The intangible inheritance

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The intangible heritage: A rural world on the threshold of modernity (Italian original title: L'eredità immateriale: Carriera di un esorcista nel Piemonte del Seicento ) is a book by Giovanni Levi . It was first published in 1985 by Giulio Einaudi . In it, Levi examines the relationship between the non-elitist social class and the ruling elite in Piedmont in the 17th century and the possibilities of action for the lower class in dealing with modernity . The book is considered to be one of the most important works of the microhistorical trend in historical studies .

Cognitive interest

With his investigations Levi wants to show that the simple peasant population of the Ancien Régime was not an immobile society, surrendered to the authorities and inhibited by excessive traditional values. According to Levi's thesis, the lower social class was by no means exclusively influenced by the elites and, despite feudalism, saw itself as an independent actor in dealing with modernity. New social systems of the modern age not only emerged due to the spread of a centralizing power of an absolute state and the generalization of market relations, but were also significantly influenced by the lower class in their active engagement with the changed environment. Groups and individuals pursued their own personal strategies that could have a lasting impact on posterity. Levi thus ascribes a specific rationality to the simple layers , which differs from purely culturally conditioned intentions to act, in which the lower layer would not have consciously brought about the consequences of their actions. In the course of the work Levi examines the individual specific decision-making systems of the actors. Due to the selective rationality of these actors, these should not be seen exclusively as functionalist patterns (e.g. economic ), but should be supplemented by other categories of interpretation. Selective rationality can therefore explain the individual behaviors that result as a result between the conflict between freedom and coercion.

According to Levi, the rural world of the 17th century cannot be seen as static, hidden and passive. It was a world characterized by constant change, which found itself in a multifaceted, situationally conditioned alternation between homogeneity and heterogeneity towards inside and outside and which actively dealt with the developments and changes of the early modern era .

Synopsis

Levi chose the small town of Santena in Piedmont , southeast of Turin , between 1672 and 1709 for his investigations. Due to the micro-historical orientation of the investigation, Levi specifically looked for an "everyday place and an ordinary story". These everyday fates made it possible for him to examine social relationships, mindsets, economic and political actions, and everyday survival strategies. Using a variety of files such as parish registers , notarial files , cadastral data and administrative documents, Levi tried to combine the various individual fates in a local context and thus reconstruct the social and cultural life of the village.

The original Italian title of this work, L'eredità immateriale: Carriera di un esorcista nel Piemonte del Seicento, refers to the story of Giovan Battista Chiesa, a Roman Catholic priest and exorcist . The chapters Mass expulsion of devils are the life of Giovan Battista Chiesa . The 1697 Trial and The Intangible Heritage. Dedicated to the trial of 1694 , which frames Levi's work at the beginning and towards the end. Chiesa, the pastor and pastor of Santena, is mainly known as a defendant in two court cases. However, Levi deliberately did not arrange these in chronological order in the book, since his questions go beyond the character of a pure storytelling. In the 1690s, in addition to his job as Santena's pastor, Chiesa took up a free activity as a preacher and exorcist, about which he made detailed personal notes, which Levi used as a basis for research. In spite of both successful and unsuccessful healings, a more or less loyal following formed around Chiesa. But these exorcisms, carried out without the permission of church leaders, did not go unnoticed. The archbishop's administration ordered Chiesa in the summer of 1697 to be questioned in Turin and forbade him to carry out further exorcisms. Since he cared little about the ban and continued to offer cures in several towns and villages in the region, he was arrested in August 1697. After the trial, Chiesa was released from all pastoral work in Santena. Chiesa then disappears from the scene and Levi no longer finds an entry in the sources for the entire region.

In the first chapter, Levi presents not only his comprehensive knowledge about Chiesa itself, but also about her social and cultural environment. The main topic is the prevailing understanding of people in the relationship field of illness, sin , religion and magic . This allows the first conclusions to be drawn about the cultural system of the Santena population. According to Levi, the great influx of Chiesa's healings shows a pronounced need for security. Through his healings, Chiesa was able to offer this security and through his preaching work ported a simple and predictable worldview that offered concrete solutions to the problems of the population.

