Villa to Village

by Riccardo Francovich and Richard Hodges

Published 25 September 2003
"Villa to Village" challenges the historical view that hilltop villages in Italy were first founded in the tenth century. Drawing upon recent excavations, the authors show that the makings of the medieval village lie in the demise of the Roman villa in late antiquity. The book describes the lively debate between archaeologists and historians on this issue. It also examines the evidence for the first manorial villages of the Carolingian era and describes how these were transformed into the familiar feudal villages that are characteristic of much of Italy.

This text examines the important continuing discussion of the rebirth of urbanism in Carolingian Europe. Drawing upon a good deal of new archaeological evidence from southern and northern Europe, Richard Hodges looks at the end of towns in Roman antiquity, the phenomenon of the Dark Age emporium, and the hotly disputed mechanisms which led to the inception of market towns during the age of Charlemagne. Much use is made, in particular, of recently excavated evidence from the Mediterranean, as well as from England.