Land, People and Wealth in the Paduan Suburbs: A Socio-Economic Analysis in the Venetian Mainland (16th-18th centuries)

This thesis examines the demographic, social, and economic structure of the northern Termini of Padua (Arcella, Torre, and Mortise) between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries through a systematic analysis of Early Modern fiscal sources. The study is primarily based on the land tax registers of 1564 and 1685 and on the Anagrafi Venete of the second half of the eighteenth century, which are interpreted not merely as instruments of taxation but as administrative and identity-shaping records capable of revealing practices of land ownership, tenure, and use. The research combines palaeographic analysis, quantitative data processing, and socio-economic interpretation to reconstruct patterns of property, renting, emphyteusis, forms of payment, family strategies, and population structure in an area of transition between city and countryside. A long-term comparative approach highlights the evolution of landholding practices, the central role of tenants and large urban and ecclesiastical landowners, and the complexity and adaptability of the agrarian and manufacturing system of Padua’s peri-urban communities in the Early Modern period.