Periodic Reporting for period 4 - Water-Cultures (The Water Cultures of Italy, 1500-1900)
Reporting period: 2022-11-01 to 2024-04-30
Human-water interactions offer a unique key to understanding society. Water-Cultures seeks to write the history and culture of a given society, the construction of its identities and forms of self-representation, based on its changing relationships with water. Italy is the chosen focus for the unparalleled wealth and variety of Italy’s archival resources and its rich print history; Italy’s range of sharp geographic and climatic contrasts and human responses to them; and the variety of political forms evident in its patchwork of different States, as well as the stresses caused by Italy’s Unification. All of this encourages the comparative approach built into Water-Cultures. An extended periodisation has been chosen in order to track changes and continuities, local variations and regional patterns.
Water-Cultures is based around the synergistic braiding of five key research ‘Streams’, designed to overlap with and inform one another. We take our model from the naturally occurring ‘braided river’, which consists of a confluence and transferral of different branches within a single broad channel. Each team member works within one or more Streams.
1. Springs: from Sacred Waters to Bottled Waters. Explores the complex overlap between the sacred (healing shrines), the medical (thermal springs) and the commercial (bottled mineral water) over the extended period.
2. The Science and Health of Water. Explores how the science and medicine of water changed over the extended period, how this affected water provision, use and consumption, and how both responded to Asiatic cholera. Informs all the other Streams.
3. Supplying Italian Cities: Large-Scale Hydrological Infrastructure and Water Management. Focuses on the competing and changing demands put on the urban water supply and sanitation. Part of a continuum with Stream 4.
4. The Hydraulic Landscape: Irrigation, Land Reclamation and Rural Water Management. Focuses on the politics of changing water provisions and uses in the countryside, from agriculture to manufacturing.
5. The Occupations of Water. Focuses on the range of actors involved in supplying and managing water resources and their social, cultural and knowledge worlds. Informs all the other Streams.
The project’s broader societal importance lies in contributing historical awareness and sensitivity to the vitally important issue of the management and protection of water resources, one of the cornerstones of environmental protection in the EU.
Water-Cultures is based around the synergistic braiding of five key research ‘Streams’, designed to overlap with and inform one another. We take our model from the naturally occurring ‘braided river’, which consists of a confluence and transferral of different branches within a single broad channel. Each team member works within one or more Streams.
1. Springs: from Sacred Waters to Bottled Waters. Explores the complex overlap between the sacred (healing shrines), the medical (thermal springs) and the commercial (bottled mineral water) over the extended period.
2. The Science and Health of Water. Explores how the science and medicine of water changed over the extended period, how this affected water provision, use and consumption, and how both responded to Asiatic cholera. Informs all the other Streams.
3. Supplying Italian Cities: Large-Scale Hydrological Infrastructure and Water Management. Focuses on the competing and changing demands put on the urban water supply and sanitation. Part of a continuum with Stream 4.
4. The Hydraulic Landscape: Irrigation, Land Reclamation and Rural Water Management. Focuses on the politics of changing water provisions and uses in the countryside, from agriculture to manufacturing.
5. The Occupations of Water. Focuses on the range of actors involved in supplying and managing water resources and their social, cultural and knowledge worlds. Informs all the other Streams.
The project’s broader societal importance lies in contributing historical awareness and sensitivity to the vitally important issue of the management and protection of water resources, one of the cornerstones of environmental protection in the EU.
"Water-Cultures" has now organised and hosted two international conferences and two international workshops. The first of these was held in Naples in Sept. 2022 (image 4) and was devoted to the substantial manuscript of the “fountainer and water engineer” Giovanni Antonio Nigrone and his sociocultural milieu. PDRA Bruno has produced an edited and annotated transcription of the manuscript (Viella: image 13), whilst a selection of specially re-worked essays is in press with the same publisher (eds. PDRA Bruno and PI Gentilcore).
With 48 speakers, the project’s international conference (Sept. 2023, images 8 & 9) presented a snapshot of this burgeoning field and an excellent opportunity for networking. It also allowed us to showcase the project's advisory board. Given the large scope of the conference and the variety of subjects covered, we took the (difficult) decision not to publish the proceedings, but instead to concetrate on publishing books on more focused topics, as they emerged from a series of international workshops.
We have held two thus far, with plans for a third. The first (bringing together project Streams 2,4,5) explored the history of rice cultivation, commerce and culture (image 11). Taking water provision and access rights as its starting point, the workshop provided a unique perspective on the social, economic, cultural and scientific lives of rice in Europe and the expanded Mediterranean from the 15th to the 20th centuries. The second (bringing together Streams 2,3,5) focused on sanitation, analysing the evolution of knowledge, infrastructure, practices and perceptions in European and Mediterranean cities during the early- and late-modern periods (image 12). Both workshops will lead to edited volumes of selected essays: the former (eds. PDRA Maddaluno and PDRA Scuro) is under contract with Bloomsbury (London), the second (eds. PDRA Valenti and PI Gentilcore) is under negotiation with the same publisher.
PDRA Maddaluno co-organised the “Bodies of Water” workshop in Jan. 2023 (image 7), partly funded by the project, the essays of which will be appearing in a special issue of the the “Notes and Records of the Royal Society”. In addition to these activities, the PI and project team have organised panels and participated at a range of national and international meetings: Scientiae (Prague, 2023), Società italiana di storia ambientale (Catania, 2022), Renaissance Society of America (Chicago 2024), European Society for Environmental History (Bern 2023), International Society for Intellectual History (Venice, 2022).
