Page 18 - Upland Families, Elites and Communities
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Giulio Ongaro and Edoardo Demo
Table 1.1 Population of Schio 1472–1764
Year Inhabitants Source
, ascs, b. , Estimi , –, –*
, Savio ,
, Ongaro ,
, Valseriati ,
, ascs, b. , Estimo –
, ascs, b. , Estimo –
, Snichelotto ,
, ascs, b. , Estimo –
, ascs, b. , Estimo –
, Panciera ,
Notes *The estimates using the estimi (fiscal surveys) have been done, calculating the
number of fuochi (residing family units) and suggesting an average of five members per
unit. Indeed, this is the estimate proposed by the historical demographers for the early
modern Italian countryside (Delille 1990), and a comparison between this estimate and,
when available, the figures proposed in the archival documents, confirm the validity of this
theory.
can] friars, and a cloister of Observant nuns’ (Savio 2017, 306, n. 3), while a
century later the Podestà of Vicenza, Alvise Bragadin, wrote that the parish
church of Schio (San Pietro, the church on the right on the hill in figure 1.2)
was a collegiate church with six canons, and many altars built by the rich-
est local families, that paid the salaries of the canons themselves (Istituto
di Storia Economica 1976, 361).
Besides the architectural and urbanistic aspects, it is important to un-
derline the relevant demographic level that Schio had already reached at
the end of the fifteenth century, and that it maintained during the entire
Venetian domination. Broadly, the province of Vicenza, especially in its
northern part, was scattered with villages that by the mid-sixteenth cen-
tury already had thousands of inhabitants. For example, in 1546 Brendola
had 4,700 inhabitants, Montecchio Maggiore almost 3,200, Thiene more
than 2,000, Lonigo around 2,900, Valdagno more than 3,000, and Arzig-
nano more than 4,800 (Ongaro 2021, 29). This important demographic lev-
el clearly played a relevant role in the economic characterization of the Vi-
centine countryside, especially if we consider the morphology of the area:
indeed, nowadays, as in the early modern period, 40 per cent of the terri-
tory is mountainous, 30 per cent hilly, and just 30 per cent plain (Ongaro
2021, 29).
Table 1.1 summarizes the population of Schio, showing a relevant de-
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