Cartografia pre-geodetica, conflitti sulle risorse idriche e politiche territoriali. Un caso di studio nell’Appennino Ligure (XVIII s.)

This paper presents the initial findings of an ongoing research project analyzing a selection of historical maps on a large scale. Through the integration of archival documentation and field sources, the objective was to identify the juridical and technical values reflected in these sources and by doing so interpret the objects and actions described within them. This paper principally concerns the various disputes arising between local settlement groups (ville) and private owners (particolari) in regards to access rights to water resources during the eighteenth century, in a border area of the former Republic of Genoa, in the Eastern Ligurian Apennines. This analytical methodology highlights the close links between the technical and juridical devices connected to the management systems of environmental resources, permitting a reconstruction of the localized socio-political relations that play a crucial role in conditioning them. The results show how geographical local articulation – comprised of privately owned land and large areas of common lands – have a strong connection and correlation with environmental transformations and local economic structure until the present day.