Les vignobles de Venise: de la lagune à la cote istrienne (XIIe-XIVe siècles)

The purpose of this paper is to highlight two "extreme" cases of viticulture in the Adriatic coastal region in the Middle Ages, in the context of the wider problem of supply of a city as Venice, almost totally devoid of a territory to devote to agriculture. The first case is that of the vineyards, mostly property of the great Venetian monasteries such as S. Giorgio Maggiore, S. Cipriano and S. Ilario, located in the sandy soils close to Chioggia. In fact, in this region the cultivation of vineyard stretches up to the limit of the shore, in direct contact with the montones da mare, ie the coastal dunes, and reaching, in some cases, the salt water of the lagoon. In this regard are particularly interesting the data coming from lease contracts, urban statutes and chronicles, relating to the management and maintenance of the vineyards (operations that were extremely complex and heavy due to the instability of the soil) ; the lives of farmers ; the transportation system of grape and wine arranged by the owners using the network of canals that characterized the low Venetian plain. The second case concerns the Istrian coast, along which, during the medieval period are also very numerous the properties Venetian monasteries. Here, the vineyards are operated as part of a coastal environment very different from that of Chioggia, since the Istrian coast is rocky and uneven. Despite the obvious problems related to the environment, the wine produced in the region (especially the popular ribolla) was very famous, and was often found on the tables of Venice and of the many cities of the mainland. It is clear that the investment in vineyards was an initiative economically profitable for the monasteries and the Venetian patricians, and this explains the widespread diffusion of vineyards along the Istrian coast. In this respect there is a rich documentation that explores the different types of contracts used to manage this large land patrimony : for example the contract ad pastinandum, widely used for converting to the culture of the vineyards and olive the lands that were previously uncultivated or used for cereal crops. Some contracts also allow to know the work that the tenant was obliged to do during the year. Finally, as in the case of Chioggia, the documents enable the study of the modes of transport and storage of the product of all this work : the wine.