Die Nutzung und Verwaltung des Wassers durch die Benediktiner im Val Demone und im Val Di Noto im Spätmittelalter

Abstract: In 1092, Count Ruggero d’Altavilla allotted the Cathedral Church of Catania to a Benedictine monk, Angerius. From this point on, the history of western Sicily, whose territory coincides with the Valleys of Demone and Noto, was characterized by the presence of the Benedictine Order. The strongest evidence of the growing power of this religious order over the whole area was the control of water resources. Benedictine hegemony gradually influenced all aspects of the everyday life of those who lived in the vast territory between Messina and Noto. But how did the Benedictine monks achieve such hegemony? What was their role in relation to the increasing number of inherited estates in which water was of primary importance? How did they react to the clash with royal and episcopal power regarding the control of water resources? How and to what extent did the Benedictine presence in the Western part of the island influence the cultural perception of water as an element? The reader will discover how the usage and perception of water resources, already scarce in the 13th to 16th centuries, indirectly anticipated the present problem of ‘sustainable development’.