In the Florentine society of the Late Middle Ages, where the ideology of patrilineal lineage and the dotal regime largely dominated, the place of residence, filiation, inheritance rules, transmission of names, and possession of property delineated a family horizon that included mainly the male mem- bers among blood relatives and left little room for women who entered and left the house or for relatives acquired through marriage. However, we know the usefulness that Florentines recognised in the construction of matrimonial alliances – parentadi – and the extreme attention they paid to the choice of these parenti. But the affini – Florentines refer to in-laws as parenti – almost never cohabited with the family of the woman to whom they were related, they were not among her potential heirs, and the bonds that were forged during marriage could be undone very quickly, often leading to conflict and resentment, especially when the husband’s death put an end to the couple and often left a young widow with her dowry to be recovered. In fact, the in-laws – the parenti – also occupy little space in Florentine family diaries except when the author described the different phases of the construction of the marriage alliance or its dissolution, rituals and conflicts. But they do not disappear completely and it may be interesting to try to discover evidence they have left behind.

Over the last three decades, worldwide forests have become increasingly the focus of societal and scientific interest. The critical ecosystem services they provide are considered as key elements to mitigate harmful effects of global changes. Most of recent studies highlighted the highest effectiveness of the so-called ‘primary’, ‘natural’ and ‘old-growth forests’ in this struggle due to their specific features (biodiversity and carbon storage capacity). However, in Europe, these forests which represent less than 1% of total forest cover are threatened by unsustainable human activity. Mainly based on pure ecological investigations, most of recent studies have rarely integrated human dimensions so far. Several outstanding issues remain to be addressed about the real nature of the “remaining natural European forests”. Tackling this issue is crucial to know which forest must be conserved and how. In order to improve (i) knowledge about and (ii) conservation and /or sustainable management of such forests, we carried out an integrative and innovative research combining natural, social and human science approaches on a recently classified UNESCO primary beech forest located in the Maramures county (Eastern Carpathians, Romania). First results highlighted that far from being untouched, this current high-value forest results from a long-term co-evolution with local communities. It implies a deeper understanding of the complex interaction between ecological and anthropogenic legacies is mandatory to improve and grant the preservation and sustainability of old-growth forests.

In this article, I propose to examine examples of property entering and existing verious circuits of exchange, and to trace the ways in which these trajectories created communities, of owners and beneficiaries. In particular, I look at the impact of property's removal from the and its incorporation into another circuit of exchange, as in the case of waqf, bequest, or individualized attribution. The possibility of isolating assets from the circuits of inheritance, on one hand, and exchange, on the other, made certain objects of property immune to the possibility of anonymous sale and purchase. Because the fact of removing goods from the to etablish a waqf or make a bequest did not mean immobilizing them permanently, rights flowed around these goods, creating networks of exchange and shared entitlement. By focusing on the specific ways in which extracting, property from the circuit of monetary transactions, and stripping it of its attributes as a commodity, created communities, it becomes possible to see how non market practices also perpetuated or accommodated the possibility of deferred, restricted, or renewed relations.

In the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, friendship played a central role in the commercial and private correspondence of the Florentines. This phenomenon has attracted the attention of many historians who have mostly interpreted it through the prism of patronage. While their attention has mainly focused on the Medici period, this article takes into consideration the previous phase which includes the second half of the fourteenth century and the first two decades of the fifteenth. It tries to demonstrate that the relationship model that anthropologists call instrumental friendship, and some historians prefer to call – opting for less evaluative implications – formal friendship, is better suited to understand the relationships between late fourteenth- century Florentines. The replacement of the patronage model with formal friendship significantly changes the image of late fourteenth-century Florentine society. Patronage takes root in social contexts characterized by clear hierarchies of power and concentrations of economic, social, cultural and political resources in the hands of a few. In contrast, the prevalence of formal friendship implies a social context characterized by a more dispersed, fragmentary, fluid power structure in which the correlation between wealth, business success, family power and political influence is rather tenuous.

The study of the management of the commons in the Vercelli area provides the opportunity for a broader reflection on the transformations which occurred in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, a period which has received limited attention in the Italian historiography on the commons. In actual fact, it marked a crucial turning point, as communities reconfigured their collective properties, increasing forms of indirect management, limiting common pastures, and investing in ovens and mills, which became public utilities of sorts. Usurpations, which must no doubt be viewed within the context of demographic growth and increased pressure on uncultivated lands, are another indicator of this renewal in the management of the commons and of the closer supervision exercised over them by local communities. In the area under investigation, moreover, the State, which in other parts of Italy was responsible for extensive enclosures of the commons, mostly contributed to regulating access to such resources.