Cécile RIVALS
(TRACES UMR5608, Toulouse, France)
The use of graph theory in Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val (Tarn-et-Garonne, France) from the 14th to the 19th centuries
Keywords: graph theory, fiscal sources, spatial analysis, middle Ages, modern period
Abstract:
The scarcity and heterogeneity of planimetric documents before the systematic realization of the Napoleonic Cadastre in the 19th century is a handicap for the study of spatial dynamics. Fiscal sources, such as terrier and compoix, allow us to overcome theses difficulties. These documents, considered ancestors to the Napoleonic Cadastre, appeared in France during the 13th century. Used until the 18th century, there are tens of thousands in municipal and departmental archives. They identify the lands of a territory in order to levy taxes. Parcels are described and placed in space by the use of microtoponyms and surrounding features. The lack of map reference complicates the utilization of terrier and compoix. The necessity of an approach which oversteps these difficulties led to an application of graph theory in order to modelling spatial information. The contiguity of plots is considered as links of a network. Thus, it is possible to use the topological attributes of the documents for modelling landscape with the help of graph theory. Each fiscal register and each plots plan on an area are modelled as a graph. The comparison of each graph, which reflects different states of the landscape, is based on links between parcels, to reproduce the dynamism of plots. This approach leads us to understand the evolution of urban or rural landscape and of the society which created it. The Connected Past 2017 could be an opportunity to present the treatment of spatial information contained in fiscal sources of a small medieval town in south of France.