Forests, Woods, Roads Agricultural Landscapes as Instruments for the Material Administration of an Eighteenth-Century Tuscan Periphery

On 21 October 1767, the grand duke of Tuscany, Peter Leopold, signed a motu proprio, a copy of which was sent to the court geographer and mathematician, the Jesuit Leonardo Ximenes (1716–86). The motu proprio was about the necessity of obtaining a complete and accurate survey of the forests of the Maremma of Siena, “to understand their conditions and examine how to administer and use them in the most advantageous and profitable manner.” The burden of this task was not to be borne by Ximenes alone. Peter Leopold had two more people in mind. The two other people were Enrico Van Buggenhout, inspector of forestry, and a construction expert known as Imbert. The grand duke ultimately sought to establish control over the management of an important natural resource produced by the Maremma of Siena, that is, wood, and especially the cerro, a local oak tree, and other trees large enough to be used for naval and building construction. He also asked the three deputies to divide the territory under examination into one or two districts (circondari), in order to make it easier to number trees and estimate their value, and he promised to support them in their hard task by providing “any aides they deemed necessary.” The boundaries of the district did not stand for an administrative division of the grand duchy, but rather as spaces artificially constructed to systematize and facilitate control of the natural productions of the region, especially different wood varieties. Finally, Peter Leopold suggested that the three deputies write a detailed report at the end of their survey and propose strategies for the future improvement of the Maremma, “in the interest of the grand duchy and the universal good.” This article will examine the deputies’ survey of the district of the town of Capalbio, at the border with the Papal States and part of the grand duke’s own domain. The survey’s report offers an interesting perspective on the political economy of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany at the end of the 1760s. It shows how concerns with wood production were related to commercial—rather than merely agricultural—questions of wealth production and administration, as well as to the preservation of state sovereignty. The article will focus particularly on Leonardo Ximenes’ exchanges with some of the most renowned public officials in the grand duchy, as well as with the engineer Donato Maria Fini, from whom he and the other deputies—by order of the grand duke—had commissioned a large map, portraying the district of Capalbio.