The Water Supply System of Siena, Italy: The Medieval Roots of the Modern Networked City (Studies in Medieval History and Culture)

The United Nations declared 2003 the “International Year of Freshwater.” It was only fitting that I began the process of revising this manuscript for publication in that year. The residents of medieval Siena found a brilliant, and for its day, “high-tech” system of water supply that had minimal impacts on the environment. If a millennium of continuous operation is evidence of a sustainable system, then one could describe Siena’s system with that increasingly popular term. One need only contrast it with the worrisome trend of “mining” glacial deposits of water around the world. Edward Goldsmith described the lessons such systems could teach us today in his aptly titled, “Learning to Live with Nature.” There is much we can learn from Siena. List of Figures Series Editor Foreword Preface and Acknowledgments Chapter One. Introduction Chapter Two. Physical and Historical Context Chapter Three. Fountains and Aqueducts Chapter Four. Regulation of Water Chapter Five. Antecedents, Parallels, and Diffusion Chapter Six. Sienese Engineers and their Urban Patrons Chapter Seven. Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index The book reviews scholarly literature and archival sources including maps and diagrams, to better situate Siena's achievement in urban history and broadens our understanding of medieval technology and urban life. Michael P. Kucher. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 183-208) And Index.