Finally, the initial two team-building seminars held in 2021 (image 1) have been followed by the ongoing "Water-Cultures" seminar series. Organised by the entire team, it meets monthly and features distinguished speakers (images 2,3,10,15).
With 48 speakers, the project’s international conference (Sept. 2023, images 8 & 9) presented a snapshot of this burgeoning field and an excellent opportunity for networking. It also allowed us to showcase the project's advisory board. Given the large scope of the conference and the variety of subjects covered, we took the (difficult) decision not to publish the proceedings, but instead to concetrate on publishing books on more focused topics, as they emerged from a series of international workshops.
We have held two thus far, with plans for a third. The first (bringing together project Streams 2,4,5) explored the history of rice cultivation, commerce and culture (image 11). Taking water provision and access rights as its starting point, the workshop provided a unique perspective on the social, economic, cultural and scientific lives of rice in Europe and the expanded Mediterranean from the 15th to the 20th centuries. The second (bringing together Streams 2,3,5) focused on sanitation, analysing the evolution of knowledge, infrastructure, practices and perceptions in European and Mediterranean cities during the early- and late-modern periods (image 12). Both workshops will lead to edited volumes of selected essays: the former (eds. PDRA Maddaluno and PDRA Scuro) is under contract with Bloomsbury (London), the second (eds. PDRA Valenti and PI Gentilcore) is under negotiation with the same publisher.
PDRA Maddaluno co-organised the “Bodies of Water” workshop in Jan. 2023 (image 7), partly funded by the project, the essays of which will be appearing in a special issue of the the “Notes and Records of the Royal Society”. In addition to these activities, the PI and project team have organised panels and participated at a range of national and international meetings: Scientiae (Prague, 2023), Società italiana di storia ambientale (Catania, 2022), Renaissance Society of America (Chicago 2024), European Society for Environmental History (Bern 2023), International Society for Intellectual History (Venice, 2022).
Finally, the initial two team-building seminars held in 2021 (image 1) have been followed by the ongoing "Water-Cultures" seminar series. Organised by the entire team, it meets monthly and features distinguished speakers (images 2,3,10,15).
The "Water-Cultures" project team (PI, 5 PDRAs, 3 PhDs) are progressing beyond the state of the art with the following research, spread over all five project "Streams", providing superlative geographical and chronological coverage and utilising a variety of historical approaces:
PI Gentilcore: the provision, management and consumption of drinking water in early modern Italy, from strategies to perceptions (all Streams)
PDRA Bruno: tecnologies of urban water provision in southern Italy, their originators and the technicians who made them work, emphasising the place of water in everyday life (Streams 3&5)
PDRA Maddaluno: rice cultivation practices in the Duchy of Milan, integrating landscape history (the waterscapes of rice fields), with food history and provisioning practices (Streams 2,4&5)
PDRA Schiavone: Medici hydropolitics and interest in thermal complexes; water and bathing practices in Medici correspondence; medicinal drinking and cosmetic waters (Streams 1&2)
PDRA Scuro: how water became an economic weapon in the formation of power hierarchies, in the Veneto, in situations of significant climatic and economic change (Stream 4)
PDRA Valenti: the efforts of social actors, including water companies, municipalities, private entrepreneurs, technicians and users, to regulate access, use and distribution of water in 19th-century Italian cities (Streams 2&3)
PhD Barney Blanco: has adopted a comparative approach to explore the role of water tribunals in the Republic of Venice and the Kingdom of Valencia, focusing on justice and violence against water infrastructure during a time of increasing state control (Streams 4&5)
PhD Bassi: has reconstructed two hydroconflicts in the Valtellina region (Lombardy), showing the elaboration and local application of larger-scale hydropolitics and the social implications of these turning points in local water and land management (Stream 4)
PhD Toffolon: history of thermal springs, especially in the Veneto, revealing religious attitudes towards mineral waters and highlighting the intertwining of medical and religious aspects in spa practices in early modern Italy (Streams 1&2)
PI Gentilcore: the provision, management and consumption of drinking water in early modern Italy, from strategies to perceptions (all Streams)
PDRA Bruno: tecnologies of urban water provision in southern Italy, their originators and the technicians who made them work, emphasising the place of water in everyday life (Streams 3&5)
PDRA Maddaluno: rice cultivation practices in the Duchy of Milan, integrating landscape history (the waterscapes of rice fields), with food history and provisioning practices (Streams 2,4&5)
PDRA Schiavone: Medici hydropolitics and interest in thermal complexes; water and bathing practices in Medici correspondence; medicinal drinking and cosmetic waters (Streams 1&2)
PDRA Scuro: how water became an economic weapon in the formation of power hierarchies, in the Veneto, in situations of significant climatic and economic change (Stream 4)
PDRA Valenti: the efforts of social actors, including water companies, municipalities, private entrepreneurs, technicians and users, to regulate access, use and distribution of water in 19th-century Italian cities (Streams 2&3)
PhD Barney Blanco: has adopted a comparative approach to explore the role of water tribunals in the Republic of Venice and the Kingdom of Valencia, focusing on justice and violence against water infrastructure during a time of increasing state control (Streams 4&5)
PhD Bassi: has reconstructed two hydroconflicts in the Valtellina region (Lombardy), showing the elaboration and local application of larger-scale hydropolitics and the social implications of these turning points in local water and land management (Stream 4)
PhD Toffolon: history of thermal springs, especially in the Veneto, revealing religious attitudes towards mineral waters and highlighting the intertwining of medical and religious aspects in spa practices in early modern Italy (Streams 1&2)