La strada proibita. L'uso delle strade nel sacro romano impero in epoca moderna

Abstract

The Road. On the use of roads in the early modern Holy Roman empire. Exploring the distinction. Exploring the distinction between ordinarv and forbidden roads in the Holy roman Empire, this article addresses a central feature of the early modern roadscape. In the fractures lands of early modern Germany, the ability to criminalize the use of certain road and force mobile populations onto ordinary roads was an essential tool for channelling commercial flows through a ruler's dominion and his toll stations. the first part of this article reviews the prevalence of roads in the medieval and early modern Old Reich and discusses the difficulties that many authorities faced when they attempted to enforce such restrictions vis-a-vis neighbouring authorities, mobile populations, and local communities in Thuringia, one of the Empire's most fragmented regions. Centring on a official who leveraged his authority highlights the importance of a micro-historical approach for understanding road politics in old-regime Europe. The conclusion places the results in a broader methodological perspective