Toponymy and longue durée: Terra di Lavoro from late antiquity to the present day

The paper presents the main stages of definition and evolution of the geographic space and of the toponyms connected to the ancient province of Terra di Lavoro (the Romans’ Campania felix or Leboria), a province that has no longer existed since 1927 (abolished by decree of the Fascist regime), but characterized by uninterrupted continuity of settlement and by a longstanding historical and geographical stability from the Italic and Greek settlements to that of the Romans, from the Lombards and Norman-Swabians to the modern and contemporary age. Therefore, the geo-historical events and the connected evolution of toponymy of Terra di Lavoro constitute an exemplar case study, in the dimension of the longue durée, of phenomena of permanence, transformation and oblivion of geographical names. A brief presentation will be devoted to LITORE (Liburiae T(op)onomasticum Repertorium) a digital database under construction on the toponymy and onomastics of Liburia/Terra di Lavoro.