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A MEDIEVAL RESPONSE TO MUNICIPAL POLLUTION.
Robert Laures
 
Presented to the Mid-America Conference on History, 17-19 September 1992, The
University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas.
 
Until recently, a popular past time for historians, sociologists, pundits, and
other politically-correct persons has been to bash the Middle Ages and those
cursed to have lived in them. After all, from the Renaissance onward, the human
condition had experienced a rebirth of spirit, intellect, and innovative genius 
unknown since Rome's fall . Recent scholarship has demonstrated that medieval man
was as innovative, curious, intellectually alive. He was driven to create an
environment as clean and healthy as their technology, priorities, and
civilization permitted. That medieval Italians were environmentally conscious a
took pains to protect their environment is underscored by the words of one of
their greatest critics, Georgius Agricola (George Bauer), who rejects the
validity of the argument 
 
   "of the detractors [of mining] that the fields are devastated by mining
   operations, for which reason formerly Italians were warned by law that no
   one should dig the earth for metals and so injure their very fertile fields,
   their vine yards, and their olive groves. Also they argue that the woods and
   groves are cut down, for there is a need for an endless amount of wood for
   timbers, machines, and the smelting of metals. And when the woods and groves
   are felled, then are exterminated the beasts and birds, very many of which
   furnish a pleasant and agreeable food for man. Further, when the ores are
   washed, the water which has been used poisons the brooks and streams, and
   either destroys the fish or drives them away. Therefore the inhabitants of 
   these regions, on account of the devastation of their fields,woods, groves,
   brooks and rivers, find great difficulty in procuring the necessaries of
   life, and by reason of the destruction of the timber they are forced to
   greater expense in erecting buildings."
 
This statement is important for two reasons: first, medieval Italians clearly
understood that economic activities and industrial production were interdependent
and produced a significant impact upon the environment; and, second, the law was
used to regulate those activities to protect the community's environment, 
resource base, and quality of life. 
 
The medieval conception of pollution was by the nature of the science and
technology of the era far more subjective than equivalent modern descriptions.
For example, current federal, state, and municipal legislation regulating odors
emanating from tanneries and abattoirs enforce measurable tolerance levels far 
more severe than those that would be expected of a society lacking adequate
refrigeration and containment technologies. Indeed, some of the medical lore of
the era indicated that the confined air of the town was more healthful than the
open air of the fields and forests. 
 
Medieval Italian water and land pollution standards tend to reflect modern norms
because the effects of pollutants were more perceptible to the regulators and had
a more immediate impact upon the physical and financial well-being of the town's 
citizens. Discoloration and bad taste in water were clearly understood
concepts; polluted water made people sick and dirty water reduced the quality of
products employing water in their manufacture. And, land rendered unusable or
simply less useful because of industrial or agricultural pollutants frequently
reflected negatively upon a town's economic survival. As a result, local 
standards were established to maintain levels of water and land quality that were
tolerable and measureable within the context of medieval science and technology.
A philosophical rationale for regulating the environment was also available. The
earth was conceived of as a "planned abode" and man as the modifier of his
environment.

St. Bernard, in his description of the cloister at Clairvaux, clearly indicates 
that the land was given meaning through the imposition of human directed "order"
and that the human changes rendered nature more useful and beautiful. In his De
natura locoroum, Albert the Great argues that the stifling, dense air and the
trees of the forest constitute an unhealthy environment for men, but that men 
can control the effect of the climate by cutting down these forests; and earlier,
he advised his readers that the proper siting of dwellings, use of clothing, and
the taking of medications in the proper places will maintain their health.
Philo the Jew, writing during Christ's lifetime, asserted man's dominance over
and responsibility for the environment with these words: "So the Creator made man
all things, as a sort of driver and pilot, to drive and steer the things on
earth, and charged him with the care of animals and plants." Man's mandate to
control and direct the environment was amplified in the writings of successive
Christian writers and was most explicitly expressed in the writings of St. Thomas
Aquinas, who insisted that man is God's partner in the full development of the
earthly Eden and that his use of the "practical knowledge of the powers of
nature" to complete the earth has divine approval. 
 
Given the mandate to control the environment, one must ask -- Did medieval
Italians exercise this mandate? The answer is an unequivocal affirmative. How was
this mandate routinely carried out? I submit that an examination of the Italian
municipal codes will provide at least an informed insight into decisions
regarding the manner and scope of the implementation of local environmental
policies. Temporal and spatial limitations will restrict this consideration to
several significant examples of environmental policies and their implementation. 
 
