, table in the appendix. Dubois calculates that in the 16th and 17th centuries the costs of the transportation including tolls amounted to between 50–80% of the total costs. 30 On the Simplon Pass route of the end of the 18th century, the transport costs generally were significant as the accounts of the Fratelli Loscho company document: the expenses registered in the Libro d’entrata e sortita include the carriage costs (“vittura”/“condotta”) as well as expenses for customs, roadhouse fees, snow removal fees and perquisites. These costs altogether usually added up to a considerable proportion of the value of the goods. The Fratelli Loscho, for example, paid the following fees for the transport of a bale of cloth of 162 pounds forwarded by Joseph Anton Jordan on 6 December 1796: the “vittura” was credited to a value of 40 Valais batzen. Additionally, unspecified costs for customs and snow clearance for 2 batzen and 2 denari were paid (AGVO / FGA, Libro d’Entrata e Sortita, FL-9, p. 347). According to Albert Hauser, in 1790 this corresponded to 43¾ hours of work, whereas in 1800, 29 hours of work were necessary to obtain the same amount of money (Albert Hauser, Was für ein Leben. Schweizer Alltag vom 15. bis 18. Jahrhundert, Zürich 1987, p. 47). Furthermore, the amount is equivalent to two-thirds of the monthly wage of a hospital cook in Lausanne at the end of the 18th century (calculated according to the information in Gabriel Imboden, Ein Handelshaus zu Zeiten des Umbruchs. Fratelli Loscho in Brig, in: Blätter aus der Walliser Geschichte XXXI [1999], pp. 125–135, at p. 129).

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Construction and Maintenance of Roads In the 12th century, Europe’s traffic system experienced a turning point which was marked by an economic upturn. Thomas Szabó referred to this process as “Neuentdeckung der Strasse” (rediscovery of the road). At this time, public authorities sharing in the benefits started to show interest in the route system which they successively turned into a political and economic issue.31 The earliest written records documenting Alpine road construction relate to a 22-kilometre segment of the Rhône valley route between Martigny and Bex in the Valais. Accounts of Savoyard castellanies dating between 1284/85 and 1350 draw a precise picture of the completed work steps: gravel, faggots and wood piles were used to fix the road edges, and trenches were dug on both sides of the road so that the water could drain down the lane.32 Non-recurring road construction works did not suffice. As the accounts show, it was a permanent struggle with the natural forces. The road, washed out by the water of the river repeatedly, had to be shifted to the mountainside and cleared of rocks. Furthermore, the bridges torn away by the overflowing tributary waters had to be reconstructed. Up to 700 day labourers and up to 60, and in exceptional cases or more, wagons were annually employed in road building.33 Construction and maintenance of the roads occasionally required the use of unusual techniques: Felix Fabri documented in his travelogue from 1483 that on the Kuntersweg and further Eastern Alpine roads, Sigismund (1427–1496), Duke of Austria, blasted roads out of the cliffs “with fire and gunpowder” (“durch Feuer und Schiesspulver”).34 The early period of Alpine road construction did not leave significant traces. Furthermore, in many cases, it is difficult to determine when the few remains were exactly built. Very often, the historical routes were overprinted by modern roads. As the historical sources document, many of the tributary roads leading to the Alpine passes were improved during the Middle Ages. Consequently, until today, a lot of road sections, for example the route between Vuitebœuf and Sainte-Croix, contrariwise are classified as Roman cart tracks, though they have meanwhile been identified as medieval routes.35 Meandering rivers

31 Thomas Szabó, Art. “Strasse (westlicher Bereich)”, in: Lexikon des Mittelalters, vol. 8, München / Zürich 1999, cols. 220–224, at col. 222; idem, Die Entdeckung der Strasse im 12. Jahrhundert, in: Società, Istituzioni, Spiritualità. Studi in onore di Cinzio Violante, vol. 2, Spoleto 1994, pp. 913–929, at p. 914. 32 Maria Clotilde Daviso di Charvensod, La route du Valais au XIVe siècle, in: Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Geschichte 1 (1951), pp. 545–561, table p. 555. 33 Ibid., pp. 549–556; Arnold Esch, Spätmittelalterlicher Passverkehr im Alpenraum. Typologie der Quellen, in: Idem, Alltag der Entscheidung. Beiträge zur Geschichte der Schweiz an der Wende vom Mittelalter zur Neuzeit, Bern / Stuttgart / Wien 1998, pp. 173–248, at pp. 190 s. 34 Ernst Gasner, Zum deutschen Strassenwesen von der ältesten Zeit bis zur Mitte des XVIII. Jahrhunderts. Eine germanistisch-antiquarische Studie, Wiesbaden 1966 (repr. 1889), p. 65. 35 Heinz Herzig, art. “Strassen”, par. “Römisches Reich”, in: Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz, vol. 12, Basel 2013, pp. 50–55, 50 s.

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made the maintenance of the access roads to the Alpine passes burdensome. Tolls, fees for escort and further duties which were raised for the administration of roads, ways and traffic infrastructure ensured the further maintenance of the constructions. These special charges, which were usually granted to individuals, usually responded to local requirements. The accounts for the pedagium camini of St-Maurice show that from 1276 to 1282 the merchants of Milano agreed to pay two additional pennies for the maintenance of the road from Bex to Martigny. The count of Savoy benefitted from the arrangement for this special fee with which he not only financed works on the road but also the construction of bulwarks and ditches.36 This initiative of foreign merchants was not a singular phenomenon. Thus, since the 13th century, the merchants of Milano continuously showed interest in the Simplon Pass route which resulted in numerous traffic-managing contracts with regional potentates.37 Their interplay was not always harmonious: in 1268 the Venetians put massive pressure on the count of Gorizia to repair his section of the “Hungarian road” in Slovenia.38 Though rationalisation trends characterised Alpine road construction of the Early Modern Era, the major part of the road construction and maintenance was continuously performed mainly by locals by means of socage services. With the development of independent municipalities, the manorial burden turned into a cooperative duty. Since the end of the 17th century, with the increase in efforts to maintain the roads, these duties became an element of modern statehood. As multiple complaints, for example, in the recesses of the Valais Diet about unimplemented works prove, the execution of orders issued by the authorities was not always sufficient. The extensive transformation of the pass routes into engineered roads by the governments of the Alpine area during the 19th century was the most concise expression for the revolution and acceleration of the production and transportation processes. The replacement of the socage services with wage work and the professionalisation of road services through the creation of public offices and the assignment of private builders were slow and gradual processes. In the Valais this development only progressed when the French model of the Département des ponts et chaussées began to have a decisive influence.

36 Daviso di Charvensod, La route du Valais, pp. 548 s. 37 Schöpfer, Verkehrspolitik, pp. 156–164; Antoine Lugon, Le trafic commercial par le Simplon et le désenclavement du Valais oriental (fin du XIIe – milieu du XIVe siècle), in: Dubuis (ed.), Ceux qui passent, pp. 87–99. 38 Spufford, Handel, p. 145.

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4 Alpine Transport Structures Hospices, Hospitals and Inns The existence of maintained roads and infrastructures as well as a certain offer of services were the preconditions for the smooth running of goods traffic. In the Early Middle Ages, monasteries at the starting points of the pass routes were granted with toll privileges, welcomed travellers and exercised traffic control. With the establishment of numerous hospitals and hospices, particularly since the 11th century, new forms of charitable hospitality emerged along the transalpine routes.39

Figure 2: The Morgue of the Grand Saint Bernard Hospice. Photograph by Charles Paris, Presumably Taken in the 1920s. © Charles Paris, Mediathek Wallis, Martigny.

As early as in the 9th century there was a hospice on Mont Cenis.40 Additional early hospices on the tops of the passes were located on the Great Saint Bernard Pass as well as on the Septimer Pass and on the Julier Pass. The housekeeping accounts of

39 Ibid., p. 156; Schöpfer, Verkehrspolitik, p. 266. 40 Winckler, Die Alpen, p. 131: 825 Lothar I ordered that a hospice was built on the Mont Cenis pass to accommodate pilgrims. See also MGH DD Lo 1 Nr. 4, pp. 60 ss.

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the hospice of Great Saint Bernard, which was founded by Bernard of Aosta and sponsored by the Savoy dynasty, reveal a wide range of hospitality services: tuna from the south, herring from the north, slaughter cattle from the Bresse and spices from Geneva were bought. The names of high-ranking guests are specifically mentioned if the hospice had to make additional efforts to house them. The visit of the bishop of Ghent required four guinea-fowls. In 1447 the hospice bought three dozen new drinking glasses for the Savoyard sovereign. In contrast, nameless travellers are only registered in the account books if they died on the pass route. Their bodies were brought to the hospice’s morgue (cf. Figure 2) which existed until the 1980s and distinctively exemplifies the dangers of the Alpine crossing.41 Since the 13th century, these institutions of charitable hospitality and the scattered taverns were no longer sufficient. Numerous commercial inns emerged, especially along the main traffic arteries, with the result that an Alpine hospitality network developed.42 It is an exceptional case that the account books of a premodern inn like that of Hans von Herblingen who welcomed his guests in Thun at the access area of the Alpine passes have survived. From 1398 to 1415 his house became a hub for the trade traffic.43

Guides, Transport Organisations, and Susten The specific conditions of crossing the Alps required the local inhabitants to be capable of handling the traffic. Historical sources register so-called marrones (French marronniers) for the years 900, 905, 943 and 1129 at the Great Saint Bernard Pass, as the bodies of these guides were pulled down into the valley by an avalanche. Their mention gives evidence of an early offer of guides provided by the hospice, a service which was offered up to modern times (cf. Figure 3).44 41 Lucien Quaglia (ed.), rev. by Jean-Marie Theurillat, Les comptes de l’Hospice du Grand SaintBernard (1397–1477), in: Vallesia 28 (1973), pp. 1–162, 30 (1975), pp. 169–374, at 28 (1973), pp. 113, 138 and 30 (1975), pp. 181 s.; Esch, Spätmittelalterlicher Passverkehr, pp. 191–198; idem, Auf der Strasse nach Italien. Alpenübergänge und Wege nach Rom zwischen Antike und Spätmittelalter. Methodische Beobachtungen, in: Rainer C. Schwinges (ed.), Strassen- und Verkehrswesen im hohen und späten Mittelalter, Ostfildern 2007, pp. 19–48, at p. 30; André Donnet, Der grosse St. Bernhard, Bern 1950, p. 46. 42 Beat Kümin, Wirtshaus, Reiseverkehr und Raumerfahrung am Ausgang des Mittelalters, in: Schwinges (ed.), Strassen- und Verkehrswesen, pp. 331–352, at pp. 331, 340 s.; idem, Wirtshäuser und Bäder, in: André Holenstein (ed.), rev. by Claudia Engler / Norbert Furrer / Heinrich R. Schmidt, Berns mächtige Zeit. Das 16. und 17. Jahrhundert neu entdeckt, Bern 2006, pp. 544–550, at p. 545 s.; Marie-Claude Schöpfer, Kaufleute, Säumer und Ballenführer. Der transalpine Fernhandel im Mittelalter, in: DAMALS Sonderband: Fernhandel in Antike und Mittelalter, Stuttgart 2008, pp. 95–110, at p. 110. 43 Vinzenz Bartlome, Die Rechnungsbücher des Wirtes Hans von Herblingen als Quelle zur Wirtschaftsgeschichte Thuns um 1400, Bern 1988. 44 Quaglia, Les services du passage du Saint-Bernard établis a Bourg-Saint-Pierre, in: Annales Valaisannes 48 (1973), pp. 43–76, at p. 44; Fritz Glauser, Die Transit-Infrastrukturen im Hohen Mittelalter,

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In the course of the traffic expansion of the 13th century, sumpters and wagoners began to organise themselves into corporations. Through the grant of privileges from the sovereign, these cooperatives had gained specific rights which concerned the Susten and transportation.45 In general, the municipally organised cooperatives formed themselves close to routes on which the transit, or at least an intense regional goods transport travelled. In addition to the monopolistic carriage of trade goods on chosen routes, they regularly maintained sections of road. The sumpters of the neighbouring municipality brought the purchased merchandise to the local Suste where they were stored for a fee. The so-called Ballenteiler (Latin partitor ballarum), a divider of the bales,46 later handed them over to the sumpters of his own

in: Wege und Geschichte 2 (2007), pp. 12–17, at p. 15; Spufford, Handel, p. 119; Schöpfer, Verkehrspolitik, p. 171. 45 Ibid., p. 271, 183–204. Numerous studies have been published on the Alpine transport corporations: Gerhard Börlin, Die Transportverbände und das Transportrecht der Schweiz im Mittelalter, Zürich 1896; Karl Meyer, Urkunden zur mittelalterlichen Transportorganisation in der Leventina, in: Anzeiger für Schweizerische Geschichte 11 (1910/13), pp. 171–182; Hermann Pfister, Das Transportwesen der internationalen Handelswege in Graubünden, Chur 1913; Johannes Müller, Das spätmittelalterliche Strassen- und Transportwesen der Schweiz und Tirols, in: Geographische Zeitschrift 11 (1905), pp. 85–99, 145–162; idem, Das Rodwesen Bayerns und Tirols im Spätmittelalter und zum Beginn der Neuzeit, in: Vierteljahrschrift für Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte 3 (1905), pp. 361–420, 555–626; Otto Stolz, Zur Geschichte der Organisation des Transportwesens im Tirol im Mittelalter, in: Vierteljahrschrift für Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte 8 (1910), pp. 196–267; idem, Neue Beiträge zur Geschichte des Niederlagsrechts und Rodfuhrwesens im Tirol, in: Vierteljahrschrift für Wirtschaftsund Sozialgeschichte 22 (1929), pp. 144–168; idem, Geschichte des Zollwesens, Verkehrs und Handels in Tirol und Vorarlberg von den Anfängen bis im 20. Jahrhundert, Innsbruck 1953; Werner Schnyder, Handel und Verkehr über die Bündner Pässe im Mittelalter, Zürich 1973, pp. 22–34; Fritz Glauser, Der Gotthardtransit von 1500 bis 1660. Seine Stellung im Alpentransit, in: Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Geschichte 29 (1979), pp. 16–52; Pio Caroni, Soma et alpis et vicanale. Einleitende Bemerkungen zu einer Rechtsgeschichte der Säumergenossenschaften, in: Louis Carlen / Friedrich Ebel (eds.), Festschrift für Ferdinand Elsener zum 65. Geburtstag, Sigmaringen 1977, pp. 97–110; idem, Dorfgemeinschaften und Säumergenossenschaften in der mittelalterlichen und neuzeitlichen Schweiz, in: Recueils de la Société Jean Bodin pour l’histoire comparative des institutions, vol. XLIV: Les communautés rurales, cinquième partie, Paris 1987, pp. 191–222; idem, Über innere Verfassung und Haftungspraxis der Liviner Säumergenossenschaften zu Beginn des XV. Jahrhunderts, in: Nicolai Bernard / Quirinus Reichen (eds.), Gesellschaft und Gesellschaften. Festschrift zum 65. Geburtstag von Prof. Dr. Ulrich Im Hof, Bern 1982, pp. 61–79; Bergier, Les foires, pp. 195–202; etc. 46 Peter Arnold, Gondo-Zwischbergen an der Landesgrenze am Simplonpass. Im Selbstverlag der Gemeinde und der Pfarrei Gondo-Zwischbergen, Brig 1968, p. 31; idem, Der Simplon. Zur Geschichte des Passes und des Dorfes, Brig 21984, pp. 209, 273; Schöpfer, Verkehrspolitik, pp. 185, 135 s.: In the Upper Valais the office of the Ballenteiler even became the name of a whole family. The family of the Theiler / Teiler / Partitoris – originally resident in the Simplon Pass area – adapted their name from this privilege. Certainly, this process was facilitated by the fact that episcopal offices were inheritable.

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municipality to transport them to the Suste of the next village. This mode of transportation, based on stages, was called Rodfuhr or Portensystem. The system gave the local population the opportunity to earn an auxiliary income, whereas it occasionally did not satisfy the needs of the merchants. In the Late Middle Ages, therefore, the so-called Strackfuhr prevailed. With this alternative transport system, the merchandise was carried past the Susten by a single carrier, for example directly from Sion to Domodossola. As the Strack sumpters used the transit roads without contributing to the construction and maintenance, they had to pay a special fee to the neighbouring communities.47 This so-called furleytum or furleytallum is first documented in 1260 in Chiavenna at the Splügen Pass route.48 The division of Rodfuhr and Strackfuhr developed in a divergent way: In Grisons, where the autonomy of the local authorities was strong, the system based on stages survived until the era of engineered roads. At the Gotthard Pass, with a few exceptions, the Strackfuhr prevailed. It was not until the 16th century that the carriers of the different valleys finalised contracts concerning the tariffs.49 The concurrence of rising transport companies, such as the Genoese Compagnia Rossi dell’Isola, which conveyed goods between Italy, Geneva, Lucerne, Lyon, the Rhine area and the Netherlands, led to this novelty. According to Jean-François Bergier, the transportation system based on stages being a rural fealty is also documented for the SwabianBavarian Alpine foreland as well as for the Veneto. This finding inevitably raises the question about the Alpine-specific characteristics of the system.50

5 The System of the Alpine Passes Transport Routes and Markets of the Transit Since the 13th century, economic growth with its increased consumption needs and its demands for sales markets on both sides of the Alps resulted in more regular and intense transalpine exchange. The respective traffic, with a few exceptions, used

47 Pio Caroni, Zur Bedeutung des Warentransportes für die Bevölkerung der Passgebiete, in: Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Geschichte 29 (1979), pp. 84–123, at pp. 86 s.; Oliver Landolt, Strassenbau und Strassenunterhalt in spätmittelalterlicher Zeit nach zentralschweizerischen Quellen, in: Der Geschichtsfreund 163 (2010), pp. 27–72, at p. 45; Spufford, Handel, p. 149; Schöpfer, Verkehrspolitik, pp. 173 s. 48 Guglielmo Scaramellini, Das Transportsystem vor 1800: Die Porten in der Valchiavenna seit dem Mittelalter. Fakten und Mutmassungen, in: Georg Jäger (ed.), Der Splügenpass. Zur langen Geschichte einer kurzen Transitroute / Il Passo dello Spluga. La lunga storia di una breve via di transito, Chur 2016, pp. 47–70, at p. 50: In 1314 a fürlaiti can also be identified in Vicosoprano. 49 Bergier, Genève, pp. 195 s.; idem, Le Trafic, p. 50. 50 Ibid., p. 52.

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Figure 3: Equipped with Long Sticks, Marronniers of the Great Saint Bernard Hospice carry the Body of a Casualty. The Canons Receive the Group. © https://www.rtn.ch/rtn/Programmes/emissions/ Format-A3/Barry-chien-sauveteur.html.

already existing routes. The earliest data on transit frequencies are recorded in Savoyard toll accounts of the end of the 13th century.51 Overall they registered approximately 400 tons of goods of long-distance traffic for the Western Alpine passes of Simplon and Grand Saint Bernard as well as 500–600 tons for Mont Cenis within a year. The principal goods were wool and textiles from France and England, which were brought to Northern Italy. Since 1300 this merchandise was also carried in the opposite direction. There are no documented sources for the Central Alpine area (Gotthard Pass) for the respective period, whereas the most important Eastern Alpine pass, the Brenner, nourished by the Venetian trade presumably knew the highest frequencies. Based on the available toll-related sources, Herbert Hassinger estimated the merchandise transported across the Brenner around 1300 at a volume of 4,000 tons for each year, of which a quarter was transit goods. The Eastern Alpine passes served for the transport of salt from Hall in Tyrol in a southern direction and of spices, cotton, textiles and wine in a northern direction. In addition, above all, metals, fruits and olives etc. were transported across these routes.52

51 Daviso di Charvensod, I pedaggi; Herbert Hassinger, Die Alpenübergänge vom Mont Cenis bis zum Simplon im Spätmittelalter, in: Jürgen Schneider (ed.), Wirtschaftskräfte und Wirtschaftswege, vol. I: Mittelmeer und Kontinent. Festschrift für Hermann Kellenbenz, Stuttgart 1978, pp. 313–372, at pp. 315 s. 52 Hassinger, Zur Verkehrsgeschichte, pp. 445–449; idem, Die Alpenübergänge, pp. 334 ss., 362.

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In the 14th and 15th centuries, in line with the general trend of the European economy, the quantities of the Alpine trade generally diminished. As a consequence of a climate deterioration, famines, plague epidemics concomitant with a demographic decrease, the economic output declined.53 Furthermore, the wars in France interrupted the Flanders trade and the upturn of the North Italian cloth manufacturing additionally diminished the trade of the Northern Alpine producers of this segment.54 Not later than with the beginning of the 15th century, a new trade route favouring the Eastern Alpine passes, which led from the Southern German cities to Italy, developed. This process was coupled with a shift among the economic centres of the continent from Central to Western Europe. The transalpine ties with Italy persisted, advantaged by the slowly noticeable recovery of the European economy as well as due to the new economic centres’ enormous demand for luxury goods.55 The decline of the fairs of Geneva in the 1560s and the simultaneous rise of more northern fair places like Zurzach (cf. Figure 4) reinforced the trend towards a reduction in the Western Alpine traffic, which had been looming for some time.56 The transalpine goods traffic, which was generally growing, visibly shifted to the improved eastern passes until the beginning of the 16th century, though the frequencies of the Western Alps also increased on account of cyclical reasons. The Brenner Pass continuously asserted its most prominent position within the Alpine system of transit roads. The quantities of goods transported across this pass were at a volume of at least 5,000 tons of which the share of long-distance trade merchandise was c. 1200 tons. In contrast, according to the evaluations of Fritz Glauser from 1493–1505, only 170 tons were transported across the Gotthard Pass each year.57 In the course of the discovery of the New World, a part of the trade certainly transferred to the Atlantic coastal areas, but as Oriental products primarily were

53 Spufford, Handel, p. 12; Schöpfer, Verkehrspolitik, p. 73. 54 Hassinger, Die Alpenübergänge, pp. 345 s., 351; Jean Favier, Frankreich im Hoch- und Spätmittelalter, in: Hermann Kellenbenz (ed.), Handbuch der europäischen Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte, vol. 2, Stuttgart 1980, pp. 297–326, at p. 320. 55 Hermann Kellenbenz, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft Europas 1350–1650, in: Idem (ed.), Handbuch der europäischen Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte, vol. 3: Europäische Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte vom ausgehenden Mittelalter bis zur Mitte des 17. Jahrhunderts, Stuttgart 1986, pp. 2–387, at pp. 258–273. 56 Jean-François Bergier, Die Schweiz 1350–1650, in: Ibid., vol. 3, pp. 894–926, at pp. 914–916; Marie-Claude Schöpfer, Jahrmärkte und Messen auf dem Gebiet der heutigen Schweiz vom Mittelalter bis zum 19./20. Jahrhundert, in: Markus A. Denzel (ed.), Europäische Messegeschichte. 9.– 19. Jahrhundert, Köln / Weimar / Wien 2018, pp. 203–219. 57 Hassinger, Zur Verkehrsgeschichte, p. 451; Kellenbenz, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, p. 273; Fritz Glauser, Der internationale Gotthardtransit im Lichte des Luzerner Zentnerzolls von 1493 bis 1505, in: Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Geschichte18 (1968), pp. 177–245, at pp. 199 ss.; Reto Furter, Frühneuzeitlicher Transitverkehr in den Alpen, in: Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte 25 (2010), pp. 109–120, at pp. 112 s.

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shipped across the Mediterranean to Italy and then carried across the Alps to the north, the Alpine traffic was not immediately affected. In the west, the rise of the fairs of Chalon-sur-Saône and Lyon benefited the Mont Cenis Pass, which, around 1500, had a transit volume of 500–1,000 tons per year.58 Beyond their initial functions, the Great Saint Bernard and the Simplon Pass at the same time began to serve as routes particularly for the importation of salt. In the first half of the 17th century, transit across the latter pass again began to flourish on the initiative of the entrepreneur Kaspar Stockalper vom Thurm (1609–1691).59 By contrast, the goods traffic across the Central Alpine passes, which connected battles areas, stopped for the longer term. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the constantly growing transalpine long-distance trade passed through concentration processes, which had commerce increasingly using chosen passes as its consequence. In the Western Alpine area, after the overthrow of Stockalper in 1678, the Mont Cenis Pass regained its position as most important transit route. In the Eastern Alpine area, the rise of the fairs of Bolzano as international trading venues from the 1630s on favoured the Brenner Pass traffic.60 With the construction of engineered roads in the 18th and at the beginning of the 19th centuries, the Alpine transit traffic of this area once again intensified, whereas transport quantities across further passes stagnated. Thus, the Brenner Pass, which due to the economic policy of the Habsburg state was in the meantime in strong competition with the Tauern, Semmering and Karawanks passes, in 1840, with

58 Gérard-François Dumont / Anselm Zurfluh (ed.), L’arc alpin. Histoire et géopolitique d’un espace européen, Paris / Zürich 1998, p. 32; Furter, Frühneuzeitlicher Transitverkehr, p. 113. 59 Ibid.; Alain Dubois, Die Salzversorgung des Wallis 1500–1610. Wirtschaft und Politik, Winterthur 1965; idem, Die Salzversorgung des Wallis unter Michael Mageran, unpublished manuscript, Lausanne 1998; idem, Les fermes du sel de Michel Mageran (1608–1648) et de Gaspard Stockalper (1648–1678) comme aboutissement d’un processus amorcé vers 1530, in: Pascal Ladner / Gabriel Imboden (eds.), Alpenländischer Kapitalismus in vorindustrieller Zeit, Brig 2004, pp. 121–136. For more information about the life of Stockalper, cf. Helmut Stalder, Der Günstling. Kaspar Stockalper. Eine Geschichte von Raffgier, Macht und Hinterlist, Zürich 2019; Marie-Claude Schöpfer, Kaspar Stockalpers Verkehrspolitik, in: Eadem / Heinrich Bortis (ed.), Tradition – Vision – Innovation. Hommage an Kaspar Stockalper (1609–1691), Visp 2013, pp. 103–140; Gabriel Imboden, Der Transit am Simplon zu Beginn der Ära Kaspar Jodoks von Stockalper 1634–1645, in: Enrico Rizzi (ed.), Beiträge zur alpinen Passgeschichte / Contributi alla Storia die Passi Alpini. Akten der vierten internationalen Tagung zur Walserforschung in Slügen, 6. September 1986, Anzola d’Ossola 1987, pp. 177–203; Peter Arnold, Kaspar Jodok Stockalper vom Thurm (1609–1691), vol. 1: Der reiche Stockalper, vol. 2: Der grosse Stockalper, Mörel ²1972. 60 Furter, Frühneuzeitlicher Transitverkehr, pp. 114 s.; Markus A. Denzel, Unternehmen, Handelshäuser und Wirtschaftsmigration im neuzeitlichen Alpenraum. Einführung, Forschungsaufriss und konzeptionelle Überlegungen, in: Marie-Claude Schöpfer / Markus Stoffel / Françoise Vannotti (eds.), Unternehmen, Handelshäuser und Wirtschaftsmigration im neuzeitlichen Alpenraum, Brig 2014, pp. 1–24, at p. 20; Andrea Bonoldi, Handel und Kreditwesen zwischen Italien und Deutschland: Die Stadt Bozen und ihre Messen vom 13. bis ins 19. Jahrhundert, in: Scripta mercaturae 42/1 (2008), pp. 9–26.

