Resource Extraction in a Marginal Space: Mining Revival and the Environment in Southern Tuscany and Northern Latium at the Turn of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries

Abstract

At the end of the Middle Ages and at the beginning of Modern Times, the 'Maremma' and the 'Colline Metalliferi' in southern Tuscany experienced intense extractive activity. The minerals and water and forest resources available in the region allowed the production of metals (iron, copper, perhaps silver) and especially sulphates (alum, vitriol) which were massively exported, sometimes as far as Northern Europe. Located on the margins of three powerful states, i.e. the Papal States and the Republics of Florence and Siena, the area was far from major urban centres (Rome, Florence, Siena) but was the subject of sustained attention by urban elites such as the Medici, Spannocchi, Chigi and other families, to the detriment of rural communities. By cross-referencing the documentary sources of rural municipalities and territorial States (deliberations, notarised deeds, private accounts), the article aims to show how this marginal space became in a few decades a major economic and political issue within the peninsula; how it was exploited, thanks to specific structures of production and rural space governance; and finally how this development drove environmental degradation through disturbances in the Maremma river system.