Periodic Reporting for period 5 - Water-Cultures (The Water Cultures of Italy, 1500-1900)
Période du rapport: 2024-05-01 au 2025-09-30
Human-water interactions offer a unique key to understanding society. 'Water-Cultures' aims 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 was the chosen focus for the unparalleled wealth and variety of its archival resources and its rich print history; its 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. An extended periodisation was chosen in order to track changes and continuities, local variations and regional patterns. 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.
The project was based around the synergistic braiding of five key research ‘Streams’, designed to overlap with and inform one another. We took 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 worked within one or more Streams.
1. Springs: from Sacred Waters to Bottled Waters: the complex overlap between the sacred (healing shrines), the medical (thermal springs) and the commercial (bottled mineral water)
2. The Science and Health of Water: how the science and medicine of water changed over the extended period, how this affected water provision, use and consumption
3. Supplying Italian Cities: Large-Scale Hydrological Infrastructure and Water Management: the competing and changing demands put on the urban water supply and sanitation
4. The Hydraulic Landscape: Irrigation, Land Reclamation and Rural Water Management; changing water provision and uses in the countryside, from agriculture to manufacturing
5. The Occupations of Water: the range of actors involved in supplying and managing water resources and their social, cultural and knowledge worlds
The project was based around the synergistic braiding of five key research ‘Streams’, designed to overlap with and inform one another. We took 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 worked within one or more Streams.
1. Springs: from Sacred Waters to Bottled Waters: the complex overlap between the sacred (healing shrines), the medical (thermal springs) and the commercial (bottled mineral water)
2. The Science and Health of Water: how the science and medicine of water changed over the extended period, how this affected water provision, use and consumption
3. Supplying Italian Cities: Large-Scale Hydrological Infrastructure and Water Management: the competing and changing demands put on the urban water supply and sanitation
4. The Hydraulic Landscape: Irrigation, Land Reclamation and Rural Water Management; changing water provision and uses in the countryside, from agriculture to manufacturing
5. The Occupations of Water: the range of actors involved in supplying and managing water resources and their social, cultural and knowledge worlds
'Water-Cultures' organised two international conferences, two international workshops, and one project-based workshop, leading to book-length publications, either published, in press or forthcoming. The first of the international conferences was held in Naples in Sept. 2022 (image1) and was devoted to the substantial manuscript of the 'fountainer and water engineer' Giovanni Antonio Nigrone and his sociocultural milieu. PDRA Bruno produced an edited and annotated transcription of his manuscript held in the National Library in Naples, published by Viella, as volume 1 (image2), whilst a selection of specially re-worked essays from the conference was also published by Viella, as volume 2 (eds. PDRA Bruno and PI Gentilcore; image3).
With 48 speakers, the project’s International Conference (Sept. 2023, images 4,5) presented a snapshot of this burgeoning field and an excellent opportunity for networking, and 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 to concentrate on publishing material from our three workshops.
The first of these brought together project Streams 2,4 & 5 and explored the history of rice cultivation, commerce and culture (image6). Taking water provision and access rights as its starting point, it 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 volume, edited by PDRAs Scuro and Maddaluno, is currently in press with Bloomsbury. The second international workshop, The Longue Durée of Sanitation, was organised by PDRA Valenti (image7). It brought together Streams 2,3 & 5, to analyse the evolution of knowledge, infrastructure, practices and perceptions in European and Mediterranean cities during the early- and late-modern periods. An edited volume of selected essays is under contract with Bloomsbury, edited by PDRA Valenti and PI Gentilcore.
A third workshop, held in Florence (Oct. 2024), brought together all Streams and all team members -- PDRAs, PhDs and one former Marie Curie fellow, Giacomo Savani, associated with the project -- as well as the advisory board. Following a second, follow-up workshop (spring 2025), the results will be published as an edited volume, to be entitled 'The Water Cultures of Italy' (forthcoming with Bloomsbury).
Two initial team-building seminars held in 2021 (image8) were followed by the ongoing project seminar series. Organised by the team PDRAs, it met monthly and featured distinguished speakers from around Italy and Europe (images 9-13). We also held two outreach activites for the broader public to mark World Water Day, in 2023 and 2024, held at Ca' Foscari's New Institute Centre for the Environmental Humanities (NICHE) (image14).
Finally, the project sponsored additional conferences and conference panel sessions. The essays of the 'Bodies of Water' workshop (Cambridge Jan. 2023; image16) are in press for a special issue of the 'Notes and Records of the Royal Society' (2026). We organised panels at a range of national and international meetings, including 'Scientiae' (Prague 2023; Istanbul 2025), the Società italiana di storia ambientale (Catania 2022; Naples 2024), and the European Social Science History Conference (Gothenberg 2023; Leiden 2025).
