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Part I
Port Cities in History
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1 Early Modern Port Cities
Harbouring Ships and Residential Settlement
Donatella Calabi
Introduction
As the subject is quite broad and cannot be approached in general terms, with no pretence of providing a comprehensive account, this chapter will present a range of case studies, which differ first and foremost in their physical forms and structures and secondarily in their historical trajectories. On the one hand, I will discuss port cities that have existed since the Middle Ages and subsequently underwent early modern interventions, and on the other hand, those that were built from scratch mainly between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Among the first group, Venice is quite special because of the relationship established between the city and its lagoon. There was no pre-existing sea cove in this location where arriving vessels could be accommodated, but rather a series of inlets along the coastline and series of port functions scattered inside a water basin replete with islands.
Over the centuries, La Serenissima’s excise system grew more and more complex; for a start, it was fractured, with different locations reserved in different ways for different operators, beginning with a number of existing facilities that were equipped and scattered along the navigation canals. The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries saw the further development of surveillance mechanisms and of the rationale for selecting certain locations in the urban fabric. In short, the administrative organization, which clearly was partly dependent upon the operation of the market, ended up encouraging those aspects of the diffused seaport that were the most closely tied to the form and structure of the lagoon and that constituted its valuable assets.
A number of taxes were normally paid through services established at fixed, regularly supervised points, most of which were located along the Adriatic coast in ports that were of strategic importance for the Republic. But the magistrates also had an office at the Rialto that was responsible for monitoring what arrived in the city, for verifying disbursements made, for preventing fraud and for clamping down on smuggling. The establishment of a series of offices (the Visdomini or ‘masters’ of the Lombards, those of the Sea, of the Ternaria, of the Fontego dei Tedeschi and the Levant’s Ufficio delle Merci) divided up administrative tasks according to the nature and provenance of products, and structures supporting navigation spread throughout the city.
In the lagoon city and in many of the cities and towns ruled by the Republic of Venice, various sorts of fondaci (warehouses) were established at more or less the same time in the Middle Ages, both as operational tools and to guarantee regular relations between La Serenissima and the many local public authorities operating in its dominion. In the early modern age, the complex, pivotal role in the Republic’s budget played by excise duties seems to go hand in hand with the existence of a physical location in which, in addition to warehousing goods, officials could carry out the tax collection duties assigned to them. It was not always necessary, however, to construct an entire, state-owned building for this specific purpose: The offices responsible for inspecting certain products (salt, oil, wine, fat) were characterized by their peripatetic nature.
Where a fondaco did exist, it functioned as a sort of island in the city, a special marketplace within the commercial centre. It always corresponded to a form of public interference in trade, through regulations intended to prevent hoarding, shortages, competition or price fluctuation. It was, in short, a mechanism for controlling economic life. To the extent to which it was identified with a particular building complex, the commercial structure became more rigid, intervening in the reception and conservation of goods.
Both the public warehouses for daily food products and those assigned to foreign ‘countries’ qualified as fondaci in the proper sense. From ancient times, flour, wheat and millet were goods that the city’s denizens imported and conserved in building complexes constructed precisely for this purpose.
The system that applied to citizens was soon extended to foreigners as well: Germans, Turks, Persians, Arabs, Greeks, Armenians, Florentines and natives of Lucca who traded continuously in the Venetian market would eventually be permitted their own ‘home’. Given the functions that were carried out there, given the fact they were the mandatory landing point for anyone arriving in the city from abroad and given their independent structure, these buildings can be considered among the most important ‘port’ facilities of the lagoon’s urban landscape, in much the same way as those in the East, in particular in Byzantium and in the Islamic countries, or in Alexandria, which is to say, in those areas most widely frequented by Venetian merchants.
The Ports of the Venetian Maritime Dominion
The model adopted for the capital city was taken and readapted to the physical characteristics of the territories it ruled (Ortalli 1998).1 In this respect, the ports on the island of Crete are significant. The maps produced by the cartography workshops which existed in Venice from the mid-sixteenth century onwards provide valuable information about the port facilities. Many a well-made maritime pilots’ book was published; old wood engravings were taken up again and often reprinted with additions or changes, with the knowledge that they were intended, perhaps, not solely for navigation but for the interest of the ‘amateur’. Sometimes these are only partial maps of a stretch of coastline between two capes, or a deep bay, or a small island that could protect an inlet, or a reef that might inhibit landing or make it easier to pick up supplies. They have brief geographical descriptions, a legend and a few words about the customs and traditions of the places they represent (Poleggi 1991).
