Over the past decade and a half or two, foreign historical research has dramatically increased the number of studies on various aspects of population history. Scientific centers have been established in many countries, regular symposia and conferences are held, journals and thematic collections are published, dozens of monographs and hundreds of articles are published annually. The range of issues covered in these works is extremely wide: if earlier researchers usually limited themselves to finding out the population size and changing it under the influence of various factors (wars, epidemics), now the focus is on the composition of the population, its natural movement (birth rate, mortality), marriage and family, and the impact of demographic factors on social development - on the economy, morals, law and culture; at the same time, a methodology for studying these problems is being developed. We can say that at present historical demography is becoming an independent historical discipline, which has its own tasks and specific methods, and has its own range of sources.

Such attention to historical and demographic problems is to some extent explained by the" demographic explosion " of the second half of the twentieth century, which caused increased interest in the previous stages of population development. This particularly affected the historical demography of the European Middle Ages - not only because this area of research has relatively detailed documentation and certain traditions, but also because entering the historical arena of the liberated countries and their practical needs (determining demographic policies, predicting the population size, etc.) set the task of studying demographic patterns for science "pre-industrial", i.e. pre-capitalist stages of human history. Finally, the very natural development of historical science, the constant expansion of the range of sources used and the improvement of their processing methods also stimulate the development of historical demography.

Historical and demographic studies introduce previously unknown types of sources into scientific circulation or allow for a new assessment of old ones; they incomparably expand the factual base and often make it possible to approach many scientific problems in a different way. In this regard, their significance is indisputable. At the same time, this huge new material requires proper understanding and a clear methodology. The peculiar position of a person both as a subject and as an object of the historical process makes the "science of people", demography, as it were, a coordinating node of historical disciplines and thereby creates the danger of artificially protruding demographic factors, exaggerating their role in the process of historical development. On this basis, it is possible (and indeed possible) to develop concepts based on the" multi-factor "positivist approach, neo-Malthusian theories, and a" critical "attitude to" traditional " explanations of the historical process. Often, under the banner of "new facts" and "up-to-date methodology", these constructions take on the character of open protests against Marxist methodology. All this makes this discipline extremely relevant and forces Soviet historians to pay close attention to historical and demographic studies of foreign authors.

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Unfortunately, this problem has not yet been practically studied in Soviet medieval studies. The monographs on population history1 written by economists , despite all their usefulness, are largely outdated, as they are often based on the historiography of the XIX - early XX centuries. Actually, medievalists touch upon demographic problems only in passing, as an auxiliary material for solving the main research problems, so most often their articles are specific, local in character2 . In recent years, only one major work has appeared that adequately reflects the current state of the discipline, but it is also devoted to a remote region-Scandinavia3 . The main field for demographic studies of the Western European Middle Ages - England, France, Italy, and Germany - remains untouched by Soviet medieval studies.

The purpose of this review is to give an idea of the level of development and organization of work on historical demography in the leading countries of Western Europe (France, England, Italy), about some directions in the study of historical demography problems of the Western European Middle Ages (up to the XVI century).

A time of "grandiose success" of historical demography, according to the well-known scientist in this field of science, Zh. Dupaquier, the 60s of the XX century appeared. Until then, even the most fundamental works on this topic did not have a scientifically based methodology and were largely based on empirical observations and assumptions, on the intuition and experience of the authors .4 In 1958, a joint work by L. Henri and E. Gauthier was published on the population of one of the Norman parishes in the XVII-XVIII centuries .5 In the following years, several dozen monographs were published on individual parishes and localities in Normandy, the Paris basin, Aquitaine and other regions of France. The greatest merit of the authors of these works (first of all, L. Henri6 ) is the development of a methodology for studying parish registers that have been kept in places since the XIV century (in 1563). The Council of Trent declared registration of baptisms, marriages and funerals mandatory everywhere). Based on this type of source, research was conducted in England, Italy, and other countries. They address such issues as the age, gender, and professional composition of the population, the ratio of birth and death rates, the so-called expected and real life expectancy, the age of marriage, and other demographic characteristics; their changes depending on the property qualification, the impact of economic and political conditions on them, and so on. Other types of sources were also introduced into scientific circulation - fiscal inventories, administrative materials, genealogical data, family records, etc. Research began to become solid ground of proven techniques, lost the character of" guesses based on general familiarity with the subject " (R. Kuchinsky).

