Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Famines in Late Medieval and Early Modern Italy: A Test for an Advanced Economy

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Famines During the ʻLittle Ice Ageʼ (1300-1800)

Abstract

This article analyzes how the advanced economies of Medieval and Early Modern Italy attempted to cope with famines. First, it provides an overview of the occurrence of famines and food shortages in Italy from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century, underlining the connections with overall climatic and demographic trends. Second, it focuses on the 1590s famine (the worst to affect Italy in this period), providing a general discussion and interpretation of its causes and characteristics as well as describing and evaluating the strategies for coping with the crisis that were developed within the Republic of Genoa and the Duchy of Ferrara. The article argues that when such a large-scale food crisis as that of the 1590s occurred, public action played a key role in providing relief.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 139.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 179.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 179.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    These economies qualify as advanced owing to their high level of commercialization and their integration into international trade networks, as well as being capital rich and technologically and institutionally advanced.

  2. 2.

    The import of grain from the Italian regions surrounding the Republic (and particularly from Piedmont, Lombardy, and Emilia) through land routes crossing the Apennines, although non-negligible, covered a minority share of Genoa’s needs. See Grendi (1986, 1027).

  3. 3.

    See the graph published in Alfani (2013a, p. 161), where the region Liguria (most of which belonged to the Republic of Genoa) is compared to the other northern Italian regions.

  4. 4.

    Antonio Roccatagliata, Annali della repubblica di Genova dall’anno 1581 all’ anno 1607, cited in Kirk (2001, 7).

  5. 5.

    Genoa State Archive, Archivio Segreto, Propositionum, busta 1028, d. 55, cited in Grendi (1971), 25.

  6. 6.

    The initiatives of many Italian public authorities during the famine (not only the Genoese but also, for example, those of the Grand-Duchy of Tuscany), who actively sought the Baltic grain, helped strengthen the presence of Nordic traders in the Italian ports; about this process, see for example Braudel, Romano (1951), or Grendi (1971).

  7. 7.

    One staro was equal to a volume of 63.25 L.

  8. 8.

    State archive of Modena, Annona I, filza 56, August 1590 (cited in Basini 1970, 69).

  9. 9.

    Genoa State Archive, Senato Miscellanea, filza 1092 bis, cit. in Grendi (1970), 143, my translation.

References

  • Alfani, Guido. 2007. Population and Environment in Northern Italy during the XVIth Century. Population 62(4): 1–37.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alfani, Guido. 2009. Crisi demografiche, politiche di popolazione e mortalità differenziale (ca. 1400–1630). Popolazione e Storia 1/2009: 57–75.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alfani, Guido. 2010. Climate, population and famine in Northern Italy: general tendencies and Malthusian crisis, ca. 1450–1800. Annales de Démographie Historique 2/2010: 23–53.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alfani, Guido. 2011. The famine of the 1590s in Northern Italy. An analysis of the greatest “system shock” of sixteenth century. Histoire & Mesure 26(1): 17–49.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alfani, Guido. 2013a. Calamities and Economy in Renaissance Italy. The Grand Tour of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alfani, Guido. 2013b. Plague in seventeenth century Europe and the decline of Italy: an epidemiological hypothesis. European Review of Economic History 17: 408–430.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alfani, Guido. 2013c. Population dynamics, Malthusian crises and Boserupian innovation in pre-industrial societies: the case study of Northern Italy (ca. 1450–1800) in the light of Lee’s “dynamic synthesis”. In From Malthus’s Stagnation to Sustained Growth, eds. Paolo Malanima and Bruno Chiarini, 18–51. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alfani, Guido, Matteo Di Tullio, and Luca Mocarelli (eds.). 2012. Storia economica e ambiente italiano (ca. 1400–1850). Milan: Franco Angeli.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alfani, Guido, Luca Mocarelli, and Donatella Strangio. (2017). Italy. In Famine in European History, ed. Guido Alfani and Cormac Ó Gráda. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alfani, Guido and Cormac Ó Gráda (eds.). 2017a. Famine in European History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alfani, Guido and Cormac Ó Gráda. 2017b. Famines in Europe: an overview. In Famine in European History, ed. Id. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aymard, Maurice. 1973. Rendements et productivité agricole dans l’Italie modern. Annales 28(2): 475–498.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aymard, Maurice. 1975. Sicilia: sviluppo demografico e sue differenziazioni geografiche, 1500–1800. In Demografia Storica, ed. Ercole Sori (ed.), 195–226. Il Mulino: Bologna.