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c. 100,000 tons, exceeded the frequencies of the Gotthard Pass by a factor of twenty.61 At the same time, the Mont Cenis Pass, which since 1806 was a drivable road, experienced an upturn, whereas the Simplon Pass, reconstructed by Napoleon, the Grisons commercial routes and the Gotthard road did not show excessive growth. Above all, with the enormous competition of the railways and with the construction of lines and tunnels, since the 1850s, the transport frequencies of all Alpine passes were reduced.62

Secondary Transport Systems and Markets of Supraregional to Local Significance The transit roads were obviously also used by regional trade. Conversely, with regard to the historical sources, a clear distinction between the form of transport cannot always be precisely drawn. Secondary transportation systems and passes serving the regional trade between neighbouring valleys in economic terms played a crucial part.63 On the eastern fringe of the Alps, the Slovenian pass of Predil, across which Venetian spices were carried as well as Hungarian copper transported and cattle driven, was incorporated into a system of secondary passes which interconnected the Veneto region, the Tyrol, Carinthia and Slovenia.64 On the one hand, such complex road systems created connections to central places with markets which offered foodstuffs, consumer goods, luxuries and non-Alpine industrial and cottage-industry products; on the other hand, these passes served to supply markets with inner-Alpine products, local animal husbandry products as well as with Alpine agricultural and industrial products. In the case of mining areas, an additional component was present. The Alpine economic system in this light had traffic-producing effects on multiple levels. The area surely disposed of a large number of annual fairs, which served as sources for the food supply and as markets for local products.65 Thus, Franche-Comté, Romandy and Savoy at the end of the Ancien Régime alone had 475 marketplaces with 1427 annual markets in total.66 As the example of the weekly markets and annual fairs of Brig with a catchment area reaching to the

61 Hassinger, Die Alpenübergänge, pp. 461 s.; Furter, Frühneuzeitlicher Transitverkehr, p. 116. 62 Ibid.; Klaus Aerni, Pässe, in: Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz, vol. 9, Basel 2010, pp. 562–656, at pp. 563 s. 63 Bergier, Le trafic, pp. 13 s., describes these passes as “liaison intra-alpines”, a system which, according to him, also included the routes between places at different altitudes in the same valleys. 64 Ibid., p. 35 65 Markus A. Denzel, Märkte und Messen im vorindustriellen Alpenraum. Ihre Bedeutung für den trans- und inneralpinen Handelsverkehr, in: Anne-Lise Head-König / Luigi Lorenzetti / Andrea Bonoldi (eds.), Transits – Transit. Infrastructures et société de l’Antiquité à nos jours. Infrastrukturen und Gesellschaft von der Antike bis heute, Zürich 2016, pp. 43–62, at pp. 46, 57. 66 Radeff, Du café, p. 459.

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Val d’Ossola shows, economic interaction frequently crossed natural and political borders. Since the 14th century, the business relations of the cattle breeders of the southern Valais valleys crossed the high-Alpine passes, and thus this proves that commercial interests often were decisive. During the Little Ice Age, they preferred the regional markets of the Aosta Valley over the markets of their home country because Northern Italy offered the better sales potential.67 Since the 16th century, the number of markets noticeably increased with the result that weekly markets and annual fairs often took place a short distance away from each other. The reason for this growth was the need for more and easily accessible exchange places for agricultural and industrial products. The Alpine market system in this sense reflects specific characteristics of the regional economic structures which are not only recognisable from the products and the networks but also by the scheduling. Thus, a large part of the markets took place before the cattle drives to and from Alpine pastures. As the rare historical sources on the inner-Alpine commerce between places of different altitudinal belts and valleys as well as on that between Alpine and sub-Alpine zones do not

Figure 4: Plate in the chronicle of Johannes Stumpf (1548) which shows the so-called Hurentanz (ball of the whores) and the horse market in Zurzach which took place on the main day of the annual markets. During the 16th century, the Zurzach market events evolved into important fairs. © Bibliothek des Geschichtsforschenden Vereins Oberwallis: Johannes Stumpf, Gemeiner loblicher Eydgnosschaft Stetten, Landen und Völckeren Chronic wirdiger Thaaten beschreybung, Zürich 1548, p. 130.

67 Bergier, Le trafic, p. 14.

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give a clear answer about which types of markets dominated until the 18th century, its importance and further attributes can barely be assessed and classified.68

6 Concluding Remarks Until the construction of transalpine railway lines, the fluctuations of the European economy and the shifts of economic focus areas, more than other factors, profoundly affected the choice of routes, as well as the quantity, composition and frequency of goods flowing across the Alps. In particular, the rise and fall of economic centres and important international fairs, which had an impact across the Alps, led to major traffic growth on different passes. In the Middle Ages, the corresponding activities were mainly performed by non-Alpine regions; in the Modern Era they were also undertaken by Alpine protagonists. Therefore, pre-industrial Alpine traffic is characterised by a distinct mixture of transit, which travelled to markets usually located outside the Alpine area, and of regional trade, which served for the exportation of goods. Commercial relations across the Alpine passes were a self-evident component of economic life and which were preferably exploited to their own advantage. The system of Alpine passes, despite remarkable shifts, especially towards the already naturally advantaged Eastern Alpine region, remained by far the most important connection between the Mediterranean region and the North Alpine countries during the entire pre-industrial era. This fact exemplifies its central function in the European economy.69

68 Denzel, Märkte und Messen, p. 47; Anne-Marie Dubler, Art. “Märkte”, in: Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz, vol. 8, Basel 2009, pp. 297–300; Körner, Das System der Jahrmärkte; idem, Le système des marchés annuels; Anne Radeff, Grandes et petites foires du Moyen Âge au XXe siècle, in: Nuova Rivista Storica 75 (1991), pp. 329–348; Walter Bodmer, Die Zurzacher Messen von 1530 bis 1856 (Separatum of Argovia 74 [1962]), Aarau 1962, pp. 9 s. 69 Denzel, Unternehmen, pp. 6–8.

Anne-Lise Head-König

Structural Changes in Agriculture and Pastoralism in the Northern European Alps from Savoy to Vorarlberg (from the Eleventh to the Middle of the Sixteenth Century) Introduction This article deals with the northern Alpine regions which in the course of the Middle Ages presented a certain similarity regarding their economic evolution due to the fact that they were subject to the same political and ecclesiastical bodies which in turn significantly affected their agricultural development. This was the case for parts of Western Switzerland belonging to Savoy and for parts of eastern Switzerland and Vorarlberg belonging to Raetia Curiensis (Churrätien). The period from the eleventh but especially from the end of the twelfth century to the middle of the thirteenth century was a period of remarkable change in Central and Western Europe. There was the establishment of new towns and new monasteries not only in the lowlands but also in the mountains, population pressure, a continuous policy of land clearing, which all fundamentally impacted the economic and social life of the population in the Alpine foothills and highlands. However, as from the middle of the fourteenth century, famines, recurrent outbreaks of the plague and environmental problems brought with them a shift in the seigniorial rulings and

Notes: A preliminary remark is necessary in order to explain the title of this article and the geographical area to be dealt with, since it does not make use of one of the usual concepts employed to define the regions in question, the Western, Central and Eastern Alps. For the present there appears to be no unanimity with regard to the precise geographical definition of these various Alpine areas, and in particular with regard to their territorial limits. The lack of agreement among geographers and historians as to the areas encompassed results essentially from differing cultural and linguistic sensibilities as well as from national traditions. The concept of the central Alps in particular would seem to be very extensible and it is not at all clear which parts of the Swiss Alpine region are to be included either on their western or their eastern fringes. This explains why, after having noted that the term Middle [that is to say the central] Alpine area is unduly vague (“Dieser Terminus ist weder kulturell definiert noch geografisch kanonisiert”), the Working Group for Interregional History of the Middle Alpine Area (Arbeitskreis für interregionale Geschichte des mittleren Alpenraumes (AIGMA) was created in 1989 to provide a platform for the cooperation of the historal societies, archives and museums of Graubünden, Liechtenstein, Saint Gall and Vorarlberg, regions which in former times were characterised by blurred political boundaries. Anne-Lise Head-König, Paul Bairoch Institute of Economic History, University of Geneva, Bd. du point d’Arve 40, CH 1205 Geneva, e-mail: [email protected] https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110522259-006

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rights, both ecclesiastical and secular. These changes, in particular the decline in the population and the loss of labour affected the power structure of the feudal lords and forced them to reorganize the management of the land they owned (exploitation directe) and to adopt different systems of land tenure, mostly hereditary ones. The mountain communities put increasing pressure on seigniorial landowners so as to be granted pasture concessions. Together with the substantial reduction in the population these changes in the property rights gave a significant impulse to the mountain economy. They facilitated the progressive development of pastoral activities centred on cattle more than sheep, the more so since the demand for the products of pastoralism from the more populated European lowlands was steadily increasing. Such increasing commercial contacts were an important factor in the restructuring of the relevant agricultural production.

The Early Methods for Increasing the Extent of Pasture Land in Highland Areas and for Developing Cattle Rearing Activities The period from about 1050 to about 1300 is characterized by a considerable extension of cultivated land both in the lowland and upland regions, a development which is contemporary with an increase in the number of settlements. However, the timing of the reshaping of the use of the land varied considerably due to the intensity of population pressure, and especially so in regions above the tree line. In Central Switzerland the use of high-altitude pasture land is attested at least since the early Middle Ages, but in the High Middle Ages landlords initiated an intensification of forest clearance which resulted in a significant increase in the number of new Alpine pastures. The emergence in the documents of new mentions of high mountain pastures can be observed in Savoy, in Alpine Switzerland and also in Vorarlberg. The first appearance of new place names for high summer pastures reveals the timing of the expansion of clearing. In canton Nidwalden, for instance, six new alps are mentioned in the twelfth century, three in the thirteenth century and twelve in the fourteenth century, but of those only four are mentioned in the second half of the century, which is indicative of a slowdown of the economy. There are mentions of twenty-seven alps in the fifteenth century, and nineteen are in the second half of the century, thus indicating the recovery and the expansion of the economy.1 In the highland areas the trend towards more cattle rearing had many new implications for the peasants and for the feudal secular and ecclesiastical landlords.

1 Christoph Baumgartner, Wirtschaftliche Spezialisierung. Viehzucht statt Selbstversorgung, in: Geschichte des Kantons Nidwalden 1 Stans 2014, vol. 1 p. 63.

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One approach was the systematic clearing of unoccupied land. Another was the change in the use of the land which was to transform the landscape: on one hand with the allocation of different areas for summer pasture, winter fodder and cereal cultures and on the other hand with the establishment of new settlements at intermediate levels. In addition there was the creation of specialised farms (dt.: Schweige/ Schwaige, schweiz.: Grangie, franz.: grange monastique) for the rearing of cow herds in order to increase the production of milk, cheese and butter or schmaltz.

The Straightforward Colonization and Clearing of Forest Land in Eastern Switzerland and Vorarlberg For a long period, according to many historians, the clearing of the highland areas has been attributed to the initiative of the monks or to outside colonists such as the Walser. A more detailed analysis of the documents reveals that in fact monasteries resorted to two specific strategies. One strategy was the clearing of territory which had never been used before and thus pushing upwards the limits of pastureland with the help of monastic labour. Here the granges played an important role. Then there was a strategy of improving the natural resources of the higher zones which the mountain peasants had already exploited long before the arrival of the monks.2 As can be observed in the Bauges in Tarentaise (Savoy) it was often not the monks’ hard work which had cleared these uncharted highlands to make it possible to graze animals during the summer. In some deeds of donations to monasteries of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the donator specifies and confirms that the customary rights of the peasants of his valley have to be respected since they have been using these highlands since time immemorial. Controversies were numerous since monasteries wanted the highlands for the grazing of their own flocks, at least as long as they had enough lay brothers to work for them. When opposed by a peasant community or a group of peasants, the monks were often in a better position to defend their rights due to the written documents kept in their possession.3 Not only was there a change in the use of higher land by people from the valley needing more resources as a result of structural changes in animal husbandry, but agrarian settlements also spread higher up the slopes for two additional reasons: the general overpopulation during the 1200s and then also in several regions feudal

2 Nicolas Carrier / Fabrice Mouthon, Paysans des Alpes. Les communautés montagnardes au Moyen Âge, Rennes 2010, pp. 65 s.; Nicolas Carrier, La vie montagnarde en Faucigny à la fin du Moyen Âge. Économie et société. Fin XIIIe– Début XVIe siècle, Paris 2001, pp. 307 s. 3 Fabrice Mouthon, Les Bauges médiévales, Chambéry 2009, pp. 179–181; id., Moines et paysans sur les alpages de Savoie (XIe–XIIIe siècles): mythe et réalité, in: Cahiers d’histoire 46/1 (2001), pp. 9–25.

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landlords were interested in encouraging the arrival of migrants both for economic and military reasons. A case in point are the Walser who were to colonise the highest valleys of the Alps, sometimes situated even above 2,000 metres, and who were granted hereditary leases in return for a small rent paid wholly or partly in money and in military services. Regarding the Walser, two distinct periods of settlement can be observed. In Grisons in the thirteenth century they often settled in unpopulated areas with a harsh climate unsuitable for cereal crops and were thus dependant on pastoralism and paid their dues in lambs, wool and dairy products. However, when they migrated to Vorarlberg in the fourteenth century they were not settling in untouched wilderness but in areas where pastoral activities already existed. Here, however, they contributed to the overall further development and commercialisation. Despite huge donations of landed property, monasteries, especially those established in the hilly and pre-Alpine regions were still interested in increasing the size of their possessions in their upland hinterland in order to be well provided with dairy products and meat. Such was the case for the monastery of Saint Gall in the eleventh century which, despite its numerous possessions amounting to about 640 km2 reaching from Switzerland to southern Germany and Vorarlberg, undertook to direct the clearing and settlement of its hinterland. The systematic colonisation it promoted began with the setting-up of a colony in a place called “in novali loco” (Appenzell) in 1071 and in the twelfth century clearing activities resulted in more than 30 farms (Höfe) around Appenzell being mentioned in the rent-roll (Urbar) of the monastery. They bear witness to the continuing activities of clearance, the increase of pasture land and the intensification of animal husbandry, especially so since one of the tenant’s conditions was to proceed with clearing, as well as making a yearly payment with “Reutkäse”, cheeses produces on newly or recently cleared land. All these factors contributed to a rise in the number of permanent settlements in the region during the following century, and in the first half of the fourteenth century we find people from the Rhine valley migrating to the Appenzeller uplands. The expansion of the pastoral tenures of the monastery can be seen from the growing number of cheeses which the tenants had to deliver to the monastery and which in the fifteenth century added up to as many as 5,000 cheeses.

The Pre-Alpine and Alpine Schweigen and Monastic Granges Depending on the religious order in question the methods for developing the resources of the highlands and for cattle breeding varied considerably. It also depended on the moment of their advance in hitherto uncleared land or land previously used by peasants who had often difficulties in proving their rights of use. Apart from the colonisation mentioned above, the monasteries resorted to the establishment of outlying

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monastic granges, in particular those founded by the Cistercian monks which were characteristic of Savoy, Western Switzerland and Vorarlberg, and the Schweigen established by the Benedictine monasteries in Central Switzerland which were centred on cattle breeding. Both granges and Schweigen were not specific to the highlands; they existed also in the lowlands. Schweigen were specifically established for being used for cattle, sometimes also for cattle and small livestock, whereas granges were not only centred on animal husbandry but could also be established for the production of wine or cereals. Thus, the monastery of Tamié in the Bauges (Savoy) which was founded in order to foster and facilitate the trade from Savoy to Italy and at the same time encourage and develop the agricultural and pastoral economy possessed at its apogee more than 60 granges, each specializing in a specific type of production.4 The highland Schweigen, which the monasteries established in the High Middle Ages, were situated in very specific areas. They are documented in Vorarlberg and in Tyrol, in Bavaria, in Central Switzerland, as well as in the Black Forest and in Alsace. The question remains, though, why the areas of these permanent settlements for cattle breeding and dairy products were strictly limited and did not exist anywhere else in German-speaking regions. There are not mentioned in the upland areas subject to the Abbey of Saint Gall and in the Grisons there are only two mentions of Schweighöfe in the hinterland of Ramosch in Lower Engadin, thus within the sphere influence of Tyrol.5 Similarly, the Schweigen seem to be unknown in regions close to the Romanic cultural areas of Western Switzerland such as the Bernese Oberland and Valais. Unlike the original prevailing conception for Cistercian granges, which were normally established not too far from the mother abbey, the Schweigen were sometimes created several tens of kilometres away from their own monastery, as was the case for the Schweighof in Niederthal (Ötztal), situated at an altitude of more than 1500 metres. In the twelfth century, it had to deliver nearly 900 cheeses to its monastery at Ottobeuren in Bavaria about 160 kilometres away. In fact, Schweighöfe in Switzerland are first mentioned in the twelfth century in connection with the monastery of Muri and at a later stage they were transformed into large farms with a diversified production and were no longer centred on animal husbandry.6 This Aargau monastery had a considerable influence in to the establishment of Schweigen around Lake Lucerne and Nidwalden since it already owned numerous farms (Höfe) in the region. In the documents of Central Switzerland, this type of farm intended for the rearing of cattle and producing cheese is first mentioned around 1200, and then frequently after 1300. Schweigen were typical for the

4 Felix Bernard, L’abbaye de Tamié, ses granges (1132–1793), Grenoble 1967. 5 Martin Bundi, Zur Besiedlungs- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte Graubündens im Mittelalter, Chur 1982, p. 153. 6 Fritz Glauser, Von alpiner Landwirtschaft beidseits des St. Gotthards, 1000–1350. Aspekte der mittelalterlichen Gross- und Kleinvielhaltung sowie des Ackerbaus der Alpenregionen Innerschweiz, Glarus, Blenio und Leventina, in: Der Geschichtsfreund 141 (1988), pp. 27 s.

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monasteries of Einsiedeln (Schwyz)7 and Fraumünster (Uri),8 and in certain periods also for the monastery of Murbach-Lucerne.9 This type of organisation played a decisive role in the more intensive use of mountain pasture land in this region, but historians nevertheless agree that Schweigen are not only to be found in the high Alpine regions but also often in valleys and the pre-Alpine areas.10 Before the fourteenth century, however, according to Roger Sablonier, it is not completely clear from the Urbare what the word Schweige signified precisely at the beginning. Was it simply a highland pasture with a cluster of small huts or was it already a well organised permanent farm with stables and outbuildings, the cattle (mostly between 3 to 7 cows) being provided by the monastery? In the case of Einsiedeln, there were eight Schweigen in 1331, nineteen in 1350 and seventeen at the beginning of the sixteenth century. The prevailing rules were clear: yearly payment of the rent in kind, no hereditary transmission, return of the cattle to the monastery when the lease expired, with each new abbot being entitled to appoint a new tenant, even from outside of the region. In the course of the fourteenth century this policy had contributed to the exacerbation of conflicts with the more wealthy indigenous peasants then facing increased competition. In fact, in the last third of the thirteenth century the pressure on pastoral resources had already increased notably because of the growing involvement of urban proto-capitalists who wanted to participate in the expanding cattle market. This was also the time when lasting conflicts between monasteries and mountain communities for access to summer pastures really began and which were to culminate in the fourteenth century, sometimes persisting far beyond the sixteenth century.

The Remodelling of the Agrarian Zones In the northern pre-Alpine and Alpine regions the tendency to remodel the landscape was generalized in the fourteenth century, albeit with some differences as to the time at which this occurred and was dependant on the proximity of markets and the extent of early commercialisation. For instance, already at the end of the twelfth

7 Those pertaining to Einsiedeln have been thoroughly analysed by Susanne Summermatter, Landwirtschaft in der Region Einsiedeln. Strukturen und Entwicklungen vom Hoch- zum Spätmittelalter, in: Mitteilungen des historischen Vereins des Kantons Schwyz 87 (1995), p. 115–168; id., Schweigen im Raum Einsiedeln, in: Thomas Meier / Roger Sablonier (eds.), Wirtschaft und Herrschaft. Beiträge zur ländlichen Gesellschaft in der östlichen Schweiz (1200–1800), Zürich 1999, p. 67–80. 8 Glauser, Von alpiner Landwirtschaft, p. 14. 9 Roger Sablonier, Innerschweizer Gesellschaft im 14. Jahrhundert, in: Innerschweiz und frühe Eidgenossenschaft. Jubiläumsschrift 700 Jahre Eidgenossenschaft 2 (1990), pp. 146 s. 10 Ibid., p. 146; Glauser, Von alpiner Landwirtschaft, p. 158.

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century the tenants of the monastery of Engelberg were obliged to pay part of their dues to the monastery in money. The purpose of the shift of the areas allocated respectively for use as cultivated land, for hayfields or for pasture was to create more pasture land in order to provide for the grazing of more animals during the summer so as to accommodate the increasing demand. This was a slow process due to the risks involved. Until the fourteenth century in the Fribourg highlands wheat was cultivated up to 700–800 metres and spring cereals up to about 1,000 metres.11 The area between 1,000 and 1,500/ 1,800 metres was used as hayfields for the winter fodder and above this altitude there were the pastures which in the thirteenth century were still mostly used for sheep. To permit an increase in the summer resources and consequently in the area used for sheep and livestock two elements were necessary: 1. the allocated area to be used for mowing and winter fodder was shifted to the lower slopes; 2. as this was not sufficient, it was necessary at the same time to continue clearing the afforested areas in order to provide more fodder for the animals returning from the summer pastures. In addition, cereals were relegated to the bottom of the valleys and, when they did not suffice, additional supplies had to be purchased on the market. In a further development, especially since the end of the fourteenth century, hay meadows were enclosed. This implied new rules for the size of a hayfield, which had to be proportionate to the size of the owner’s farm and, later, a strict ban on cattle grazing the meadows intended for hay making. These developments typical for Fribourg can only be explained on the basis of a common interest between the tenants and their feudal landlord. In due course, however, they called into question the former collective use of the lower mountain land and the ownership of high mountain pastures.12 Ultimately, in the course of the sixteenth century, these changes were to facilitate the adoption of farming activities based on breeding cattle rather than sheep.13 As indicated above, it must be remembered that the timing of the spatial move of the hayfield areas towards lower regions could vary. Thus, in Boltingen (Simmental), the last pastures which were mowed were not transformed into summer pastures until during the period from 1515 to 1567.14

11 A thorough study of the changes in the pre-Alpine regions and Fribourg has been made in several articles: Nicolas Morard, L’élevage dans les Préalpes fribourgeoises: des ovins aux bovins (1350–1550), in: L’élevage et la vie pastorale dans les montagnes de l’Europe au Moyen Âge et à l’époque moderne, Clermont-Ferrand 1984, pp. 15–26; Nicolas Morard, Les premières enclosures dans le canton de Fribourg à la fin du Moyen Âge et les progrès de l’individualisme agraire, in: Revue suisse d’histoire 21/3 (1971), pp. 249–281. 12 Hans Conrad Peyer, Wollgewerbe, Viehzucht, Solddienst und Bevölkerungsentwicklung in Stadt und Landschaft Freiburg i. Ue. vom 14. bis 16. Jahrhundert, in: Hermann Kellenbenz (ed.), Agrarisches Nebengewerbe und Formen der Reagrarisierung im Spätmittelalter und 19./20. Jahrhundert, Stuttgart [etc.] 1975, pp. 89 s. 13 Ibid., p. 90. 14 Robert Tuor, Boltigen: ein Beitrag zur historischen Siedlungsgeographie im Simmental, in: Berner Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Heimatkunde 37 (1975), p. 106.

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From the Middle of the Fourteenth Century – a New Climatic, Demographic and Social Context There were general as well as regional factors which were to put an end to the remarkable expansion of the hold that monastic institutions and secular landlords had on the highland resources. 1. The major cause was climatic change, that is to say the end of the climatic optimum and the beginning of the Little Ice Age.15 It affected the pre-Alpine and Alpine populations as well as their economy, but with an intensity which varied considerably according to the region. From a demographic point of view, suffice it to say that we observe some contrasting developments: on the one hand, we can observe the disappearance of mostly very high mountain settlements and, on the other, of the setting up of new parishes thanks to the monetary resources earned with expanding animal husbandry, especially cattle breeding. 2. The policy set out by some mountain communities of Central Switzerland aimed at reducing the monastic grip on their land. In Central Switzerland the power relationship between monasteries and mountain communities changed as of the end of the thirteenth century and in the course of the fourteenth century. In five cantons and half cantons between 1294 and 1382, a total ban was imposed on the transfer of land to any monastic institution by any method whatsoever, whether by donation inter vivos, gift mortis causa or sale. But often the transfer to outsiders (Usländische) was also prohibited, as in the case of Schwyz. In 1294, the community of the people of Schwyz was the first to pronounce such an interdiction which also affected the monastery of Einsiedeln with which they were in constant dispute. Henceforth, in the following decades, other communities followed suit and this step stifled the expansion of monastic property. In 1360, Uri took an identical decision, adding that all ecclesiastical persons were to be included in the interdiction. In 1344, the first ban in Nidwalden was a consequence of the systematic and massive acquisitions made by the monastery of Engelberg since 1300. Purchases and bequests of land and Alpine pastures had allowed it to consolidate its territory. However, in 1363 the ban was reiterated under threat of a heavy penalty for those who contravened the ban.16 Zug followed suit

15 Christian Rohr, Klima und Umwelt als Rahmenbedingungen alpinen Wirtschaftens. Beispiele und Perspektiven, in: Markus A. Denzel / Andrea Bonoldi / Anne Montenach / Françoise Vannotti (eds.), Oeconomia Alpium I: Wirtschaftsgeschichte des Alpenraums in vorindustrieller Zeit. Forschungsaufriss, -konzepte und -perspektiven, Berlin / Boston 2017, pp. 73–101. 16 Before the 15th century the monastery of Muri owned more than 600 pasture rights in the canton of Nidwalden, which would have represented on the basis of the data we have for the end of the 19th century about 10–15 percent of the resources of all the pastures of the canton. My calculations are based on the indications given in Leo Odermatt, Die Alpwirtschaft in Nidwalden. Geschichtliche Entwicklung und Anpassung an die Agrarstrukturen der Neuzeit, Stans 1981, p. 62.