In the second and third chapters Levi turned to family organizations on the one hand and the handling of land on the other. In both cases he was able to fall back on extremely good sources. In particular, Levi investigated the extent to which economic reality is dependent on the social world. The descriptions of three families provided insights into the relationships between different families, differentiations in activities, private investment forms, relationships of dependency, images of women, group endogamy , guardianship and crime . By examining the files on the Perrone family, Levi gained insight into the family structures of a Santen family who managed their land as tenants . These formed less of an isolated unit than a differentiated and hierarchical structure that included both relatives and cooperating allies. When looking at the families of the three Cavagliato brothers, Levi noticed a strong cooperation despite the marital separation of the three brothers. There was a lively exchange of land, money, animals, equipment and work and confirmed the findings from the investigation of the Perrone family. The third of the families examined in more detail, the Domeninos, was placed in a difficult position by the murder of their only son. The murdered man's widow had to repay the family's immovable debts and resolve the conflict with the murderer's family, the Gillio. By accepting a peace agreement that came without financial compensation, she settled the dispute. After years of fighting with their daughter and major financial problems, as well as the murder of their son, the Domenino family disappeared from the scene in 1692. Levi found that in all three families, economic considerations were not the main drivers of family strategies. While competition for limited goods was an important factor, other drives are more directly involved in the decision-making process. Improved predictability, reduced dependence on natural events and social organization ultimately form factors in the event of success in which the economic results are not as large as possible, but as constant as possible. According to Levi, economic decisions were subordinate to the social world. The family relationships, the alliances with one another and the relationships with the rulers wanted to be kept under control by the peasant families, as they were seen as guarantors of all decisions and activities. The families were so actively involved in change and not just passive elements within economic and biological processes. In the chapter Mark and Solidarity , the conclusions of which continue and supplement those of the previous chapter, Levi began a comparison of social behavior and the dimensions of the properties. This is extensively supplemented with statistics. According to Levi, it was not just the common people's strategy to have as little risk as possible in nature and society, but “to improve the predictability of facts and to evade the fate of a world of isolated families or individuals in order to actively pursue a politics of relationships To be able to set work on which one can build social dynamism and economic growth. "

In particular, the essential agricultural resources for the population were linked to the elite local political powers through administrative and fiscal relationships. According to Levi, the people of Santena were consequently in direct confrontation with the institutions and thereby worked to influence the natural and social world. Levi subsequently tried to dispense with an exclusive description of the local community and in the fourth chapter to present the “crisis of feudality in its relationship to the absolute state and its new institutions”. This chapter focuses on the events after 1647. At the center of the investigation is Giulio Cesare Chiesa , mayor and father of Giovan Battista Chiesa, who this year was elected mayor, notary and judge Santenas by the feudal consortium. Giulio Chiesa was neither wealthy nor particularly influential before his election, but at a time when conflicts between the non-independent Santena and the neighboring, influential city of Chieri , Giulio Chiesa seemed to have had a majority in favor of this important activity. According to Levi, the system of rule at that time was extremely fragile, both horizontally between social classes and vertically between groups and clients. In these areas of conflict, all groups reported their own needs, which made the role of political mediator more important. Giulio Chiesa played this role for over 40 years, mediating between the Savoyard central power and the local communities, between peasants and rival noblemen, and thus gained prestige and power. When he died in 1690, his son Giovan Battista played an important role as vicar within the community and will have thought about how he could benefit from it. Converting the father's inherited prestige - an intangible legacy - into financial gain was closely related to ideological views that spanned the entire economic sphere of the time. Material and immaterial resources were by no means in separate spheres, but in a close relationship to one another. Giovan Battista Chiesa was brought to court for the first time in 1694 for abusive financial transactions as a parish chaplain and thus lost the immaterial sphere of his inheritance with which he wanted to secure his financial future. In the confused circumstances of the 1690s and disputes between the feudal lords, the city of Chieri, the state and the Archbishop of Turin as well as extensive war activities in the region , the power conglomerate of Giulio Chiesa is completely lost.

Ultimately, Levi sees the peasant community as "the driving force during a long period of autonomous political activity at the center of a specific period [...] during which the supernatural was an integral part of a peculiar ideological pattern, a peculiar way of acting and making decisions" . In this sense, Giovan Battista's preaching and exorcist activity, which began in the crisis years of the 1690s, suddenly takes on a completely different connotation. With these activities, Giovan Battista was able to independently create room for maneuver in an in-between space and thus serve as an example of a process in which acting protagonists could actively participate in a change and thus leave their own immaterial legacy.

reception

For Francesca Trivellato , herself an influential microhistorian and student of Levi, “Das immaterial Erbe”, together with Carlo Ginzburg's The Cheese and Worms, marks the beginning of the widespread dissemination of the microhistorical approach. The work enjoys a high reputation in scientific discourse and was widely used. The majority of reviews from the scientific literature are correspondingly positive.

Stephen Greenblatt also referred to Ginzburg's work The Cheese and the Worms in his book review in the London Review of Books . He does not place this as well as Natalie Zemon Davis The Return of Martin Guerre in close proximity to Levi's book, but makes a differentiated comparison. After a presentation of the basic ideas and concerns of microhistory, he says in comparison to Levi: “It is here that Inheriting Power parts company with the masters of the genre of microhistory.” Greenblatt also notes conceptual differences between Levi and Ginzburg / Davis:

"Where the microhistories of Ginzburg and Davis attempt to probe with increasing intimacy the minds of their highly individuated and particularized subjects, Levi's study moves in precisely the opposite direction. He doesn't use Chiesa's notebook and testimonials to heighten our sense of the interiority of this exorcist and his patients: rather, he uses the evidence to chart typical strategies and to construct a general cultural model. "

William V. Hudon of Fordham University also makes a strong reference to the approaches of microhistory in the book review in Church History . It specifically depicts how the story of Giovan Battista Chiesa and the Santena families will be used to better understand local 17th century society. In view of the Hudon's award-winning translation of the work, he notes that the topics and micro-historical approaches discussed here would complement a large number of academic courses.