    Google Scholar 

  • Basini, Gian Luigi. 1970. L’uomo e il pane. Milano: Giuffré.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boserup, Ester. 1965. The conditions of Agricultural Growth. London: Allen and Unwin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boserup, Ester. 1981. Population and technology. Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Braudel, Fernand and Ruggiero Romano. 1951. Navires et marchandises à l’entrée du Port de Livourne (1547–1611). Paris: Colin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, Bruce. 2009. Four famines and a pestilence: harvest, price, and wage variations in England, 13th to 19th centuries. In Agrarian history many ways: 28 studies on humans and the land, Festschrift to Janke Myrdal, eds. B. Liljewall, I.A. Flygare, U. Lange, L. Ljunggren, and J. Söderberg, 23–56. Stockholm: KSLAB.

    Google Scholar 

  • Camuffo, Dario and Siliva Enzi. 1992. Reconstructing the climate of Northern Italy from archive sources. In Climate since A.D. 1500, eds. R.S. Bradley and P.D. Jones, 143–154. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cattini, Marco. 1977. Congiuntura economica, gettiti fiscali ed indebitamento pubblico in un comune rurale del Basso Modenese. Finale 1560–1660. Verifica di un modello interpretativo. Review, I(2): 51–85.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cattini, Marco. 1984. I contadini di S. Felice. Metamorfosi di un mondo rurale nell’Emilia dell’Età moderna. Torino: Einaudi.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cipolla, Carlo Maria. 1993. Before the Industrial Revolution: European society and economy, 1000–1700. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, Peter (ed.). 1985. The European crisis of the 1590s: essays in comparative history. London: Harper Collins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Corradi, Alfonso. 1973. Annali delle epidemie occorse in Italia dalle prime memorie fino al 1850. Bologna: Forni. First edition. 1865–1894.

    Google Scholar 

  • Costantini, Claudio. 1978. La repubblica di Genova nell’età moderna. Torino: UTET.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crowley, Thomas J. and Thomas S. Lowery. 2000. How warm was the Medieval Warm Period? Ambio 29: 51–54.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davidson, Nicholas S. 1985. Northern Italy in the 1590s. In The European crisis of the 1590s: essays in comparative history, ed. P. Clark, 157–176. London: Harper Collins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Del Panta, Lorenzo. 1980, Le epidemie nella storia demografica italiana. Torino: Loescher.

    Google Scholar 

  • Epstein, Stephan R. 2001. The late medieval crisis as an ‘integration crisis’. In Early Modern Capitalism. Economic and social change in Europe, 1400–1800, ed. Maarten Prak, 25–50. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferrarese, Andrea. 2010. Dalla pratica della tradizione alla scienza dei lumi. Le malattie dei cereali e gli scambi dei saperi nell’Europa moderna. In Le interazioni fra economia e ambiente biologico, ed. Simonetta Cavaciocchi, 457–471. Florence: Florence University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Finzi, Roberto. 2002. Clima e Raccolti. In L’Italia agricola dalle origini ad oggi, ed. Giuliano Pinto, Carlo Poni and Ugo Tucci, vol. II, 555–568. Firenze: Polistampa.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grendi, Edoardo. 1970. Genova alla metà del Cinquecento: una politica del grano? Quaderni Storici 13: 106–160.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grendi, Edoardo. 1971. I nordici e il traffico del porto di Genova: 1590–1666. Rivista Storica Italiana 83(1): 23–71.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grendi, Edoardo. 1986. L’approvvigionamento dei grani nella Liguria del Seicento: libera pratica e annone. Miscellanea storica ligure 18: 1021–1047.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guenzi, Alberto. 1982. Pane e fornai a Bologna in età moderna. Venezia: Marsilio.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guenzi, Alberto. 1984. I consumi alimentari: un problema da esplorare. Cheiron 3: 61–76.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guenzi, Alberto. 1995. Le magistrature e le istituzioni alimentari. In Gli archivi per la storia dell’alimentazione, 285–301. Roma: Ministero per i Beni Culturali e Ambientali.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hatcher, John and Mark Bailey. 2001. Modelling the Middle Ages. The history and Theory of England’s Economic Development. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoyle, Richard. 2017. Britain. In Famine in European History, ed. Guido Alfani and Cormac Ó Gráda. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirk, Thomas. 2001. Genoa and Livorno: Sixteenth and Seventeenth-century Commercial Rivalry as a Stimulus to Policy Development. History 86(281): 3–17.

