Toward the Perfect City: Urban Development in the Quattrocento

De’ Barbari’s legendary View represents the culmination of well over a century of urban development and refinement. During this period, Venice’s population grew, its fabric became ever denser, its palazzi ever more grandiose, refined, and imposing. The city also expanded physically by means of a number of substantial reclamation projects around its perimeter. Chapter 12 attempts to trace and summarize some of these key developments, together with an assessment of their achievement in terms of progress toward the “perfect city.” These new developments had an essentially practical value, providing more land for expansion in this extremely densely developed city, but they also all contributed toward the renovatio urbis and the creation of the “ideal” capital city. In addition, the period saw a series of measures intended to improve the urban experience; these included the paving of streets, the excavation of new wells, and the relocation of industrial activities.