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The Gregorian Cadastre

The Gregorian Cadastre is a  general geometric particle land registry of the Papal State: started by Pius VII in 1816, after the Napoleonic experience, it is defined in this way because it was completed by Gregory XVI in 1835. 

In 1816 Pius VII established the Congregation of Land Registers: the central body that was to establish uniform rules and procedures for the estimation of rural and urban funds. In the Papal State there was no uniform measure and it was decided to use the metric system introduced by the French system rather than the more complex “Roman rubbio”, made up of 3703 square architectural pipes. On the site of the "Imago" project that carried out the digitization of the Gregorian Cadastre it is specified "The linear measure adopted was therefore the census barrel corresponding to the meter and divided into 10 palms (dm), equal to 100 ounces (cm) or 1000 minutes ( mm). For the surfaces, the square of 10 boards (corresponding to the hectare, i.e. 10,000 m2), the board of 1000 square pipes (equal to 1000 m2) and the square pipe (1 m2) were adopted, in turn divided into palms , square ounces and minutes. Compared to the French period, the names changed but not the substance. "

In addition to the rural funds, the mapping ("Map") of urban centers usually built at a scale of 1: 2000 assumes considerable importance, together with these two further copies on a reduced scale at 1: 4000 or 1: 8000 (the " Mappette "), with the  original scale reproduction of the "block" or inhabited centers, placed in the margin or attached. The cadastral parcels were  depicted in the  "Map" ed  identified by a number assigned to it within a unique numerical progression for each map. This was then described in the land registry or brogliardo, which also indicated the name of the owner.

These are the pages  web del with the Gregorian Cadastre and the "brogliardo" with the territory of the city of Umbertide after the Napoleonic age. Clicking here opens the page of the Gregorian Cadastre of the State Archives of Rome, at this point choose the "box" Perugia ", highlighted in the image in red, and then click on" Fratta "... so you can do it in analogous way for Pietralunga, Montone etc; alternatively click directly on the image below in this way the "Fratta" viewer of the "imago" project will open immediately, which has digitized the parts with the main towns and cities of the Gregorian Cadastre.

To see the  "brogliardo" with  the number of the parcel visible on the map of the Gregorian Cadastre with the names of the respective ones  owners and some property description items  just click here to see the  relative "brogliardo " always of the Cadastre of the "Ecclesiastical State".

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The Gregorian cadastre arrived considerably late, almost a century, compared to the census experiences of a large part of Italy. The move to this new tool hides a political struggle between the forces they wanted  control of wealth and property information. The land registry, says Renato Zangheri, in his " Cadastre and ownership of the land ", is " an irreplaceable tool for ascertaining the status of the" ownership "of the land, which for many centuries was the fundamental means of production, the source of wealth and the main basis of power ....   It is a rich and treacherous tool that must be used with caution but can provide abundant results. In Italy it is usually more refined, expressive and complicated than elsewhere. "Its structuring hides heated struggles over how to own land and pay taxes. In the rest of Italy, one of the targets among the owners of the property was the related property.  to ecclesiastical institutions. Here, in the Papal State, the problem was different and less urgent because the Church held power as well as property.

Sources:

-  Renato Zangheri, Cadastre and land ownership. Small Einaudi Library. Turin 1980.

-  Imago II project, 1997-2000,  of the State Archives of Rome:  http://www.cflr.beniculturali.it/Gregoriano/mappe.php?fbclid=IwAR3SPsbhE0yDSOzPk5MrT3LVf77oKvYwwqFhUhZzDbdA4DHi4DWrz-9JHdA

  Renato Zangheri  

"  (the Land Registry) ... it was very often a sign of contradiction, the terrain of political and class clashes "   

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