There were also the first generalizing works designed for both the narrow specialist 7 and the general reader 8 . Many authors began to "leave" the project-

1 M. S. Averbukh. Laws of population of pre-capitalist formations, Moscow, 1967. Voyny i populyenie v dokapitalisticheskikh obshchestvakh [Wars and population in pre-capitalist societies]. Population growth in Europe, Moscow, 1941. Wars and the population of Europe, Moscow 1960, et al.

2 For example, N. V. Revunenkova. The population of Montpellier in the XII century. "The Middle Ages". Issue 30. Moscow, 1967; A. A. Lozinsky. On the growth of the population of Paris in the XVI century. "The Middle Ages". Issue 37, Moscow, 1973.

3 A. A. Svanidze. To the study of the demography of the Swedish city of the XIV-XV centuries "Middle Ages". Issue 31, Moscow, 1967; Issue 32, Moscow, 1969.

4 This also applies to such "classical" works as K. J. Beloch. Die Bevolkerungsgeschichte Italiens. Bd. I. В. 1936; Bd. II. B. 1937; Bd. III. B. 1961; I. C. Russell. Late Ancient and Medieval Population. Philadelphia. 1958.

5 E. Gautier, L. Henry. La population de Crulai, paroisse normande. P. 1958.

6 He is the main author of a monograph on the methodology of working with this type of source: M. Fleury, L. Henry. Des registres paroissiaux a l'histoire de la population. Manuel de depouillement et d'exploitation de l'etat civil ancien. P. 1956.

7 L. Henry. Manuel de Demographie historique. Geneve - P. 1967; T. H. Hollingsworth. Historical Demography. N. Y. 1969.

8 P. Guillaum e, I. P. Pousson. Demographie Historique. P. 1970; M. P. Reinhard, A. Armengaud, I. Dupaquier. Histoire generale de la population mondiale. P. 1968; A. Armengaud. Demographie et societes. Ps 1966; L. Granelli Benin i. Introduzione alia demografia storica. Firenze. 1974.

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demographic material is integrated into a broader perspective, raising questions about the interdependence of patterns of economic and population development, the mutual influence of demography and politics, law, morality, etc. Articles on the demography of the "pre-industrial period" occupied a large place in the journals "Annales", "Past and Present", "Economic History Review", "Speculum", "Quaderni Storici", etc. This growth in the number of studies on the historical demography of the Middle Ages and the beginning of modern times took certain organizational forms.

In France, research on historical and demographic issues began to be concentrated in university centers-the Sorbonne (P. Joubert, E. Leroy Ladury, etc.), the Higher School of Practical Knowledge (J. de Leroy Ladury, etc.). Dupaquier, C. Clapiche, etc.), the universities of Toulouse (A. Armengo), Bordeaux (A. Higon, R. Guillaume), Strasbourg, Lille, etc., uniting around the National Institute for Demographic Research (L. Henri, J. Birabanc). Historians and demographers founded the Society of Historical Demography in 1964, which publishes the Annales de Demographie Historique yearbook .9 A common program of preliminary research, which is common to all its members, has been created to prepare for the creation of a demographic history of France (MES). Renard). However, as Zh. Dupaquier, before writing it, "still has a lot of problems and unclear questions to solve." 10
In Italy, in 1970 - 1971, a Committee for the Study of Historical Demography was also created (headed by D. Demarco), which unites 11 regional groups based on local universities: Bologna (A. Bellettini), Pavia (K. Cipolla), Rima (e. Sonnino), Florence (c. Corsini), Naples (L. Izzo, P. Villari), etc. Each of these groups has its own research focus. For example, in Pavia, medical statistics are studied, in Parma-a set of issues related to the history of marriage and family, etc. In 1971-1974, the committee held a number of conferences on the description and criticism of sources, methods of their research, as well as methodological problems; they resulted in a two-volume collection "Sources in Italian literature". historical demography"11 . Currently, Italian researchers set themselves the task of creating the first textbook on national historical demography12 .

