The estimi of the Republic of Venice as a resource for studying social mobility in rural areas during the pre-industrial era

This paper illustrates the sources and methods for reconstructing social mobility in the rural communities of the Republic of Venice, focusing on the territory of Vicenza. Vicenza was consistently subject to neighbouring powers during the Middle Ages, fostering the development of rural communities that gradually gained significant autonomy from the provincial city. Venice recognized and promoted this autonomy after taking control of the Mainland in the early fifteenth century. Tax collection was largely entrusted to local communities, which had considerable freedom in managing their tax registers. Some of these registers, characterized by annual revisions, allow us to analyse social mobility with high detail and precision through methodologies developed within the SMITE project.