Liquid streets: early modern waterways in urban spaces

Abstract

The image of urban canals is readily associated today with specific cities, such as Venice, Amsterdam, or Recife; in the early modern period, however, waterways were a commonplace feature of most urban landscapes. Focusing on Augsburg, Florence, and the Dutch Republic as examples, this article will compare urban highways and waterways. Similarities will be identified between their function, their location, and their administration. These similarities, together with a brief discussion of etymology, make «liquid streets» an interesting label with which to think about urban rivers and canals. This article will also show, however, that there was more than similarities to the comparison of highways and waterways: in early modern cities, rivers and canals often went beyond streets and roads in function, location, and administration.