Trade-related environmental legislation tended to reflect the diversity of
interests among the power-brokers of the Commune. Although tradesmen and
artisans serving on the policy-making bodies were initially few, their numbers
and representation increased as their wealth and economic power developed. 
Already organized by occupation and common interests into gilds, tradesmen
gravitated toward political organizations like the societas populi or the popolo.
The popolo served as a pressure group designed "to counterbalance the social
weight of the powerful and the lawless and ...to achieve for the popolani a
considerable constitutional role in the comune." Legislation arising out of
this political arena reflected the diversity of the town's political and
socio-economic experience and, because it was developed within the "give and
take" of the political arena, it reflected needs imperative enough to require
the cooperation of diverse, competing elements of the commune. 
 
In more specific situations, law were enacted to control the economic behavior of
various classes of tradesmen. For example, the butcher gilds were regulated to
insure the maximum production of the foodstuffs required by the local population
at the lowest possible prices and the least significant impact upon the communal 
 environment. One approach employed by the local elites to limit pollution within
the city was the restriction of the number of places where butcher shops might be
located. For example, Ferrara's statute-makers told their butchers that anyone,
who pays taxes, "could freely build a butcher shop on whatever portion of the
bank of the Po they wished from the headland of the bank of the Po all the way to
the other headland in the city and anywhere on the bank." 
 
Limiting the number of butcher shops had the practical effect of reducing the
volume of the waste products dumped into the town's environment. Butcher shops in
each town slaughtered and sold thousands of animals annually; the inevitable
result of this activity was thousands of pounds of blood, entrails, and other 
waste products. There was a conscious effort to require butchers and meat sellers
to practice their trade in a manner that would not be injurious to the health of
the city's inhabitants and which would leave the city's roads and waterways free
of animal by-products. 
 
There was an additional reason for locating the butcher shops in specific areas
and quarters of the city. A common problem was the disposal of animal wastes.
In Bologna, Bassano, and Verona, the butchers dumped the waste into the streets
until the city fathers banned the practice; then, they dumped the waste 
products into vacant fields until that practice was also banned and the butchers
were explicitly told to take the waste products out of the city. Ferrara, like
many other cities, solved the problem by locating its butcher shops along
waterways and by "decreeing that butchers should have one ditch or cesspool
next to their butcher shops, into which the blood of animals should be 
thrown, and that this pit or cesspool should be enclosed so that pigs and other
animals should not have their way and fall into that ditch." The medical lore of
the age and common sense told the statute-makers that the waste problem had to be
contained and dealt with, but their technology did not provide adequate answers. 
 
The primary solutions available to them were containment or disposal into a
moving body of water downstream from local drinking water sources. The economic
success of the leather-workers' gilds was loosely tied to that of the butchers.
The difficulty facing the medieval commune in regard to tanners was that the
tanning process itself created serious pollution within the town's walls. The 
tanning process was complex and required the use of toxic chemicals including
such exotic solutions as slaked lime, a chicken, pigeon, and dog dung concoction,
tannic acid, and a mildly acidic concoction derived from fermenting bran. Once 
cleaned, leather was prepared for production through one of several chemical
based processes designed to preserve the leather from decay. 
 
The actual tanning process was generally conducted in open pits (and later in
vats). The process was slow, but thorough, requiring some fifteen months before
completion. The process obviously produced a large amount of chemical wastes
which found their way into the commune's waterways and sewer systems. One of 
the primary concerns of the statute-makers was to prevent this sort of abuse. 
 
The only real concern reflected in the legislation was the proper disposal of the
waste products generated by that trade. The Ferrarese statute-makers, almost as
an afterthought, appended a statute to the end of the Fourth Book of the Code of
1287. The statute simply states "that no leather worker or any other person 
can nor should in any way or at any time remove the flesh or hair (from any hide)
or intestines next to the cesspool of the City of Ferrara nor next to the Po on
the side of the city." 
 