In England, the study of demographic problems is also concentrated around several centers, mainly university ones, the main one being Cambridge. The result of the work of English authors is the creation of several generalizing compilations13 and a number of monographs of a narrower nature. They mainly focus on such problems as the dependence of the population size on various factors of social development, family evolution, and so on. Studies of English demographers reveal a significant specificity in the development of the island's population in comparison with the general lines of continental historical demography.

Many works by historians of the USA (I. Russell, D. Gerlihy) and Spain (I. A. Shishkin) are devoted to the problems of historical demography of the Middle Ages and the beginning of modern times. Nadal), Holland (B. Sliher van Bath), Belgium, Germany, as well as socialist countries (primarily Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland). However, most of the problems of historical demography are still studied in France, England, and Italy.

Most actively developed from the point of view of demography of the XVII - XVIII centuries, that is, the time most fully provided with the main source underlying modern demographic research - parish registers. Previous epochs, lacking such a detailed and, moreover, uniform type of sources, allowed us to-

9 Initially, it was called "Etudes et Chronique de Demographie Historique", and since 1968 - "Annales de Demographie Historique". The latest issues are themed around it: "Urban and rural settlements in ancient France" (1969), "Migration and population movements before the XIX century" (1970)," New directions of search "(1971)," Technical techniques "(1972)," Children and Society " (1973).

10 J. Dupaquier. La demografia storica in Francia: studi recenti. "Quaderni Storici", N 17(1971), p. 367.

11 "Le fohti per la demografia storica in Italia". Vol. I-II. R. 1974.

12 CM. "Quaderni Storici", N° 27, 1974, p. 950.

13 D. Y. Glass, D. E. C. Eversley. Population in History. L. 1965; F. A. Wrigley and oth. An Introduction to English Historical Demography. L. 1966; P. Laslett. R. Wall. Household and Family in Past Time. Cambridge. 1972.

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Those who try to make comparisons between different countries and periods are investigated much less effectively. Sources of that time (rare and, as a rule, very summary censuses, fiscal documents, family and genealogical materials, etc.) allow us to make only individual individual observations for different regions and periods, on the basis of which it is quite difficult to deduce general demographic patterns. Therefore, some scientists believe that historical demography as a scientific discipline covers the period of European history, starting only from the XVI-XVII centuries, while they assign the previous epochs to the so-called paleodemography. However, studies on this time show that such an extremely skeptical attitude towards the historical demography of the early and developed Middle Ages is unfounded.

As an illustration, we will focus on one of the many works on demography of that era - the monograph of E. Baratier on the population of Provence in the XIII-XVI centuries . It is based on a thorough analysis of fiscal documents, the main difficulty in working with them is that they indicate "hearths" (families, households) as a unit of taxation, the numerical composition of which can only be determined approximately. Baratier suggests a method for processing these documents, based on the initial provisions common to both Provence and other areas of the time. The general picture of population change drawn by him is as follows. XIII-early XIV centuries-a time of significant population growth in Provence. In 1320-1340, a pause and some decline ("recession") are planned, which ended with the "terrible crisis" of the late 1340s and subsequent years, which led to the death of half, and sometimes 3/4 of the entire population. The crisis and "stagnation" continued until the second half of the 15th century, and only in the 16th century did a new population growth begin. First of all, it was determined and went at a more accelerated pace in the Lower, seaside Provence, although until the XIV century the most populated and developing regions were the regions of Haute-Provence.

The population dynamics studied by E. Baratier and other demographic problems associated with it are confirmed both by the general picture of the socio - economic development of Provence in these centuries, and by numerous studies on the demography of other European regions at that time .15 Therefore, despite some doubts about the absolute figures and data presented in the monograph (by the way, the author constantly stipulates their relative nature), the general observations and conclusions of E. Baratier are mostly trustworthy.

