M2 - Urbanisation and Urban Networks

Author(s)

Silvia María Pérez (University Pablo de Olavide (Sevilla))

Keywords

Urban economy, Wine, Medieval Ages

Abstract

Jerez de la Frontera and its wines enjoy an unquestionable reputation. Such expansion of wine consumption and production was made possible by a previous development that began to intensify and lay its fundamental foundations at the end of the Middle Ages, a chronological period that frames the present work. Its objective is to carry out a joint investigation on the products of the vine, as well as its expansion and commercialization within an eminently urban economy. Also study the process of Atlantic expansion of a wine that, already in the period under study, had distinctive and identifying characteristics as well as specialized trades linked to viticulture and winemaking.

Author(s)

María Ángeles Martín Romera (Complutense University of Madrid)

Keywords

Urban Hierarchies, Urban Leagues, Castile

Abstract

The paper offers a different approach to urban hierarchies by focusing on the cities' own perspective on the subject, targeting their political associations and their internal system of hierarchical recognition. With that purpose, it studies the phenomenon of Castilian hermandades (or urban leagues) from their birth in the 13th century to the 15th century. In particular, it analyses the urban networks that these leagues mirrored and their process of increasing internal hierarchical distinction, sanctioned by the multiplying regulations of these institutions. The main conclusion is that the Hermandades were at the same time symptom and cause of the developing urban hierarchies in the Hispanic area and, therefore, they are a privileged scope for the study of this phenomenon.

Author(s)

Matia Helena da Cruz (University of Coimbra) and Maria Amélia Álvaro de Campos (University of Coimbra)

Keywords

​Portuguese Craftsmen, Portuguese Medieval City, Urban Relationship

Abstract  

In Portugal, craftsmen embodied a strong urban feeling and behaviour throughout the Middle Ages and the whole of the Ancien Régime. These men lived in the city and were usually organised according to their profession, so they occupied the urban space in view of their own needs, possibly following instructions given by the local authorities.
The workers in the manufacturing industries of leather, metal, textiles, and pottery occupied a large part of medieval Coimbra, developed business networks, and fostered important social and economic dynamics. Therefore, to better understand the Portuguese urban behaviour we must study these workers along with their family and social networks. With regards to Coimbra, however, this type of analysis is severely hindered by the lack of municipal records identifying these workers.

• Thus, this paper is based on a research in the archives of the ecclesiastical institutions of Coimbra and analyses documents such as sales agreements, concession and usufruct agreements over urban and rural property, donations, and wills. Craftsmen will be examined as holders of capital and both movable and immovable property, as well as usufructuaries of ecclesiastical property in Coimbra, both in the peri-urban ring and in the hinterland.
  
• Based on this research, we will ask the following questions: What property did they hold? Where was it located? How did they purchase or inherit it? How did they exploit it? How did they make it profitable? To whom did they transfer it?
  
• In answering these questions, we will find these men working as lenders of capital, middlemen in the renting of ecclesiastical property, and founders of suffrages for the salvation of their own souls and those of their families.
  
• The conclusions of this analysis will help us better describe the craftsmen of Coimbra, their occupation, and how they managed their time between their job and administering their property, as well as between the urban and rural worlds. Rather than draw definite conclusions about this professional group, the goal is to achieve a level of knowledge that allows a comparison between Coimbra and other cities in the Portuguese urban network, where craftsmen played an equally important role.
  

Author(s)

Peter Stabel (University of Antwerp)

Keywords

Middle Ages, Urbanization, Urban Systems

Abstract

The paper explores the rhythms of urbanization in medieval Latin Europe, in the Byzantine World and in the Islamic Polities. It points at structural differences in how urban systems are organized, at diverging roles of cities, state intervention, feudal development and regional economies in these broad regions. It also points at some striking similar features that unite urbanization processes in as diverse regions as North Africa, Western Europe, the old Roman Mediterranean core or Iran and Central Asia. It stresses the importance of looking beyond usual geographical or temporal frameworks, in order to capture the essence of the urban phenomenon in the Medieval era

Author(s)

José María Miura Andrades (Universidad Pablo de Olavide de Sevilla)

Keywords

Religious Orders, Urban Space, Seville

Abstract

In 1248 the Christian conquest of Seville meant the arrival of various religious orders. Monastic and convent buildings were to be located in the urban fabric based on various factors. In this work we want to show the circumstances that justify the different location of the conventual spaces in the urban configuration of Seville.

From the beginning of the thirteenth century the Castilian medieval society generated urban models that were accompanied by the presence of Mendicant Orders. For Andalusia, this statement is meaningless. In fact the Mendicant presence in Andalusia is not the result of a natural process but the imposition of an urban plan. It is an artificial process.

The analysis of the transformations of the urban enclosures from medieval Seville to the convent, which will take place between the 13th and 16th centuries, allows us to analyze the rhythms and patterns of growth and the densities of their occupation.

In the 13th century the planimetric location of the Sevillian convents shows an optimism in the repopulation process. In the fourteenth century the foundations are sporadic and anomalous. They obey more to personal impulses than to strategies of repopulation and consolidation of urban realities.

The second of the factors that condition the mendicant planimetry in Seville appeared in the final years of the 14th century and the initials of the 15th century: the reform processes. In the second half of the fifteenth century the third of the defining elements of the implementation of religious orders comes into play: its social roots.

After this long process, Seville is a model of a convent city. If we close its walls Seville would be a great convent and a true image of the Celestial Jerusalem: the City of God on earth.