INGROSSAZIONE. — It is the right by which, through compensation in land and money, during the communal age, a private individual could rectify the boundaries of his property and obtain access to it from a public road.
It was established by the communal governments with the aim of eliminating excessive fragmentation of property, providing it with a better form and reducing the burden of servitudes. To protect those expropriated, public officials called "ingrossatori" or "estimatori" were appointed; they were entrusted with the operations of assessing the lands to be expropriated, and their reports had executive force.
They were considered equal to the electors of the podestà and held a notable economic position, derived from their profession as real estate dealers. They even had their own notaries, with whom they had to take an oath for those assessments they received as commissions from the Commune. Knowledge of this institution dates back to the 12th century, and its utility is recognized by a large part of the city statutes of the following century. This institution is still found in the Modenese legislation of 1772 and in that of Lucca from 1802.