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in 1376 and Obwalden in 1382. In the fifteenth century some communities in this region managed to buy back the pasture rights owned by ecclesiastical institutions, as did Beckenried in Nidwalden with the 450 pasture rights which belonged to the Prior and Chapter of Lucerne. Just as restrictive was one and a half centuries later the Ilanz Artikel of 1526, which in Grisons forbade members of the church of whatever rank to own a seigniory, a policy maintained in force in the following centuries. This legislation sometimes became even more restrictive, as in Oberhalbstein in the eighteenth century with the interdiction for those taking holy orders to donate a piece of land on entering their monastery. 3. In a step with even further economic implications, some political entities managed to buy back all the fees and dues they owned to ecclesiastical institutions: the canton of Glarus proceeded similarly in respect of the monastery of Säckingen at the end of the fourteenth century, Appenzell did so in the middle of the sixteenth century. This underlines the importance of the new resources originating from the commercialisation of Alpine products. It was as a result of this factor – combined with the pensions paid by the French monarchy – that Appenzell was able to redeem all feudal and seignorial rights due to the monastery of Sankt Gallen. The redemption was sometimes also the consequence of land fragmentation, the collection of hay tithes in the Simmental being too costly for the tithe-collector or just too difficult, as with the tithe on new-born animals (dîme des naissants). 4. Changes in mountain societies had also irreversible consequences on the management and organisation on the monasteries and their highland possessions. As from the thirteenth century the first change was the declining number of monks and converse brothers recruited. This was particularly in evidence in certain monastic orders such as the Carthusian, Premonstratensian, but especially the Cistercian ones, whose initial vocation had been to work the land. In the Cistercian monastery of Hauterive (canton Fribourg), which numbered between 20 and 40 monks,17 one assumes that there were about 1–2 converse brothers per monk to do the agricultural work. But, after having reached a peak between the middle of the twelfth century and the middle of the thirteenth century, recruitment regressed. Small rural towns offered new opportunities for work and an alternative to agricultural labour. The second cause for a decrease in monastic labour was the inability of the orders to sustain their ascetic

17 Guido Gassmann, Konversen im Mittelalter. Eine Untersuchung anhand der neun Schweizer Zisterzienserabteien, Wien 2013, p. 73; about 35 monks according to Ernst Tremp, Mönche als Pioniere: Die Zisterzienser im Mittelalter, Meilen 1997, p. 34; id., Die Wirtschaftsverfassung des Klosters Hauterive im 12. Jahrhundert. Ein Beitrag zur Wirtschaftsgeschichte des Uechtlandes, Freiburg [im Uechtland] 1975, unpubl. Master thesis.

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impulse, hence the decline in their prestige and in the long run in their solvency.18 And, contrary to their founding principles, the monks no longer managed their estates directly (Eigenwirtschaft). This process is particularly in evidence for the summer pastures. Progressively they were leased out as hereditary tenures or as perpetual concessions (albergement), mostly to peasant communities or to peasant associations (corporations) in exchange for a frequently rather expensive purchasing fee (introge) and a yearly payment in kind corresponding to the milk production of one or several days (auciège, alpéage, Vogelrecht, Vogelmolke). In Western Switzerland and Savoy, dues had to be paid mostly in cheese and in the territories belonging to the former Churrätien practically always in both cheese and schmaltz.19 Clearly, during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, lack of sufficient labour and conflicts between monasteries and peasantry were the reasons for this change in the type of lease. Later however, other factors played a part in the change from payment in kind to money payments, such as the monks’ need for money and the geographic dispersion of the ecclesiastical possessions. Being very remote, these possessions were barely profitable and so the yearly due in kind to be paid by the tenants of the summer pastures had to be converted into money.20 But this new orientation in the management of the monastic estates occurred at a time when the producers of meat and dairy products were encountering new markets.21 Thus, it was the peasantry, but within the peasant communities above all the wealthy peasants with good transregional and transalpine connections, who profited most from the new commercial opportunities.

The Role of Self-sufficiency and the Changes towards a More Exclusively Pastoral Activity For many monasteries, a policy of specialisation and complementarity was made easy not only as a result of the extent of the land they owned but also due to the dispersion of their land in different geographical areas either since their foundation

18 Id., La présence cistercienne dans la Suisse médiévale, in: Unanimité et diversité cisterciennes: Filiations, réseaux, relectures du XIIe au XVIIe siècle. Actes du quatrième colloque international du C.E.R.C.O.R., Dijon, 23–25 septembre 1998, Saint-Étienne 2000, pp. 401–418, at pp. 408–414. 19 Karl Heinz Burmeister, Das Vogelrecht in Vorarlberg und Liechtenstein, in: Louis Carlen / Fritz Steinegger (eds.), Festschrift Nikolaus Grass zum 60. Geburtstag, Bd. 2: Aus Geschichte und Recht der Almen. Kultur- und Kunstgeschichte, Volkstum. Wissenschaftsgeschichte. Aus der Sippen- und Familiengeschichte des Jubilars, Innsbruck 1975, pp. 31–41. 20 It explains why the Order of the Teutonic Knights was one of the earliest orders to adopt a renteconomy for its Emmental summer pastures. Josef Odermatt, Die Emmentaler Alpen und ihre Wirtschafts- und Rechtsgeschichte, Huttwil 1926, pp. 86–101. 21 Carrier, La vie montagnarde en Faucigny, p. 304.

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or through acquisitions such as private donations or purchases of land. This allowed them not only to diversify the products for their own needs but also for commercial purposes. This was hardly the case for the peasants, who up to the middle of the fourteenth century were obliged to maintain a certain degree of self-sufficiency. The documentary sources concerning the seigniorial dues to be paid mention small livestock such as pigs, sheep and goats – poultry is less frequently cited. Cattle and horses, which required a certain capital investment and were available only to relatively well-off peasants, are less frequently mentioned. Garden produce such as peas and beans are mentioned in nearly all pre-Alpine regions, but produced in such small quantities that they could not compensate the cereal deficit. The intensity of cereal cultivation varied according to the climate, the topography and the quality of the soil, but in several regions of the northern Alps with permanent peasant settlements cereals are attested at more than 1,500 metres, such as in Realp (Uri). In the dry regions of the Inner Alps irrigation allowed for meadows and the culture of cereals at least from the thirteenth century.22 Up to the fifteenth century partial self-sufficiency remained an important element of diversification in numerous regions. In those which adopted pastoral activities the adoption of an exclusively pastoral activity progressed very slowly. It took Obwalden about a hundred years to change from being a producer selling considerable quantities of cereals on the market in Lucerne to being an important buyer of cereals on the same market.23 In the region of Einsiedeln, too, cereal production became barely adequate around 1400 and the acceleration of greening (Vergrasung) was especially evident between 1450 and 1500.24 The reduction in the production of cereals was also the case in Glarus. There, around 1300 slightly more than 10 percent of the soil was allocated to cereals even in places situated at more than 1,100 metres and scarcely any in the fifteenth century. Despite their stereotypical wording, the Butterbriefe written to the Pope in the second half of the fifteenth century by the representatives of the cantons of Central Switzerland, asking to be granted exemption from the Lent prohibitions are a testimony to the increased importance of the resources of livestock and dairy products in the regular diet of the population. No oil, or wine or fish were to be found in their mountains.25 22 Martin Bundi, Zur Geschichte der Flurbewässerung im rätischen Alpengebiet, Chur 2000; Les bisses, économie, société, patrimoine. Actes du Colloque international, Sion, 2–5 septembre 2010, in: Annales valaisannes (2010–2011). 23 Hans Conrad Peyer, Die Schweizer Wirtschaft im Umbruch in der zweiten Hälfte des 15. Jahrhunderts, in: 500 Jahre Stanser Verkommnis. Beiträge zu einem Zeitbild, hrsg. vom Historischen Verein Nidwalden, Stans 1981, p. 68. 24 Summermatter, Landwirtschaft in der Region Einsiedeln, p. 165. 25 Erwin Ettlin, Butterbriefe: Beiträge und Quellen zur Geschichte der Fastendispensen in der Schweizerischen Quart des Bistums Konstanz im Spätmittelalter, Bern / Frankfurt/Main / Las Vegas 1977, pp. 62–68.

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Only when a number of prerequisites existed which would not impact the peasants’ survival chances was the adoption of a more specialized activity possible. This was the case when there was the proximity of a relatively well approved cereal market as in the Bernese Simmental subsequent to its incorporation into the State of Bern at the end of the fourteenth century and its improved access to the cereal market of Berne.26 The cereal markets in Lucerne and partly in Zurich also provided an alternative to self-sufficiency for the regions of Central Switzerland27 because the mountain peasants were able to get good prices there for their own pastoral products. In a mutual interdependence with the urban population they were able to supply the towns not only with meat and dairy products but also to supply wool and skins for the townspeople’s crafts.28 In the Bregenzerwald in Vorarlberg the development was similar. There the reduction of cereal cultivation became a necessity in order to increase the area of the hayfields. More fodder was needed in winter as a result of the increase in the number of cattle herds being put to grass on the mountain pastures in summer. For the peasants of the Bregenzerwald it also became easier in the sixteenth century to buy foreign cereals – in particular from Swabia, which even had the advantage of being of better quality. The building of a granary in Bregenz at the end of the fifteenth century facilitated imports, too.29 However, a factor which is not to be under-estimated with regard to diversification or specialization is to be found in the customs privileges for cereal imports. It is evident that in the second half of the fifteenth century those granted by Lombardy to some high valleys of the Grisons facilitated the adoption of increased activity in cattle breeding. Even in pre-Alpine and Alpine regions more remote from urban centres, diversification was necessary but not sufficient; cereals had to be supplemented by additional purchases from the market: in Savoy30 as well as in the Fribourg and Vaud, regions which produced cheese for export,31 or in the remote valleys of Valais or Grisons, which were more suited with their milder climate to maintaining a modest production

26 Robert Tuor, Boltigen: Ein Beitrag zur historischen Siedlungsgeographie im Simmental, in: Berner Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Heimatkunde 37/4 (1975), p. 110. 27 Reinhold Bosch, Der Kornhandel der Nord-, Ost-, Innerschweiz und der ennetbirgischen Vogteien im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert, Zürich 1913. 28 As was the case during the 15th century for the people from the Ägerital in Zurich. Renato Morosoli / Roger Sablonier / Benno Furrer, Ägerital – seine Geschichte, Baar 2003, pp. 81–83. 29 Alois Niederstätter, Bemerkungen zur Rinderhaltung im vorindustriellen Vorarlberg: Eine erste Bestandsaufnahme, in: Montfort 51/1 (1999), p. 121. 30 In the higher valleys of Savoy, the money earned from cattle transactions was not invested in land but used to buy cereals among other things. Fabrice Mouthon, Savoie médiévale, naissance d’un espace rural (XIe–XVe siècles), Chambéry 2010, p. 55. 31 In the 1770s it is clear that in these regions cereals are still produced since the bailiff of Gessenay states that in the last decades the tithes of cereals have massively diminished and that the fruit production has been entirely neglected; [Karl Viktor von Bonstetten], Briefe über ein schweizerisches Hirtenland, Basel 1782, p. 49.

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of some cereals. Even the Walser with their settlements in high regions, often with a hostile climate and an emphasis on a specialization in cattle breeding needed cereals for home consumption and after their arrival in Vorarlberg they gave a new impulse for the production of cereals in the Oberland – often at situations above one thousand metres as in Damüls (1,423 metres) und Laterns (921 metres),32 nevertheless the Walser in Grisons seem not to have pursued this practice. Rye was more predominant than wheat, because it was more robust. Often, too, the documents mention the cultivation of a mixture of cereals (méteil, messel, Mischleten) with the aim of reducing the risks of a bad harvest. But a characteristic in many upland regions was to resort to the technique of alternate culture (Egartenwirtschaft, Feldgraswirtschaft), where cereals play only an intercalary role: a plot was cultivated for one to two or three consecutive years depending on the fertility of the soil before being returned to grassland for several years.33 The importance for the peasants of wine-growing must not be underestimated,34 especially during the Medieval warm period up to 1300.35 Wine was grown not only on the slopes of the lower valleys but also on the craggy but sunny pre-Alpine slopes,36 although the climatic changes of the fourteenth century brought about an important reduction in the number of vineyards in nearly all pre-Alpine regions. In the regions with a suitable climate for sweet chestnut trees, such forests were sometimes omnipresent as on the steep terrains of the lower Valais – where in the first half of the nineteenth century they were still very much in evidence –, the Chablais, the Basse-Tarentaise and the Basse-Maurienne, the Kerenzerberg in canton Glarus, on the lower part of the Rhine Valley or in Central Switzerland around Lake Lucerne and Lake Walenstadt. The harsher climate of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries negatively impacted their cultivation and such forests were not as numerous as in previous centuries. Even if the mentions in respect of viticulture are relatively frequent, our knowledge about the importance of fruit trees for the mountain peasants’ domestic requirements is very sparse,

32 Benedikt Bilgeri, Der Getreidebau im Lande Vorarlberg: Ein Beitrag zur Wirtschafts-, Siedlungsund Stammesgeschichte, in: Montfort 2 (1947), pp. 179–248 (part 1). 33 As was the case in the Upper Valais. In Vorarlberg, Niederstätter mentions following rotation: mostly three years of cereals followed by eight to nine years of grass: Niederstätter, Bemerkungen zur Rinderhaltung, p. 118. 34 Christian Guilleré, La vigne et le vin en Savoie à la fin du Moyen Âge, in: Vignes et viticulteurs de montagne: histoire, pratiques, savoirs et paysages. Valais, Alpes occidentals, Pyrénées, MontLiban, Sion 2010, pp. 135–180. 35 Jean M. Grove, Little Ice Ages. Ancient and Modern, vol. 1, London / New York ²2004, pp. 153–155. 36 In the 15th century for lowland wine growing communities the expansion of viticulture and its concomitant necessary increase of manure could also be a source of numerous contentions with preAlpine communities. In the case analysed by Sonderegger the former tried to increase their pasture rights at the expense of the Appenzell people and the forested land they used as pastures. Stephan Sonderegger, Weinbau im St. Galler Rheintal im 15. Jahrhundert, in: Montfort 51 (1999), pp. 129–138.

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with only a casual reference from time to time, such as to the fact that cherry trees existed up to 1,200 metres in canton Glarus. The chronicle written by Vadian mentions that as early as the fifteenth century the regions around Lake Constance produced a considerable quantity of apples and pears to be made into cider and perry, but without exact references as to the altitude at which the fruit trees were cultivated. Other factors influenced the maintenance of a diversified peasant production: firstly, the necessity for the peasants to fulfil the terms of their contract for the use of the land that their landlords had allocated to them. This was, for instance, the case for nearly all the communities of Obwalden in the fifteenth century with regard to the payment in kind with spelt.37 Transformation in the use of land could meet with very strong opposition from the authorities, as was the case in Lucerne in the second half of the fifteenth century or from the monastery of Mehrerau in Vorarlberg at the end of the sixteenth century in relation to pre-Alpine communities. Secondly, the policy of maintaining a diverse production was also the consequence of the relevant type of settlement. A dispersed habitat was conducive to an element of peasant autonomy, with probably the possibility of creating enclosures such as was characteristic of Obwalden with cultivated fields around homestead up to the fifteenth century.38 Subsequently, in the sixteenth century, the prospect of increased rentability resulting from cattle breeding and the export of livestock progressively contributed to the phenomenon of planted land being replaced by grassland.

Highland Pastoral Activities as from the Fourteenth Century The expansion of highland pastoral activities and a more intensive use of pasture land for cattle herds are illustrated by a number of significant indicators as from the fourteenth century when climatic change with cooler and more humid weather and a decline in prices favoured pastoral farming.39 First, we see the continuous clearing activity of highland forest areas and a policy of systematic acquisition of pasture rights on the part of monasteries, urban institutions such as hospitals, rural communities who wanted to assert their rights, as well as individuals intent on profiting from the increased urban demand for meat and transalpine commercial activities. Second, one

37 Daniel Rogger, Obwaldner Landwirtschaft im Spätmittelalter, Sarnen 1989, pp. 73–80. 38 Rogger, Obwaldner Landwirtschaft, p. 73–80. 39 According to the data collected by Gelting for the province of Maurienne, the price of rye was practically halved in the second half of the 14th century compared with the years 1315–1323 and 1327–1348. Michael H. Gelting, Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne au XIVe siècle, d’après les comptes de la châtellenie. Ville d’étape, foire régionale, bourg rural, in: Pierre Dubuis (ed.), Ceux qui passent et ceux qui restent. Études sur les trafics transalpins et leur impact local, Saint-Maurice 1989, p. 52.

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finds an intensification of commercial activities with the creation of regional fairs and markets in small country towns such as can be observed in Savoy40 or from the increased traffic attested by toll revenues, such as those of Sembrancher in Valais at the end of the fourteenth century.41 Third, there was also a significant increase in commercial transactions as can be seen in the cattle-leasing contracts. These contracts reflect not only the increased demand for meat but also a lack of capital on the part of the peasants. They were also a way of dealing with the imbalance existing between the potential of the summer pastures in the highlands and the winter fodder resources in the piedmont areas and the lower valleys.42 The economic importance of the growing urban demand for meat resulted not only in an increase in the number of butchers at the end of the fourteenth century, as can be seen in Savoy towns,43 and sometimes even a century earlier as in Chur, but also in the importance of the social position of such individuals.44 Butchers did not only sale meat to their urban customers. They were also very much involved in all aspects of the pastoral economy, such as buying alps,45 buying and leasing cattle (Viehgemeinschaften, Viehverstellungn, bail à cheptel) and exporting of cattle. In Sankt Gallen, the town’s butchers extended their activities to the neighbouring pre-Alpine and Alpine regions of Toggenburg, Appenzell and Liechtenstein. According to their statutes of the sixteenth century, they were allowed to export two out of three calves they had previously imported into the town, an activity which was permitted until 1622, but afterwards was strictly forbidden.46 However the leasing of cattle was not limited to capital-rich urban individuals, institutional investors were also very much involved in this activity. In the 1430s thse Hospital of the Holy Spirit had 27 such contracts with peasants of the Appenzeller and Toggenburger upland, the average cattle-lease comprising between 13 and 33 heads of livestock.47

40 Ibid., pp. 37–56. 41 Pierre Dubuis, Une économie alpine à la fin du Moyen Âge: Orsières, l’Entremont et les régions voisines 1250–1500, Sion 1990. 42 In fact, the imbalance between summer and winter resources was often the result of systematic forest clearing which stood in no relation to the growing of crops for winter fodder. Both winter-leasing and summer-leasing of livestock are attested in Vorarlberg and the eastern parts of Switzerland. 43 Carrier cites the case of Chambéry. Carrier, La vie montagnarde en Faucigny, p. 304. 44 Linus Bühler, Chur im Mittelalter. Von der karolingischen Zeit bis in die Anfänge des 14. Jahrhunderts, Chur 1995, p. 89. 45 In Vorarlberg, the butchers of Bregenz for instance: Alois Niderstätter, Quellen zur Geschichte der Vorarlberger Alpwirtschaft bis um 1500, in: Montfort 70/1 (2018), pp. 25–50. 46 Stefan Sonderegger, Der Druck auf die Ressourcen im Mittelalter. Eine Darstellung anhand von Dokumenten aus der Region Ostschweiz-Liechtenstein-Süddeutschland, in: Peter Burggraaff / Milena Karabaic / Klaus-Dieter Kleefeld / Winfried Schenk (eds.), Landschaft als Ressource, Bonn 2017, pp. 217–246. 47 Stefan Sonderegger / Matthias Weishaupt, Spätmittelalterliche Landwirtschaft in der Nordostschweiz, in: Appenzellische Jahrbücher 115 (1987) pp. 29–71.

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At the end of the fifteenth century an important impulse for cattle and horse breeding came from North Italy with the Welschlandhandel in which all the cantons of Central Switzerland were involved to varying degrees.48 But it is significant that political factors and not only geographical reasons could hinder the participation of other regions in this lucrative market. Thus, for the Simmental the expansion of this market came rather late – in the 1560s–1570s. Here, apart from the unfavourable geographical situation of this region, the Bernese authorities were intent on restricting the Simmental exports by means of customs duties on the export of cattle (Trattrecht), the purpose being to better provide their own Bernese butchers with meat. The fifteenth century is also the period when the development of commercial pastoralism began to diverge in the different regions. There is no doubt that in the regions where no political regulations banned urban outsiders from purchasing highland pastures, the end of the fifteenth century marks the beginning of a change in the policy of acquisition and private ownership of Alps in several places. The involvement of the urban elite of the city-states (Berne, Fribourg, Lucerne) in the pastoral production of their pre-Alpine and Alpine areas was to prepare the ground for an increased commercialisation of cattle breeding and dairy products.49 This urban investment strategy in the more profitable sector of agriculture covers a clearly defined geographic region which, in part, belonged to the former possession of the count of Gruyères: the Pays-d’Enhaut at that time a possession of Berne, the preAlpine and Alpine areas of Fribourg, the Emmental, and only part of the Bernese pre-Alpine and Alpine areas. A similar growing commercialisation of pastoral activities can be observed in the Vorarlberg highland pastures where both ecclesiastical institutions and investors from outside acquired rights of pasture.50 However, this policy of acquisitions by outsiders intent and financially able to develop new transregional trade opportunities could not be implemented in the high valleys where autonomy or statutes prevented outsiders from acquiring land and pastures as was the case in the Obersimmental. Neither could this policy develop in regions where the corporations’ statutes strictly limited the access to the highlands depending on the resources available for winter fodder nor in regions where the ecclesiastical or secular seigniorial power remained in force, albeit frequently challenged. Increased involvement in commercial activities was the indirect cause of added tensions and conflicts in all European pre-Alpine and Alpine regions, not only between

48 On the economic and political influence of the horse dealers, see Jessica Meister, Pferdehändler zwischen Mailand und Luzern: Netzwerke eidgenössischer Kaufleute und ihr Einfluss auf die mailändisch-eidgenössischen Beziehungen (15. Jh.), Zürich 2014, unpubl. Master thesis. 49 But in fact, it was to begin on a very large scale only at the beginning of 17th century when the methods for producing long-lasting cheeses improved. 50 Niderstätter, Quellen zur Geschichte, pp. 25–50.

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landlords and rural communities, but also between communities or even within the communities between better-off peasants and poorer peasants.51 Endless conflicts existed not only concerning the possession of pasture rights but also for the right of way to provide access to the summer pastures. This situation is reflected in the remarkable increase during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in the number of written contracts regarding the use of the highland pastures (Alpbriefe, Alpurbare, Alpordnung), notably in the eastern regions of Switzerland and Vorarlberg among others, where previously customary law had prevailed. They bear witness to the new necessity, to specify the obligations and the rights of the users of Alpine pastures with the aim of avoiding the multiplication of conflicts. Finally, the question remains as to why at the end of the Middle Ages some Alpine regions, such as Savoy, for instance, where large herds of cows were owned by the monks and secular landlords, did not progress to the same extent as the other regions in the matter of commercialisation.52 In this context, toll revenues for the beginning of the fifteenth century can sometimes be quite revealing. Large quantities of cheese produced in the highest places of the Tarentaise were sold on the market of Chambéry. The peasants of these valleys were thus not only producing the cheese but they and not the burghers of the town were trading the cheese for other products from the lowlands in this market. The same can be observed regarding the more wealthy peasants of the Bauges and the Chartreuse involved in feeding cattle and selling them in the lower valleys.53 Was an urban proto-capitalistic involvement in ownership and production a necessary pre-requisite for the development of greater market access? Or were well-off peasants not numerous enough to give important impulses for an expansion of the markets?

51 To name but a few conflicts: Fabrice Mouthon, Le règlement des conflits d’alpage dans les Alpes occidentales (XIIIe–XVIe siècle), in: Le réglement des conflits au Moyen Âge. Actes du 31e Congrès de la S.H.M.E.S (Angers 2000), Paris 2001, pp. 259–270; Paul J. Brändli, Mittelalterliche Grenzstreitigkeiten im Alpenraum, in: Mitteilungen des Historischen Vereins des Kantons Schwyz 78 (1978), pp. 19–188; Glauser, Von alpiner Landwirtschaft; Rolf Kamm, Glarus zwischen Habsburg und Zürich: die Entstehung des Landes im Spätmittelalter, Baden 2010, pp. 201–210; Hippolyt Ludwig von Klenze, Die Alpwirtschaft im Fürstentum Liechtenstein. Mit einer Einleitung von Alois Ospelt, Vaduz 1985, pp. 15 ss. 52 Nicolas Carrier, L’estivage en Savoie du nord au Moyen Âge. Essai de chronologie et de typologie, in: Pierre-Yves Laffont (ed.), Transhumance et estivage en Occident, des origines aux enjeux actuels. Actes des 26èmes Journées internationales d’histoire de l’Abbaye de Flaran, 9–11 Septembre 2004, Toulouse 2006, pp. 199–210. 53 Fabrice Mouthon, Marchands de fromages des montagnes de Savoie au XVe siècle, in: Andreas Nijenhuis-Bescher / Émilie-Anne Pépy / Jean-Yves Champeley (eds.), L’Honnête homme, l’or blanc et le duc d’Albe. Mélanges offerts à Alain Becchi, Chambéry 2016, pp. 261–275; Fabrice Mouthon, La survie et la transformation du manse au bas Moyen Âge: un phénomène montagnard? Savoie-Dauphiné, XIIe–XVIe siècle, in: Luigi Lorenzetti / Yann Decorzant / Anne-Lise Head-König (eds.), Relire l’altitude: la terre et ses usages. Suisse et espaces avoisinants, XIIe–XXIe siècle, Neuchâtel 2018, pp. 203–225.

Luigi Provero

Churches, Settlements and Resources in the Western Alps (Eleventh to Fifteenth Centuries) Abstract: The essay aims to read the relationships between churches, settlements and resources in the context of the medieval Alps. None of the elements involved are fixed, predetermined and permanent, but they are the subject of intense manipulation and transformation by local communities, which are founding and abandoning churches, modifying settlements and activating new resources. The parish churches thus become a precious observation point to read some mechanisms of local economic circulation. The survey is conducted through the in-depth analysis of a specific case (the Maira valley, in southern Piedmont), particularly suitable for this research due to its relative poverty and exclusion from the main trade routes: this allows us to understand how this capacity for economic action is also effective in marginal contexts. Within the frame of a wide reflection on settlements in the Western Alps in the Late Middle Ages, this paper specifically aims at underpinning the heuristic value of an enquiry on local churches as a scientific tool to understand the social value of settlement forms and economic networks. Since the High Middle Ages, local churches and the process of parish-building have been fundamental scientific keys to read village societies and settlements in the Alps: local communities have founded churches and changed their affiliations later on, have used them to build and affirm their collective identity, to split and shape existing communities. In other words, churches have been tools of the historical production of places and communities.1 This being said, this paper is an effort to (re-) construct a social history of landscapes and settlements, seen as historical productions of specific societies. Thus, the study of churches and cemeteries is of great relevance because of the strong social and economic investment made by local communities on these religious buildings and locations, which were consciously used to create and shape collective identities and to channel relevant resources. Such studies perfectly highlight the

1 Arjun Appadurai, Modernità in polvere, Roma 2001, pp. 231–257; see also Angelo Torre, La produzione storica dei luoghi, in: Quaderni storici 110 (2002), pp. 443–475. Luigi Provero, Dipartimento di Studi storici, Università di Torino, via Sant’Ottavio 20, I–10124 Torino, e-mail: [email protected] https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110522259-007

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profound interconnection of religious and social actions: the Holy is a language available to many social actors, and laymen were not passive and inactive users of Church structures. Therefore, this paper does not propose a sort of local ecclesiastical history but a social and economic history of churches.

