venice and its surroundings 27
The words therefore have a history, and their history, here that of the
word “Venice,” tells a different story. We can see why the relationship of
Rialto-Venice to the environment in which the city was born and then
grew was not the object of analysis for a long time. Any reflection on this
matter was influenced by the radical transformation of balances within
the lagoons and the establishment of the Venetian metropolis. It is often
treated as though Venice has, naturally, always commanded its surround-
ing waters, those very waters which are deprived of their identity. Thus
we discover a fundamental fact and a strange paradox that stand to be
explained: the most unique trait of Venice, that of its site as a town “sit-
ting on the water,” built “in the furthest reaches of the Adriatic Sea,” has
been considered in the longue durée as a reality undeserving of critical
commentary. At best, and without delving into deep chronology, scholarly
attention often focused on hydrographic projects or coastal consolidation
in modern times. As for the lagoons, they did receive individual analysis
from time to time, but because these studies offered none of the neces-
sary ties to the men who originally populated the area, and because they
were more interested in geographic data, they often failed to transform
the geographical matter into an historical object.
This chapter will therefore first put emphasis on that system of rep-
resentations that, constructed by Venetian chronicles and histories, was
then solidified by historiography. It will then be possible to bring both
consistency and life back to the relationships that the Venetian commu-
nity entertained within its own milieu.
The Refuge Lagoons or the Origins of an Environmental FableA first observation is required. The lagoons are widely present in the earli-
est Venetian chronicles. One need only mention Giovanni Diacono’s nar-
rative of the settlement of the lagoon site.2 This chronicler invents, as we
know, the theme of a double foundation. According to Diacono, there was
supposedly an initial “Terraferma Venice” that was prosperous until the
invasions. Then came a second foundation, in the lagoons this time, due
2 G. B. Monticolo, ed., Cronache veneziane antichissime, Fonti per la storia d’Italia (Rome,
1890); M. de Biasi ed., La cronaca veneziana di Giovanni Diacono, 2 vols (Venice, 1988). It
is today believed that La Chronica de singulis patriarchis Novae Aquileiae, published in the
Cronache veneziane antichissime, was composed between 1045 and 1053. The oldest Vene-
tian narrative source is thus the text by Giovanni Diacono.