With 48 speakers, the project’s International Conference (Sept. 2023, images 4,5) presented a snapshot of this burgeoning field and an excellent opportunity for networking, and 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 to concentrate on publishing material from our three workshops.
The first of these brought together project Streams 2,4 & 5 and explored the history of rice cultivation, commerce and culture (image6). Taking water provision and access rights as its starting point, it 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 volume, edited by PDRAs Scuro and Maddaluno, is currently in press with Bloomsbury. The second international workshop, The Longue Durée of Sanitation, was organised by PDRA Valenti (image7). It brought together Streams 2,3 & 5, to analyse the evolution of knowledge, infrastructure, practices and perceptions in European and Mediterranean cities during the early- and late-modern periods. An edited volume of selected essays is under contract with Bloomsbury, edited by PDRA Valenti and PI Gentilcore.
A third workshop, held in Florence (Oct. 2024), brought together all Streams and all team members -- PDRAs, PhDs and one former Marie Curie fellow, Giacomo Savani, associated with the project -- as well as the advisory board. Following a second, follow-up workshop (spring 2025), the results will be published as an edited volume, to be entitled 'The Water Cultures of Italy' (forthcoming with Bloomsbury).
Two initial team-building seminars held in 2021 (image8) were followed by the ongoing project seminar series. Organised by the team PDRAs, it met monthly and featured distinguished speakers from around Italy and Europe (images 9-13). We also held two outreach activites for the broader public to mark World Water Day, in 2023 and 2024, held at Ca' Foscari's New Institute Centre for the Environmental Humanities (NICHE) (image14).
Finally, the project sponsored additional conferences and conference panel sessions. The essays of the 'Bodies of Water' workshop (Cambridge Jan. 2023; image16) are in press for a special issue of the 'Notes and Records of the Royal Society' (2026). We organised panels at a range of national and international meetings, including 'Scientiae' (Prague 2023; Istanbul 2025), the Società italiana di storia ambientale (Catania 2022; Naples 2024), and the European Social Science History Conference (Gothenberg 2023; Leiden 2025).
The "Water-Cultures" project team (PI, 5 PDRAs, 3 PhDs) progressed beyond the state of the art by attempting a combined "total history" of human-water interactions over the extended period, spread over all five project 'Streams':
PI Gentilcore: the provision, management, quality control and consumption of drinking water in early modern Italy (all Streams)
PDRA Bruno: occupational expertise, gender and water provision, infrastructure and use, particularly in early modern Naples and Palermo (Streams 3&5)
PDRA Maddaluno: how early moderns understood the landscape and water ecologies, with specific focus on rice fields during the 16th and 17th centuriess (Streams 2,3&4)
PDRA Schiavone: thermal springs at the intersection of medical, environmental and social history in Medici Tuscany (Streams 1&2)
PDRA Scuro: how water use rights shaped economic policy and the relocation of production sites in the Venetian State during the 17th and 18th centuries (Streams 4&5)
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&5)
PhD Barney Blanco: a comparative study of the role of water tribunals in the Republic of Venice and the Kingdom of Valencia, focusing on justice and violence against water infrastructure (Streams 4&5)
PhD Bassi: hydroconflicts in the Valtellina region (Lombardy), focusing on the elaboration and local application of larger-scale hydropolitics and their social implications of on local water and land management (Streams 4&5)
PhD Toffolon: history of thermal springs in the Veneto (early modern), highlighting the intertwining of medical, religious and ecological aspects in spa practices (Streams 1&2)
PI Gentilcore: the provision, management, quality control and consumption of drinking water in early modern Italy (all Streams)
PDRA Bruno: occupational expertise, gender and water provision, infrastructure and use, particularly in early modern Naples and Palermo (Streams 3&5)
PDRA Maddaluno: how early moderns understood the landscape and water ecologies, with specific focus on rice fields during the 16th and 17th centuriess (Streams 2,3&4)
PDRA Schiavone: thermal springs at the intersection of medical, environmental and social history in Medici Tuscany (Streams 1&2)
PDRA Scuro: how water use rights shaped economic policy and the relocation of production sites in the Venetian State during the 17th and 18th centuries (Streams 4&5)
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&5)
PhD Barney Blanco: a comparative study of the role of water tribunals in the Republic of Venice and the Kingdom of Valencia, focusing on justice and violence against water infrastructure (Streams 4&5)
PhD Bassi: hydroconflicts in the Valtellina region (Lombardy), focusing on the elaboration and local application of larger-scale hydropolitics and their social implications of on local water and land management (Streams 4&5)
PhD Toffolon: history of thermal springs in the Veneto (early modern), highlighting the intertwining of medical, religious and ecological aspects in spa practices (Streams 1&2)