1 The Maira Valley and the Origins of Dronero The Maira Valley, near Cuneo, in southwestern Piedmont, proves an interesting study case. Although the area is not especially rich in sources, the surviving texts allow us to observe some intriguing dynamics exactly on the matter of the interference between settlements, communities and local churches, through a wide chronological development, from the eleventh to the fifteenth centuries. Stretching about 45 kilometres in length, the Maira Valley is quite a long one and almost closed to long-distance traffic. The Alpine passes to France are situated on too high an altitude, and there were no relevant roads there during the High Middle Ages. There is a single reference to an annual market in the village of Ripoli, in 1194,2 but, with some serious degree of surety, we can assume that it was a commercial opportunity on a local or sub-regional level, without relevant connections to a transalpine exchange network. This commercial weakness does not imply that the valley was completely isolated from the outside world, and in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, many dynasties and churches were active in the valley on patrimonial and political levels: the marquises of Saluzzo and of Busca, the bishops of Torino, as well as the abbeys of Caramagna, Pinerolo and Oulx.3 Connections were strong with the Italian plain, but really weak with French valleys. This social and economic reality was all but static, and it was marked by an intense dynamic, which becomes perceivable when looking at the sources from a different and wider perspective, not just focussing on pure economic information such as resources or exchanges, but in a general frame of settlement and community development. Hence, the focal point is set on the lower valley, and more specifically

2 Ferdinando Gabotto / Giuseppe Roberti / Domenico Chiattone, Cartario della abazia di Staffarda, Pinerolo 1901, vol. II, p. 92, n. 91; for this text and the complete road network in the valley during these centuries see: Rinaldo Comba, Per una storia economica del Piemonte medievale. Strade e mercati dell’area sud-occidentale, Torino 1984, pp. 64–70. 3 Carlo E. Patrucco, Le più antiche carte dell’abazia di Caramagna, in: Ferdinando Gabotto / Carlo F. Savio / Carlo E. Patrucco et al. (eds.), Miscellanea Saluzzese, Pinerolo 1902, pp. 55–129, at p. 62, n. 1; Carlo Cipolla, Il gruppo dei diplomi adelaidini a favore dell’abbazia di Pinerolo, Pinerolo 1899, p. 324, n. 2; Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Diplomata regum et imperatorum Germaniae, X/2, p. 51, n. 152; Giovanni Collino, Le carte della Prevostura d’Oulx raccolte e riordinate cronologicamente fino al 1300, Pinerolo 1908, p. 115, n. 115; p. 139, n. 135; p. 143, n. 139; Piero Camilla, Cuneo 1198–1382, Cuneo 1970, vol. II, p. 40, n. 21. For the marquises of Saluzzo, see below, n. 5 ss.

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on the area currently included within the village of Dronero, the most important settlement. Dronero is situated at the floor of the valley’s entrance, at an elevation of 600 metres above sea level, and it is the meeting point of several communities, which are located in some secondary valleys, merging there in the valley of the Maira river. Let us begin from the eleventh and twelfth centuries, when Dronero did not yet exist. In this period the area depended on three villages, Ripoli, Surzana and Villar San Costanzo, of which the first was on the right side of the river and the two others on the left side, having one church each: Sant’Andrea in Ripoli, San Ponzio in Surzana and the Abbey of San Costanzo al Monte for Villar San Costanzo. And three different lords, too: the Abbey of San Pietro in Savigliano for Surzana, the bishop of Torino for Ripoli, and the local Abbey of San Costanzo al Monte for Villar San Costanzo.4 The latter village, although very close to other settlements, during the High and Late Middle Ages had its own separate history, and we can thus for once concentrate on Ripoli and Surzana and Sant’Andrea and San Ponzio. To these religious centres, some minor churches have to be added, which mostly depended on to the provost of Oulx, a hundred kilometres away, and probably lacked parish rights: Santa Cristina in Surzana, Santa Maria in Foglienzane, and San Giuliano, the latter of which cannot precisely be located. The whole picture changes in a relevant way during the thirteenth century, by virtue of the new and stronger intervention of regional powers, that is the rival dominions of the marquises of Saluzzo and of the city of Cuneo; their conflict is the specific context in which the emergence of the new village of Dronero is set. We cannot trace its founding process, or identify its founders, but there is possibly a reference to the village in a charter from 1234 and it must have been politically active throughout in 1240, when the podestà (chief magistrate) of Dronero made a “pactum societatis, concordie et amicicie” – a treaty of partnership, concord and friendship – with the commune of Cuneo.5 By this time, Dronero emerged as a politically active community, which engaged in forming an alliance with a greater and leading city, explicitly against the other regional power, the marquises of Saluzzo. The people of Dronero in fact remembered and maintained their allegiance with some other political dependencies from local lords – that were the marquises of Busca or the lords of Montemale – but promised to Cuneo their military help against the marquises of Saluzzo. This new community’s identity had not entirely altered the local settlement structure, which was still fractured in many separate centres

4 Settlements: Roberto Olivero, Ripoli e Surzana: due villaggi scomparsi all’imbocco della Valle Maira, in: Bollettino della Società per gli studi storici, artistici e archeologici della provincia di Cuneo 145 (2011), pp. 111–120; the Abbey of San Costanzo: Luigi Provero, Monasteri, chiese e poteri nel Saluzzese (secoli XI–XIII), in: Bollettino storico-bibliografico subalpino 92 (1994), pp. 385–476 (pp. 458–460); the abbey’s archive has been lost and information about its history are thus very poor). 5 Armando Tallone / Francesco Guasco di Bisio / Ferdinando Gabotto, Cartari minori, Pinerolo 1912–1923, vol. III, p. 28, n. 18 (1234); Camilla, Cuneo 1198–1382, II, p. 29, n. 16 (1240).

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and well attested in sources from the same years. We do not know whether Dronero actually was a new village or just a new collective name for a set of small settlements and hamlets which were scattered at the bottom of the valley. From 1270 on, a castle (“castrum Dragonerii”) existed,6 but whether there was also a new village, cannot be said. The treaty of 1240 points out three facts: – there was a politically active community with a new name, Dronero; – not necessarily there was a whole new village; – at the same time, the community was engaged in managing many different political references: lords whose power was admitted and safeguarded, greater communities to which Dronero was connected, a territorial prince – the marquess of Saluzzo – who they were ready to fight. We can interconnect these features: the interwoven, multi-connected political system could have originated from the complexity of settlements and communities, with multiple villages still existing after Dronero had come into existence. Certainly clear, however, is a process of deep rearrangement, with a new political reality overcoming older and multiple collective identities.

2 Local Politics and Local Churches All of these implications of change were completely evident a few years later, when the marquises of Saluzzo imposed their full power on the valley and chose Dronero as the centre of their own political actions in the area. In 1254, they signed an agreement with the inhabitants of Dronero,7 retaining the older agreements between the local community and other lords. Ten years later, in 1264, a group of individual communities, which was located in the upper reaches of the Maira Valley, signed another agreement with the marquises; a text demonstrating that Dronero had become the centre of the marquises’ local political actions and the place where the prince’s officers were settled.8 This centrality of Dronero was a threat to the autonomy of the upper valley, whose dwellers therefore tried to keep themselves clearly separate from Dronero and asked that men from Dronero would not be appointed as officers in their settlements. In conclusion, in the mid-thirteenth century, the whole valley was controlled by the marquises of Saluzzo but, if we observe the level of local communities, a sharply divided valley comes in sight: the upper valley of many

6 Armando Tallone, Regesto dei marchesi di Saluzzo (1091–1340), Pinerolo 1906, p. 401, n. 80. 7 Giuseppe Manuel di San Giovanni, Memorie storiche di Dronero e della Val Maira, Torino 1868, vol. III, p. 9, n. 3. 8 Ibid., III, p. 8, n. 3; for some implications about this text, see Luigi Provero, Le parole dei sudditi. Azioni e scritture della politica contadina nel Duecento, Spoleto 2012, pp. 47 s.

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small villages which tried to protect some level of autonomy, and the lower valley which was organised around Dronero and its castle. Meanwhile, the ancient villages of Ripoli and Surzana were losing their relevance. If, however, we follow the history of local churches, it becomes apparent that the dynamics at the community level were more complex and laden with conflict. As already pointed out, in the twelfth century, the most important points of reference were the churches of San Ponzio in Surzana and of Sant’Andrea in Ripoli; in the thirteenth century, the birth of Dronero did not entail their disappearance or the voidance of their functions. Both churches can still be found during following decades, and the episcopal investitures for tithes during the century list Ripoli, Surzana and the church of Sant’Andrea. Moreover, the agreements of 1240 and 1254 were recorded “in Dragonerio, in ecclesia sancti Pontii”, whereas an episcopal text of 1270 was written down “in Dragonerio, videlicet in ecclesia sancti Andree.”9These were the old churches, only they were then called Dronero’s churches: the name of the place did change, the actual places had not. In this time frame, between the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, where we can place a series of texts enlightening some dynamics concerning the tithes, a form of levy which neither belonged exclusively to churches nor were they totally at the lord’s disposal.10 There are two episcopal books rich in data about investitures of tithes to laymen, by Bishops Goffredo di Montanaro (1264–1294) and Tedisio (1303–1319). Through Goffredo’s acts, a local elite becomes apparent which succeeded to establish relevant social links with a distant power such as the bishop – Dronero is hundred kilometres away from Turin – and to act in a tight relationship with local churches. For example, in 1270, a family from Dronero received from the bishop the right to collect half of Ripoli’s tithes, while the other half would be collected by the local church of Sant’Andrea, and the two parts would be held “communiter pro indiviso”.11 These relationships had a clear and long-lasting economic implication: the bishop granted tithes’ rights to these families for 25 years, for the annual payment of half of the incomes; sometimes the grant was lengthened to 40 years, for a really poor rent of 40 solidi.12 This overall economic circulation was somehow centred on Dronero, where the rents had to be paid to the bishop’s officers. At the beginning of the fourteenth century, Dronero’s central role becomes even more prominent through Bishop Tedisio’s acts: Tedisio broadly followed the same line of action as Goffredo, but in his texts the ancient villages of Ripoli and Surzana

9 Francesco Guasco di Bisio, Il Libro delle investiture di Goffredo di Montanaro vescovo di Torino (1264–1294), Pinerolo 1913, p.151, n. 22 (1270) 10 About tithe in general see Michel Lauwers (ed.), La dîme, l’église et la société féodale, Turnhout 2012. 11 Guasco di Bisio, Il Libro delle investiture, p. 153, n. 24. 12 For ex. see ibid., p. 129, n. 1; p. 142, n. 13; p. 151, n. 22; p. 152, n. 23; p. 157, n. 27; p. 160, n. 29; p. 161, n. 30.

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disappear, being replaced by Dronero. Moreover, Dronero itself received the right to collect some tithes in the village, for the high rent of 20 librae. Some relevant changes are shown here: the ability of the community to negotiate directly with the bishop, its large financial resources, and its choice to invest a relevant sum to seize a levy right formerly owned by local noble families.13 Yet, this strengthening of the village of Dronero and community can be read more precisely once we re-focus on the churches. In 1315, there in fact was a new religious centre, the church of Santi Andrea and Ponzio in Dronero.14 The fundamental elements of the then ongoing process can be discerned easily: the foundation of Dronero was not necessarily aimed to gather all people of Ripoli and Surzana in a single settlement, but, it is safe to say, to collect them in a single community. The change of political identities is thus supported on a ceremonial level, by the foundation of a new church which combined the dedications of previous churches. Sant’Andrea in Ripoli and San Ponzio in Surzana; these two seem to have merged their identities and their functions in the church Santi Andrea and Ponzio in Dronero. In later decades, this new church would become a central place where, for instance, the communities of Dronero and Cartignano met to sign a political agreement.15 Although this is a major change it does not mark the starting point of a distinctive and steadfast process toward centralization. A few decades later, in 1386, when the bishop of Turin ordered to draw up a list of the churches bound to an annual payment, we find in the text a quite surprising list for Dronero. There can be found Sant’Andrea in Ripoli, San Nicola in a hamlet in the mountains, Santa Maria in Foglienzane, and San Ponzio and Santa Cristina in Surzana (and maybe Sant’Andrea, a church whose location is unknown), yet there is no reference to the church of Santi Andrea and Ponzio in Dronero, built at least 70 years prior..16 Obviously, the building of Dronero, its castle and church did not obliterate former local structures, settlements and churches. Perhaps the absence of Dronero’s church in the episcopal list of 1386 was the consequence of a specific conflict between the marquises of Saluzzo (lords of the village and probably of the church) and the bishop, who thus chose to refer to the older churches. However, the churches of Ripoli and Surzana surely survived for a century and a half after Dronero had come into existence. Therefore, Dronero was the political centre of the lower Maira Valley during this period, and it prevailed over older villages of the area, but from the ceremonial point

13 Biagio Fissore, I protocolli di Tedisio vescovo di Torino, Torino 1969, pp. 65–67, n. 46; other acts by the bishop concerning the Maira Valley: p. 58, n. 41; p. 67, n. 47; p. 115, n. 85; p. 118, n. 86; p. 119, n. 88; p. 209, n. 156; p. 212, n. 159. 14 Elisabetta Giraudo, Chiese e comunità nel Saluzzese medievale. Dall’XI secolo alla fondazione della diocesi (1511), Tesi di laurea, Università di Torino 2009/10, p. 135. 15 Manuel di San Giovanni, Memorie storiche, vol. III, p. 117, n. 31. 16 Giampietro Casiraghi, La diocesi di Torino nel Medioevo, Torino 1979, pp. 134 s.

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of view, this centrality was much more disputed. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries “Dronero” appears to be an empty name: it was a place of power but not a strong reality for collective politics and identity. For a really relevant change from this point of view, we have to wait for the fifteenth century, when an unequivocal collective engagement, which was aimed to locate in Dronero’s church the ceremonial centre of the community, becomes visible.

3 Strengthening the Community of Dronero In June 1455, the Commune of Dronero entered a contract with a family of masons for the building for a wide portal of the parish church of Santi Andrea and Ponzio. The importance of the deal illustrates the community’s seriousness about the engagement as the people committed themselves to pay to the masons 260 florins in three years. Both the sum and the duration of the deal support the fact that this was not a small work but a huge reconstruction of a relevant part of the church building. It is, therefore, not surprising to see that a few years later, in 1461, the community placed on the church wall a commemorative plaque to celebrate the consecration (or more precise, its renewal) to the saints Andrea and Ponzio.17 In this way, the parish church of Dronero became a central place, which is directly reflected in the episcopal payment lists: in 1386, six churches were listed for Dronero (and no reference to the parish of Santi Andrea and Ponzio), but from 1455 on there is a single and simple reference to the cura of Dronero.18 This kind of collective intervention on the church has to be read in the wider frame of the local ceremonial system and in its slow process of centralization around Dronero and its community. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, we do have some knowledge (by virtue of surviving testaments) of several brotherhoods of the Holy Spirit (Confrarie dello Spirito Santo). These forms of religious solidarity were managed by seculars, who devoted themselves to worship and mutual aid. Brotherhoods were not active in the entire village but only in specific parts of it, as the village community was still deeply rooted in single settlements and hamlets. Starting from the central decades of the fourteenth century, a new brotherhood appeared, the Confraternita dei Disciplinati. It had more or less the same purpose of mutual aid and worship, but it was different from previous brotherhoods in three points: – it had a clearer institutional definition – it was more strictly managed by clergy – and above all it was a single brotherhood, intended to serve all people of Dronero.19

17 Manuel di San Giovanni, Memorie storiche, I, pp. 193 s. 18 Casiraghi, La diocesi di Torino, pp. 215, 220, 226, 237, 242, 248. 19 Roberto Olivero, La Confraternita del Gonfalone a Dronero: secoli XIV–XVI, Cuneo 2000, pp. 29–61.

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This new brotherhood became stronger during the fifteenth century, and this is the ceremonial frame in which to place the construction work on the church in 1455. It was neither just meant to finish the building, nor only the assertion of its parish rights against older churches. This was a wider process of ceremonial strengthening of a community of Dronero which centred on the single brotherhood and the parish in order to prevail over previous multiple solidarities, which had been built around several churches and brotherhoods in different parts of the village.20 Can we therefore read these acts as the end of dynamics among local churches? Indeed not: during the fifteenth century the idea of a single community of Dronero was steadily growing, which gathered around its parish and its brotherhood. In the same time span, however, an intense change of the local ecclesiastical system can be witnessed as six new churches were founded in several hamlets around Dronero between 1477 and 1508. The most interesting case surely was San Michele in Tetti, a few kilometres from Dronero, higher up in the mountains. Two texts of 1503 and 1505 document the rights of collective patronage which the people of the local hamlet exerted on this church, their successful request to make the church a parish and their profound financial engagement with a starting endowment of 500 florins, and the promise of a regular annual payment of 30 florins.21 In other words, people from Tetti performed an action quite similar to what the people of Dronero had done 50 years earlier. Local churches and the ceremonial system entirely kept their function as tools to build and shape local solidarities. The most ancient churches, those of Ripoli and Surzana, were declining and losing functions while the centrality of Dronero was affirmed rather strongly; but at the same time, local ecclesiastical structures were still flexible tools, suitable to produce several different solidarities, divergent from the prevailing solidarity centred on the community and parish of Dronero.

4 The Growth during the Fifteenth Century This engagement of local communities in the building of Dronero’s and Tetti’s churches shows the uninterrupted fluidity of ecclesiastical and territorial frames, but it allows to read this local reality also on a strictly economic viewpoint, by contextualizing these texts within limited yet relevant data series concerning the economic development of the valley and the opening of new commercial networks in the fifteenth century.

20 Edoardo Grendi, Lettere orbe. Anonimato e poteri nel Seicento genovese, Palermo 1989, pp. 154–159; Angelo Torre, Il consumo di devozioni: religione e comunità nelle campagne dell’ancien régime, Venezia 1995. 21 Giraudo, Chiese e comunità, pp. 17–21 and 139 s.

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Since 1329, an annual market was known in Acceglio, in the higher part of the valley, but it seems to be most of all about sheep trade, the specialized product allowing a rich exchange system between the valley and the Piedmont plain.22 In the same period, the valley communities were able to rent from the marquis, through a quite high payment, the levy of the gabellae.23 During the fifteenth century, we find clearer signs of a commercial opening of the valley: in 1425, Dronero’s podestà, with the agreement of the marquis of Saluzzo, created an annual market in Dronero, to be held in September; in 1428 Dronero paid 700 florins to the mason Antonio for building a stone bridge over the Maira (which, by the way, still exists).24 The annual market and the bridge were probably intended in a regional perspective, to support the commercial exchange with the plain nearby: the podestà chose indeed to convey the establishment of the new annual market to several towns in southwestern Piedmont, the political and, most of all, commercial points of reference for Dronero. Half a century later, however, a different perspective became obvious. In 1470, Ludovico I (1416–1475) concluded a deal with three men to develop gold and silver mines in the Maira Valley, on whose products the marquis would have the right to collect one tenth – as a rent – and a priority right in the purchase of precious metals at a fixed price.25 These mines were probably a failure, without any relevant finding of silver or gold; but other signs of the marquis’ investment can be detected. In 1486, his successor, Ludovico II (1475–1504), ruled a dispute between Dronero and the communities of the higher parts of the valley, on a commercial issue, to set some basic rules about the trade of wine and other products up and down the valley; but a quite different matter appears in the text, because the marquis has to certify the strong commercial problems due to the absence of a road connecting the valley to the French region of the Ubaye Valley. The text of the verdict is quite plain: the marquis asserts that if a public road, suitable for carts, will be constructed from the river Breissino leading up to the Colle delle Monache and to other advantageous places, the people of Dronero and the Maira Vallley would ultimately prosper and thrive by the exchange of goods, such as wine, which would be taken up with French traders (ultramontani). He therefore established that all the communities of the valley had to commit to building a ‘good road’ to the Colle delle Monache

22 Comba, Per una storia economica, p. 68. 23 Teresa Mangione, Uno squilibrio permanente: le risorse finanziarie di Ludovico II tra fiscalità e ricorso al prestito, in: Rinaldo Comba (ed.), Ludovico II marchese di Saluzzo: condottiero, uomo di Stato e mecenate (1475–1504), Cuneo 2004, vol. I, pp. 193–225, at pp. 194–196. 24 Comba, Per una storia economica, p. 67 (annual market); Manuel di San Giovanni, Memorie storiche, vol. III, pp. 245–147, n. 40 (bridge). 25 Teresa Mangione, Allume, vetriolo e ferro: attività minerarie e metallurgiche nel marchesato di Saluzzo (secoli XIV–XVI), in: Comba (ed.), Ludovico II marchese di Saluzzo, p. 80.

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(the nearest Alpine pass leading to France) and in guaranteeing a toll-free movement of merchandises all along the valley26 The marquis’ choice is neither surprising nor was it an isolated one: a few years earlier, between 1478 and 1480, Ludovico II himself promoted, in an agreement with the king of France, the digging out of a tunnel at the top of the Po Valley, near the Monte Viso (the so called Buco di Viso/ Pertuis du Viso), allowing a much easier passage from Saluzzo to the French region of Queyras, and therefore producing wide and immediate advantages for commercial exchanges.27 The marquises of Saluzzo, cut off from the major Alpine roads and passes (Colle del Monginevro/Col de Montgenèvre and Colle del Moncenisio/Col du Mont Cenis in the north, Colle della Maddalena/Col de Larche in the south), at the end of fifteenth century tried to take advantage of the growth of productions and exchanges by promoting the construction of new roads, the tunnel in the Po Valley and the road to the Colle delle Monache in the Maira Valley. During the fifteenth century, the marquises tried to escape from an almost permanent financial crisis, which only just worsened due to the ambitious politics of Ludovico II, who invested in roads, in the attempt to develop gold and silver mines in the Maira Valley and in a new monumental church in his capital town, Saluzzo.28 The communities of the Maira Valley fully took part in this development, as underlined by the emergence of Dronero’s annual market, the construction of the stone bridge, the commercial disputes between the higher and the lower part of the valley, the engagement in the building of the new road, and the rent of tax levy. These communities bore serious costs, which is the frame wherein to place both the agreement for the renewal of the portal of the parish church of Dronero (1455) and the endowment of the church of Tetti (1505): eventually, these communities were much richer than before, with substantial financial resources at their disposal and the ability to invest in their own future, too. They did not only so by the construction of a bridge and a road, but also a church. These are not totally different issues,

26 “Si fit una via publica et itinerabilis a ripo Breixino supra usque ad collem Monacarum et aliis locis opportunis, quod ultramontani libenter venient et merces portabunt lanarum et aliarum rerum per Mairanam et ipsam vallem et Draconerium; in reversione vero reportabunt vina et alias merces de Draconerio et valle Mairana, ita quod multo plura vina vendentur per ipsos de Draconerio, et fiet abundantia mercium, si frequentabitur ipsa via, et tam Draconerium quam vallis locupletabantur per hospitia et mercimonia”: Delfino Muletti, Memorie storico-diplomatiche appartenenti alla città e ai marchesi di Saluzzo, Saluzzo 1829–1833, vol. V, pp. 281–285. 27 Ibid., pp. 166–170, 221–227 (the digging of the tunnel); Comba, Per una storia economica, pp. 92 s. (its consequences on regional commerce). 28 Financial crisis: Mangione, Uno squilibrio permanente, pp. 210–223; mines: see above, n. 25; Saluzzo’s new church: Domenico Chiattone, La costruzione della cattedrale di Saluzzo, in: Gabotto / Savio / Patrucco et al. (eds.), Miscellanea Saluzzese, pp. 159–257; Elisabetta Canobbio, Ludovico II e le istituzioni ecclesiastiche del marchesato, in: Comba (ed.), Ludovico II marchese di Saluzzo, vol. I, pp. 57–77, at pp. 61–66.

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the church is not an accessory element to the works of a community but a fundamental one. A village whose economy grows quickly needs to form and to strengthen its collective identity and does so by building a new church and by furnishing it with a monumental look. Such actions require a community which is prepared to accept serious costs. When the marquis built a monumental church in Saluzzo so as to convert it into a new diocesan centre, the people of Dronero turned their parish church in a real and relevant centre for the community.

Mark Häberlein

Italian Merchants and Traders North of the Alps: Commercial Practices and Social Strategies Abstract: The presence of Italian merchants and traders in early modern Germany increased in the course of the sixteenth century and, following the crisis of the Thirty Years’ War, reached a peak in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century. This chapter surveys their geographic origins, settlement patterns, economic activities, and strategies of social integration in German towns. As this survey shows, the commercial presence of Italian migrants north of the Alps was marked by considerable diversity. In the sixteenth century, trading companies from Florence and other Tuscan cities established branches in economic centers like Nuremberg, where they played a prominent role in the silk trade but also became involved in other sectors. After 1650, by contrast, the vast majority of Italian traders came from the Lake Como region, and while commercial cities like Nuremberg and Frankfurt on the Main remained major destinations for them, many more established themselves in princely residences like Mainz, Koblenz, and Bamberg or in small country towns. While most of them initially specialized in the marketing of Italian goods like citrus fruits, chestnuts, sausages, and cheese, they subsequently enlarged their range of commercial items, and some became bankers or manufacturers. Recent research has elucidated their business organization, financial resources, and social networks. A pattern that emerges from these studies is the Italian traders’ “dual integration”: they often married into local society and permanently settled in their host communities while simultaneously maintaining close relationships with their relatives back in Italy. Trans-Alpine transfers of inheritances highlight this “dual integration” and shed light on the trans-national character of social networks. While Italian merchants and shopkeepers in small and medium-sized Catholic towns sometimes rose to positions of social prominence and political influence, their attempts to obtain commercial privileges and civic rights in Protestant cities like Frankfurt on the Main met with tenacious opposition from local traders who regarded these foreigners as unwelcome competitors.

