More than forty years ago an elderly informant in the italian speaking village where i was doing research see journal of social history spring 1974 strapped. Indispensable immigrants the wine porters of northern italy and their saint 1200 1800 on jstor indispensable immigrants recreates the world of peasants who streamed into the cities of late medieval and early modern northern italy to carry crushingly heavy skip to main content bingbot access provided by bingbot. Indispensable immigrants the wine porters of northern italy and their saint 1200 1800 by lester k little manchester and new york manchester university press 2015 229 pp 110 hard cover isbn 9780719095221 this volume explores the world of northern italian wine porters brentatori and. This book by lester k little is clearly a labour of love by a former director of the american academy of rome just as clearly the authors heart lies not i. Indispensable immigrants recreates the world of peasants who streamed into the cities of late medieval and early modern northern italy to carry crushingly heavy containers of wine written in an easily accessible and unassuming style it is solidly grounded in previously untapped archival and visual sources