I silenzi di Palladio e l’Italia: osservazioni sull’ultimo agronomo romano

According to a majority of commentators, the villa which Palladius, a Gallic author transplanted to Italy, describes in his Opus agriculturae (perhaps written between 470-480), belongs to the classic “plantation”-villa type administrated directly and manned by a servile work force; some see it as an archaic anachronism, others as proof that this kind of exploitation still survived in the advanced Vth century. Such an interpretation is intenable in either case and requires an acrobatic argument, for the treatise nowhere mentions slaves, nor does it describe buildings to house them. Palladius also fails to mention the system of management otherwise well known for his period and certainly familiar to him: indirect management with a a work force of tenant farmers either free (coloni) or slaves (servi coloni). Indeed, unlike the predecessors whom he avoids repeating, he does not venture to describe any particular type of estate management. His interest in providing a practical, generally applicable treatise causes him to avoid the field of rural economy and adopt the format of a calendar of monthly labors.The geographic of the ‘Palladian’ villa is equally generic, even if it incorporates Italian features. Philological obstination has exhausted itself in trying to find objects that are absent from the text or even deliberately discarded by Palladius. The villa/praetorium is not described as a productive structure, but as a center for administrating and storing marketable goods handed over as rent by the tenants, for that was the principal concern of contemporary landowners, regardless of the type of management. At any rate, on several occasions, we can point out in Palladius’ text some signs of the presence of coloni (also found in De veterinaria medicina), both in and around the villa. The study of contemporary realia in the Opus agriculturae helps us to understand the background of this work. There predominate indirect forms of management, employing share cropping tenants (coloni), managerial lessees (conductores, emphyteots), or even a combination of both. The widespread use of colons partiaires living in vici outside the estate or included within leaves little room for slave labor or hired workers. Slaves are not totally absent, working either directly in the service of the residenceadministrative center villa, or in villulae organised on a coloni basis. Instructive are the revisions Palladius makes when citing Columelle : he eliminates outmoded features, to adapt his subject to present realities. Far from being an anachronistic and old-fashioned plagiarist, Palladius addresses the issues of his days. [J.-M. C., translated by David Parrish]