Mark Häberlein, Chair of Early Modern History and Regional History, University of Bamberg, Fischstr. 5–7, D–96047 Bamberg, e-mail: [email protected] https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110522259-008

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Introduction In early modern German sources, we frequently encounter migrants from the Italian language area in diverse roles, professions, and contexts.1 Master builders, skilled craftsmen in the construction trades, painters, sculptors, and stucco workers from northern Italy and the Ticino put their stamp on the physical appearance of central European fortresses, castles, palaces, churches, and monasteries of the Renaissance and Baroque eras.2 Castrate singers celebrated triumphs on German opera stages, while conductors and virtuoso instrumentalists played leading roles in court orchestras.3 Tinsmiths and chimney sweeps from Italian-speaking regions exercised specialized crafts in central European cities, which they sometimes dominated for generations.4 Moreover, Italian officers and soldiers participated in numerous

1 For useful introductory surveys, see Anton Schindling, Bei Hofe und als Pomeranzenhändler. Italiener im Deutschland der Frühen Neuzeit, in: Klaus J. Bade (ed.), Deutsche im Ausland – Fremde in Deutschland. Migration in Geschichte und Gegenwart, Munich 1993, pp. 287–294; Anton Schindling, Priester und Gelehrte, Baumeister und Kaufleute. Italiener als Elite im Heiligen Römischen Reich der Frühen Neuzeit, in: Markus A. Denzel / Matthias Asche / Matthias Stickler (eds.), Religiöse und konfessionelle Minderheiten als wirtschaftliche und geistige Eliten (16. bis frühes 20. Jahrhundert). Büdinger Forschungen zur Sozialgeschichte 2006 und 2007, St. Katharinen 2009, pp. 161–176. 2 On these groups, see Edoardo Arslan (ed.), Arte e artisti dei laghi lombardi, 2 vols., Como 1964; Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann, Höfe, Klöster und Städte. Kunst und Kultur in Mitteleuropa 1450–1800, Darmstadt 1995, pp. 299–306, 356–360, 423–426; Dieter J. Weiß, “Welsche” Künstler in Franken während des Barockzeitalters, in: Hans Hopfinger / Horst Kopp (eds.), Wirkungen von Migration auf aufnehmende Gesellschaften, Neustadt/Aisch 1996, pp. 97–108; Stefano della Torre et al. (eds.), Magistri d’Europa. Eventi, relazioni, strutture della migrazione di artisti e construttori dai laghi lombardi, Milano 1996; Michael C. Maurer / Anton Schindling, Italienische, Graubündner, Tessiner und Vorarlberger Baumeister und bildende Künstler im barocken Europa, in: Klaus J. Bade et al. (eds.), Enzyklopädie Migration in Europa. Vom 17. Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart, Paderborn 2007, pp. 683–689; Barbara Marx (ed.), Elbflorenz. Italienische Präsenz in Dresden 16.–19. Jahrhundert, Dresden 2000. Prominent examples include Lucia Longo, Antonio Petrini. Ein Barockarchitekt in Franken, Munich / Zurich 1985; Sabine Heym, Henrico Zuccalli. Der kurbayerische Hofbaumeister, Munich / Zurich 1984; Peter O. Krückmann (ed.), Paradies des Rokoko, Vol. 2: Galli Bibiena und der Musenhof der Wilhelmine von Bayreuth, Munich / New York 1998. 3 Markus Seedorf, Kastraten, in: Ludwig Finscher (ed.), Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Sachteil, vol. 5: Kas-Mein, Kassel et al. 21996, pp. 15–20; Paul Münch, “Hominis tertii generis”. Gesangskastraten in der Kulturgeschichte Europas, in: Essener Unikate 14 (2000), pp. 58–67; Elisabeth Rothmund, Heinrich Schütz (1585–1672): Kulturpatriotismus und deutsche Vokalmusik, Berne 2004, pp. 38, 67, 93–101; Mark Häberlein, Musik und Öffentlichkeit in Bamberg in der zweiten Hälfte des 18. Jahrhunderts, in: Jahrbuch für fränkische Landesforschung 75 (2015), pp. 203–225. 4 Johannes Augel, Italienische Einwanderung und Wirtschaftstätigkeit in rheinischen Städten des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts, Bonn 1971, pp. 173–184; Helmut Lahrkamp, Wanderbewegungen im 18. Jahrhundert. Tiroler Maurer, skandinavische Hutmacher, reisende Buchdrucker, böhmische Glashändler und italienische Kaminfeger in Münster, in: Westfälische Forschungen 26 (1974), pp. 123–132; Hermann Berger, Kaminfeger aus der Mesocina in der Großstadt Wien, in: Hans-Jörg Gilomen / Anne-

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military conflicts during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,5 and clergymen cultivated the ecclesiastical ties between the Catholic areas of the Holy Roman Empire and Italy, where the Papal See and the centers of the Counter-Reformation and Catholic reform were located. Italian-speaking clergymen in central Europe covered a wide social spectrum that included papal Legates, members of religious orders like the Theatines and Jesuits, as well as itinerant mendicants.6 As language teachers, Italians taught the language of their native country north of the Alps, which enjoyed high prestige there well into the eighteenth century.7 Finally, Italian-speakers can be found at the margins of early modern society as travelling showmen, comedians, beggars, and drifters.8

Lise Head-König / Anne Radeff (eds.), Migration in die Städte. Ausschluss – Assimilierung – Integration – Multikulturalität, Zurich 1998, pp. 125–133; Markus Walz, Region – Profession – Migration. Italienische Zinngießer in Rheinland-Westfalen (1700–1900), Osnabrück 2001; Irmgard Schwanke, Fremde in Offenburg. Religiöse Minderheiten und Zuwanderer in der Frühen Neuzeit, Constance 2005, pp. 225–246. 5 Michael Kaiser, Ausreißer und Meuterer im Dreißigjährigen Krieg, in: Ulrich Bröckling / Michael Sikora (eds.), Armeen und ihre Deserteure. Vernachlässigte Kapitel einer Militärgeschichte der Neuzeit, Göttingen 1998, pp. 49–71, at p. 55; Robert Rebitsch, Italienische Militärs im Dienste des Hauses Habsburg im 17. Jahrhundert. Die Integration ins habsburgische Staatswesen, in: Marco Bellabarba (ed.), Le corti como luogo di comunicazione. Gli Asburgo e l’Italia (secoli XVI–XIX), Bologna 2010, pp. 155–176; Claudio Donati, Soldaten und Offiziere italienischer Herkunft von den Erbfolgekriegen des 18. Jahrhunderts bis zum napoleonischen Zeitalter. Eine politische und soziale Betrachtung, in: Andreas Gestrich / Bernhard Schmitt (eds.), Militär und Gesellschaft in Herrschaftswechseln, Potsdam 2013, pp. 21–39. 6 Schindling, Priester und Gelehrte, pp. 163. 7 Numerous individual references can be found in Konrad Schröder, Biographisches und bibliographisches Lexikon der Fremdsprachenlehrer des deutschsprachigen Raumes. Spätmittelalter bis 1800, 6 vols., Augsburg 1987–1999. See also Hermann Krapoth, Die Beschäftigung mit romanischen Sprachen und Literaturen an der Universität Göttingen im 18. und frühen 19. Jahrhundert, in: Reinhard Lauer (ed.), Philologie in Göttingen. Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft an der Georgia Augusta im 18. und beginnenden 19. Jahrhundert, Göttingen 2001, pp. 57–90, at p. 59; Martin Zürn, Unsichere Existenzen. Sprachmeister in Freiburg i.Br., Konstanz und Augsburg in der Frühen Neuzeit, in: Mark Häberlein / Christian Kuhn (eds.), Fremde Sprachen in frühneuzeitlichen Städten. Lernende, Lehrende und Lehrwerke, Wiesbaden 2010, pp. 103–120, at pp. 110, 112, 119; Helmut Glück / Mark Häberlein / Konrad Schröder, Mehrsprachigkeit in der Frühen Neuzeit. Die Reichsstädte Augsburg und Nürnberg vom 15. bis ins frühe 19. Jahrhundert, Wiesbaden 2013, pp. 145–148, 189–191, 421–435 and passim. 8 Eva Wiebel, Minderheiten in der Randgruppe? “Welsche” und Juden in Gauner- und Diebslisten des 18. Jahrhunderts, in: Mark Häberlein / Martin Zürn (eds.), Minderheiten, Obrigkeit und Gesellschaft in der Frühen Neuzeit. Integrations- und Abgrenzungsprozesse im süddeutschen Raum, St. Katharinen 2001, pp. 183–232, at pp. 193–195.

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Notwithstanding the professional and social diversity and heterogeneity of transAlpine migrants to the Holy Roman Empire,9 the commercial sector deserves particular attention, as traders constituted a majority among the Italian newcomers in many German cities and towns.10 These merchants and retailers, who are often termed Welsche in contemporary sources, are the focus of this chapter. The following pages provide a survey of the chronological development and spatial distribution of trans-Alpine commercial migration to central Europe; the article sketches patterns of settlement and social integration as well as crucial aspects of the Italians’ commercial activities. Finally, a case study illuminates the problems that accompanied trans-Alpine property transfers as well as the strategies employed by the historical actors. Research on this topic has long been characterized by a preponderance of genealogical and local studies. In 1971, Johannes Augel published the first socio-historical monograph on Italian immigration in the Rhine-Main area in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that was based on a broad range of primary sources. In the appendix of his study, which was originally submitted as a dissertation at the University of Bonn, Augel collected biographical data on no fewer than 1,847 individuals who are either known or at least highly likely to have migrated from Italy.11 Since then, numerous works on processes of migration and integration in early modern towns in general as well as on the presence of Italians in particular have broadened and enriched our knowledge of the topic. Exemplary works include the dissertations by Christiane Reves on the geographical mobility and social networks of families from the extensive Brentano clan, by Irmgard Schwanke on immigrants and minorities in the imperial city of Offenburg, and most recently by Thea Stolterfoht on fruit traders from the Lake Como region in southwest German cities and towns.12

9 Studies emphasizing this heterogeneity include Schindling, Priester und Gelehrte, pp. 162 s.; Andrea Pühringer, “L’italiano in Assia” – Italiener in hessischen Städten der Frühneuzeit. Eine Bestandsaufnahme, in: Hessisches Jahrbuch für Landesgeschichte 53 (2003), pp. 95–115, at pp. 97 s.; Andrea Pühringer, “E tutta questa miseria è italiana.” Italienische Emigranten in deutschen Städten des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts, in: Thomas Fuchs / Sven Trakulhun (eds.), Das eine Europa und die Vielfalt der Kulturen. Kulturtransfer in Europa 1500–1850, Berlin 2003, pp. 353–377, at pp. 354–358. 10 Cf. Augel, Italienische Einwanderung, pp. 187 s. 11 Augel, Italienische Einwanderung. 12 Christiane Reves, Vom Pomeranzengängler zum Großhändler? Netzwerke und Migrationsverhalten der Brentano-Familien im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert, Paderborn 2012; Schwanke, Fremde in Offenburg; Thea E. Stolterfoht, Die Südfrüchtehändler vom Comer See im Südwesten Deutschlands im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert. Untersuchungen zu ihrem Handel und ihrer Handlungsorganisation, Hamburg 2017. Other relevant works will be cited in their appropriate contexts below.

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Patterns of Migration and Settlement The presence of migrants from Lombardy and Lucca in late medieval Rhenish cities and of representatives of Florentine mercantile houses in Nuremberg and Lübeck during the fourteenth and fifteenth century shows that Italian traders north of the Alps were hardly a new phenomenon in the early modern period.13 Yet these early references remain sporadic, and their number only increases in the years around 1500 – a fact which may partly be due to better documentation, but also to increasing northward migration.14 During the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, the major commercial centers in south Germany proved especially attractive to trans-Alpine migrants. In the imperial city of Nuremberg, the Florentine merchant house Torrigiani set up a branch at the beginning of the sixteenth century, which soon assumed an important mediating role in the silk trade between Florence, south Germany, and east central Europe. When Raffaello and Ridolfo Torrigiani signed a new company contract in the Franconian city in 1527, their employee Giovanni di Piero Olivieri, a native of Florence, became their business partner. In the 1540s, Olivieri was associated with commercial companies based in Florence, Naples, and Nuremberg. Other merchant houses from Tuscany such as the Saliti likewise established branches on the Pegnitz River, which were primarily engaged in the distribution of Italian silk goods north of the Alps.15 13 Cf. Gerhard Fouquet, Ein Italiener in Lübeck. Der Florentiner Gherardo Bueri, in: Zeitschrift des Vereins für Lübeckische Geschichte und Altertumskunde 78 (1998), pp. 187–220; Kurt Weissen, Briefe in Lübeck lebender Florentiner Kaufleute an die Medici (1424–1491), in: Zeitschrift des Vereins für Lübeckische Geschichte und Altertumskunde 83 (2003), pp. 53–82; Kurt Weissen, I mercanti italiani e le fiere in Europa centrale alla fine del Medioevo e agli inizi dell’età moderna, in: Paola Lanaro (ed.), La pratica della scambia. Sistemi di fiere, mercanti e città in Europa, Venice 2003, pp. 161–176; Kurt Weissen, Florentiner Kaufleute in Deutschland bis zum Ende des 14. Jahrhunderts, in: Franz Irsigler (ed.), Zwischen Maas und Rhein. Beziehungen, Begegnungen und Konflikte in einem europäischen Kernraum von der Spätantike bis zum 19. Jahrhundert, Trier 2006, pp. 363–401; Kurt Weissen, La rete commerciale tedesca delle compagnie fiorentine romanam curiam sequentes, 1410–1470, in: Archivio storico italiano 169 (2011), pp. 707–726; Philip Jacks / William Caferro, The Spinelli of Florence: Fortunes of a Renaissance Merchant Family, University Park (PA) 2001, pp. 89 s., 252 s. 14 For Florence, see Richard Goldthwaite, The Economy of Renaissance Florence, Baltimore / London 2009, p. 105: “Before the end of the fifteenth century no German city had a significant Florentine merchant colony, nor does it appear that any firm had a permanent branch in the country for any length of time.” 15 Marco Spallanzani, Le compagnie Saliti a Norimberga nella prima metà del Cinquecento (un primo contributo dagli archivi fiorentini), in: Jürgen Schneider (ed.), Wirtschaftskräfte und Wirtschaftswege. Festschrift für Hermann Kellenbenz, vol. 1, Stuttgart 1978, pp. 603–620; Marco Spallanzani, Tessuti di seta fiorentini per il mercato di Norimberga intorno al 1520, in: Studi in memoria di Giovanni Cassandro, vol. 3, Rome 1991, pp. 995–1016; Francesco Guidi Bruscoli, Der Handel mit Seidenstoffen und Leinengeweben zwischen Florenz und Nürnberg in der ersten Hälfte des 16. Jahrhunderts, in: Mitteilungen des Vereins für die Geschichte der Stadt Nürnberg 86 (1999), pp. 81–113; Lambert F. Peters, Strategische Allianzen, Wirtschaftsstandort und Standortwettbewerb. Nürnberg 1500–1625,

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While most Italian merchants in Lutheran Nuremberg remained Catholic,16 some either came there as Protestants or converted to Lutheranism in the imperial city. Thus the Genoese merchant Antonio Vento, who corresponded with the renowned humanist Willibald Pirckheimer, among others, married the daughter of a local citizen and even became a member of Nuremberg’s Grand Council (Großer Rat) in 1530.17 The Venetian-born Bartolomeo Viatis (1538–1624), who came to Nuremberg as a twelve-year-old commercial apprentice in 1550 and rose to become the city’s wealthiest merchant on the eve of the Thirty Years’ War, likewise converted to Lutheranism and was a member of the Grand Council.18 Despite considerable opposition on the part of the native mercantile community, a financially and economically powerful cluster of mercantile companies from Tuscany, Lombardy, and the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland formed in Nuremberg in the course of the sixteenth century. In 1575, eighteen Italian firms were present there, and by the early 1620s their number had risen to twenty-six. They traded in Italian import goods like velvet, silk goods, spices, and citrus fruits but also invested into the metal and linen trades and became involved in credit and exchange transactions. Some of them were among the most active companies at the Banco Publico, Nuremberg’s public bank, which was founded in 1621. The Italian firms’ share of the total volume of transactions at the Banco Publico during the first three years of its existence hovered around fourteen percent. Yet this powerful Italian community dissolved during the Thirty Years’ War, and the last of its members left the city in 1636.19

Frankfurt/Main 2005, pp. 89, 95, 176–178; Goldthwaite, The Economy of Renaissance Florence, pp. 199–201, 289, 291, 314. 16 Cf. Lothar Bauer, Die italienischen Kaufleute und ihre Stellung im protestantischen Nürnberg am Ende des 16. Jahrhunderts (Zu einem Bericht an die Kurie vom Jahre 1593), in: Jahrbuch für fränkische Landesforschung 22 (1962), pp. 1–18. 17 Stadtarchiv Nürnberg, GSI-Datenbank; Gerhard Pfeiffer (ed.), Quellen zur Nürnberger Reformationsgeschichte. Von der Duldung liturgischer Änderungen bis zur Ausübung des Kirchenregiments durch den Rat (Juni 1524 – Juni 1525), Nuremberg 1968, pp. 314, 327–328; Helga Scheible (ed.), Willibald Pirckheimers Briefwechsel, vol. 6, Munich 2004, pp. 333 s.; vol. 7, Munich 2009, pp. 420 s.; Bettina Pfotenhauer, Nürnberg und Venedig im Austausch. Menschen, Güter und Wissen an der Wende vom Mittelalter zur Neuzeit, Regensburg 2016, pp. 136 s. 18 Hermann Kellenbenz, Bartholomäus Viatis, in: Gerhard Pfeiffer (ed.), Fränkische Lebensbilder. Neue Folge der Lebensläufe aus Franken, vol. 1, Würzburg 1967, pp. 162–181; Gerhard Seibold, Die Viatis und Peller. Beiträge zur Geschichte ihrer Handelsgesellschaft, Cologne 1977, pp. 6–19; Andreas Tacke, Bartholomäus I. Viatis im Porträt, in: Mitteilungen des Vereins für die Geschichte der Stadt Nürnberg 83 (1996), pp. 57–64. 19 Hermann Kellenbenz, Wirtschaftsleben zwischen dem Augsburger Religionsfrieden und dem Westfälischen Frieden, in: Gerhard Pfeiffer (ed.), Nürnberg – Geschichte einer europäischen Stadt, Nuremberg 1971, pp. 295–302, at pp. 296–299; Gerhard Seibold, Zur Situation der italienischen Kaufleute in Nürnberg während der zweiten Hälfte des 17. und der ersten Hälfte des 18. Jahrhunderts, in: Mitteilungen des Vereins für Geschichte der Stadt Nürnberg 71 (1984), pp. 186–207, at pp. 189–192; Lambert F. Peters, Der Handel Nürnbergs am Anfang des Dreißigjährigen Krieges. Strukturkomponenten, Unternehmen und Unternehmer. Eine quantitative Analyse, Stuttgart 1994, pp. 99–104 and passim; Peters, Strategische Allianzen, pp. 95–101, 178–181, 233–235, 285–305, 423–436, 521–537, 579–584 and

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In Frankfurt on the Main, which owed its importance mainly to its trade fairs, Italian traders are sporadically documented from the early sixteenth century onwards; the Florentine Lorenzo de Villani married a burgomaster’s widow there in 1535 and became a citizen of Frankfurt a few years later.20 But it was only after the Thirty Years’ War that a larger number of them came to settle permanently in the imperial city on the Main River.21 Silk merchants from Milan, Genoa, Locarno, and Plurs in the Grisons regularly visited the annual fairs in Leipzig during the sixteenth century, but only one Italian – a jeweler from Pressa (possibly Brescia) in 1572 – acquired the right of citizenship there between 1550 and 1650.22 In Augsburg, the major sixteenth-century commercial center in south Germany besides Nuremberg, Italians likewise found it difficult to establish themselves on account of the city council’s restrictive immigration policy and the tenacious resistance of local traders. Under these circumstances, most Italians who obtained a residence permit in the Swabian imperial city in the years around 1600 lived there only temporarily. Some of them maintained close ties with the Nuremberg mercantile community.23 In the early seventeenth century, traders from south of the Alps also came to Munich in growing numbers to sell citrus fruits. While their presence initially was sporadic, they appear securely established in the capital of the Electorate of Bavaria by the mid-seventeenth century.24 After the Thirty Years’ War had temporarily interrupted trans-Alpine mobility, a significant rise of commercial migration from Italian-speaking regions to the Holy Roman Empire can be observed from about 1650 onwards; this migratory flow continued until the later eighteenth century.25 Hundreds of Italian immigrants

passim; Michael Diefenbacher, Handel im Wandel. Die Handels- und Wirtschaftsmetropole Nürnberg in der frühen Neuzeit (1550–1630), in: Bernhard Kirchgässner / Hans-Peter Becht (eds.), Stadt und Handel. 32. Arbeitstagung in Schwäbisch Hall 1993, Sigmaringen 1995, pp. 63–81, at pp. 73–76; Rita Mazzei, Itinera mercatorum. Circolazione di uomini e beni nell’Europa centro-orientale, 1550–1650, Lucca 1999, pp. 59–72; Markus A. Denzel, Der Nürnberger Banco Publico, seine Kaufleute und ihr Zahlungsverkehr (1621–1827), Stuttgart 2012. 20 Alexander Dietz, Frankfurter Handelsgeschichte, 5 vols., repr. Glashütten im Taunus 1970, vol. 1, pp. 244, 293 s. 21 Dietz, Frankfurter Handelsgeschichte, vol. 4/1, pp. 162–166, 238–259 and passim; Reves, Vom Pomeranzengängler zum Großhändler?, pp. 235–242. 22 Gerhard Fischer, Aus zwei Jahrhunderten Leipziger Handelsgeschichte 1470–1650. Die kaufmännische Einwanderung und ihre Auswirkungen, Leipzig 1929, pp. 170, 190, 246 s., 255–258. 23 Sibylle Backmann, Italienische Kaufleute in Augsburg 1550–1650, in: Johannes Burkhardt (ed.), Augsburger Handelshäuser im Wandel des historischen Urteils, Berlin 1996, pp. 224–240. 24 Rainer Beck, Lemonihändler. Welsche Händler und die Ausbreitung der Zitrusfrüchte im frühneuzeitlichen Deutschland, in: Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte 2004/2, pp. 97–123, esp. pp. 98, 102–105, 107, 110 s. 25 On the chronology of this migration, cf. Augel, Italienische Einwanderung, pp. 107–110; Pühringer, Italienische Emigranten, pp. 362 s.; Stolterfoht, Südfrüchtehändler vom Comer See, pp. 42–47, 143–157, 401–406.

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are documented for Cologne, Frankfurt on the Main, Mainz, and Augsburg during this time period,26 but towns like Bingen, Bonn, Bruchsal, Heidelberg, Koblenz, Trier, Fulda, and Bamberg also recorded the arrival of dozens of Italian merchants and retailers. In Fulda, for example, thirty-three individuals of Italian origin are mentioned in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century sources, while Bamberg accepted forty-three new citizens from Italian-speaking regions between 1670 and 1800.27 At least fifty traders from Italy and Savoy settled in Munich from the 1680s onwards.28 After the Peace of Westphalia, a colony of Italian traders also emerged in Nuremberg once again, but neither its size nor its financial prowess matched that of the mercantile community that had played such a significant role there before the war. According to Gerhard Seibold, this new Italian cohort may have regarded the Franconian city as a waystation on their itinerary rather than a permanent place of settlement.29 The capitals of larger princely territories were particularly attractive for transAlpine migrants due to the courts’ and high-ranking officials’ demand for luxuries and consumer goods, but they only constituted the tip of the iceberg, as immigrants from Italian-speaking regions were present in numerous small- to medium-sized imperial cities, princely residences, and country towns.30 The geographic pattern of

26 For Cologne, Mainz, and Frankfurt, see Augel, Italienische Einwanderung, pp. 118–119; Reves, Vom Pomeranzengängler zum Großhändler?, pp. 296–299; Christiane Reves, Von Kaufleuten, Stuckateuren und Perückenmachern. Die Präsenz von Italienern in Mainz im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert, in: Michael Matheus / Walter G. Rödel (eds.), Bausteine zur Mainzer Stadtgeschichte. Mainzer Kolloquium 2000, Stuttgart 2002, pp. 135–159, esp. pp. 139–141. On the presence of Italian merchants in Augsburg, see Peter Fassl, Konfession, Wirtschaft und Politik. Von der Reichsstadt zur Industriestadt. Augsburg 1750–1850, Sigmaringen 1988, pp. 48 s. 27 Augel, Italienische Einwanderung, pp. 117–121; Pühringer, L’italiano in Assia, p. 102; Lina Hörl, Von Schustern, Schneidern und Zitronenkrämern. Die Bürgerbücher der Stadt Bamberg von 1625 bis 1829, in: Jahrbuch für Regionalgeschichte 28 (2010), pp. 79–98, at p. 97; Gabi Schopf, Zwischen den Welten. Italienische Kaufleute in Bamberg im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert, in: Mark Häberlein / Michaela Schmölz-Häberlein (eds.), Handel, Händler und Märkte in Bamberg. Akteure, Strukturen und Entwicklungen in einer vormodernen Residenzstadt (1300–1800), Würzburg 2015, pp. 213–237. 28 Margareta Edlin-Thieme, Studien zur Geschichte des Münchner Handelsstandes im 18. Jahrhundert, Stuttgart 1969, p. 70 (n. 28). 29 Seibold, Zur Situation der italienischen Kaufleute, pp. 192–204 (quote on p. 192). Cf. also Christof Jeggle, Coping with the Crisis. Italian Merchants in Seventeenth-Century Nuremberg, in: Andrea Bonoldi et al. (eds.), Merchants in Times of Crises (16th to mid–19th Century), Stuttgart 2015, pp. 51–78. 30 See, e.g., Alfred Lederle, Italienische Einwanderer aus dem Tremezzina (Comersee) im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert nach Baden, in: Badische Heimat 38 (1958), pp. 291–303; Thea E. Stolterfoht, Italienische Kaufleute in der Reichsstadt Heilbronn in der Frühen Neuzeit (1670–1773), in: Christhard Schrenk / Peter Wanner (eds.), heilbronnica 3. Beiträge zur Stadt- und Regionalgeschichte, Jahrbuch für schwäbisch-fränkische Geschichte 35 (2005), Heilbronn 2005, pp. 119–204; Gerhard Menk, Bürgerlicher Alltag in Arolsen. Die waldeckische Residenz aus der Sicht des Kaufmans Bartolomeo Belli und seiner Nachlassverwaltung, in: Geschichtsblätter für Waldeck 88 (2000), pp. 48–89; Christian Porzelt, Italienische Handelstätigkeit im nördlichen Hochstift Bamberg, in: Mark Häberlein / Michaela Schmölz-Häberlein (eds.), Handel, Händler und Märkte in Bamberg. Akteure, Strukturen

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this migration clearly bore a strong confessional stamp.31 Whereas Catholic Italians who wished to purchase rights of citizenship, join craft or merchant guilds, and publicly practice their faith encountered few obstacles in the Empire’s ecclesiastical territories32 or in Catholic and bi-confessional imperial cities such as Offenburg, Biberach, Ravensburg, and Augsburg,33 these rights were usually denied to them in Protestant cities and territories. Here Catholic foreigners were either relegated to the status of second-class citizens (as Beisassen or Hintersassen) or had to be content with limited rights of residence.34 In Lutheran Frankfurt on the Main, several wealthy

und Entwicklungen in einer vormodernen Residenzstadt (1300–1800), Würzburg 2015, pp. 239–251; Stolterfoht, Südfrüchtehändler vom Comer See, pp. 52, 57–62, 77, 310–344, 377–395. 31 On confessional patterns of migration and civic intregeation in early modern Germany, cf. Etienne François, De l’uniformité à la tolérance. Confession et société urbaine en Allemagne, 1650–1800, in: Annales. Economies, Sociétés, Civilisations 37 (1982), pp. 783–800, at pp. 784 s.; Mirjam Litten, Bürgerrecht und Bekenntnis. Städtische Optionen zwischen Konfessionalisierung und Säkularisierung in Münster, Hildesheim und Hamburg, Hildesheim 2003; Mark Häberlein, Konfessionelle Grenzen, religiöse Minderheiten und Herrschaftspraxis in süddeutschen Städten und Territorien in der Frühen Neuzeit, in: Ronald G. Asch / Dagmar Freist (eds.), Staatsbildung als kultureller Prozess. Strukturwandel und Legitimation von Herrschaft in der Frühen Neuzeit, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2005, pp. 151–190, at pp. 167–173. 32 Augel, Italienische Einwanderung, pp. 162–166; Pühringer, L’italiano in Assia, p. 109; id., Italienische Emigranten, p. 363; Reves, Von Kaufleuten, Stuckateuren und Perückenmachern, p. 147; Schopf, Zwischen den Welten, pp. 220–224. 33 Cf. Augel, Italienische Einwanderung, pp. 338, 411, 420 (Biberach); Schwanke, Fremde in Offenburg, pp. 192–198; Martin Zürn, Savoyarden in Oberdeutschland. Zur Integration einer ethnischen Minderheit in Augsburg, Freiburg und Konstanz, in: Carl A. Hoffmann / Rolf Kießling (eds.), Kommunikation und Region, Constance 2001, pp. 381–420, esp. pp. 396–398 (Augsburg); Babette Lang, Welsche Zitronen- und Pomeranzenkrämer in Oberschwaben und im Bodenseeraum in der Frühen Neuzeit, in: Zeitschrift für Württembergische Landesgeschichte 70 (2011), pp. 229–251, at pp. 238–241 (Ravensburg). Lang also shows, however, that the granting of citizenship to Italians was a matter of dispute within Ravensburg’s bi-confessional city council, with Catholic councillors favouring their civic integration and their Protestant colleagues opposing it. Ibid., p. 239. 34 See, e.g., Gustav Wulz, Italienische Kaminkehrer und Südfrüchtehändler in Nördlingen, in: Schwäbische Blätter für Heimatpflege und Volksbildung 10 (1959), pp. 122–128; Seibold, Zur Situation der italienischen Kaufleute; Paul Sauer, Fremde in Stuttgart im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert, in: Wolfgang Schmierer et al. (eds.), Aus südwestdeutscher Geschichte. Festschrift für Hans-Martin Maurer. Dem Archivar und Historiker zum 65. Geburtstag, Stuttgart 1994, pp. 462–473, esp. pp. 463 s., 468–470; Augel, Italienische Einwanderung, pp. 266–269; Stolterfoht, Italienische Kaufleute, pp. 127–131; id., Südfrüchtehändler vom Comer See, pp. 66, 87, 323; Reves, Vom Pomeranzengängler zum Großhändler?, pp. 236 s., 299–313; Christiane Reves, Italian Merchants of the Eighteenth Century in Frankfurt and Mainz: Circumstances contributing to their socio-economic ascent, in: Margrit Schulte Beerbühl / Jörg Vögele (eds.), Spinning the Commercial Web: International Trade, Merchants, and Commercial Cities, c. 1640–1939, Frankfurt/Main et al. 2004, pp. 99–111, at pp. 110 s.; Christian Hochmuth, Distinktionshändler. Die Integration des Kolonialwarenhandels im frühneuzeitlichen Dresden, in: Patrick Schmidt / Horst Carl (eds.), Stadtgemeinde und Ständegesellschaft. Formen der Integration und Distinktion in der frühneuzeitlichen Stadt, Berlin 2007, pp. 225–251, at p. 245.

