Agricultural History Review, Volume 58 Part 1 (2010), p. 147

This edited volume of essays on population, territory and rural society in Catalonia, Spain and Western Europe, from the early middle ages to the present day, is based on some 30 presentations to a conference held in Alguaire (Lleida) in April 2007, with a number of fine contributions by a distinguished group of agricultural historians, historical geographers and rural archaeologists. Impressively, it constitutes the sixth volume in an ambitious series on ‘Agrarian systems, social organization and local power’, published by the Institut d’Estudis Ilerdencs, which has previously focused on such topics as communal property, peasant solidarity, social control, fairs and markets and living conditions. After an all-too-brief introduction by the editors, Jordi Bolòs and Enric Vicedo, followed by a short introductory survey on the population of Western Europe in the middle ages by Aymat Catafau, the book is divided into two sections: one on fortified farmsteads (masos) and population in Catalunya Nova (Tarragona and Lleida) and another entitled ‘Population, territory and rural history’, which contains ten contributions on the Països Catalans and a further eight on Andalusia, Cantabria, Galicia and the Basque Country.

A number of contributions, such as Llorenç Ferrer’s erudite bibliographical essay on the geography of Catalan masos, Enric Mendizàbal’s authoritative account on population and territorial development in the Principality after 1700 and Miguel Hector Fernández Carrión’s well-crafted survey on the populations of Spain and Andalusia in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, deal with the broader picture. Otherwise, most of the book’s contributors provide the reader with more detailed local studies, many of them from hitherto unutilized local archival sources. These include an account of the provision of water to the lead mines of el Molar in the Priorat at the end of the sixteenth century by Albert Martínez, a fascinating study of the colonization of the Ebro delta, in the vicinity of Tortosa, from the early nineteenth century onwards by Emeteri Fabregat and an essay on the archaeology of deserted villages (despoblados) in the Basque province of Álava by Juan Antonio Quirós Castillo. The main emphasis of the book is on the medieval period, whilst only half a handful of studies concern themselves with the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

My general impression of this fine miscellany is that, in common with its companion volumes, it displays a remarkable labour of love by scholars from a variety of disciplines – both young and old – who are keen to share with others not only the rich past of the many corners of rural Catalonia but also to put across their findings in the wider context of the most up-to-date investigations and methodologies by leading scholars throughout Spain and across the European continent. As before, the collection is beautifully presented. It boasts an extensive assortment of maps, charts, diagrams and photographs. There are also a number of detailed bibliographies which will be a considerable use to the general reader as well as to avid researchers.