46 elisabeth crouzet-pavan
again surprisingly topical, can be deduced. One might first note that, once
again, Venice seems to be losing its self-appointed uniqueness, though
many historians continue to ascribe to this view because of the city’s cre-
ation and its construction in the middle of a lagoon. Like other large cities,
long before industrialization and the urban revolution, it was character-
ized by its impact on the environment; it wanted to ignore that it was
the source of this impact as much as the public authority found in their
campaign for the preservation of the environment one of the justifications
of its existence. But one might also note and emphasize that, all the same,
Venice had a unique aspect: that of a human community aware very early
in its life of the effect that its historical survival could have on the order of
its ecosystem and which, as such, took responsibility through its failures
and successes for the conservation of that order. One might note, finally,
that the story continues. The Venetian community still fears the rising
waters, and the pharaonic efforts still undertaken today in the mouths of
harbors, with huge resources, take over and improve upon the formulae
with which, for a time, the Venetians in the Middle Ages experimented.
In the 15th century, the flooding of crates was undertaken to restrict the
flow of water in the Malamocco inlet in the hope of reinvigorating the
San Nicolò inlet and to fight against its blockage by silt.62 The project of
today is the prevention of aqua alta through the use of movable doors
that thereby prevent the flooding of the mouth of the port. Elsewhere
in the lagoon, the danger has changed its face. Siltation is no longer a
threat; rather, it is the movement of water, due to the rapid movement of
boats, that is attacking, eating away, and eroding shorelines and barene.
Thus work continues and risks multiply as humans increasingly impact
the ecosystem. The conclusion is obvious. In a disenchanted world, even
if the Venetian community thinks less and less that it is living in a shelter
established by the providence of God, it continues to consider how irre-
ducibly, despite technological advances, it is necessary for its history to tie
itself to that of its environment.
62 Crouzet-Pavan, Sopra le acque salse, 1:356 ff.