The New Lands Museum | Sala 4 - Le Terre Nuove in Toscana - Museo delle Terre Nuove
Il grande tappeto presente nella sala raffigura il progetto di Castel San Giovanni attribuito ad Arnolfo di Cambio.
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Room 4

NEW LANDS IN TUSCANY

The large carpet in the room depicts the design of Castel San Giovanni attributed to Arnolfo di Cambio.
The painstaking care devoted to the creation of a proportionally perfect layout would appear to suggest him, since in the same year, 1299, he was overseeing the construction of Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. The walls of the room show aerial views of the main Tuscan New Lands.

Insights


POPULATION GROWTH AND TERRITORIAL CONTROL

In the last two decades of the twelfth century, Tuscany was still in a fluid political situation in which different powers coexisted. The cities were growing rapidly in population and were going through a phase of increasing economic and social development while their political power was becoming increasingly defined. At the same time, however, other centres of aggregation and power antagonistic to those of the city were also emerging, such as the rural seigniories, which developed more slowly in Tuscany than in other areas of the Peninsula, reaching full expression only at the end of the twelfth century.
In fact, among the new foundations, the oldest were undertaken precisely by the seigniorial powers – both lay and ecclesiastical – and came into being between the mid-twelfth and mid-thirteenth centuries in an attempt to stem the expansion of the cities towards the surrounding countryside.
In short, in Tuscany, at least from the middle of the twelfth century onwards, new urban foundations were established on the initiative of noble families, bishopric powers and abbeys.
As would later happen with the Terre Nuove, the motivations that led to the phenomenon of new foundations were manifold. Settlements such as Monteriggioni, Cigliano, Tizzana, Incisa, which were built almost exclusively for strategic military reasons, were in the minority, since the new foundations were realised above all for a more effective control of the territory in political and economic terms. For instance, some settlements were positioned along important communication axes (such as Albiano or Serravalle), others to consolidate dominion in border areas (such as Bientina, Pontedera, Castelfranco, Paganico) or in areas recently conquered from antagonistic powers (such as Pietrasanta, Camaiore, Casaglia). Sometimes these were foundations of a seigniorial matrix, to take away population from other competing lords (such as San Terenzo, Pulica, Stadano, Marciaso, Bientina) or to stem the expansion of neighbouring city powers (Figline, Poggio Bonizio, Semifonte); at other times the purpose was to strengthen an already existing jurisdiction, especially at times when such power seemed to be weakening (such as Castelnuovo dell’Abate or Abbadia San Salvatore). In some cases, the documents also reveal the role of the local communities and elites who encouraged the rise of new centres by renegotiating with the lords the conditions of their living on the site (e.g. Sarzana, Gambassi, Avenza). Several centres sprang up for economic reasons in strategic areas for the development of trade (Villafranca, Montevarchi, Camaiore, Pietrasanta, Poggio Bonizio, Semifonte) or for the exploitation of agricultural (Belforte, Radicondoli, Figline) and mining resources (Gerfalco, Montecastelli).
(The text is taken from the museum guide, edited by Claudia Tripodi and Valentina Zucchi, Sagep, 2024)