Even more interesting are the works of French, Italian and American authors on the demography of Tuscany in the XIV-XV centuries, based mainly on the Tuscan cadastre of 1427-1430. Even for medieval Italy, which is rich in written monuments, this cadastre is a completely unique phenomenon. It is a general census of all families who lived in the territory of the Florentine Commune (except for the regions of Lucca and Siena), with a description and assessment of their property and an indication of the amount of tax they pay. It records 58,770 households and lists 264,210 individuals by name, indicating their gender, age, professional background, and relationship to the head of the household. The inventory materials stored in the archives of Tuscan cities make up about 360 volumes of documents. This cadastre attracted the attention of scientists almost only one and a half to two decades ago. Its text on Pisa (but only on the city) was published and edited by B. Casini [16]. The materials on Pistoia, Prato, Volterra, and San Gimignano were partially used in books and articles by E. Fiumi and D. Gerlihy [17]. In 1966, he started working on

14 E. Baratier. La demographie provencale du XIII-e au XVI-e siecle. P. 1961.

15 For a detailed list of works on this topic, see: E. Carpentier, J. Glenisson. Bilans et methods: la demographie franchise au XIV-e siecle. "Annales", 1961, N 1; "Demografia storica". A cura di E. Sori. Bologna. 1975; "Quaderni Storici", N 17 (1971).

16 V. Casini. II catasto di Pisa del 1428 - 29. Pisa. 1964; ejusd. Aspetti della vita economica e sociale di Pisa dal catasto del 1428 - 29. Pisa. 1965.

17 E. Fiumi. Storia. economica e sociale di San-Giomignano. Firenze. 1961; ejusd. Demografia, movimento urbanistico e classi sociali a Prato dall'eta communale ai tempi nostri. Firenze. 1968; ejusd. Popolazione, societa ed economia volterrana dal catasto del 1428 - 29. "Rassegna Volterrana", XXXVI-XXXIX. 1972; D. Helrihy. Medieval and Renaissance Pistoia. New Haven. 1967.

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Cadaster was started by a group of employees and students of the Paris Higher School of Practical Knowledge and the University of Wisconsin under the leadership of D. Gerlihy (USA) and K. Klapisch (France). The task of the Group was to transfer inventory data to punch cards and then to magnetic tapes for computers. A few years ago, the work was mostly completed and its preliminary results were published in a number of articles by K. Klapisch and D. Gerlihy 18 . However, the final processing of inventory data for the entire district is a matter of the future 19 .

The cadastre of 1427-1430 is an exceptional monument of the Western European Middle Ages. Other materials of this kind are not so detailed, but they also provide great opportunities for demographic research. These include the English Domesday Book (1086), the French census of 1328, the Nuremberg Census (1449), the Strasbourg Census (1473), the parish registers 20, and a number of other sources, usually archival and therefore not always widely known to researchers. Based on these (and many other) materials, the works of various authors deserve great attention of medievalists not only for their factual side. In many of them, the authors try to draw a connection between demographic and purely historical aspects of the studied era, a connection that in most cases is too straightforward, but sometimes it is not devoid of a certain interest.

As an example, let us cite one observation by D. Gerlikhi 21 . In the archives of Italian cities there are hundreds and thousands of family" notes "("Ricordi") - both long-published and known to researchers (for example, Fr. Guicciardini or J. R. R. Tolkien). Morelli), and still unknown. As a rule, they are diary entries of citizens, often replete with various maxims and edifications addressed to posterity. Such widespread use of "Ricordi" in Italy in the 14th and 16th centuries is usually explained in the most general terms: the Renaissance raises the level of personality, and this is reflected in the flourishing of the corresponding genres-autobiographies, diaries, etc. According to the cadastre of 1428-1429, the average age of Florentine men-the fathers of children born in these years-was 39-40 years. The probable life expectancy at that time was 55-56 years; in other words, the vast majority of fathers died before their children became adults and began independent life (the first marriage among men in Florence was usually concluded after 30 years). Hence the desire of parents to pass on their life experience, share their observations, and give their children instructions for the future. Of course, this explanation of the prevalence of "Ricordi" cannot claim to be complete, much less infallible, but it reveals a new aspect of this important historical, source and literary problem.

The connection of new demographic studies with specific historical (especially socio-economic) issues is very close. It is most clearly manifested in two important issues: the history of the family and the so-called overpopulation and crisis of the XIV-XV centuries.

