We find it needful to retain both terms, Renaissance and Revival of Learning, and 1 For a somewhat different view of the parcelling out into such periods, see the article Middle Ages.
The greater part of the land has always been held by small independent farmers (only about 15% of the farms are worked by tenants), but until late in the 18th century a curious method of parcelling the land resulted in each man's property consisting of a number of detached plots or strips, the divisions often becoming so minute that dissension was inevitable.
A legal parcelling (lager skifte) was introduced in 1827 and slowly carried out in the face of considerable local opposition; indeed, in the island of Gotland the system could not be enforced until 1870-1880.