724 village communities and settlements
literature. Their era is said to have begun on June 8, 793,
with the sack of Lindisfarne Abbey in Northumbria in
northern ENGLANDand to have ended in the mid-11th
century with the conquest of England by their descen-
dents the NORMANS. The motivations for this expansion
could have been demographic pressure, climate, food
needs, and political problems.
The Vikings initially raided near defenseless and
wealthy places such as abbeys, nunneries, churches, and
cathedrals. They were not always completely destructive
and sometimes accomplished commercial exchanges that
benefited the other parties. Entrepreneurial Vikings who
habitually traveled from place to place were only too
ready to turn to looting, however, especially in the ninth
century. They moved freely through the Baltic Sea,
through modern-day RUSSIAto the BLACKSea and CON-
STANTINOPLE; through the Atlantic to the British Isles,
ICELAND,GREENLAND, and even North America; and
down the eastern coast of the mainland of Europe and all
the way into the Mediterranean.
The Vikings became known and feared almost
everywhere along these coasts. On all these travels they
mixed adventure, conquest, war, looting, and TRADE.
Initially these expeditions were spontaneous, but with
the recognition of the possible riches to be collected
they became in the ninth century carefully planned mil-
itary operations.
The Vikings were famous for their navigational abili-
ties and accomplishments and their fast oared and sailing
SHIPS and shipbuilding skills. They traded in amber,
skins, FURS, precious woods, looted or purchased luxury
items, and slaves. In the 10th century, they began to settle
down and colonize areas, often expecting and receiving
bribes to do so. From 1000 many became Christian by
choice or by the force of kings or rulers. The monarchies
of the Scandinavian countries were their descendants.
The HANSEATICLEAGUEeventually took over their trading
routes and practices in the north.
See also ANGLO-SAXONS;CANUTE II THE GREAT;
DENMARK; GOKSTAD SHIP; ICELAND AND ICELANDIC
LITERATURE; IRELAND; NORMANDY AND THE NORMANS;
NORWAY;OSEBERG FIND OR SHIP;ROLLO;RUSSIA ANDRUS ́;
SEVILLE, CITY AND KINGDOM OF;SLAVE TRADE AND SLAV-
ERY; SWEDEN; VALHALLA; VARANGIANS AND VARANGIAN
GUARD;VINLAND AND VINLAND SAGAS;WILLIAMI THE
CONQUEROR.
Further reading:Yvest Cohat, The Vikings: Lords of
the Sea, trans. Ruth Daniel (1987; reprint, New York:
Harry N. Abrams, 1992); Gwyn Jones, A History of the
Vikings,rev. ed. (1968; Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1984); R. I. Page, Chronicles of the Vikings: Records,
Memorials, and Myths(Toronto: University of Toronto
Press, 1995); Else Roesdahl, The Vikings,2d ed., trans.
Susan M. Margeson and Kirsten Williams (1987; London:
Penguin Books, 1998); see “VIII. Vikings and Northern
Europe” in the Bibliography.
village communities and settlements Early medieval
villages were often small, mobile, and short lived in most
of Europe, but less so in the lands of Byzantium in Anato-
lia and the Near East. From the 11th century such Euro-
pean villages were characterized more by the existence of
a settled rural community having legal recognition and
an organized agrarian territory with known boundaries.
In them a number of functions were carried out such as
activities in a religious center or church, funerary rituals
and burials in a cemetery, courts for communal and
manorial administrative regulation, facilities for the stor-
age of foodstuffs and seeds, centers for artisan production
for trade and local use, some defensive capabilities, and
locations for economic markets for exchange and for
peasant labor. Between 1000 and 1500 they became more
elaborate, organized, and settled, in the spots that many
have occupied to this day. They had various levels of
independence from a lord or an institution, usually a reli-
gious one. Their social organization varied, and a village
might contain people of several levels of economic and
social status from rich peasants to mere serfs.
See alsoAGRICULTURE; FEUDALISM AND THE FEUDAL
SYSTEM; MANORS AND MANORIAL LORDSHIP; PEASANTRY;
SERFS AND SERFDOM; VILLEIN AND VILLEINAGE.
Further reading:Warren O. Ault, Open-Field Farm-
ing in Medieval England: A Study of Village By-Laws(Lon-
don: Allen and Unwin, 1972); Jean Chapelot and Robert
Fossier, The Village and House in the Middle Ages,trans.
Henry Cleere (London: B. T. Batsford, 1985); George C.
Homans, English Villagers of the Thirteenth Century(Cam-
bridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1941); J.
Ambrose Raftis, The Estates of Ramsey Abbey: A Study in
Economic Growth and Organization (Toronto: Pontifical
Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1957).Villani, Giovanni (ca. 1275–1348) and Matteo
(d. 1363)Florentine politicians, bankers, historians,
chroniclersGIOVANNI
Giovanni was born the son of Villano de Stoldo in FLO-
RENCEabout 1275. He worked at BRUGESbetween 1302
and 1307 as agent of the Peruzzi Companies. He was an
official of the mint in 1316; served as a prior in the city
government in 1316–17, 1321–22, and 1328; was an offi-
cer of the walls in 1324, sat as a superintendent of gold
and silver coinage in 1327–28; and participated in the
committee of the COMMUNEfor provisioning food in the
famine years of 1329–30. He was the superintendent for
the construction of baptistery doors between 1330 and- Beyond that, he served in many other capacities
during the period 1320–30, obviously extremely familiar
with the government of the commune. Giovanni fell
political and financial victim to the collapse of the
Peruzzi companies in the 1340s, which forced him out of