Legal Definitions - cultura

The term cultura is a historical legal term that refers to either:

• A specific piece of land that is suitable for farming and has been, or can be, tilled (prepared for crops).
• The act of tilling or cultivating land for agricultural purposes.

Essentially, it means tillable land or tillage.

Here are some examples to illustrate its meaning:

• Imagine a medieval land deed where a lord grants a peasant "five acres of cultura adjacent to the river."

  This example illustrates cultura as a specific parcel of land that is suitable for farming and intended for cultivation, such as growing crops like wheat or barley.

• A historical record detailing the feudal duties of villagers might state that they owed "three days of cultura per week to the lord's demesne."

  In this context, cultura refers to the labor of tilling or cultivating the lord's fields, highlighting the act of preparing and working the land for agricultural production.

• Consider a 13th-century legal dispute between two neighboring landowners concerning the exact boundary between their respective "strips of cultura."

  Here, cultura denotes the specific plots of land that each owner was actively tilling or had the right to till, emphasizing the agricultural use and ownership of the land.