Raccontare, disegnare, incidere l'acqua e la terra. Storie di geografia popolare nella laguna meridionale di Venezia nel Medioevo.

In the final centuries of the Middle Ages, the voice and memory of people create a sort of "popular" geography which tells of deeply rooted customs and practices in the aqueous "contado" south of the Venetian lagoon. The ability to evoke a territory strongly characterized by water and emerged land, is clearly revealed in witnesses' testimony given during the long proceedings aiming to define the boundaries of property and territories with uncertain borders. Strategies of public and private actors who owned these lands and waters were influenced by political and economical interests which affected also the overall design of such boundaries. They define spaces which are contended because of their highly important political and economic value. The territory told through the testimonies of those who lived and worked in this area takes shape also in the Venetian art which, according to different periods, follows in a more or less realistic way the delicate balance between man and nature.