The Water Wheels of Lizzafusina: Technological Innovation, Patenting and Practical Necessity in Sixteenth-Century Venice

One of the largest and most economically vibrant of early modern European cities, Venice was uniquely dependent on rainwater capture for all of its freshwater needs, which fed thousands of underground well-cisterns located in the city’s public squares (campi), courtyards, private houses and religious institutions. Given the vagaries of rainfall throughout the course of the year, the heavy demands of certain trades and manufactures, and the city’s increasing population, these had to be regularly topped up by barge loads of fresh water brought across the lagoon from the River Brenta and poured into them. This arduous task was undertaken by the city’s watermen (acquaroli). The trade of waterman was essentially a menial one, engaged in the arduous task of loading, transporting and unloading these fresh water supplies. And yet, at the loading end in particular, the watermen relied on increasingly sophisticated water-wheels, designed and produced by a series of competing inventors during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Using a range of archival and printed sources, this article focuses on the devices used to deliver water to the watermen’s barges, the State-encouraged competition this engendered on the part of inventors, and the designs, technologies, and strategies employed. The applicants pitched their patent proposals to make them more compelling to the Venetian authorities (the first to establish a procedure for the patenting of inventions), itself keen to meet particular local needs, concerns and requirements. In particular, the article argues that although the applicants used the language of innovation and originality, in fact practical considerations were just as significant in shaping their endeavors. More generally, we shall see how the Venetian example compares with patenting processes elsewhere in sixteenth-century Europe, especially in terms what it reveals about the status of the petitioners, contemporary notions of expertise, the flows of knowledge, and the role of the State.