'I Cabrei di Montevergine' on display at the State Library

'I Cabrei di Montevergine', the socio-economic heritage of the Abbey in the 12th-19th centuries, on display in the exhibition spaces of the State Library of Montevergine from Wednesday 12 July, at 18:0 and until 31 December.

The event is part of the vast program of celebrations for the 9th centenary of the Montevergine Abbey Foundation. The exhibition intends to trace a historical journey along eight centuries aimed at illustrating the life of the Virginian community and the constitution of its land and human heritage. The documents of the historical archive of Montevergine - the most significant ones were exhibited among parchments, paper documents and stalls (cabrei) - allow us to follow the origin and development of that vast and rich heritage, which was created thanks to donations and to the pious legates of the faithful but also thanks to the donations endorsed by sovereigns and emperors. From them a series of privileges, various concessions and protections are recognized to the Monastery, as well as the jurisdictional power over the farmhouses and castles of its territories. The economic and feudal power of the Abbey, which radiated in the thirteenth century in various regions of the South, unfortunately suffered a setback with the management in commendam. Having restored its autonomy in the second half of the sixteenth century, Montevergine began a recovery of economic activity, forcing dependent houses to draw up inventories of all the movable and stable properties in their possession, with indication of both the neighbors and the relative incomes.

Much more accurate descriptions of the assets owned by the Congregation are presented, in the eighteenth century, in the so-called "cabrei" or "platee", which are recognized as having a considerable legal value as they were drawn up by public notaries. In all their grandeur, the magnificent watercolor plates of stalls no. 2 and no. 4, in which the assets of the Congregation are listed and accompanied by the plans of the individual buildings, among other things, the crops or tree species typical of the area. Originally born as "cadastral inventories" today they perform an important function of historical documentation.

In the nineteenth century, with the decree of suppression of the religious corporations, the legal situation of the Abbey changed and consequently also the land and movable assets. A new season opens for the Verginian monastery which, having been declared a national monument, sees its economic endowment constitute an expense item of the Ministry of Public Education, of which the general of Montevergine, as well as ordinary abbot of the Nullius diocese, figures as managing director, under the name of Conservator.

Translated with google translate