It is clearly seen how the medieval history of the territory is inevitably marked by Lucca, and it is precisely the events of Lucca – a productive and commercial power more than a political one and even less a military one – that determine the development of a reality such as Pariana and Villa Basilica. In the so-called long century – stretching from the second half of the 12th century to the mid-14th century – there is that commercial revolution brought about by a series of inventions and reforms (the bill of exchange, the modification of leasing contracts, security/insurance, the Champagne fairs, the development of banking credit, and so on) of which Lucca, in Italy and Tuscany, was a protagonist thanks to the early and, at first, exclusive development of silk production and textile manufacturing in general. The development of this activity and the strong demand for fine silk fabrics from courts, curiae, and the new wealthy bourgeois families produced in Lucca the growth of some powerful Societies, including those of the Ricciardi, the Battosi, the Bettori, etc.

 

The Lucchese mountain area was completely involved in this heavily impacting process, especially from the end of the 12th century and throughout the 13th century. For Lucca, in fact, its mountains were also the natural road area that allowed Lucchese merchants to send their carriers with finished fabrics to the Po Valley and its cities (Bologna, Modena, Reggio Emilia, and Parma) as well as Venice, through the many Apennine passes of Abetone, San Pellegrino in Alpe, Pradarena. But, as mentioned, that scattered factory also opened up in the mountain villages, where silkworms (filugelli) were raised, and spinning and weaving were done by women (the weavers were all women, but the merchants of their products were all men) on the looms they had at home.

 

The tumultuous development of trade and silk production in Lucca produced for a long time a ruling class in the city formed by the largest and wealthiest bourgeois families who allied themselves with producers and transporters of the Plebanate of Villa Basilica, favoring and supporting the rise of new generation bourgeois families also in the mountains. This led to two new situations.

 

The first is the development of roads, hospices, and bridges: Matilda is already indicated by legend as the founder of 99 churches but also of many bridges and hospitality places. That is, the territory was equipped for road traffic, and in this context, the bridge at Maddalena played a role of great importance, especially in transits towards the Valdinievole and Florence. Likewise, numerous villages were founded or developed as new lands or caravanserais.

 

The second is linked to the security of commercial transits, which could only be guaranteed – under the wild conditions of the medieval mountains – through a collaboration of mutual interest between the local leaders – new ruling classes also in the villages and castles of the mountains – and the families from the mercantile and political world of Lucca but also from Genoa, Florence, Pisa, and so on.

 

Local power thus derives from the role that, in the organization of commercial logistics, the local leaders assumed in the control and guarantee of safe transit along the commercial routes from the Tuscan cities and the seaports, across the Apennines, to the Po Valley, the Po River, and Venice.

 

The structuring of power, therefore, is built in relation to the main phenomenon of the 12th–15th centuries, that is, the role of the Plebanate of Villa Basilica, and, in particular, Pariana, as a crucial road area for the trades of the entire system already indicated, from the Tyrrhenian-Ligurian Sea to the Po and the Adriatic, from Tuscia to Langobardia. The history of Pariana can be understood within this general context. Namely, the intertwining of strong interests exercised over it both by Lucca and by Lunigiana, Pisa, Florence, and, from the 15th century, also by Este Emilia, and the action of the ruling classes of Pariana and its territory.

 

In the 13th century, the Lucchese and their numerous societies settled in the main mercantile cities of Europe, in London, Paris, Genoa, Venice, Bruges, at the markets and fairs of Champagne in France, and so on, building in those cities neighborhoods inhabited by the “Lucchese Nation” with churches dedicated to the strongest symbol of Lucca, the Holy Cross, the Volto Santo. That crucifix in a tunic spread throughout Italy and Europe (locally giving a reason for the construction of the Via del Volto Santo, in 1991, by Fabio Baroni, Sulla Via del Volto Santo, 1992) and marked the first great migration of the Lucchese into the world, which even became proverbial.

 

This produced an absolute role of Lucca, especially in the 13th century, over its surrounding territory and, as mentioned, built the extremely fortunate alliance with the major maritime city of the Tyrrhenian/Ligurian Sea, Genoa, historically competing with Pisa. And, therefore, required Lucca to pacify and control the surrounding lands from which, through the many mountain passes, it needed to reach the Po Valley and its cities, Europe, and Venice, by land and by sea.

 

It also needed, as mentioned, to organize the transits, the roads, the bridges, the hospitality points for goods and carriers. A huge economic transformation that provided work and opportunities for wealth to many, no longer feudal captains but new industrial captains in the mountains, places that also became like seaports in the mountains, that is, places for storing goods coming from the sea and cities (Lucca, Florence, Pistoia, Pisa) to then be transported by muleback to the destination locations (as happens in the warehouses and stores of ports, maritime terminals, where goods are unloaded and then distributed to recipients).

 

Thus, just as the Fondichi found at Corsagna along the Strada di Pizzorna is of great interest, so too is the toponym Fondo found at Pariana, which could indicate a goods warehouse terminal.