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6 - Conspicuous Cultivation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 March 2021

Caroline Goodson
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Summary

Patronage and commissioning of public events and buildings was a key tool in the attainment and replication of social status in antiquity. In the early Middle Ages, new ideals emerged around Christian forms of wealth and support, and different values were attached to the acquisition of agricultural land. Urban properties took on new relevance, and agricultural property became socially valuable in new ways. Cultivated spaces within cities came to be newly prestigious. This chapter considers the principal means by which aristocrats and rulers performed status and power within the late antique and early medieval cities of Italy, marshalling the new evidence of urban cultivation to inform our understanding of power in the built environment. It then develops three examples of this process from the mid eighth century to the early tenth, in Rome, Ravenna, and Naples. These examples show clearly the sophisticated strategies employed by rulers, ecclesiastical institutions, and families alike to control cultivated spaces, and the social status which came with successful strategies.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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  • Conspicuous Cultivation
  • Caroline Goodson, University of Cambridge
  • Book: Cultivating the City in Early Medieval Italy
  • Online publication: 08 March 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108773966.006
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  • Conspicuous Cultivation
  • Caroline Goodson, University of Cambridge
  • Book: Cultivating the City in Early Medieval Italy
  • Online publication: 08 March 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108773966.006
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Conspicuous Cultivation
  • Caroline Goodson, University of Cambridge
  • Book: Cultivating the City in Early Medieval Italy
  • Online publication: 08 March 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108773966.006
Available formats
×