Newly broken fields and cultivation of new agricultural products in the bishopric of Girona, 13th-14th centuries

Agricultural growth in the eighteenth century came about by the introduction of new crops and also by the expansion of agriculture in previously uncultivated areas. In the “Green Book of Fiefs”, a study written for the bishop of Girona in 1362-1371, and in other documents from the manorial and episcopal archives, there is evidence of agricultural growth in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries with similar characteristics to that of the Modern era. The purpose of this article is to define more precisely, for the entire bishopric of Girona, the forms of agricultural growth that occurred in the Middle Ages, and the nature of conflicts that led to the cultivation of newly broken fields (novalia) and the introduction of new crops, such as saffron, common madder, redoul, woad, and a cereal known as gruanum.
Keywords: tithe, novalia, agricultural growth, saffron, gruanum, common madder, redoul, woad.
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