    Google Scholar 

  • Le Roy Ladurie, Emmanuel. 2004. Histoire humaine et comparée du climat, vol. I: Canicules et glaciers XIIIe–XVIIIe siècles. Paris: Fayard.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lo Cascio, Elio and Paolo Malanima. 2005. Cycles and Stability: Italian Population before the Demographic Transition. Rivista di Storia Economica 3: 197–232.

    Google Scholar 

  • Loehle, Craig and J. Huston McCulloch. 2008. Correction to: ‘A 2000-year Global Temperature Reconstruction Based on Non-Tree Ring Proxies. Energy and Environment 19(1): 93–100.

    Google Scholar 

  • Malthus, Thomas R. 1798. An Essay on the Principle of Population, as it affects the Future Improvement of Society. London: Johnson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Massa, Paola. 2000. Approvvigionamento e distribuzione controllata del vino: alcuni esempi nella Liguria dell'età moderna. In La vite e il vino, 501–530. Roma: Carocci.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ó Gráda, Cormac. 2009. Famine: A Short History. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Palermo, Luciano. 1990. I mercati del grano a Roma tra Medioevo e Rinascimento. Roma: Istituto Nazionale di Studi Romani.

    Google Scholar 

  • Palermo, Luciano. 2012. Scarsità di risorse e storia economica: il dibattito sulla carestia. Popolazione e Storia 1/2012: 51–77.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pavese, M.P., V. Banzon, M. Colacino, G.P. Gregori and M. Pasqua. 1992. Three historical data series on floods and anomalous climatic events in Italy. In Climate since A.D. 1500, eds. Raymond S. Bradley and Philip D. Jones, 155–170. Routledge: London and New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Piccinno, Luisa. 2004 Il commercio marittimo e lo sviluppo del porto di Genova tra Medioevo ed Età Moderna. University of Insubria, working paper of the Faculty of Economics no. 12.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pinto, Giuliano. 1996. Dalla tarda antichità alla metà del XVI secolo. In La popolazione italiana dal Medioevo ad oggi, in L. Del Panta, M. Livi Bacci, G. Pinto and E. Sonnino, 17–71. Bari: Laterza.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sen, Amartya K. 1976. Famines as failures of exchange entitlements. Economic and Political Weekly 11 (31–33): 1273–1280.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sen, Amartya K. 1981. Poverty and Famine. Oxford: Clarendon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Slicher Van Bath, Bernard. 1977. Agriculture in the vital revolution. In The Cambridge Economic History of Europe, vol. V, The Economic Organization of Early Modern Europe, eds. E.E. Rich and Charles H. Wilson, 42–132. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sonnino, Eugenio. 1996. L’età moderna (secoli XVI–XVIII). In La popolazione italiana dal Medioevo ad oggi, L. Del Panta, M. Livi Bacci, G. Pinto and E. Sonnino, 73–130. Bari: Laterza.

    Google Scholar 

  • Strangio, Donatella. 1998. Di fronte alla carestia in età preindustriale. Rivista di Storia Economica 14(2): 161–92.

    Google Scholar 

  • Strangio, Donatella. 2012. Urban security, approvvigionamento alimentare, carestia e scarsità delle risorse in chiave storico economica. Popolazione e Storia 1/2012: 73–93.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Università Bocconi and Dondena Centre, Milan, Italy

    Guido Alfani

Authors
  1. Guido Alfani
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Guido Alfani .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Heidelberg Center for the Environment, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

    Dominik Collet

  2. Heidelberg Center for the Environment, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

    Maximilian Schuh

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Alfani, G. (2018). Famines in Late Medieval and Early Modern Italy: A Test for an Advanced Economy. In: Collet, D., Schuh, M. (eds) Famines During the ʻLittle Ice Ageʼ (1300-1800). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54337-6_8

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation