Pasquale Casale: Il Sirente, Crocevia di Briganti

The volume is the result of a long research in the State Archive of L'Aquila and in the archive of the Commissariato del Governo for the cettlement of municipal land use, always in L'Aquila. Pasquale casale, who is an expert in the laws and problems connected to public land use, reconstructs the events of the 19th century connected to the ancestral rights of the populations of Collarmele and Cerchio to collect timber in the woods of Gagliano. These rights went back to the Roman era (2000 years ago) and were strengthened throughout the Middle Ages (476 - 1492 AD) and were questioned to the two Marisian municipalities (Cerchio and Collarmele) only when in 1806 fiefdoms were abolished and municipalities established. The people of Gagliano, to defend their own woods, very often clashed with their Marsian neighbours, and these clashes almost gave rise to a civil war.

Hundreds of people were wounded, arrested, and murdered during timber collection. The timber right was of paramount importance to be able to survive through the long freezing winters, which was possible only with firewood. The clashes often caused the intervention of the Bourbon army into the mountains, in an attempt to separate the more belligerant groups. But not even the army was able to stop the violence, which went for the whole 19th century feeding the judgement courts with trials and proceedings.

With the turning of the century, the draining of Lake Fucino and the emigration to North and South America of those poor peasants, but especially following the ominous earthquake which destroyed Avezzano and all the Fucino centers, those clashes gradually became weaker. The volume shows original documents signed by the Mayors, by the Ministers of the Home Affairs, the Commander-in Chiefs of army units who produced their reports of the events.

On the cover of the volume, size 17x24cm, there is a fine land plan of Gagliano dated 1810, all drawn by hand by a local land surveyor. The first two chapters deal with the laws and customs of public land use and the lawsuit among the three municipalities, whereas the following chapters chronicle the bloody events of the armed clashes. For its historical and juridical relevance, the book was included in the Parco-Cultura collection of the Sirente Velino Regional Park.