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Italian merchant families tenaciously fought for citizenship rights in the eighteenth century.35 As citizenship also entailed civic duties and financial obligations, however, many Italian traders may not have regarded it as very desirable in the first place.36 By and large, these traders primarily focused on Catholic territories along with a few Protestant cities such as Nuremberg, Frankfurt, or Dresden,37 which held special attractions as centers of banking and commerce or as the sites of large princely residences. All recent studies agree that the vast majority of Italian-speaking traders who moved northwards after the end of the Thirty Years’ War came from the Duchy of Milan, which was under Spanish rule until the early eighteenth century and fell to the Austrian Habsburg dynasty at the end of the War of the Spanish Succession, or from the neighboring Swiss regions of the Ticino and the Grisons. The major emigration areas were the region bordering on Lake Como as well as the Alpine valleys to the north and west of Lago Maggiore. Whereas older works maintained that the exodus from these regions was mainly caused by population pressure, economic straits, and endemic poverty, more recent studies have questioned the view of this transAlpine movement as a form of “subsistence migration”. Instead, they point to time-honored migratory traditions, which reached back to the late Middle Ages, to agricultural specialization, which set laborers free to pursue commercial opportunities and bring coveted Italian goods to Germany, and to the importance of family and kinship networks. Thus Christiane Reves states that trans-Alpine migration was “not the result of an exceptional situation or acute crisis, but a normal feature of life” in the region around Lake Como.38 Italian traders in the Holy Roman Empire were characterized by a high degree of internal coherence and a strong sense of solidarity among compatriots.39 For the

35 Reves, Vom Pomeranzengängler zum Großhändler?, pp. 313–320; Silke Wustmann, Die Einbürgerung der italienischen Kaufmannfamilie Bolongaro in Frankfurt am Main, in: Archiv für Frankfurts Geschichte und Kunst 68 (2002), pp. 327–374. 36 Cf. Seibold, Zur Situation der italienischen Kaufleute, p. 187; Zürn, Savoyarden in Oberdeutschland, p. 398; Schwanke, Fremde in Offenburg, pp. 196 s. 37 While Dresden was ruled by a Catholic dynasty after Elector August II (“the Strong”) had converted for political reasons in 1697, the population remained overwhelmingly Lutheran, and Protestant preachers and officials jealously guarded the majority’s rights. For a microhistorical perspective on the precarious coexistence of Catholics and Protestants there, see Mathis Leibetseder, Die Hostie im Hals. Eine ‘schröckliche Bluttat’ und der Dresdner Tumult des Jahres 1726, Constance 2009. 38 Augel, Italienische Einwanderung, pp. 42–105; Reves, Vom Pomeranzengängler zum Großhändler?, pp. 36–51 and quote on p. 63; Reves, Von Kaufleuten, Stuckateuren und Perückenmachern, pp. 136–139; Reves, Italian Merchants, pp. 102 s.; Pühringer, L’italiano in Assia, pp. 97, 99–101; cf. also Laurence Fontaine, History of Pedlars in Europe, Durham (N.C.) 1996; Hanns Haas, Wanderhandel aus den und in die Alpen. Ein wirtschaftlicher Funktionstypus im sozialen Umfeld, in: Jahrbuch für Regionalgeschichte 35 (2017), pp. 33–66. 39 Cf. Augel, Italienische Einwanderung, pp. 196–199.

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extensive clan of Brentano families, for example, it has been observed that close to one-third of male family members married women from their own kinship group.40 In the course of their trans-Alpine migration, these kinship networks expanded spatially and connected the migrants’ regions of origin with their destinations. In Frankfurt, Offenburg, and numerous other cities, Italians formed mercantile companies, whose members were usually related to one another and whose employees and apprentices often came from the same region as their principals; it was common to employ younger family members.41 Many Italian traders married women from their native regions; some wives stayed in their home communities, and not a few men returned to the banks of Lake Como or to the valleys bordering on Lago Maggiore when they reached old age in order to enjoy the fruits of their labor, manage their landed properties, and endow local churches. Despite these strong ties to their roots, Italian migrants can hardly be considered as a segregated group, as the majority of Italian migrants married into German families, acquired real estate in their host communities, and integrated themselves into urban society by serving as sponsors at baptisms and holding communal offices. Several first-generation immigrants even became mayors and city councilors, particularly in smaller towns.42 Martin Zürn has coined the term “dual integration” to describe the phenomenon that trans-Alpine migrants successfully integrated themselves and formed social ties at their destinations while simultaneously maintaining close ties to their native communities.43 Subsequent studies have confirmed that this concept adequately describes their social strategies and networks.44

Commercial Activities Regarding the actual trading activities and business practices of Italian merchants and retailers in German cities and towns, three aspects deserve particular attention: 40 Reves, Vom Pomeranzengängler zum Großhändler?, pp. 81–92. 41 Cf. Augel, Italienische Einwanderung, pp. 201s.; Seibold, Zur Situation der italienischen Kaufleute, pp. 196–199, 201–203; Stolterfoht, Italienische Kaufleute, pp. 144–150; Reves, Vom Pomeranzengängler zum Großhändler?, pp. 189–230; id., Italian Merchants, pp. 107–109; Schwanke, Fremde in Offenburg, pp. 186–188. 42 Augel, Italienische Einwanderung, pp. 239–251, 256–259, 283–285, 290–296, 308; Zürn, Savoyarden in Oberdeutschland, pp. 402–407; Pühringer, L’italiano in Assia, pp. 103 s.; id., Italienische Emigranten, p. 366; Reves, Vom Pomeranzengängler zum Großhändler?, pp. 56–62, 159–188, 320–333; Schwanke, Fremde in Offenburg, pp. 198–225; Lang, Welsche Zitronen- und Pomeranzenkrämer, pp. 243–250. 43 Martin Zürn, Einwanderung aus Savoyen nach Deutschland 1500–1800. Grundzüge und ausgewählte Familien, in: Zeitschrift des Breisgau-Geschichtsvereins “Schau-ins-Land” 122 (2003), pp. 73–98, at p. 91. 44 Cf. Schwanke, Fremde in Offenburg, p. 265; Schopf, Zwischen den Welten, pp. 214, 237.

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the range of goods they handled; the degree to which they engaged in commercial services, banking, and manufacturing; and the reactions of indigenous mercantile communities to the appearance of these trans-Alpine migrants. Each of these aspects will be considered in the following section. The Italian traders’ range of commercial goods included the above-mentioned citrus fruits (whose consumption north of the Alps received a significant boost from their supply45), nuts, chestnuts, various spices, noodles, fish, sausages and cheeses, devotional objects, paintings, copper prints, thermometers, barometers, and so-called galanteries (a range of fashionable items and trinkets to adorn one’s body and decorate one’s household). But Italian merchants and retailers in German cities and towns also dealt in textiles, household goods, wines, perfumes, and colonial goods such as coffee, tea, sugar, and chocolate. While many of these goods were imported from Italy, others were purchased in Switzerland, at the international fairs (above all in Frankfurt on the Main), and in Amsterdam.46 Numerous eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century dictionaries and commercial manuals contain separate entries on “Italian goods”.47 Thus a commercial handbook published in the mid-eighteenth century explained that these comprised “not merely the marvellous goods with which Nature has endowed this country, including many delicious wines, oranges, lemons, bitter oranges, limes, or Roman alum; but also valuable manufactured goods, which are produced in various places of this beautiful country and can compete with all others factories in Europe. The most distinguished commerce consists of silk goods and those silken cloths which

45 This is emphasized by Augel, Italienische Einwanderung, pp. 226–228; Beck, Lemonihändler; and Lang, Welsche Zitronen- und Pomeranzenkrämer. Whereas Rainer Beck dates the beginnings of the trade in citrus fruits north of the Alps to the years around 1600, evidence on this trade collected by Johannes Pommeranz reaches back to the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Cf. Johannes Pommeranz, “Schöne Zitron und Appelsina”. Die Anfänge des transalpinen Zitrushandels und seine Bildquellen, in: Yasmin Doosry / Christiane Lauterbach / Johannes Pommeranz (eds.), Die Frucht der Verheißung: Zitrusfrüchte in Kunst und Kultur, Nuremberg 2011, pp. 307–335. 46 See Augel, Italienische Einwanderung, pp. 196, 198, 208–226; Seibold, Zur Situation der italienischen Kaufleute, pp. 203s.; Schindling, Priester und Gelehrte, pp. 165s.; Reves, Vom Pomeranzengängler zum Großhändler?, pp. 249–252; id., Von Kaufleuten, Stuckateuren und Perückenmachern, pp. 155s.; Pühringer, L’italiano in Assia, pp. 97, 109 s.; Stolterfoht, Italienische Kaufleute, pp. 151–154; Schwanke, Fremde in Offenburg, pp. 162–168; Hochmuth, Distinktionshändler, pp. 232, 243; Schopf, Zwischen den Welten, pp. 230–232; Gerhard Seibold, Wirtschaftlicher Erfolg in Zeiten des politischen Niedergangs. Augsburger und Nürnberger Unternehmer in den Jahren zwischen 1648 und 1806. Vol. 1, Augsburg 2014, pp. 99, 104; Christof Jeggle, Ressourcen, Märkte und die Ökonomie sozialer Beziehungen, in: Gabriele Jancke / Daniel Schläppi (eds.), Die Ökonomie sozialer Beziehungen. Ressourcenbewirtschaftung als Geben, Nehmen, Investieren, Verschwenden, Haushalten, Horten, Vererben, Schulden, Stuttgart 2015, pp. 65–88, at p. 80; Jeggle, Coping with the Crisis, pp. 57–59, 62 s., 74–76. 47 See the examples in Augel, Italienische Einwanderung, pp. 209s., and Reves, Vom Pomeranzengängler zum Großhändler?, pp. 249 s.

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are fabricated in Tuscany and Naples.” Moreover, the entry referred to the highly diversified export production of Milan, Genoa, Lucca, and Venice.48 Beyond this trade in goods, some successful Italian individuals and companies branched out into the transport and commission business, and some become important bankers and financiers.49 An early example for the latter branch is Carlo Albertinelli, who hailed from a Florentine patrician family and worked as an agent and associate of the Torrigiani Company in Nuremberg from 1586 onwards. Albertinelli cultivated close ties with Archduke Maximilian (III, 1558–1618) of Tyrol, who entrusted the distribution of copper from the princely mines in Schwaz to him in 1605; Maximilian also pawned his revenues from the Tyrolean estates to him in exchange for a loan of 100,000 florins. Two years later, Albertinelli farmed the revenues from mercury produced in the princely mines at Idria in present-day Slovenia. Although he fled Nuremberg in 1609 on account of his high debts, he also managed to farm the tolls on imported Hungarian oxen two years later. The fact that Albertinelli remained one the Austrian Habsburgs’ major financiers – Archduke Ferdinand (1578–1637, the later Emperor Ferdinand II) owed him about 275,000 florins in 1611 – as well as one of the principal entrepreneurs in Inner Austria despite his flight from Nuremberg may indicate that he actually used his “bankruptcy” in the Franconian city to shift his business to Austria and rid himself of burdensome financial obligations. As Albertinelli’s financial services had become indispensable to Archduke Ferdinand, his south German creditors failed to get a hold on him.50 In the eighteenth century, examples of Italian bankers in German cities become numerous. Thus the Carli family from Tremezzo on the banks of Lake Como, which had established an exchange service in Augsburg from 1727 onwards, provided 1.4 million Talers worth of silver to the imperial mints in Günzburg (Swabia) and Hall (Tyrol) between 1759 and 1766. From 1769 to 1776, the Carli Company formed part of a consortium

48 Johann Hübner, Curieuses und reales Natur- Kunst- Berg- Gewerck- und Handlungs-Lexicon [. . .], 2nd ed. by Georg Heinrich Zinck, Leipzig 1755, col. 1064–1065. German original: “[. . .] nicht allein in herrlichen Gütern, welche von der Natur diesem Lande geschencket worden, als da sind viel herrliche Weine, Aepfel de Siena [= Apfelsinen], Citronen, Pommerantzen, Limonen, Romanische Alaune; sondern auch in kostbaren Manufacturen, welche in vielen Plätzen dieses schönen Landes verfertiget werden und allen andern Fabriquen von Europa den Vorzug streitig machen. Der vornehmste Handel bestehet in den Seiden-Waaren und denen seidenen Stoffen, welche in Toscana und Napolis gemacht werden.” 49 Cf. Augel, Italienische Einwanderung, pp. 202–205. 50 Peters, Der Handel Nürnbergs, pp. 535–541; Helfried Valentinitsch, Die Quecksilberappaltatoren in Innerösterreich 1594–1630, in: Zeitschrift des Historischen Vereins für Steiermark 63 (1972), pp. 69–94; Helfried Valentinitsch, Das landesfürstliche Quecksilberbergwerk Idria 1575–1659. Produktion – Technik – rechtliche und soziale Verhältnisse – Betriebsbedarf – Quecksilberhandel, Graz 1981, pp. 321–329, 403–412 and passim; Mark Häberlein, Firmenbankrotte, Sozialbeziehungen und Konfliktlösungsmechanismen in süddeutschen Städten um 1600, in: Österreichische Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaften 19/3 (2008), pp. 10–35, at pp. 16 s.

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that invested huge sums into the minting of large silver coins, so called MariaTheresia Talers, for export to ports in the Levant. Moreover, the company participated in the distribution of copper from Upper Hungary and, in cooperation with other Augsburg merchant-bankers, formed a short-lived company for providing oxen and tallow to Venice in the 1780s.51 The Frankfurt-based merchant-banker Joseph (Maria) Belli emerged as a major creditor of the small Hessian principality of Waldeck in the mid-eighteenth century.52 Following a favorable marriage in 1786, Andreas Michael Dall’Armi, a native of Trento, was able to take over the well-established commercial house of the Nocker Brothers in Munich, but he also set up his own business in coffee, sugar, tobacco, and galanteries, which he obtained mostly from Nuremberg. In the closing years of the eighteenth century, his annual turnover ranged from 6,000 to 15,000 florins. During the 1790s, Dall’Armi was among the major bankers of the estates of Electoral Bavaria. In 1795, he also initiated a company for storing grain in Munich, which played an important role in securing the Bavarian capital’s grain supply during the wars against revolutionary France. Furthermore, he donated real estate for the construction of the Munich General Hospital. In recognition of these services to the community, Dall’Armi was granted a patent of nobility in 1792 and became a major of the civic cavalry.53 Other merchants of Italian origin founded manufactures, e.g. for the processing of tobacco, the production of gold and silver wire, and cotton-printing. After establishing a tobacco trading firm in Frankfurt in 1740, the brothers Philipp and Joseph Maria Markus Bolongaro, who hailed from Stresa on the banks of Lago Maggiore, built up the largest snuff factory of their time. Following lengthy disputes about their quest to become citizens of Frankfurt, the Bolongaro brothers eventually accepted citizenship in Höchst, which belonged to the Electorate of Mainz, in 1773. There they erected a palace-style factory building for their tobacco production while retaining a presence in Frankfurt as well. According to Alexander Dietz, the Bolongaro estate exceeded two million florins by 1780, making it the largest estate of any Frankfurt firm up to that time.54 The Bianchi trading house, which was based in the imperial city of Heilbronn, also intended to set up a tobacco factory in the 1740s, but this initiative was killed by vehement opposition on the part of local traders.55 A

51 Wolfgang Zorn, Handels- und Industriegeschichte Bayerisch-Schwabens 1648–1870. Wirtschafts-, Sozial- und Kulturgeschichte des schwäbischen Unternehmertums, Augsburg 1961, pp. 60 s., 69 s.; Seibold, Wirtschaftlicher Erfolg, vol. 1, pp. 105–111. 52 Menk, Bürgerlicher Alltag, pp. 54–60. 53 Edlin-Thieme, Studien, pp. 127–129. 54 Dietz, Frankfurter Handelsgeschichte, vol. 4/2, pp. 601–609 (quote on p. 605); Augel, Italienische Einwanderung, pp. 165, 233, 331. For further examples of manufactures, e.g. of chocolate, tobacco, and Eau de Cologne, see ibid., pp. 232–235. 55 Stolterfoht, Italienische Kaufleute, pp. 161–165.

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few years later, the Augsburg-based traders Andreas and Franz Vacano obtained a privilege from the Elector of Mainz to manufacture gold and silver braids in Sindlingen near Höchst, but this enterprise did not last long.56 In the early 1790s, the silk merchants Franz Ulrich Adam Karl and Aloys Karl Anton Brentano-Mezzegra, who likewise resided in Augsburg, formed a partnership with Sebastian Anton Pelloux from Innsbruck with the purpose of producing silk in the village of Lechhausen just outside the gates of the imperial city. Their factory, into which they invested 30,000 florins, employed twenty-one persons four years after its opening in 1794 and survived well into the nineteenth century.57 These large-scale merchant-bankers and entrepreneurs contrast starkly with the countless itinerant traders and pedlars from Italian-speaking lands who were unable – or not interested – to take up permanent residence in a German community. Welsche pedlars were the subject of numerous official mandates and decrees which either prohibited their activities altogether or sought to confine them to certain specified markets and a limited range of goods. The enforcement of such prohibitions and restrictions usually proved difficult, though, as the Italian-speaking traders clearly met a substantial demand for consumer goods among the resident population.58 But it was not only the pedlars’ activities that aroused the ire of German competitors. In cities like Nuremberg, Mainz, Frankfurt, Heilbronn, Stuttgart, and Dresden, native traders frequently targeted resident Italian merchants and retailers in complaints and petitions, accusing them in often stereotypical fashion of unfair competition, infringement on the locals’ “nourishment” (Nahrung), toll evasion, and the illicit transfer of assets outside the country. In Frankfurt, the Italians defended themselves by arguing, among other things, that consumers benefited from free trade and competition through lower prices and higher qualities. When the city council imposed restrictions on their trade anyway, they appealed to the imperial courts in Vienna and Wetzlar. Italian traders residing in Dresden referred to their rootedness in local urban society. In any case, the complaints about the foreign traders seem to have been mainly motivated by economic concerns and business competition rather than by ethnic resentment or xenophobia.59

56 Augel, Italienische Einwanderung, pp. 165 s., 235, 446. 57 Seibold, Wirtschaftlicher Erfolg, vol. 1, pp. 102 s. 58 Augel, Italienische Einwanderung, pp. 189–196; Beck, Lemonihändler, pp. 104–108 and passim; Sheilagh Ogilvie / Markus Küpker / Janine Maegraith, Krämer und ihre Waren im ländlichen Württemberg zwischen 1660 und 1714, in: Zeitschrift für Agrargeschichte und Agrarsoziologie 59/2 (2011), pp. 54–75, esp. pp. 54s., 57s. 59 For Nuremberg, see Augel, Italienische Einwanderung, pp. 278–280; Seibold, Zur Situation der italienischen Kaufleute, pp. 199–201; Jeggle, Ressourcen, Märkte, pp. 77–85. For Frankfurt on the Main, cf. Augel, Italienische Einwanderung, pp. 210–223, 260–278, 296–304; Reves, Vom Pomeranzengängler zum Großhändler?, pp. 252–293. For Mainz, see Augel, Italienische Einwanderung, pp. 159–162; Reves, Von Kaufleuten, Stuckateuren und Perückenmachern, pp. 144–147. On Heilbronn, cf. Stolterfoht, Italienische Kaufleute, pp. 133–138, 157 s., 161–164. On Stuttgart, see Sauer,

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Settling Disputed Estates: A Trans-Alpine Case Study The economic and social integration of many Italian traders in communities north and south of the Alps could usher in complicated proceedings when a trader died far from his home and his heirs claimed the estate. The complexity of trans-Alpine inheritance cases clearly emerges in a case from Sulzbach in the Upper Palatinate.60 In October 1773, the unmarried Italian trader Jacob (di) Stua died there; according to the local authorities, Stua had been doing business in the region for a number of years. Although he neither possessed rights of citizenship nor a permanent residence in Germany – his goods were stored in a Sulzbach inn – he can hardly be called a small pedlar, as an inventory of his estate revealed assets of slightly over 9,750 florins, including almost 1,200 florins in cash, close to 3,300 florins worth of goods in storage, and outstanding debts amounting to 5,374 florins. As Stua had died intestate, the authorities published a note in the local newspaper, summoning potential heirs and creditors to come forward. In early 1774, the Amberg shopkeeper and councilor Georg Nicolas Mazilis and the Italian trader Jacob Stua, a relative who had the same name as the deceased, produced a power of attorney and a certificate of descent for the elder Stua’s sister, named Domenica. This sister, who resided on Venetian territory, claimed to be the sole heir and therefore felt entitled to the entire estate. The Sulzbach district court (Landgericht) doubted the authenticity of these documents, however, and wrote to the town of Tolmezzo in the present-day Italian province of Friuli Venezia Giulia, to which Mazilis and Stua had referred as the seat of the relevant court. When this letter remained unanswered, the younger Jacob Stua had to travel there himself to pick up the required documents. But the authorities in the Upper Palatinate were not satisfied with this and demanded additional proof that the Republic of Venice handed the estates of deceased Germans over to their heirs as well. The issue of reciprocity in inheritance cases became acute in the spring of 1775, when a toll collector in the town of Burglengenfeld complained to the government that the substantial property of his deceased sister, who had married the Italian trader Pietro Giudici and had moved to the region surrounding Tolmezzo with her husband, was withheld from him. The toll collector demanded that Stua’s estate be held back until his own claims had been satisfied. Finally, the authorities requested the Palatine envoy in Venice, a man named Cornet, to resolve these issues. In the autumn of 1775, Cornet affirmed the authenticity of the documents produced on behalf of Stua’s sister, and a few months later he

Fremde in Stuttgart, pp. 471 s. The case of Dresden is covered by Hochmuth, Distinktionshändler, pp. 245–249. 60 For the following, see Staatsarchiv Amberg, Fürstentum Pfalz-Sulzbach, Regierung, Sulzbacher Akten 72/305 (continuous no. 3276), 1773–1776 (no pagination).

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reported that Venetian courts were deciding inheritance cases regardless of the nationality of the deceased and the claimants. To verify this claim, the envoy included written testimony from the German consuls in Venice, Balthasar von Höslin and Andreas Schweyer. As far as the toll collector in Burglengenfeld was concerned, Cornet thought that he had no choice but to present his claims in Tolmezzo and put up the necessary expenses in advance. In May 1775, the younger Jacob Stua had already collected testimony from the shopkeeper Joseph Comby, a citizen of Umstadt in Hesse, who affirmed that his deceased uncle’s substantial property in Venice had been released to him in 1770 without the least impediment. In February 1776, Elector Karl Theodor (1724–1799, reg. in the Palatinate since 1742, in Bavaria as well since 1777) eventually ruled that Stua’s inheritance be transferred to his sister after deduction of the ten percent post-mortem tax (Nachsteuer). Even allowing for the substantial costs of this case, which dragged on for two and a half years, the heir received net assets amounting to nearly 7,800 florins. Analysis of this inheritance case reveals a broad range of social strategies. Whereas the elder Jacob Stua seems to have mainly interacted with compatriots and forged only weak ties with his host society – he remained single, shunned the legal and financial obligations of citizenship, corresponded with his sister in his home community on a regular basis, and may also have recruited the younger relative who bore his name – he did leave promissory notes worth 535 florins to the church in the Upper Palatine village of Kirchenlaibach, indicating that he had formed some attachment to the local parish community. On the other hand, the case of Stua’s compatriot Pietro Giudici, who had married a local woman in Burglengenfeld and afterwards taken her to his region of origin, hints at intense social relations between Italian traders and their German social environment. Communication in this inheritance case also took various forms, including the production of Latin documents in northern Italy, legal proceedings before the Sulzbach district court, decisions rendered by Elector Karl Theodor’s government in Mannheim, as well as testimony from the Palatine envoy and the German consuls in Venice. In addition, the younger Jacob Stua undertook the journey across the Alps at least twice to obtain the required documents in place like Udine. The parties in this inheritance case thus became involved in a far-flung trans-regional communication network.61

61 For more on trans-regional networks in the early modern era, see Dorothea Nolde / Claudia Opitz (eds.), Grenzüberschreitende Familienbeziehungen. Akteure und Medien des Kulturtransfers in der Frühen Neuzeit, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2008; Mark Häberlein, Commerce, formation et réseaux de compatriotes: la ville de Lyon vue par des marchands de l’Allemagne du Sud au XVIème et au début du XVIIème siècle, in: Jean-Louis Gaulin / Susanne Rau (eds.), Lyon vu/e d’ailleurs (1245–1800). Échanges, compétitions et perceptions, Lyon 2009, pp. 141–159; Heinrich Lang, “Dan auf disen vornemen Handelsplatzen ist gelt vollauf”. Zu transalpinen Transferbeziehungen zwischen süddeutschen und Florentiner Handelsgesellschaften während des Dreißigjährigen Krieges, in: Annales Mercaturae 2 (2016), pp. 33–76.

