ABSTRACT
Do “maintenance cultures” exist? Do interruptions, disinvestment, and reactivation of maintenance activities make it possible to identify historical junctures that determine the transition from one maintenance culture to another? The chapter considers a long period, between the 9th and the 15th centuries, and then, as an example, the transition between two different maintenance cultures in Northern Italy at the end of the Middle Ages. As a consequence of the birth of the Duchy of Savoy (1416), some important maintenance activities of the main communication assets became the property and exclusive rights of the “State”, as they were essential for its very existence. The chapter examines some articles of the statutes issued by the Duke of Savoy, the Decreta Sabaudiae Ducalia (1430), concerning maintenance. Finally, a concrete case of maintenance management in the Duchy is briefly analyzed by means of the accounts of the Castle of Cly (Valle d’Aosta).
