Main entry:

Appuhn, Karl Richard.

Title & Author:

A forest on the sea : environmental expertise in Renaissance Venice / Karl Appuhn.

Publication:

Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009.

Description:

xi, 361 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Forest Exploitation before the Venetian Conquest. Venetian Demand for Forest Products ; Regional Forest Ecologies and the Venetian Timber Supply ; Local Practices of Forest Exploitation and Venetian Shortages ; Perceived Shortages and the Emergence of the Market Hierarchy -- The Venetian Discovery of Mainland Forests. Water Management and Venetian Interpretations of Mainland Landscapes ; Local Property Rights and the Limits of Venetian Power to Preserve Forests ; The Failure of Market Regulations -- Venetian Forestry Laws and the Creation of Public Forest Reserves. The Creation of the Boschi Pubblici ; The 1476 Forestry Laws and the Hierarchy of Forest Utilization ; The Cambrai Crisis, Fiscal Reform, and the Expansion of the State Reserves ; The Expansion of Forestry Legislation and Its Consequences -- The Venetian Forest Bureaucracy. A Divided Bureaucracy ; A New Role for the Provveditori alle Legne ; Sixteenth-Century Forest Surveys ; Harvests, Local Resistance, and Perceptions of Scarcity ; The Catastico Garzoni and the Knowledge Gap -- The Preservation and Reproduction of Bureaucratic Knowledge. Venetian Bureaucratic Expertise ; The Cadastral Surveys and the Preservation of Collective Knowledge ; The Cadastral Surveys as Natural Historical Narrative ; Topographical Maps and the Reproduction of Knowledge -- Nature's Republic or Republican Nature? Peak Demand and Peak Anxiety in Eighteenth-Century Venice ; Institutional Reform and the Res Publica of Forests ; The Venetian Moral Economy of Nature ; Venetian Discourses in a European Context -- Conclusion. The Three Trials of Pietro Gavardo ; Finding Meaning in the Forest.
Dust jacket.

Summary:

The idea of a Venetian forestry service might strike one as the beginning of a joke. The statement that it began in the fourteenth century would surprise most people. Venice is built on a lagoon with no timber resources. This book reveals the story of Venice's attempt to establish protected forests in order to have a constant supply of wood. Beyond the need for wood for heating and cooking, tall beams of oak and beech were needed for ship building and the shoring up of breakwaters that kept the sea from flooding the city. The author follows the practice of forest conservation and management from its inception in the 1300s to the end of the eighteenth century. He details the administrative and legal debates as well as problems with the implementation of policies. This study is a corrective to histories that assume a lack of interest in forest conservation in Europe at this time. The experience of the Venetians also serves as an example for timber use and conservation today.

Resources:
Book review (H-Net)
Available from ACLS Humanities:
Electronic access restricted; authentication may be required:

ISBN:

9780801892615 (hardcover ; alk. paper)
0801892619 (hardcover ; alk. paper)

Subject:

Forest policy Italy Venice History.
Forest management Italy Venice History.
Politique forestière Italie Venise Histoire.
Forêts Gestion Italie Venise Histoire.
Forest management
Forest policy
Wald
Holz
Bosbouw.
Forstwirtschaft.
Umweltpolitik.
Política forestal Itàlia Venècia Història.
Gestió forestal Itàlia Venècia Història.
Forest policy Italy Venice (Municipalita provvisoria : 1797) History.
Forest management Italy Venice (Municipalita provvisoria : 1797) History.
Forest policy Italy Venice (Municipalità provvisoria : 1797) History.
Forest management Italy Venice (Municipalità provvisoria : 1797) History.
Italy Venice
Venedig
Venetië (stad)
Venedig (Provinz)
Venetien.

Form/genre:

History

Holdings:

Location: Library main 280049
Call No.: BIB 216472
Status: Available