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RESEARCH PRODUCT

« Curtilum de vinea »

subject

description

Why does curtilum appear so frequently in the Burgundian medieval charters ? And why is it today so well preserved in the Burgundian toponymy ? A survey in CBMA mediolatin database provides some information. Multiform, badly defined in the Latin and French dictionaries, poorly translated by «courtil» , little mentionned in the bibliography, curtilum however refers to a rather well described reality. Both derived and detached from curtis, coupled to mansus, in combination of words with vinea and via, recurring topic in many lists of properties, this land unit is based on a very small scale, arranged in aggregates in a dense network of paths and it characterizes the first half of the tenth and eleventh century. This diminutive form has no more a strict sense but rather a structuring value. Interchangeable, variable, flexible, it is a strong component of habitat, perhaps self-organized, very common in South Burgundy context.