Abstract

The etnergence of the village in France and in the West jean-Marie Pesez When discussing the origins of the medieval viUage, seventeen ancient sites - not all of them villae, of it is of course tempting to start with the beginnings, course,- have been identified within the territory that is to say, with the ancient heritage. of Lion-en-Beauce but no trace of an ancient This, however, is in fact a dead avenue of settlement whatsoever has been uncovered on the research. There is- at least, we hope- no longer site of the present-day village itself. a single scholar who adheres to the classic thesis, Excavations provide the same results. Thus, for first formulated in France by Fruste! de Coulanges, instance, Dracy in Burgundy- a characteristic and later expanded mainly by Arbois de Jubainville, indicative toponym according to the classic thesis further developed by Albert Grenier and generally - did not yield a single trace confirming the accepted without due reserve by specialists of presence of a villa; Dracy is identifiable as a village toponymical work such as Dauzat. The thesis is in only from the thirteenth century or, at the earliest, fact based on the 'fundamental doctrine of French