CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2022
| Author | Ageeva, Daria |
|---|---|
| Title | Regulation of Fisheries and Fish Consumption in the Early Modern Venetian Republic |
| Summary | Fishing on the lagoon is one of the most ancient “crafts” of the Venetian population which significantly impacted the environment of the lagoonal city. It provided sustenance for all strata of the Venetian society and employed a significant part of it in the production and distribution of fish. Especially important during Lenten and Advent time when meat was banned from diet by the religious prescriptions, fish was widely consumed in Venice on everyday basis. Such important economic activity was extensively regulated by the Venetian authorities from the late Middle Ages in relation to both production and distribution sectors. The existent historiography on the Venetian aquatic resource use usually presents it as a successful history of preindustrial sustainable management. However, a thorough analysis of the fifteenth-sixteenth century sources reveals the growing issues with local fish supply which in the following centuries led to the increasing dependence of the Republic on the fish export from the Atlantic, Balkan, and Ferrarese fisheries. Drawing upon administrative sources and historical ecological data, I address ecological and socio-economic processes whose interplay caused this fish crisis in the early modern Venetian Republic proving that the premodern environmental legislation was not sufficient to prevent fish stock depletion and to cope with increasing climate volatility. |
| Supervisor | Choyke, Alice Mathea; Jaritz, Gerhard |
| Department | Medieval Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2022/ageeva_daria.pdf |
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