Bassano was more explicit. Leather workers were warned that they could no"strip
the flesh from hides, wash hides, or place any waste in the streets or in the
waters from the Bridge of the Brenta downstream to the end of the structure near
the water on the bank of the Campus Marcius." The animal wastes "should be 
dragged onto the Campus Marcius and down into the ditch in the middle and nowhere
else." This law is far more specific than the law of 1259 which simply states
that no one should "strip the flesh from the hides or place the hides in or next
to the Brenta River." Bassan-ese tanners were also warned to practice their trade
within the city without creating nuisances by storing hides in or about butcher
shops or by greasing the hides in the streets, porticos, or meadows of the town.
Again, there is a definite effort to restrict the area in which the tanners
could practice their trade and dispose of their waste products, but no attempt to
restrict the practice of the trade itself. 
 
Verona, also concerned about water quality, insisted its leather workers not work
or soak leather or hides "in the River Fossatum." The next statute in the code is
a curious mixture of concerns. The law begins thus: "No one should throw or cause 
anything to be thrown into the River Adige, or into its streams, narrows, banks,
or into any sewers during the day." It goes onto specify other locations and to
ban the disposal of clearly defined industrial and craft-related waste products
in the waterways of the Commune. Then, the statute-makers relent and state, "but,
during the night only, is it permitted to throw this material into running water
only." Tanners, their apprentices, and equipment were also banned from the
streets near the Palace of the Commune. The intent and problem of the municipal
officials is clear. 
 
The products of the leather industry were necessary to the commune; the
unfortunate by-product of this necessity was both chemical and organic pollution,
not to speak of the smells attendant upon a tannery's operation. Accordingly,
the tanneries themselves appear to have been kept away from the political and 
commercial hubs of the town whenever possible and their waste products removed
from the city at places and times which that would not cause problems with the
town's drinking water. A second major source of protein in the medieval diet was 
fish and other marine products. To render these products salable, they had to be
cleaned, dried, or salted; these processes were also regulated by the communal
governments. 
 
Bassano, Ferrara, and Verona were all inland cities located on rivers which
apparently had fish populations substantial enough to support a fish market and
related industial operations. The Veronese concern regarding the supply of fish
and its sale within the city was typical of riverine towns; the supply was 
limited and intended solely for the local markets. To maintain a constant supply
of fish, legislation was enacted mandating that fish nets were to have meshes
"two fingers" wide, multi-hooked lines were not to be used, and no one was
permitted to fish throughout the month of February. And, these rules were to be
enforced by communal guards. 
 
Concern for the safety and health of the commune's citizens is embodied in
statutes enjoining fishermen from dirtying the marketplace and from polluting the
riverbank with fish intestines and other waste. The Commune of Piran, located on
the Adriatic coast, had slightly different concerns. Like the inland citiesPiran
insisted that fish caught in its marshes and waters be sold in the communal
markets. Piran, however, exercised a more comprehensive control over its
fishermen and fisheries. Fishermen were required every April to report to the
Communal Palace and to elect stewards from their number who would swear to
faithfully represent their interests to the podesta. The fisheries
themselve were staked each year from the first of May to the end of August by the
podesta and stewards; the purpose of staking the fisheries was to control access
to them during the fishing season or when the fisheries were sealed and to fine
those who would break the law. With carefully defined exceptions, the fisheries
were not to be fished with drag nets and access to them was to be controlled from
September to March. All fish that were caught were to be preserved and presented
to the stewards, presumably to be taxed and sold in the market place. The
Piranese statute-makers did not wish pollution to stain the town's shores and
waters and they acted to prevent the disposal of waste materials into communal
waters and denied a licence for the construction of fish oil press where it could
pollute the fisheries. 
 
The clear intent of the fishery-related legislation was similar to that
regulating butchers, namely, to ensure an adequate food supply in a manner that
protected communal health, safety, and local water resources. Clothiers,
flax-workers, and cloth-makers of almost every stripe come under the scrutiny of
the commune as well. The retting process was the most serious concern of the 
statute-makers. Medieval cloth manufacturers developed many variations of the
retting process to utilize different water supplies, and they used just about
any supply of water available, including ditches, sewers, streams, fountains.
When they used the commune's drinking water or sewers, they came into conflict
with the communal authorities. 
 
During the cleaning process, soap, stale urine, lye-water, various alkaline
detergents, Fullers' earth and sulphur were commonly used and frequently found
their way into the communal waterways. 
 