18 C. Klaрish. Fiscalite et demographie en Toscane. 1427 - 30. "Annales", 1969, N 6; ejusd. Household and Family in Toscany in 1427. "Household and Family in Past Time"; C. Klapisch, M. Demonet. A uno pano e uno vino. La famille toscane rurale au debut du XV-e siecle. "Annales", 1972, N 5; D. Herlihy. Vieillir a Florence au Quattrocento. "Annales", 1969, N 6; ejusd. Some Psychological and Social Roots of Violence in the Tuscan Cities. "Violence and Civil Disorder in Italian Cities". Berkeley. 1972; ejusd. Mapping Household in Medieval Italy. "The Catolic Historical Review", 1972; N 1; ejusd. Marriage at Pistoia in the Fifteenth Century. "Bolletino Storico Pistoiese", 1972, N 1 - 2.

19 As Professor D. Gerlihy of Harvard University informed us, only the most general results of statistical processing of the cadastre will probably be published, while the main material will be left on the tapes for future researchers.

20 Although, as mentioned above, universal registration of ecclesiastical and civil acts was proclaimed in the middle of the 16th century, it was already carried out in some parishes from the 14th century: in France, for example, by the time of the ordinance of 1539 obliging priests to record births, marriages and deaths, these records were already kept on the territory of 35 modern departments (out of 90).

21 D. Herlihy. Some Psychological and Social Roots...

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Family history has received a lot of attention in demographics over the past decade and a half or two. One of the achievements in this area is the publication by the Cambridge Group of Historical Demography of the above-mentioned thematic collection "Household and Family in the Past", which in comparative historical terms reveals the development of family forms in different parts of Western Europe, Scandinavia, Japan, and in the Slavic regions. The same problem is discussed in some of Sh. Duby, D. Gerlihy, E. Klapisch, D. Hags 22 , and other authors. The results of these studies allow us to raise the question of revising the traditional theory based on the works of historical and legal plan and stating that the development of the family, starting from the VI-VII centuries and ending with the era of "industrial revolutions", continuously went in one direction - from large, "multi-core" patriarchal family groups to small, "single-core"ones families. Thus, in particular, J. Duby showed that in the XI-XII centuries, during the weakening of the central government, the desire to keep land ownership unpopulated led to the introduction of the principle of majorat in inheritance and the establishment of the dominance of large families consisting of several family-economic groups, "cores". The same thing - the process of consolidation of families and households-was established for Italian landowners in the XI century by D. Gerlikhi. Traditional views are also being revised in relation to the urban family. Recent studies on the material of Italian cities suggest that various processes took place in urban families - the consolidation and strengthening of patriarchal family groups among the nobility and the fragmentation of families into small cells in craft circles. The same differences - the composition of the family, the nature of relationships, as well as the number of children, age of marriage, etc.-can be traced in families of the same socio-professional status, but different degrees of prosperity. Most authors see the reasons for such variations in the material conditions of existence of these groups, assigning a secondary place to other motivations (kinship "spirit", family traditions, etc.).

Problems of family history and other closely related issues (the family as an economic unit, the order of inheritance, etc.) are important for medievalists; this, in particular, was shown by the works of A. I. Neusykhin, Yu. L. Bessmertny, L. T. Milskaya, etc. No less important for solving many other problems of medieval studies is the study of Western European demography of the XIII-XIV centuries.

Recently, bourgeois science has increasingly asserted the view that the" demographic boom "of the XI-XIII centuries led to an unprecedented increase in the number of the Western European population, its"overpopulation". This fact is associated with the so-called crisis of the XIV-XV centuries: the surplus population, depleting land and productive resources, was weakened and as a result of wars, famines and epidemics in the XIV century.sharply reduced; this was the reason for the decline of the economy that characterized many Western European countries in the XIV-XV centuries. This theory is subjected to a detailed critical analysis in the works of E. A. Kosminsky, S. D. Skazkin, and M. A. Barg23 . Recently, however, it has found an increasing number of supporters abroad, and at the same time more and more active opponents, including among non-Marxist authors who rightly believe that the above-mentioned scheme improperly omits an important component about the problem of Marxism.-

22 See G. Duby. Hommes et structures du Moyen Age. P. 1973. In addition to the works of D. Herlihy cited above, see: D. Herlihy. Family Solidarity in Medieval Italian History. Economy, Society and Government in Medieval Italy. Berkeley. 1974; D. O. Huges. Urban Growth and Family Structure in Medieval Genoa. "Past and Present", N 66 (1975).

