Medieval Agriculture, the Southern French Countryside, and the Early Cistercians A Study of 43 Monasteries Transactions, American Philosophical Society (vol. 76, part 5) – PDF/EPUB Version Downloadable

This is a print on demand publication. A study of medieval ag., of the rural world of southern France, & of the early corporate farms of the new religious order of Citeaux, founded in Burgundy in 1098 & imported into southern France in the mid-12th cent. It is a study of the agriculture & pastoralism practiced by the white monks, as the Cistercians were called, in a region which is both vast & varied in topography, climate, & custom. Assesses that order’s contributions to southern-French economic development in the 12th & 13th cent. The Cistercians did not acquire lands for their newly consolidated farms — the granges — through clearance & reclamation of unoccupied lands, but rather through the careful purchase & reorg. of holdings which had often had a long history of cultivation. Maps & tables.