Pratiche e forme d'uso delle risorse collettive in un ambiente palustre: il bacino di Bientina in Toscana

This article aims to reconstruct some particular forms of economic and social organisation of space. It begins with a brief introductory section which outlines the characteristics of the marshland of Bientina and its changing characteristics (an area covered all the year round by water and including large areas of swamp). The communal property of Bientina was established through centuries-old controversies and through the problematic management of the political boundary with the state of Lucca, a boundary that was never formally defined but which found expression in the limits imposed on the activities of the inhabitants of the coast. Through the analysis of the conflicts which arose during the period of reforms in the second half of the eighteenth century, the author attempts to explain the social and economic organisation of Bientina, and in particular the fishing and harvesting based on positions of privilege held by the «original» inhabitants of the town. From opposition to attempts to alienate public space and collective uses, attention shifted towards an understanding of the importance of the areas reserved fors fishing, rented out every year. The analysis of the various relationships between the privileged group of fisher-tenants and the ordinary fishermen highlights an interwining of private and collective uses which ad important consequences for the social organisation of the town. The attempts to safeguard the environmental equilibrium which supported the town and its families are analysed through the different regulations and the frequent conflicts that accompanied the growing pressure of population on the marsh area from the beginning of the eighteenth century.