In his review in the American Historical Review, William Monter from Northwest University goes less into the theoretical knowledge of the work, but places a strong focus on the narrative level. However, he picks out two theoretical core topics of the book by writing that Levi slaughtered several “sacred cows of social history” with his work. Levi argues in his work that the family picture of the 17th century does not correspond to what readers might assume. The family living together was not a constant in social strategy. Rather, groups that did not live together would have taken on this formative role through a huge number of alliances, alliances and relationships. The second “holy cow” is the idea of ​​economic realism in land sales. There is no compelling connection between the sales price and the actual value. Rather, a multitude of other factors would have played a role.

Laurie Nussdorfer from Wesleyan University also finds words of praise in the Catholic Historical Review . It also describes the key points of Levi's concerns in detail. However, several times it puts Levi close to the Annales School because of his quantitative research method . Levi, however, distinguished himself several times from the Annales school in theoretical texts . In the final consideration, Nussdorfer writes that especially economic historians would have to rethink many of their ideas based on the findings of this book. Although Levi's writing style is sometimes difficult to understand, the book remains unprecedented as an examination of the social and political background of the time.

AD Wright, University of Leeds , is much more critical in a review in History . He particularly criticizes the role of Giovan Battista Chiesa, which is not explicitly clear to him. Most of the book deals too much with economic, political and social fortunes of the people, so that no direct reference to Chiesa can be made. The review also criticizes the poor comprehensibility of the socio-economic and political analyzes. Wright sees the only clear insight in the book as the finding that the state has been successful in expanding fiscal control in the region. However, this is hardly a new finding.

literature

  • Giovanni Levi: The Intangible Heritage. A rural world on the threshold of modernity. Wagenbach, Berlin 1986, ISBN 3-8031-3527-3 .
  • Giovanni Levi: On Microhistory , in: New Perspectives on Historical Writing. Pennsylvania State University Press, Cambridge 1992, ISBN 0-271-00834-2 .
  • Carlo Ginzburg: Microhistory: Two or Three Things That I Know about It , in: Critical Inquiry 20 (1), University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1993.
  • Giovanni Levi: The Origins of the Modern State and the Microhistorical Perspective , in: Mikrogeschichte - Makrogeschichte. Complementary or incommensurable ?, Wallstein, Göttingen 1998, ISBN 3-89244-321-1 .
  • Thomas Kroll: The beginnings of the microstoria. Change of method, change of experience and transnational reception in European historiography of the 1970s and 1980s , in: Perspektiven durch Retrospektiven, Böhlau, Vienna 2013, ISBN 978-3-412-21086-1 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Giovanni Levi: The immaterial legacy. A rural world on the threshold of modernity . Wagenbach, Berlin 1986, ISBN 3-8031-3527-3 .
  2. ^ Francesca Trivellato: Is There a Future for Italian Microhistory in the Age of Global History? In: University of California (Ed.): California Italian Studies . No. 2 . Berkeley 2011.
  3. ^ Stephen Greenblatt: Loitering in the Piazza. Review: Inheriting Power. The Story of an Exorcist by Giovanni Levi . In: London Review of Books . No. 19 (10) , 1988, pp. 18-19 .
  4. ^ William V. Hudon: Review: Inheriting Power. The Story of an Exorcist by Giovanni Levi . In: Church History . No. 58 (4) . Cambridge University Press, 1989, pp. 515-516 .
  5. ^ William Monter: Review: Inheriting Power. The Story of an Exorcist by Giovanni Levi . In: American Historical Review . No. 94 (5) . Oxford University Press, 1989, pp. 1429-1430 .
  6. ^ William Monter: Review: Inheriting Power. The Story of an Exorcist by Giovanni Levi . In: American Historical Review . No. 94 (5) . Oxford University Press, 1989, pp. 1429-1430 .
  7. ↑ Thomas Kroll: The beginnings of the microstoria. Change of method, change of experience and transnational reception in European historiography of the 1970s and 1980s . In: Jeanette Granda, Jürgen Schreiber (eds.): Perspectives through retrospectives . Böhlau, Vienna 2013, ISBN 978-3-412-21086-1 , p. 272 .
  8. ↑ Laurie Nussdorfer: Review: Inheriting Power. The Story of an Exorcist by Giovanni Levi . In: The Catholic Historical Review . No. 75 (1) . Catholic University of America Press, 1989, pp. 172-173 .
  9. ^ AD Wright: Review: Inheriting Power. The Story of an Exorcist by Giovanni Levi . In: History . No. 75 (244) . Wiley, 1990, pp. 325 .