The expansion of handicraft production contributed to the decisions of a number of city-states (Bologna in 1256 and Florence in 1289) to free from servitude (serfdom) the peasants living on territories that were under the authority of the city-states. The elimination of servitude led to the ...
In this passage, the antagonism between humans and algae in the novel gets called into question by understanding ‘Life’ as endlessly generative but also indifferent. This reasoning encapsulates a central existential anxiety between humans and other beings that often remains repressed over concerns rela...
The elimination of servitude led to the separation of the direct producer from the means of production. The former servitors lost their plots of land and became sharecroppers (mezzadri)—semicapitalist tenants. A sizable segment of the peasantry moved to the cities, swelling the ranks of wage ...