At the end of the Middle Ages, Venice was one of the most populous cities in the Mediterranean, one of the most dynamic and one of the richest. The Rialto markets overflowed with food, the busy streets of the Mercerie were filled with precious goods, and the countless workshops scattered around the city produced day after day the objects and artefacts that fed the Venetian international trade networks. But what was the ecological cost of such wealth? How did the lagoon manage to absorb the waste produced by the tens of thousands of inhabitants who populated the city? What were the consequences in terms of pollution of the activity of the butchers and dyers, of the saturation of the canals by hundreds of boats and ships, of the constant construction and reconstruction of magnificent palaces and churches ?

This lecture will explore the environmental history of the Venetian lagoon in the late Middle Ages, focusing on the history of pollution and analysing how, in the 14th and 15th centuries, the government of the Serenissima and the inhabitants took action to safeguard their environment, a history that is bound to raise questions about the issues the lagoon and the city of Venice still face today.