The Struggle for Land. A Couple between Lombardy and Veneto (Teodoro Trivulzio and Bona Bevilacqua, 1499-1532)

Abstract

Conducting a broader research on the couple formed by Teodoro Trivulzio (1458- 1532) and Bona Bevilacqua (1468-1530), I focus here on the processes and modalities of constitution, administration and exploitation of their lands, in Lombardy and in Veronese, at the time of the Italian Wars. Much attention is paid to agricultural wealth as complex capital produced by daily exploitation, increase of soil productivity by irrigation, favors of the prince, loan circuits, etc. Further attention is given to the composition, cohesion and mobility of the social network that makes possible the administration and exploitation of the land. At local, regional and ‘international’ scales, networks, lands and economic and symbolic assets of the couple form a basis of actions that can be proposed to the Prince in the form of an ability to mediate his power, through the local anchoring, circulation and insertion into medium and large power groups.