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Conclusion Thanks to a number of local and regional case studies, the basic patterns and characteristic features of Italian commercial migration to German-speaking cities and territories are well-established by now. Thus, it is clear that this trans-Alpine migration was heterogeneous and involved large-scale merchant-bankers and entrepreneurs as well as shopkeepers and pedlars. After a rise in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries and precipitous decline during the Thirty Years’ War, this migration peaked between the 1650s and the 1770s. Researchers have elucidated the remarkable coherence among Italian traders, who often formed companies on the basis of kinship and common geographic origin, as well as their “dual integration” into both their host communities and their native regions. The business activities of traders from Italian-speaking regions frequently aroused vociferous local opposition, but these protests were apparently caused by economic competition rather than by xenophobia. Two aspects that remain under-researched, however, are the business strategies and practices of individual merchants and the handling of trans-Alpine inheritance cases. With regard to the first aspect, it seems worthwhile to undertake a close investigation of the letter book, journal and ledger of Angelo Sabbadini, for example, who hailed from Pavia, settled in Munich in 1767 and opened his own business there in 1781. In an older study, Margareta Edlin-Thieme has already culled some information from Sabbadini’s balances, which reveal net assets of close to 27,700 florins and goods worth 38,625 florins in 1792. In addition, Sabbadini owned real estate in the Bavarian capital that was valued at 25,000 florins. While Edlin-Thieme mentions that the Pavian merchant had business ties with Venice, Udine, Vienna, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and London, the details of these connections as well as the ways in which Sabbadini managed his affairs remain to be studied.62 Regarding the second aspect, the Sulzbach case outlined above demonstrates that the settlement of inheritance cases that involved parties on both sides of the Alps entailed complex processes of negotiation and communication. A broader study of this phenomenon, which relies on a larger number of such cases, promises to reveal the impact of different legal norms and practices on the north and south sides of the mountains as well as shed light on the negotiation of claims and interests within complex legal, social, and political settings.

62 Edlin-Thieme, Studien, pp. 114–116, 121–123. Sabbadini’s records are now stored in Bayerisches Wirtschaftsarchiv Munich, F 062, Kehrer & Weber GmbH vorm. Angelo Sabbadini. Cf. [https://www. bwa.findbuch.net/php/main.php?ar_id=3254&be_kurz=4620303632#4620303632] (accessed July 3, 2018).

Luca Mocarelli

The Towns in the Alps: A Missed Protagonist Abstract: This contribution deals with the evolution of urban structure in the alpine area from the early modern period onwards. In particular, it underlines the relevant changes produced by the industrial revolution on mountain urban system, with special regard to the new era began with the second industrial revolution which dramatically affected the alpine world. The starting point of the analysis are the three centuries of the early modern period when the urban system of the alpine area included only a few small towns, but growing faster than those of the surroundings prealps and plains. This impressive growth has many different possible explanations: the presence of important road networks towards to the main alpine passes, the presence of mining activities or manufacturing activities, the role played by political reasons. After examining the nature and the consequences of the strong relationship between alpine area and its towns and the surrounding plains the contributions deals with the great transformations produced by the industrial revolutions that affected deeply the economy of the alpine area. The industrialization process has broken these fragile equilibria for sure and that happened particularly from the 1850s when the diffusion of some relevant technological innovations progressively eliminated all the reasons for the success of many manufactures located in the Alpine valleys. Especially from the second industrial revolution onwards new technologies dramatically transformed industries and lowered transport costs erasing the comparative advantages of the Alpine area. In this new world the cities inside the Alps finally filled the gap with those located in the «foot» of the mountains thanks to an actual demographic boom. However, this impressive growth of alpine cities came together with a paradoxical result since an homogenization of the urban centres happened. In fact in the twentieth century, and mostly in its second part, both the Alpine cities and the cities in the Po Plain deindustrialized, rapidly becoming cities of the tertiary sector. Then this extraordinary growth of the alpine cities due to exogenous factors, the innovations of the second industrial revolution, had as a result the loss of every alpine specificity. This contribution deals with the evolution of urban structure in the Alpine area from the early modern period onwards. In particular, it underlines the relevant changes which the Industrial Revolution brought to mountains’ urban systems, with special regard to the new era beginning with the Second Industrial Revolution, which dramatically affected the Alpine world. This being said, we begin with the three centuries of the early modern period when the urban system of the Alpine area included only a Luca Mocarelli, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, Management & Statistics, Piazza dell’Ateneo Nuovo 1, I–20126 Milano, e-mail: [email protected] https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110522259-009

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few small towns, which, intriguingly, grew faster than those in the surrounding Prealps and plains (cf. Table 1). Table 1: Population of Alpine towns and their surroundings (1500–1800).1 

Town







Growth (in Percent)

Grenoble

Alpine

,

,

,

,

,%

Innsbruck

Alpine

,

,

,

,

%

Trento

Alpine

,

,

,

,

%

Klagenfurt

Alpine

,

,

,

,

,%

Verona

+/− km

,

,

,

,

%

Brescia

+/− km

,

,

,

,

−%

Bergamo

+/− km

,

,

,

,

%

Como

+/− km

,

,

,

,

%

Graz

+/− km

,

,

,

,

%

Salzburg

+/−  km

,

,

,

,

%

Milan

+/−  km

,

,

,

,

%

It is evident that such impressive growth rate during these times, up to the factor ten in the case of Grenoble and Klagenfurt, mostly is attributable to the small size of the towns in 1500 when their populations ranged between 1,000 and 4,000 inhabitants. I did not include Schwaz in Table 1 despite the fact that with its 17,000 inhabitants or more it was the main Alpine town in 1500.2 The town owed its success to Europe’s most important silver mines, which were present at the site. After the annual maximum of 17 tons of silver was extracted in 1523, which counted for about the 80 percent of total European output, mining activities underwent a fast and steep decline3 and, consequently, also the town’s population collapsed to only 4,000 inhabi-

1 Source: Jon Mathieu, Storia delle Alpi 1500–1900. Ambiente, sviluppo, società, Bellinzona 2000, p. 96. Milan is added to his table. 2 See ibid., p. 281. According to the author the data for 1500 is likely to be overestimated, whereas those for 1750 and 1800 (6,000 and 4,000 inhabitants) is likely to be lower than the actual number of inhabitants was. 3 In 1572 only three tons of silver were extracted; see Franz Mathis, Die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung in der frühen Neuzeit (1519–1740), in: Chronik Tiroler Wirtschaft. Nordtirol/Südtirol, Wien 1994, pp. 75–113, at pp. 80–96.

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tants in 1800.4 Even nowadays, the municipality of Schwaz is a small city of 13,000 inhabitants.5 Nevertheless, this enormous growth of the Alpine towns during the early modern period is unquestionable and various different feasible explanations, starting with important road networks leading to the main Alpine passes, as well as mining, manufacturing and also political reasons, have been given. Firstly, as for the Alpine passes, the Brenner is exemplary because its relatively low altitude facilitated a fast development of trade activities, which benefited towns such as Trento, Bolzano, and Innsbruck.6 Secondly, the aforementioned mining activities played an important role, which not only allowed for the extraordinary growth of Hall in Tyrol but also of Idria in the Slovenian Alps, where the most important mercury mines of Europe were located.7 At the same time, manufacturing such as silk spinning in Trento and Rovereto or the production of gloves in Grenoble were of great importance.8 However, manufactures such as textiles, iron production, paper making etc. were frequently to be found outside the towns but in many Alpine valleys, e.g. in the Camonica, Trompia and Sabbia valleys in the Bresciano.9 Last, but not least, the growth of some towns was in part due to political reasons. This clearly was the case for the cities of Klagenfurt, whose population increased after the decision to cede the city to the Estates, the Carinthian nobility, of Grenoble, where the Court of the Dauphiné and the Parlement du roi were located and of Innsbruck as a Habsburg residence.10

4 Mathieu, Storia delle Alpi, p. 96. 5 In 2016 Schwaz’s population was 13,436 inhabitants according to Austrian census data [https:// ugeo.urbistat.com/AdminStat/it/at/demografia/popolazione/schwaz/20137738/4]. 6 The long-term importance of the Brenner Pass has been stressed by Gian Pietro Brogiolo / Andrea Leonardi / Carlo Tosco (eds.), Paesaggi delle Venezie. Storia ed economia, Venezia 2016. The relevance of traffic in the Adige Valley was confirmed by the Bolzano fairs in the early modern period; see Andrea Bonoldi, La fiera e il dazio: economia e politica commerciale nel Tirolo del secondo Settecento, Trento 1999. 7 See Alessandra Giulia-Mair, The History of Mercury Production in the Mine of Idrija, Slovenia, in: 2nd International Conference “Archeometallurgy in Europe”, Aquileia (Italy) 2009, pp. 68–78 [https://www.academia.edu/3612768/The_History_of_Mercury_Production_in_the_Mine_of_Idrija_ Slovenia]. 8 Ala and Rovereto were investigated by Ivana Pastori Bassetto, Crescita e declino di un’area di frontiera. Sete e mercanti ad Ala nel XVII e XVIII secolo, Milano 1986 and by Cinzia Lorandini, Famiglia e impresa. I Salvadori di Trento nei secoli XVII e XVIII, Bologna 2006. For Grenoble compare Vital Chomel (ed.), Histoire de Grenoble, Toulouse 1976 with René Favier, Les villes de Dauphiné aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, Grenoble 1993. 9 The economic evolution of this area was investigated in Luca Mocarelli / Paolo Tedeschi, Household Income Strategies in the Lombard Valleys: Persistence and Loss of a Traditional Economic Equilibrium in an Alpine area (end 18th– early 20th Centuries), in: Aleksander Panjek / Jesper Larsson / Luca Mocarelli (eds.), Integrated Peasant Economy in a Comparative Perspective. Alps, Scandinavia, and Beyond, Primorska 2017, pp. 375–394. 10 See Mathieu, Storia delle Alpi, pp. 102–104.

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Yet, it does not make any sense to investigate the Alpine towns in this period without taking in due account the various relationships of the Alpine area with its surroundings. The key question to find an answer to is in fact whether these relationships did have any influence on the urbanization of the Alps. From this point of view, Jon Mathieu’s seminal work on the history of the Alps is a conducive effort as the author draws an compelling comparison between Alpine towns and cities located at the foot of the Alps, which he defines to be situated within a 10-kilometres perimeter of the Alpine border(s) (cf. Table 2). Furthermore, it is quite easy to note that the biggest cities such as Verona or Brescia, which in 1500 had nearly 50,000 inhabitants each, were at the southern border of the Alps.11 Table 2: Towns in the Alps and at the foot of the mountains.12 Town

Altitude (in m a.s.l.)

Distance (in km)

Grenoble

Alpine





Innsbruck

Alpine





Trento

Alpine





Klagenfurt

Alpine





Verona

+/− km



−

Brescia

+/− km





Bergamo

+/− km





Como

+/− km





Graz

+/− km





Salzburg

+/−  km





It would, however, be interesting to broaden Jon Mathieu’s perspective and to take into consideration also the main cities of the Po Plain. Milan, one of the most populous European cities during the early modern period, which is located only 35 kilometres away from the foot of the Alps, appears to be a very representative example since such a metropolis was unable to exist, survive and function without its relationships with the Alpine region. The latter provided Milan with workforce (porters, bricklayers, chocolatiers etc.), raw materials, such as timber and charcoal, as well as commodities.13

11 See Paolo Malanima, Italian Cities 1300–1800. A Quantitative Approach, in: Rivista di storia economica 14 (1998), pp. 91–126. 12 Source: Mathieu, Storia delle Alpi, p. 96. 13 These structural features of Milan are dealt with in depth in Luca Mocarelli, Milano: una “città alpina”? Cambiamenti e trasformazioni tra Sette e Novecento, in: Storia delle Alpi 8 (2003), pp. 225–244.

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As for Milan, the building sector was massive; the city was built by a workforce which came from the Alpine areas, mainly from Ticino, Comasco and Bergamasco, and exploited raw materials (stone, wood, brick, lime) of the same provenance. Its most important ecclesiastical building, the Milan Cathedral, the Duomo, was built with marble from Candoglia on the Lake Maggiore, which was transported on the Ticino River and through the Naviglio Grande, one of the Milanese main channels. The fact that in the eighteenth century still, the city’s main contractors, the Fè, who commissioned the construction of the opera house La Scala and the Naviglio di Paderno, originally came from Ticino, underlines Milan’s structural dependence from its Alpine vicinity.14 Besides offering a great chance for people living in the Alps, big cities close to the foot of the Alps such as Milan, Turin, or Venice, could drain – or ‘cannibalize’ – the Alpine area of its inhabitants as the presence of an almost blank space in the innerAlpine zones with regardsto towns, suggests (cf. Figure 1).

Figure 1: Towns with more than 5,000 inhabitants in the Alpine Area in 1800.15

However, it was not these cities which siphoned off the largest portion of people, as one might expect. Although the settlement was scattered, many Alpine areas showed

14 See Luca Mocarelli, Costruire la città. Edilizia e vita economica nella Milano del secondo Settecento, Bologna 2008, in particular pp. 143–202. 15 Mathieu, Storia delle Alpi, p. 95.

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a high population density. In 1790, Como’s countryside accounted for 65 inhabitants per square kilometre, Bresciano and the Riviera of Lake Garda for 70, Bergamasco for 88 and in these two provincies the mountain surface was the majority (cf. Table 3). This really is an extraordinary figure; during this time, the population density of the Austrian Netherlands (‘Belgium’), the Low Countries, and England was 41, 51 and 61 inhabitants per square kilometre.16 Table 3: Mountain area in Lombardy, inhabitants and population density (1790).17 Surface (in km)

Surface occupied by mountains (in %)

Population

Density (inh./km)

Bresciano and Riviera

,



,



Bergamasco

,



,







,



,



,,



,



,,



Territories

Cremasco State of Milan Lombardy (in total)

Evidently it would have been impossible to sustain such a large population without the work opportunities which the big cities of the Po Plain provided. Every year, thousands of people left the Alpine valleys in the direction of Milan, Turin, or Venice, where they worked and lived mainly from springtime to autumn.18 At the same time, these cities were important markets for a whole range of goods, from cheese and butter to textiles, from iron tools to paper, which were produced in the valleys of the Alps.19

16 Data are sourced from Paolo Malanima, L’economia italiana. Dalla crescita medievale alla crescita contemporanea, Bologna 2002, p. 30. 17 Sources: for Eastern Lombardy Luca Mocarelli, Una realtà in via di ridefinizione: l’economia bresciana tra metà Settecento e Restaurazione, in: Giorgio Rumi / Gianni Mezzanotte / Alberto Cova (eds.), Brescia e il suo territorio, Milano 1996, pp. 342–372, at pp. 342 s.; idem, L’economia bergamasca tra conferme e nuovi sviluppi, in: Rumi / Mezzanotte / Cova (eds.), Bergamo, pp. 267 s.; for the State of Milan Maurizio Romani, Un secolo di vita economica lombarda 1748–1848, Milano 1950, pp. 25, 43. 18 On Alpine migration see Luigi Lorenzetti / Raul Merzario, Il fuoco acceso. Famiglie e migrazioni alpine nell’Italia d’età moderna, Roma 2005. 19 For cheese production see Luca Mocarelli, When the mountain serves the city: the production of cheese and wool in 18th century Bresciano (Italian Alps), in: Nomadic People 13/2 (2009), pp. 160–170. On the economic relationships between the Alpine area and the cities of the Po Valley consult Angelo Moioli, Assetti manifatturieri nella Lombardia politicamente divisa della seconda del Settecento, in: Sergio Zaninelli (ed.), Storia dell’industria lombarda, vol. I: Un sistema manifatturiero aperto al mercato, Milano 1988, pp. 1–102.

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Yet, for the fact that there were a few small towns, most of these in the Italian Alps and notwithstanding an high density of population, another possible explanation can be given, which is connected to a long-standing problem requiring a solution throughout the early modern period: feeding the urban centres. Already Johann Heinrich von Thünen demonstrated that every town requires a provisioning area in its surroundings; and the bigger the town, the larger this area must be.20 The example of Paris is outstanding, since the undisputed capital of France for centuries exploited one of the country’s most fertile areas, the Île-de-France,21 as did Milan with the bassa, the fertile Po Plain south of the city, where capitalist agriculture already spread in the Middle Ages.22 Paradoxically, the Alpine areas were in the same situation as the biggest European towns as they suffered a structural lack of food, due to the sparse availability of tillable land which usually yielded poor harvests.23 Therefore, as in Milan or Paris, people of these areas had to buy grain elsewhere, but in contrast to the big cities of the Po Plain, the Alpine towns could not rely on the production of their surrounding areas, because the environmental situation was unfavourable to agriculture.24 The case of the city of Innsbruck, which has been investigated by Hans Bobek, is exemplary as the capital of Tyrol lies in the Inn Valley, surrounded by hills and mountains.25 Thus, if we consider the one day walk zone, defined as 15kilometres perimeter,26 it can be noted that almost two thirds of the terrains inside

20 See the classic Johann Heinrich von Thünen, Der isolierte Staat in Beziehung auf Landwirtschaft und Nationalökonomie, Jena 1910. 21 See George W. Grantham, Espaces privilégiés: productivité agraire et zones d’approvisionnement des villes dans l’Europe préindustrielle, in: Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations 52/3 (1997), pp. 695–725. 22 See Douglas F. Dowd, The economic expansion of Lombardy, 1300–1500: A Study in Political Stimuli to Economic Change, in: Journal of Economic History 21/1 (1961), pp. 143–160. 23 The meagre agricultural potential of hilly and mountainous areas, which drove the inhabitants to seek work in manufactures in order to acquire money for which they bought grain in the fertile zones of the plains is, in brief, the core idea of Mendels’s model; see Franklin Mendels, ProtoIndustrialization: The First Phase of the Industrialization Process, in: Journal of Economic History 32 (1972), pp. 241–261. For a recent reinterpretation of proto-industrial model see Aleksander Panjek, The Integrated Peasant Economy as a Concept in Progress, in: Panjek / Larsson / Mocarelli (eds.), Integrated Peasant Economy, pp. 11–49. 24 See Luca Mocarelli, Gebirgsregionen ernähren. Getreidemärkte und Getreidehandel in der Lombardei des 18. Jahrhunderts, in: Luigi Lorenzetti / Yann Decorzant / Anne-Lise Head-König (eds.), Relire l’altitude. La terre et ses usages. Suisse et espaces avoisinants, XIIe–XXIe siècles, Neuchâtel 2019, pp. 149–169. 25 Hans Bobek, Innsbruck. Eine Gebirgsstadt, ihr Lebensraum und ihre Erscheinung, Stuttgart 1928. 26 Feeding a city of about 20,000 inhabitants required a perimeter of about 15 to 20 kilometres. See Georges Duby (ed.), Histoire de la France urbaine. La Ville classique. De la Renaissance aux Révolutions, Paris 1981, pp. 56 s. Indeed a distance of 30 to 40 kilometres, including the return trip, could (realistically) be walked within a day.

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the circle around Innsbruck were located at an altitude above 1,000 metres a.s.l. where agricultural potential was positively limited (cf. Figure 2).27 As a result, Alpine towns had to cope with especially high grain prices, an effect of transport costs.28 These depended on the distance covered and on the fact that during the early modern period cheaper transport was realized where waterways could be used; a solution of precious little feasibility in the Alpine area. Indeed, in the Alps, it was possible to productively employ river transport only towards the sea, e.g. transporting timber, which was bound for the Venetian Arsenal, as has been investigated by Katia Occhi.29 The opposite, however, was really difficult because it would have made it necessary to go upstream. As a consequence, on the southern rim of the Alps, there were several small towns where grain markets were located and where thousands of tons of grain were traded and sold at high prices every year. Among these small towns, the grain market in Desenzano del Garda provided for the villages of Riviera of Lake Garda and southern Trentino where around 45,000 to 60,000 people lived, which at that time was the size of a big city.30 Despite the availability for grain transportation via an important waterway, the Lake Garda, the costs to reach Desenzano and the pressure of a substantial demand drove up high the market prices, usually in the years of poor harvests. In 1782, for example, wheat was sold there at 81.8 lire per hectolitre, while in Milan the price was only 59.7 lire per hectolitre. It is worth to take note that the prices in Desenzano were perfectly aligned with those of markets close to the Alpine area, where there was a structural lack of grain, such as in Bergamo and Udine, where the prices in 1782 were 80.8 and 81.2 lire per hectolitre, respectively.31 This situation changed rapidly from the nineteenth century onwards due to the great transformations brought by the industrial revolutions, which profoundly affected the economy of the Alpine area. It is well known that during the early modern period agriculture alone could not guarantee the survival of the numerous inhabitants, regardless, that there were significant resources for cattle-breeding and for harvesting wood. Therefore, it was necessary to resort to additional activities such

27 See Mathieu, Storia delle Alpi, pp. 106 s. 28 E.g.,in 1735, when officials of the Garda Riviera had to buy grain in the Polesine, about only hundred kilometres away, they estimated the transport costs about 20 percent of the total price; see Giovanni Zalin, Terre e uomini nel Mediterraneo e in Europa. Ricerche di storia dell’agricoltura dall’antichità alla rivoluzione agraria, Verona 1990, pp. 325, 404. 29 See Katia Occhi, Boschi e mercanti. Traffici di legname tra la contea di Tirolo e la Repubblica di Venezia (secoli XVI–XVII), Bologna 2006. 30 On the Desenzano (del Garda) market see Rodolfo Bertoni, Il mercato a Desenzano in epoca veneta, in: Il mercato a Desenzano in epoca veneta e l’odierna agricoltura, Atti del Convegno. Palazzo Todeschini Desenzano 8 maggio 2014, Bedizzole 2014, pp. 17–54. 31 For these data see the forthcoming database on grain prices in Italy during the 18th century (which is being) built by Giulio Ongaro and Luca Mocarelli.

The Towns in the Alps: A Missed Protagonist

Figure 2: The territory around Innsbruck.32

32 Source: Mathieu, Storia delle Alpi, p. 105.

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as migrant work, setting up local of manufacturing facilities, among others. As consequence, members of Alpine families could pursue work in different economic fields: in agriculture, forestry, cattle-breeding, as well as in Alpine manufactures and mines. They worked in local manufactures producing goods of iron or brass, or woollen clothes, or raw silk. Besides, there were some manufacturing activities which provided many opportunities to work in the production of goods both at home, e.g. spinning and weaving, and outside, e.g. mining, charcoal production, in forges, paper plants, and sawmills, or in services, e.g. transport of raw materials and manufactured products. The industrialization process destabilized and broke up these fragile equilibria, which happened particularly since the 1850s when the diffusion of relevant technological innovations progressively eliminated the basis for the economic success of many manufactures located in the Alpine valleys. Iron production is exemplary for this process, since as long as communication was difficult and expensive, as it had been during the early modern period, the nearby availability of water and iron ore constituted a considerable advantage for the Alpine villages and allowed them to perform a variety of specialized activities. However, as we observed, the success of Alpine economy depended chiefly on opportunities and markets; and this dependence from exogenous factors became a reason of weakness, as the changes in the nineteenth century, due to the improvement of the railways, the development of new modern enterprises and the introduction of new agrarian machines, clearly show.33 The question that remains is what happened to Alpine urbanization in this changing world produced by the Second Industrial Revolution, whose new technologies dramatically transformed industries and lowered transport costs, thus erasing the comparative advantages of the Alpine area.34 Table 4 illustrates the demographic evolution of Alpine towns in the last two centuries and it is obvious that after centuries of existing at the margins the towns within the Alps, by virtue of an actual demographic boom, at last closed the gap to those located at the foot of the mountains. In these two centuries, especially the cities of Innsbruck and Trento registered an increase by the factor ten, which elevated them to the demographic size of several cities at the foot of the Alps such as Bergamo, Como, or Salzburg; all of them had been much more populous in 1800 than the two aforementioned.

33 This process is outlined in Mocarelli / Tedeschi, Household. 34 An investigation of the impact of the Second Industrial Revolution on the Italian Alps can be found in Luca Mocarelli, L’economia montana alla prova della seconda rivoluzione industriale: una crisi irreparabile?, in: Alessio Fornasin / Claudio Lorenzini (eds.), Via dalla montagna. ‘Lo spopolamento montano in Italia’ (1932–1938) e la ricerca sull’area friulana di Michele Gortani e Giacomo Pittoni, Udine 2019, pp. 73–86.

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Table 4: Population of towns in the Alpine area and their surroundings (1800–2016).35 

Town



Growth factor

Grenoble

Alpine

,

,

.

Innsbruck

Alpine

,

,



Trento

Alpine

,

,



Klagenfurt

Alpine

,

,

Verona

+/− km

,

,



Brescia

+/− km

,

,

.

Bergamo

+/− km

,

,

.

Como

+/− km

,

,

.

Graz

+/− km

,

,

.

Salzburg

+/−  km

,

,



Milan

+/−  km

,

,,

.

.

However, the immense growth of Alpine towns came together with a paradoxical result as with time the urban centres have grown more homogenous. In fact, in the twentieth century, during the second half for the most part, the towns in the Alps as well as in the Po Plain were deindustrialized, rapidly becoming locations of the tertiary sector. In conclusion, this extraordinary growth of the Alpine towns due to exogenous factors, the innovations of the Second Industrial Revolution, resulted in the loss of every Alpine specificity.

