Urban property and revenues between the 10th and 11th century: the case of Chartres

Abstract

The author continues a discussion already published in "Mediterranea - ricerche storiche" (no. 18, 2010, p. 13- 32), examining a number 10th - 11th century concessions ad firmam in Chartres; in this period the territory was caught between the pressures of the Normans and the influence of the Capetians. The use of these contracts in such a well-defined geographic and socio-economic area enables us to resume examination of a subject which was first seriously investigated in the late nineteenth century by Guillaume Des Marez in relation to the city of Ghent, and then formulates observations about the relationship between urban development, the institutional profile of property, forms of domination and individual rights. At the same time, a specific approach is suggested for reconstructing the socio-economic and legal-institutional developments that led to the formulation of the contractus censualis, later called census reservativus.