Our story part 3 – the Lucca Mensa

During the recent renovation work on the farm that is now home to the Agriturismo Due Comuni, we discovered an original stone plaque under the plaster of a wall, inscribed with “1784 MENSA DI LUCCA.” We wondered what the Mensa of Lucca was, what happened in 1784 to merit a plaque, and why it was placed on the wall of our building.
After our first article on the history of San Gervasio and the second on Valdera and the history of the two municipalities that give our company its name, we now want to tell you about our farm and the Mensa of Lucca.
The stone plaque is the one in the photo below; the wall on which it was found today is inside the house, while at the end of the 18th century, it was an external wall of the farm, only becoming an internal wall in the following century due to the expansion of the building.
The term “Mensa di Lucca” referred to the collective properties and related revenues that formed the personal estate of the bishops of Lucca. The bishop of Lucca was a kind of feudal lord and had his own officials who managed his estate and related revenues; with these, he provided for his own sustenance and that of his court. The estate of the Mensa essentially consisted of plots of land, entire farms, and estates, including houses and warehouses, located in a fairly large area. The lands of the Mensa extended beyond Lucca into Garfagnana, Valdera, and the Lower Valdarno, reaching Montopoli, Ponsacco, and Pontedera.
The Mensa granted its lands and buildings to farmers through contracts known as “livelli.” The “livello” is a type of agricultural contract that remained in use until the 19th century, through which the owner (noble, monastery, or church) would grant a property in use in exchange for payment of a fee. Most of the income came from these fees, which were paid both in kind (grain, straw, millet, oil, wine, livestock) and in cash.
Returning to the origin of our plaque, between the 17th and 18th centuries, there was a significant legal case concerning the castle, the farm, and the lands of San Gervasio. The case involved, on one side, the archiepiscopal Mensa of Lucca and on the other side, the Alamanni brothers against the Rucellai brothers. The Alamanni and Rucellai were prominent Florentine families. Extensive documentation about the case can be found today at the archiepiscopal archive of the diocese of Lucca.
“The Mensa, by nature of contract, and as the direct owner, as the castle and the related lands had been acquired by the bishops of Lucca as early as the 11th century, had the obligation to defend its tenant in the peaceful enjoyment of the goods that had been granted to them.”
The case concerned the possession of the castle and the lands of the village of San Gervasio, possession that depended on the authenticity or otherwise of a parchment containing the purchase contract made by Bishop Anselmo in 1075. In 1770, the archbishop of Lucca commissioned Don Sebastiano Donati to defend the interests of the Mensa. Donati collected a wealth of manuscripts and documents throughout Italy over three years, forming a fairly comprehensive collection of jurisprudential and diplomatic materials that he later decided to publish. The outcome of the case was favorable to Donati and the Mensa of Lucca, which obtained a ruling completely in favor of its claims.
The case concluded in 1784 with the victory of the Mensa of Lucca, which likely had the stone plaque affixed to the boundary of the property, now visible at our reception.