35 Source: Mathieu, Storia delle Alpi, p. 96. The data of 2016 are from Italian, Austrian and French censuses.

Markus A. Denzel

Oeconomia Alpium: A Concept Takes Shape Overviews of Alpine history from a perspective of economic history are, without doubt, rare. Not least for this reason, the Stockalper-Kommission – StoAlp Commission for the Economic History of the Alps was founded in 2013 with the express objective of compiling a synoptic economic history of the Alpine area in pre-industrial times under a consistent concept and within the frame of international cooperation. The choice to lend the name of the multi-entrepreneur Kaspar Stockalper (1609–1691), who resided at the Simplon route is intended to underline the project’s distinct economic-historical orientation, which also aims at including social implications of Alpine economy.1 So far, only few studies have taken a holistic economic-historical point of view on the Alpine area in its entire geographical extent spanning several centuries,2 although the diversity and comprehensiveness of local, regional and national research virtually invites historians to venture such a synthesis.3 First and foremost, Fernand Braudel should be mentioned. To him, the Alps appeared as “exceptional because of their resources, the collectively mastered tasks, the ability of its people and the numerous great roads”, “quite outstanding mountains” and as complementary space to “his” Mediterranean4 – but not more. Braudel’s exclusive external view of the Alps was first overcome in the anthology Histoire et Civilisation des Alpes, published in 1980 under the editorship of Paul Guichonnet,5 which offers an overview of the entire Alpine area from within, beginning with prehistory. A third holistic

1 In detail Markus A. Denzel, „Pour une histoire économique des Alpes!“ Konzeptionelle Überlegungen zu einer Wirtschaftsgeschichte des Alpenraums in vorindustrieller Zeit, in: Idem / Andrea Bonoldi / Anne Montenach / Françoise Vannotti (eds.), Oeconomia Alpium I. Wirtschaftsgeschichte des Alpenraums in vorindustrieller Zeit. Forschungsaufriss, -konzepte und -perspektiven, Berlin / Boston 2017, S. 1–20. 2 Brief overviews referring to economic-historical context offered in e.g. Hansjörg Küster, Die Alpen. Geschichte einer Landschaft, München 2020, pp. 61–74, are not considered in this volume. 3 A useful, regionally structured overview of research up to the mid-1990s can be found in: Histoire des Alpes / Storia delle Alpi / Geschichte der Alpen 1, 1996. 4 Fernand Braudel, Das Mittelmeer und die mediterrane Welt in der Epoche Philipps II., vol. 1, Frankfurt/Main 1990 (1949), repr. 1994, p. 44. 5 Paul Guichonnet (ed.), Histoire et Civilisation des Alpes, 2 vols., Toulouse / Lausanne 1980. Note: Translation by Franziska Streng B.A., Leipzig University – The author would like to thank Andrea Bonoldi, University of Trento, for helpful comments. Markus A. Denzel, Department of History, Chair of Social and Economic History, University of Leipzig, Beethovenstr. 15, D–04107 Leipzig, e-mail: [email protected] https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110522259-010

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study followed in 1989 with Upland Communities by Pier Paolo Viazzo,6 which – though only since the early modern period – applies ecological approaches of anthropology and methodological approaches of historical demography. The focus is on the Alpine communities understood as closed or open systems, their resources and their external or migratory relations: “much depended on the characteristics of local communal structures, and on their resilience to resist economic and political pressure from outside,”7 i.e. their resilience to cope with internal and external disruptions.8 The most recent summary of the history of the Alps with a strong economichistorical connotation is Jon Mathieu’s landmark study of 1998,9 which, looking at the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries, emphasizes political-social and, above all, ecological development. Especially the emphasis on environmental factors and Alpine-surrounding relations – for example between urban pre-Alpine and village-Alpine economies and societies – shows new paths for (economic-)historical research on the Alps and convinces by its approach considering the entire Alpine region. Being just as geographically extensive and considering a much longer time frame, Werner Bätzing’s cultural-geographical work also deals with the Alpine economic history.10 His sobering conclusion that the Alpine regions are currently disappearing as a “specific living space”11 in the course of their positive economic and population development and their increasing functional integration with the pre-Alpine metropolises is joined by Luca Mocarelli, who also affirms this aspect in this volume as a consequence of the industrialization process: “this extraordinary growth of the Alpine towns due to exogenous factors, the innovations of the Second Industrial Revolution, resulted in the loss of every Alpine specificity”.12 Yet, it cannot be said often enough that specific Alpine economies were not only reflected in the agricultural sector – for example in the much-cited Alpine pasture economy – but also left its mark on the industrial and commercial sector, and even made perhaps their most important contribution to overall European economic exchange with transalpine trade. This finding is suggested by both the articles published in Oeconomia Alpium I and the case studies

6 Pier Paolo Viazzo, Upland Communities. Environment, Population and Social Structure in the Alps since the Sixteenth Century, Cambridge et al. 1989. 7 Ibid., p. 296. 8 On resilience as a concept see Markus A. Denzel, Beharrungskraft und Anpassungsleistungen wirtschaftlicher Systeme angesichts schockartiger Umbrüche – oder: Von der Resilienz zum ResilienzManagement, in: Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte 105/4, 2018, S. 528–547. 9 Jon Mathieu, Geschichte der Alpen 1500–1900. Umwelt, Entwicklung, Gesellschaft, Wien / Köln / Weimar, ²2001. 10 Werner Bätzing, Die Alpen. Geschichte und Zukunft einer europäischen Kulturlandschaft, München 4 2015; idem, Die Alpen. Entstehung und Gefährdung einer europäischen Kulturlandschaft, München 1991. 11 Ibid., p. 356. 12 Luca Mocarelli, in this volume, p. 169.

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presented in this volume on central research fields of premodern economic history of the Alps. Oeconomia Alpium II tends to be broader in scope than the first volume: the Eastern Alpine area is represent in the papers (even though Slovenia could not yet be included in due measure), the Middle Ages are featured more prominently (and with these, especially the significance of ecclesiastical and monasterial economy is emphasized). Last but not least, the environmental and climate history and their influences on economic development enhance the thematic spectrum. The papers collected in this volume can thus, roughly speaking, be divided in three focal points: The first of these points focusses on climate and environmental history: Christian Rohr (Berne) analyses in his contribution the influence of natural disasters on the daily economic life of the fifteenth to the eighteenth century in the Eastern Alps, particularly in the pre-Alpine area of Salzach-Inn and Traun. Especially along these rivers flowing down from the mountains, which sometimes swelled more than once a year, the danger of flood catastrophes was great, be it through flooding of fertile land with drastic consequences for the food supplies of the surrounding population, or through the destruction of infrastructure and dilapidation in towns and markets. Wooden bridges were regularly endangered and had to be renewed or even completely reconstructed. Among the trades, especially milling and riverine transport on rafts or on smaller, flat boats (Zillen) were severely impaired or condemned to do nothing. For instance, salt and metal production suffered by floods directly and indirectly as on the one side, there was no longer enough firewood available to fuel the smelting furnaces or salt boiling plants, while on the other side, the finished goods could not be transported away even if the production had not come to a standstill. In this way, the natural conditions of the Alps also influenced wide pre-Alpine areas, for example up to the Upper Austrian town of Wels, located more than 30 kilometres away in the foothills of the Alps. The frequent and regular floods and inundations with their disastrous consequences, which hit Wels, for example, in the years between 1497 and 1509, caused enormous annual expenses for the bridge master alone for the restoration of the bridge, not to speak of the other, unrecorded costs and financial burdens to be borne by the townspeople. However, in centuries of dealing with these disruptive situations, the people affected by them developed and adopted “a culture of flood management”, combining adaptation strategies and stabilization measures: they were increasingly prepared to respond to such crisis situations, had established early warning systems and learned to overcome such disasters. In this sense, it can be said that the vulnerable communities struggling with the floods and coping with their aftermath had indeed gained a remarkable degree of resilience. Gregor Zenhäusern (Brig) also devotes his contribution to natural disaster prevention and management since the Middle Ages, however, for the inner-Alpine region of the Valais Alps. Setting this geographical focus is obvious for two reasons: all natural hazards that can occur in Switzerland do occur in the Valais and lastly,

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because the Forschungsinstitut zur Geschichte des Alpenraums (FGA) (Institut de recherches sur l’histoire de l’arc alpin) in Brig has established a database on the past climate and natural disasters in the Valais Alps.13 Among these natural hazards, which have proved to be the most dangerous over the centuries, are undoubtedly floods and avalanches, which, with their frequent and often regular occurrence, reveal the vulnerability of the rural communities to natural hazards. The fight against floods, which in the case of the Rhône also contributed to the fertility of the valley floors, led as early as the fourteenth century to hydraulic engineering measures to help prevent damages altogether, or at least to mitigate damage to water-related infrastructure, bridges and mills, but also roads and dams. In their efforts against water disasters, the Valais government and its Zenden, cooperatives (Geteilschaften) and individual communities worked closely together, usually at considerable expense. In contrast to floods, the frequent dangers from avalanches and actual descents are much less documented in the sources (perhaps because there were fewer governmental actions against these disasters?), and even if actions were taken at all, this would chiefly be in inhabited and in agriculturally used areas. Efficient protection against avalanches through large-scale construction work did not begin until the eighteenth century and then especially in the nineteenth century, not least to protect the increasingly important roads and traffic routes. The fact that even ecclesiastical procedures – liturgical processions and benedictions – would not offer any protection against natural hazards was often enough painfully experienced by the Valais people. Nevertheless, the inhabitants of the Valais also developed numerous adaptation and stabilization mechanisms – in particular against the floods – in order to at least contain the risks of natural hazards. An essential strategy to mitigate the avalanche risk was trivially not to build where the risk was known. In South Tyrol, especially the remote mountain farms, but also the buildings in the villages, are designed to take these risks into account. The long-term stability of a farm or settlement is in itself evidence of a wise choice from the point of view of hydrogeological risk. The second focal point takes looks at the intra- and trans-Alpine traffic and communication infrastructure from late antiquity until the end of the pre-industrials times and centres on the resulting economic consequences,14 for example monasteries and 13 This database presents several thousand records on climate and natural hazards, drawn from German, Italian and French texts, from the sixth to the twenty-first centuries. The database can serve as the basis of hazard registry (https://www.stockalperstiftung.ch/forschungsinstitut/projekte). It is the result of many years of profound research by the Brig institute, the first findings of which were presented in 2008; Gabriel Imboden / Christian Pfister (eds.), Klimageschichte in den Alpen. Methoden – Probleme – Ergebnisse. Akten des Kolloquiums vom 12. und 13. September 2008, Stockalperschloss Brig, Brig 2009. 14 Cf. also Jean-François Bergier / Gauro Coppola (eds.), Vie di terra e d’acqua. Infrastrutture viarie e sistemi di relazioni in area alpina (secoli XIII–XVI), Bologna 2007; Andrea Bonoldi / Anne-Lise Head-König / Luigi Lorenzetti (eds.), Transits – Transit. Infrastructures et société de l’Antiquité à nos jours – Infrastrukturen und Gesellschaft von der Antike bis heute, in: Histoire des Alpes / Storia delle Alpi / Geschichte der Alpen, 21, 2016.

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churches in the early Middle Ages. From such perspective, Katharina Winckler (Vienna) introduces the late antique-early medieval transitional period in the Alpine region, which spans almost half a millennium. She recalls the close connections between traffic and tolls on the one hand, and the establishment and development of ecclesiastical institutions and structures on the other. Although not only the preAlpine areas but also numerous Alpine valleys were under the authority of bishops sees outside the Alpine region, episcopal and monastic centres came into existence within the Alps and directly at their foot, so that the Alpine area can be regarded as divided into dioceses since the fifth century. The economic supply of these bishoprics was guaranteed since the sixth century by the collection of tithes, while the monasteries (as well as proprietary churches) received a corresponding economic endowment from the respective founding families, which consisted not only of the local nobility but also of the ruling dynasties of the pre-Alpine regions, such as the Bavarian dukes or the Burgundian kings. Both institutions, bishoprics and monasteries, took over, where possible, the levying of customs and tolls in succession to the Roman administration. This source of income, which was to serve the maintenance of hospices and Alpine passes, was so fundamental, particularly for bishoprics, that they could also arise in other places than Roman civitates, such as in the Maurienne or the Eisack Valley, which had gained importance as transfer routes across the Alps. In the Western and Central Alps, where the Merovingian central power had ended in the first half of the seventh century, the ecclesiastical institutions became the real rulers able to guarantee the Alpine transfer. It was not until the Carolingians, from the eighth century onwards, who sought to restore royal power over the Alpine crossings, if only to control the routes for soldiers and pilgrims to Italy and, above all, to Rome. Just the pilgrimage ad limines Apostolorum, which increased again since the late eighth century, is a perfect example for trading and migrating across the Alps in the Carolingian period. In contrast, the Eastern Alps took a special development since the late sixth century, where the Slavic conquest largely destroyed the ecclesiastical structures and institutions which then had to be rebuilt only after the re-Christianization of this area by the existing dioceses of Salzburg and Freising. Within these areas of tension Winckler examines the bishoprics and monasteries of the Alpine area and their relations to the roads, customs and tolls of Roman late antiquity. In the process, the ecclesiastical institutions and structures appear – as so often in the first millennium – as custodians of the tradition of the antique heritage and, conversely, as economic beneficiaries of it. Especially from a political perspective, Giuseppe Albertoni (Trento) offers a direct connection to Winckler’s remarks, as he focuses on the Central Eastern Alps from the Merovingian period to the early fourteenth century with regard to communication routes. Methodically oriented on the concept of the area di strada by

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Giuseppe Sergi,15 he traces the ‘communication channels’ across the Alps in their importance for the respective time, be it for people, communication or goods. While the Langobards controlled the southern exits of the Alpine passes and access to these passes until the eighth century, the Franks gradually expanded their position of power in the Western and Central Alps. The Eastern Alps, however, were exposed to the influence of Slavic peoples, as Winckler has already pointed out in her paper. Only with the conquest of the Langobard Kingdom and the Duchy of Bavaria by Charlemagne in 774 and 788, respectively, did the entire Alpine area (approximately) come under a unified rule, as had already been the case during the Roman Empire. Thus, the Langobard defence system at the southern rim of the Alps became obsolete and the transalpine routes were open for the Italian campaigns of the Carolingian expeditions to Italy. However, not only from a political-military perspective did the Carolingian conquest of Upper Italy mean a drastic break in the history of the Alpine area, but also from an economic point of view: from then on, the importance of the Alpine transversals and the inner-Alpine connecting routes between these as transport and communication routes grew again. The ‘areas of a route’, and here in particular the north-south axes, became ‘centres’ of power formation and economic development in equal measure. Even if with the breakup of the Carolingian Empire the unified rule over the Alpine region ceased again, the “vertical strips” of the communication routes remained. From the middle of the tenth century onwards, they enabled the kings of the Holy Roman Empire to execute their expeditions to Italy and Rome and connected various Alpine regions on a regional level. The eleventh century saw the further expansion of the power of ecclesiastical institutions – monasteries and bishoprics – as well as that of royal officials. Such (dynasties of) dukes gained power not least because they guaranteed the safety of pilgrims and merchants crossing the Alps by paying customs duties and tolls. The merchants, in turn, connected the pre-Alpine and Alpine market towns and cities through the commercial exchange they mediated, and not only contributed to their growth, but also strengthened the network of the Alpine cities. “These were trade relations which generally followed the main north-south routes, but quite often involved more local, east-west, commerce, in contexts which integrated the principal routes with local – road and river – connections.” The outstanding importance of Alpine transit for the entire European transport system in the pre-industrial era is also emphasized by Marie-Claude Schöpfer (Brig), who studies the transport structures and the associated markets as transhipment points since the thirteenth century. The peculiar natural and climatic conditions of the Alps required special means and organizations of transport, which were able to guarantee transit even in winter, at least on some routes. Particularly in the late

15 Giuseppe Sergi, Alpi e strade nel Medioevo, in: Daniele Jalla (ed.), Gli uomini e le Alpi – Les hommes et les Alpes, Atti del convegno (Torino 6–7 October 1989), Casale Monferrato 1991, pp. 43–51.

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Middle Ages, the Alpine crossings were – besides the transport through the Rhône Valley – main European traffic arteries between the economically strong Italian trade and industrial regions on one side of the mountains, and in Northwestern Europe and Upper Germany on the other side. Since the eleventh century, hospices and hospitals developed nearby the monasteries along the centuries-old transport routes, later Susten (roadhouses) were added as stations. Cooperatives of sumpters, which were for the first time documented in the second half of the thirteenth century, and carters from the late fifteenth century onwards, handled the transport volume that grew significantly as a result of the economic upswing on both sides of the Alps over the Brenner Pass, until the overland trade routes across the Alps again lost considerable relevance from the sixteenth and especially in the seventeenth century due to the wars and conflicts in Central Europe – in favour of maritime trade from the Mediterranean circumventing the Iberian Peninsula to Northwestern Europe and vice versa. This is a relative loss of importance as in absolute terms traffic through the Alps increased further. The exchange of main products such as silk from Italy or cloth from Central and Northern Europe continued to follow the overland routes through the Alps to a significant extent. However, the secondary transport networks and connection routes to smaller markets within the Alpine area were then “extended” (if one might say so), which, on the one hand, intensified the traffic between the Alpine valleys and on the other hand, facilitated better connections to the pre-Alpine regions and their large hinterlands, which is taken up in Mark Häberlein’s contribution. In order to handle intra-Alpine trade on its different routes, the already existing great annual markets or fairs were complemented by a number of newly established annual markets of local to supra-regional importance, which were, of course, held in temporal dependence on the cattle drives to and from the Alpine pastures. With the construction of the chaussees, paved country roads in the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth century and particularly with the railroad construction that started around the middle of the nineteenth century, a new era of transalpine transport and traffic began, replacing the premodern organizational structures. A third focus is set on structural changes in the economic sectors and living environment of the people in the Alps and Prealps: Anne-Lise Head-König (Geneva) concentrates in her contribution on structural changes in agriculture and pastoralism on the period between the eleventh and the mid-sixteenth centuries in the northern part of Savoy, Switzerland and Vorarlberg. In these areas, a considerable intensification of cattle herding in the alpine mountains began in the High Middle Ages, after having been documented since the early Middle Ages. The consequences were the seizure of abandoned land, the division of land into summer pasture, winter fodder and cereal

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cultures and the construction of new settlements on the medium altitudes as well as of monastic granges (Schwaigen or granges16) specialized in dairy farming. The extension of cultivation to ever higher reaches in the Alpine valleys was a consequence of the steep population increase in the thirteenth century, whose pressure was derived in this way partly in return for a comparatively small fee and military service for the feudal lords, partly by the granting of tax exemption up to exemption from feudal obligations altogether, as was the case with the migrating Walser.17 Since the middle of the fourteenth century – with the beginning of the Little Ice Age – the political and social conditions changed with the repression of monastic property and economy, especially as the monasteries also withdrew increasingly from self-sufficient economy. From the late fourteenth century onwards, the expansion of cattle breeding and the production of winter fodder which was required for this began, while the cultivation of foodstuffs – in particular cereals – was pushed back. This led to a shift in the essential parameters of the peasant economy: in order to be able to buy lacking foodstuffs on markets, it was necessary to redeem money through the sale of products produced by livestock farming. As a result, the peasant became much more involved in the developing market structures than had been the case in prior centuries. This was accompanied by an increase in trade and market activity in general, in the number and frequency of fairs – even in smaller towns – and not least in the livestock trade. The possibility to invest in the changing and more profitable agriculture was used since the fifteenth century – where not forbidden – by the urban elites from Berne, Fribourg or Lucerne, for example; they thus promoted the increasing commercialization of cattle breeding and dairy products. However, the involvement of the various Alpine regions in this commercialization process varied in intensity, without any specific explanation as to why this was the case. Although also looking at rural communities, Luigi Provero (Turin) also takes a more socio-historical perspective on landscapes and their settlements, village and

16 Both Schwaigen and granges served the land development in the highlands as well as in the lowlands. The former were operated by Benedictine monasteries in Central Switzerland (but also in Tyrol, Bavaria, the Black Forest and Alsace) and initially specialized in cattle-breeding but since the fourteenth century also increasingly in cheese production. By contrast, Cistercian granges could be found in regions formerly influenced by the Romans such as Savoy, western Switzerland, the Bernese Oberland, Valais, and Vorarlberg, and in addition to cattle breeding, wine grapes and grain would be grown by these. Concerning Tyrol cf. Hannes Obermair / Volker Stamm, Alpine Ökonomie in Hoch- und Tieflagen – das Beispiel Tirol im Spätmittelalter und in Früher Neuzeit, in: Luigi Lorenzetti / Yann Decorzant / Anne-Lise Head-König (eds.), Relire l’altitude: la terre et ses usages. Suisse et espaces avoisinants, XIIe–XXIe siècles, Neuchâtel 2019, pp. 29–56, at pp. 32–37. 17 For reference on the Walser see: Albert Schott, Die deutschen Colonien in Piemont. Ihr Land, ihre Mundart und Herkunft. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Alpen, Stuttgart / Tübingen 1842; Josef von Bergmann, Untersuchungen über die freyen Walliser oder Walser in Graubünden und Vorarlberg. Mit einigen diese Gebiete betreffenden historischen Erläuterungen, Wien 1844. These two important works have laid on the modern research on this ethnic group.

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church structures, viewing local churches in particular “as a scientific tool to understand the social value of settlement forms and economic networks.” As a case study, he chooses Dronero in the Maira Valley in southwestern Piedmont between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries,18 when the valley belonged to the Marquisate of Saluzzo since about the middle of the thirteenth century.19 The slow development of the ecclesiastical structures was always closely and reciprocally linked to the economic development of the valley and its settlements, as the (few) surviving sources clearly show: whether it was a matter of the allocation of tithes or the work of brotherhoods, the expansion of churches, the establishment of an annual fair or the construction of a bridge – the economic importance of the church and its institutions is repeatedly made clear. In the late fifteenth century, the region became important also from a transport point of view, not to be underestimated for the Alpine area, when Ludovico II, Marquis of Saluzzo (1475–1504), in 1478–1480, at an altitude of 2,882 m under the Colle delle Traversette (2,950 m) had commissioned the digging of the Buco di Viso, which today is considered the oldest traffic tunnel in the Alps, in order to transport the (salt) trade on the Via del Sale between Provence (with its productive brine works) and the Po Valley and thus between France and Upper Italy and to guide it through his territory. On a micro-historical level, the interconnection between economic, ecclesiastical, social and political structures becomes an exemplary reflection of the entire Western Alpine area in the high and late Middle Ages. Mark Häberlein (Bamberg) deals in his contribution with the change in commercial structures, a central aspect of transalpine economic, social and cultural exchange in the early modern period: even after the medieval south-north trade across the Alpine passes had passed its peak in the fifteenth century, Italian merchants, clerics and artists came to the northern Alpine Holy Roman Empire, and in increasing numbers again since the second half of the sixteenth century. Among these immigrants, the most important probably was Bartholomäus Viatis, who, originally hailing from Venice, rose in Nuremberg to become one of the richest wholesale traders and bankers of the entire Holy Roman Empire (and who, because of his specialized skills and knowledge about the Venetian Banco, was instrumental the establishment of Nuremberg’s Banco publico). Whereas in the sixteenth century it was mainly Florentine or other Tuscan merchant houses which set up branches in Upper German trading towns and cities – for the silk trade, for example – most of the merchants who migrated north after the Thirty Years’ War came from the Duchy of Milan, Ticino, the Grisons, the area around Lake Como and the Alpine valleys to the north

18 Cf. as a former study in a similar thematic context Luigi Provero, A Local Political Sphere Communities and Individuals in the Western Alps (Thirteenth Century), in: Michele Bellabarba / Hannes Obermair / H. Sato (eds.), Communities and Conflicts in the Alps from the Late Middle Ages to Early Modernity, Bologna / Berlin 2015, pp. 57–72. 19 Cf. also Luigi Provero, Dai marchesi del Vasto ai primi marchesi di Saluzzo: sviluppi signorili entro quadri pubblici (secoli XI–XII), Torino 1992.

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and west of Lake Maggiore. They brought Italian and Swiss luxuries such as silk products and high-quality foodstuffs, especially citrus fruits and chestnuts, long-life sausages and cheese. It is not without reason that they were often (and not seldomly with pejorative intent) called Lemoni-, Pomeranzen- or Maronihändler, which literally translates to pedlars or traders of lemons, bitter oranges and chestnuts, although their range of products also included other luxuries and dainties from the Southern Alpine regions. As vendors of luxuries, they preferably moved to princely residential cities with a society of officials and courtiers but also to wealthy Imperial cities. Due to their Catholic confession, however, they generally would gain citizenship and climb up the social ladder in Catholic or bi-confessional cities, which were also usually smaller or medium-sized. In this, their two-sided, ‘dual’ integration is remarkable: on the one hand, they attempted to integrate into the society of the city in which they settled, not least by marrying into it, and on the other hand, they maintained their close personal and economic ties with their places and regions of origin. Luca Mocarelli (Milan) sheds light on the urbanization process in the Alpine and southern, i.e. Italian, pre-Alpine region since the early modern period.20 First of all, it should be noted that the few towns within the Alps were much smaller in population than those in the southern (and also the northern Prealps), but as times went on these grew considerably faster, even more so in the period following the industrialization processes since the middle of the nineteenth century. The background of the sometimes rapid growth in the early modern period was, on the one hand, the pass traffic – in particular over the comparatively low Brenner Pass – which increased again in the eighteenth century after the slump in the sixteenth/ seventeenth centuries. Secondly, there was the industrial production in the Alpine region, be it mining and the associated trades in Schwaz and Hall or in Idrija, be it silk spinning in Trento and Rovereto or the glove manufactories in Grenoble, be it the peasant-crafted commercial products from the Alpine valleys. And lastly, at least three cities – Innsbruck, Klagenfurt and Grenoble – assumed at least regional capital functions in the early modern period, which contributed to their population growth. However, the much larger cities of the southern Alpine foothills also attracted the Alpine population, which migrated annually from the valleys to the cities of Lombardy, Turin or Venice, in order to earn money there as seasonal workers – from spring to autumn – but also to offer their own goods for sale in the winter. The Alps, after all, were densely populated by comparison, even if the settlements were mostly scattered; thus, the mountain regions of Lombardy were much more densely populated in the late Ancien Régime than even the already industrializing countries of Northwestern Europe. The high population density in the Alps, combined with the 20 For the previous period and noteworthy as the article considers cities that were functionally very important despite their small population and not a part of Mocarelli’s contribution; Hannes Obermair, ‘Bastard Urbanism’? Past Forms of Cities in the Alpine Area of Tyrol-Trentino, in: Concilium Medii Aevi 10 (2007), pp. 53–76.

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limited possibilities for agriculture due to the climatic and natural conditions, meant that grain had to be purchased on a large scale – at much higher prices than in the large cities of Upper Italy due to the transport costs. As Mocarelli concludes, “the success of Alpine economy depended chiefly on opportunities and markets; and this dependence from exogenous factors became a reason of weakness”, when the industrialization process, which began tentatively around the middle of the nineteenth century, with its revolutionary changes in transportation and traffic, new commercial enterprises and the mechanization or rather the mechanization of agriculture, began to blur the differences between the Alpine and pre-Alpine economies, as Werner Bätzing also states cum grano salis (see above). Following Oeconomia Alpium I the present volume gives contour to additional central fields of research to be included in the coming overall presentation. Nonetheless, the two central challenges of the StoAlp Commission’s undertaking are pertaining: on the one side, it is necessary to overcome the traditional periodization in the sense of a longue dureé perspective and to trace the individual strands of analysis, whenever possible, from late antiquity to the end of preindustrial times, and, where necessary, to venture in new proposals towards a topic-bound periodization. On the other side, the traditional geographical division of the Alpine regions – the twofold division (Western and Eastern Alps) as favoured in Switzerland, Austria and Germany and the threefold division (Western, Central and Eastern Alps) as promoted in Italy and France21 – or even national association with modern Alpine countries should be reconsidered to a much greater extent than in the overviews which hitherto have been published. Instead, emphasis has to be put on common features and similarities of Alpine economies and the communities in their background, as well on as regional, and, if necessary, even local specifics. Both the macro-level, i.e. the entire space, and the micro-level, e.g. of an individual Alpine valley, are thus to be emphasized more strongly in their characteristics than the meso level of geographical constructs or state structures. The fact that the Alpine areas, as to be understood as a uniform entity, is a construct dating from the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, is well recognized by the authors of the StoAlp Commission.22 Finally, yet importantly, it seems to be absolute necessity – which is demonstrated above all by the papers of Mark Häberlein and Luca Mocarelli – to allow one’s gaze to wander from the Alps to the south and the north in order to include the various interactions between the Alpine areas proper, in whichever way

21 This three-fold division, the Partizione delle Alpi, was made official and published first in 1924 in: Nomi e limiti delle grandi parti del sistema alpino: Relazione della Commissione incaricata dal 9. Congresso geografico italiano (Genova, aprile 1924) e dal Comitato geografico nazionale italiano [1926], repr. Firenze 1991; cf., e.g., Bernard Debarbieux, Différenciation et désignation géographique des objets alpins: six manières de faire, in: Revue de Géographie Alpine 4 (2001), pp. 43–65. 22 Cf. idem, La nomination au service de la territorialisation. Réflexions sur l’usage des termes ‚alpe‘ et ‚montagne‘, in: Le Monde alpin et rhodaien 25 (1997), pp. 227–241.

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constructed, and their respective ‘foreland’ (applied in a similar meaning as ‘hinterland’), each of which are defined differently, in their importance for and in their repercussions on the Alpine area. In this sense, this volume is to be seen as another step towards a synoptic and synthetic representation of the preindustrial economic history of the Alpine area, which is to be completed by the StoAlp Commission in the upcoming years.