23 E. A. Kosminsky. Were the 14th and 15th centuries a time of decline for the European economy? "The Middle Ages". Issue X. M. 1958; S. D. Skazkin. Essays on the history of the Western European peasantry, Moscow, 1968; M. A. Barg. Problemy sotsial'noi istorii v osveshchenii sovremennoi zapadnoy medievistiki [Problems of Social History in the Coverage of modern Western medieval Studies]. Agrarian history of Italy of the XIV-XV centuries in modern Western medieval studies and the concept of crisis. "The Middle Ages". Issue 40, Moscow, 1976.

24 This is evidenced by the fact that it is reflected in detail both in the largest collective works of recent years (for example, "Cambridge Economic History of Europa", "Storia d'ltalia"), and in the generalizing works of Le Goff, J. Duby, B. Sliher van Bat, R. Romano, A. Tenenti and others authors.

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social factors of social development 25 . At the same time, both the further development and refutation of this theory are based on demographic studies.

A few words about the current state of research on this problem 26 . The" peak "of population growth is now attributed by most scientists to times long before the "crisis", and in different countries it does not coincide chronologically. Thus, in England, according to T. Hollingsworth, the maximum increase in population occurred in the second half of the XII century27 , in Italy, according to A. Belletini, at the turn of the XIII and XIV century28 . As many studies show, the tendency to decline in population growth appears much earlier than the "demographic catastrophe" of the mid - 14th century, and in Western Europe as a whole-in its first decades. By this time, the demographic picture of different regions was sharply different from each other. If in some areas the population density was very high (in many places of the Paris basin it was at the level of the population density of the beginning of the XVIII century, and in Tuscany it reached 80 people per square kilometer), then in other places it was even very insignificant for that time and here there can be no question of" overpopulation". Thus, there is no direct and open connection between economic and demographic development, as can be seen from the above material, and the efforts of many scientists are now aimed at finding out deeper, subtle and hidden mechanisms of this connection.

Unfortunately, most authors who write on these issues assume that demography is a priority over economics and focus on the study of internal patterns of population development that are supposedly independent of the environment or, in any case, relatively independent. This view is based on the idea of humanity as primarily a biological organism, that is, the Malthusian concept of the development of society. A number of Western authors (D. Gerlikhi, E. Bozerup, I. Russell, A. Robinson, etc.) 29 oppose the frank neo-Malthusian theories of their colleagues in one form or another, but often make serious concessions to them on specific issues (recognizing, for example, the "selective nature" of the plague epidemics of the second half of the XIV century, their special impact In addition, many of them consider overpopulation, which leads to the depletion of natural resources, as a kind of variant of the theory of "decreasing soil fertility".

This example clearly shows the methodological foundations of most Western historical and demographic studies, and their often openly anti-Marxist orientation. The fact that the rise of demographic problems is a kind of reaction to the penetration of Marxism into historical science is also recognized by bourgeois scientists themselves. Thus, the author of one of the latest reviews on this topic, G. Houthorn, characterizes modern English historical demography as a direction that has absorbed the ideas of both Marxism (in terms of interest in economic history) and other schools of national historiography .30 However, it is obvious that in reality there can be no" combinations "or" combinations " of Marxist and any other methodology. And precisely because historical and demographic issues are now at the forefront of the ideological struggle, Soviet medievalists should pay more attention to them.

V. V. Samarkin

25 See G. Cherubini's review of the latest multi-volume edition of the History of Italy: G. Cherubini. La "crisi del Trecento". Bilancio e prospettivi di ricerca. "Studi Storici", 1974, N 3.

26 For more information, see V. V. Samarkin. "The Black Death" according to modern foreign literature. Vestnik MSU, istoriya Publ., 1976, n. 3.

27 More precisely, for the years 1143-1175. See G. Hawthorn. Gli studi di demografia storica in Inghilterra. "Quaderni Storici", N 17(1971), pp. 312 - 313.

28 CM. "Storia d'ltalia". Vol. V. Torino. 1973, p. 1.

29 For more information, see: D. Herlihy. Medieval and Renaissance. Pistoia. Cap. V.

30 See G. Hawthorn. Op. cit., pp. 300 - 301.

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