Another example is Angelo degli Oddi’s Viaggio nelle provincie di mare, drawn in 1584. In it, this native of Padua describes the Venetian, Turkish, Imperial and Ragusan settlements he had often visited and their qualities as ‘lochi ameni e fruttiferi’ (pleasant and fruitful places). He records the names of every city and every inlet, the capacity and the degree of safety guaranteed by every single port; he specifies the cases in which ‘ci si può far acqua e legne’ (one could obtain water and wood). All this degli Oddi recorded for the benefit of Republic, as well as for the many men who ‘si dilettano di saper et veder sempre cose nove’ (who delight in knowing and seeing ever new things).2 His curiosity was fuelled by ancient practices and by the well-known hardships of seafaring—in the knowledge, however, that Venice derived her fortune from the sea (Concina 1990).
Only a few of the forty-three plates by Francesco Basilicata (1612) are plans (Basilicata 1993). These feature the major city-fortresses (Candia, Rethymno, Souda, Chania) and provide accurate drawings of the walls, the port and its arsenals, the bastions, the gates and even the names of associated ramparts; in the case of Candia and Rethymno, there is a special legend listing these elements of the fortresses. The images that refer to Souda and Spinalonga show the new and existing public salt works that, suitably rearranged, made it possible to increase the amount of salt to be sent to Venice after the loss of a major supplier like Cyprus. They also redraw parts of the coastline and the plains.
Of equal impact is the Historia di Corfù (1672) by Andrea Marmora, a member of the local nobility who, wishing to report the crucial role played by Corfu’s port after the tragic end of the Cretan War, alludes to the island’s inevitable centrality between the East and the West through written and drawn allegories.
The events that concern the port of Zara also evolved over the long term and regard the strategic-mercantile role of that inlet with respect to other landing places on the Dalmatian coast. For almost a century a number of issues made it necessary to rely, from time to time, on expert engineers for an up-to-date survey and well-documented opinions. These issues included the gradients of the land; the problems of landfill, garbage removal, rainwater and drainage to the sea; the need to excavate; strict rules regarding the uses or settlements that were or were not permitted near the coast; maintenance of the pier; and the concern to maintain an efficient arsenal at all times.3 This sort of tool was not only necessary in the large cities: Also on the small islands of Cythera and Zakynthos, the need to guarantee free passage to pedestrians and horses along the shore and assuring the continual traffic of an infinite number of vessels moving around the basin required a careful and systematic technical survey.4
Facilities and Public Buildings
Subsequent or parallel to the choices made for these port facilities is the special attention that the Venetian magistrates constantly paid to the marketplaces and their configuration: new biscuit deposits, animal fodder and flour warehouses, customs offices, the reuse of old buildings as sites for keeping stock or a series of shops and the relocation of the butchers’ shops to somewhat removed, often waterfront, sites in the piazza were all operations aimed at reorganizing and freeing up space.
As such, the new facilities realized over the course of the sixteenth century deserve special attention. Comparing the views and plans of Split from before5 and after the implementation, in 1580, of the town ‘scale’ (a customs house), it is evident that, on the whole, what actually underwent the most obvious change was the city’s port, with the quay that closes it off (Calabi 2003). Following this intervention, the question of filling the basin arises with ever-increasing frequency, in relation to the state, shape and size of the quays, and especially to the mercantile factories that were to be built. Capitalizing on the technical know-how of a cavacanali (canal digger) like Carlo Silvestrini, the final project was a plan for reorganizing the port, consistent with the urban redevelopment work already under way. In just a century, the irregular shape of Split’s port become much more defined.6 In this regard, the proactive presence of Daniel Rodriguez, a Jew from Spain who lived in the Old Ghetto, was fundamental for Split and similarly influential for the Jewish community’s permanence in Venice.
New Ports
The construction of new ports from scratch presents a completely different case. These ports correspond to the needs of inland cities to secure an outlet to the sea for commercial and military purposes. Here just two cases will be cited, Le Havre and Livorno, both of which bear considerable weight in the destiny of port cities, even in contemporary times.
Le Havre is one of the newly founded cities that was destined for considerable development. The importance of the site, where the Seine enters the ocean near Harfleur, is obvious. It is a port of refuge, one that was continually silting up, but remained particularly important for travel to the new world. At the beginning of the sixteenth century it was largely out of use. In 1515 the inhabitants of Rouen asked King Francis I for a ‘shelter’ (havre), that is, basins in which ships and vessels could be safely harboured, with the fortification necessary for their defence. Restoring shore access for large ships was also necessary. It was to be a ‘shelter’, rather than a city, because Rouen, in the Seine valley, was sufficient to enable the High Normandy region to compete with the considerable development of the Flemish and Hanseatic ports (Lavedan et al. 1982: 18–19; Corvisier 1983: 45–55). The year after, the king delegated Admiral Bonnivet to look for a suitable location. After several explorations, Bonnivet chose a site downstream from Harfleur, and on 7 February 1517, the king granted him full power to create the so-called shelter there, in a place that had been recently founded and called ‘Grace’. Five days later, however, Guyon Le Roy, who had been put in charge of overseeing the realization of these orders, immediately understood that the port could exist only if it were able to attract people. A city had to be built. The king accepted the idea, perhaps without even realizing what it en...
