Société rurale et histoire du paysage à Byzance

Twenty papers published between 1974 and 2005, dedicated to the history of land occupation and of the landscape in two provinces of the Byzantine empire, the Eastern Macedonia and Bithynia, from the IXth to the XIVth century through related questions, such as economy, taxes, environment, rural society, anthroponomy, toponymy and topography, and the demography, whose evolution played a decisive role in the history of the countryside. They break with the idea of a Byzantine specificity, underlining on the contrary, in spite of institutional differences, the similarity between the Eastern and Western Mediterranean. They invalidate, thanks in particular to the archives of Athos and paleogeography, the pessimistic representation that we had for a long time of the history of the land in Byzantium. It is not in decline but rather developing.