La villa et ses ressources naturelles, de l’Antiquité à la première modernité

Inspired by Paolo Fedeli’s seminal work La natura violata. Ecologia e mondo romano (1990), the Franco-Italian research network ERA (Ecologia Roma Antica) was set up to explore relations between humans and nature in Roman Antiquity and how they continued on down to the early modern period. The present work, derived from the 2nd ERA conference (2020), extends this series of studies by bringing together eleven contributions on the development and legacy of the Roman Villa as a rural residence and a hub for the exploitation of natural resources from the Early Empire until the Renaissance. Its inputs come from literature, history and archaeology. 

Beginning with Seneca and his focus on the villa’s productive function, changes of perspective during Late Antiquity are examined: from a privileged dwelling which combined locus amœnus, otium litteratum and refined sociability in the tradition of Pliny the Younger, the villa became an aristocratic refuge away from the city but also, according to Christian writings, a place for ascetic retreat, thus establishing continuity with the monastery as a space for living, meditating and working the land through a sensible use of water.

Interaction with the natural environment and the organisation and transformation of a number of estates are highlighted in archaeological studies (focusing notably on remains beside Lake Garda and in Sicily, and on the case of Aiano) or by historical maps. 

The role of the Roman villa in the anthropisation of the rural landscape continued during the Middle Ages with the development of the mountain economy, relying on the exploitation of water power and charcoal, as shown by the example of the Casentino. Finally, the villa served as a model in Renaissance times, influencing agronomic treatises such as those by Agostino Gallo and Prospero Rendella.