Bassano and Verona enacted legislation enjoining the cloth gilds from washing
wool, wool fell, or from soaking flax in the town's waterways. The gilds were
also warned against storing unprocessed flax, ashes, old wood, or other
chemicals within the town. Ferrara simply forbade its citizens to prepare flax
within its jurisdiction and allowed its citizens to keep only enough flax 
for the family's use; sales of flax were specifically forbidden under penalties
of fines and confiscation. 
 
Once again, communal authorities recognized a causal relationship between the
byproducts of cloth production and the pollution of the town's water resources
--and they acted to limit the impact of that pollution. 
 
In sum, the communes did express some very definite environmental concerns
through their legislation. The supply of food and water was a primary concern of
the communes and they sought to protect that  supply through legislation
forbidding gilds to engage in practices that would pollute the communal
environment with their waste products and industrial processes. Conservation
practices were also exhibited through an enhanced  communal control over food
and land resources, attempts to control the equitable distribution of food and
water resources, and attempts to prevent hoarding, or unfair and unequal trade
practices. 
 
 ******** 
 Agricola, Georgius, De re metallica, Trans. from the first 
 Latin edition of 1556 by Herbert C. Hoover and Lou H. Hoover, 
 (New York: Dover Publications, 1950 [1912]), p. 8. 
 
 Bernard of Clairvaux, Life and Works of St. Bernard, Abbot of 
 Clairvaux, Trans. by Samuel J. Eales, (2nd., ed.: New York: 
 Benziger Bros, 1912), Vol. 2, pp. 461ff. 
 
 De natura locorum, Tr. II, Chap. 4, in Albert the Great 
 (Albertus Magnus), Beati Alberti Magni, Ratisbonensis Episcopi, 
 Ordinis Praedicatorum, opera quae hactenus haberi 
 potuerunt....Studio et labore R.A.P.F. PetriJammy..., (Lugduni: 
 Sumptibus Claudii Prost, Petri et Claudii Rigaud, Frat., Hieronymi 
 de la Garde, Joan. Ant. Huguetan, Filii, 1651), Vol. 5, pp. 
 282-3. 
 
 Ibid., Tr. I, Chap. 13 in Vol. 5, p. 278. 
 
 Philo (Philo Judaeus), "On the Account of the World's Creation Given by Moses," 
 in Philo, Vol. I. Trans. from the Greek by the Rev. G.H. Whitaker, Loeb 
 Classical Library (London: Wm. Heinemann, 1929), pp. 84-85. 
 
 Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Trans. by the Fathers of 
 the English Dominican Province, (London: Burns & Oates, 1947), 
 Pt. I, Quest. 102, Art. 3, Vol. I, p. 501. 
 
 Waley, Daniel, The Italian City Republics, World University 
 Library (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, rpr. 1978, 1969), 
 p. 183. 
 
 Verona, Statutes (1276) II: cccii; the same statute also 
 informed Veronese citizens that no one could be forced to enter 
 the Butchers' gild, unless it was his wish, provided that those 
 non-gild butchers produced good and legal meats and sold them legally.
 Bologna, Statutes, (1259) X: iii. 
 
 Bologna, Statutes, (1288) X: iii, xi; Verona, Statutes, 
 (1276) IIII: lxxviii; Bassano, Statutes, (1259) II: lxx; IV: 
 lviii. 
 
 Bologna, Statutes (1288) X: iii; Bassano, Statutes (1295) I: 
 xx, this problem also persisted in Bassano and the law had to 
 be reiterated in the revised code. 
 
 Ferrara, Statutes (1287) II: cclxxxxviiii. 
 
 The entire process is admirably described in Charles 
 Singer, et. al., A History of Technology, Vol. II: The Mediter- 
 ranean Civilization and the Middle Ages, c. 700 B.C. to c. A.D. 
 1500, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1956), pp. 152ff. 
 Ferrara, Statutes (1287) IV: lxxvii. 
 
 Bassano, Statutes (1295) II: xliii. 
 
 Bassano, Statutes (1295) III: xxiii. 
 
 Verona, Statutes (1276) IIII: clxxviii. 
 
 Verona, Statutes (1276) IIII: clxxviiii. 
 
 Ibid., passim. 
 
 Verona, Statutes (1276) IIII: ccxi. 
 
 Verona, Statutes (1276) IIII: lxxxvii, lxxxviii, lxxxx, & 
 lxxxxii. 
 
 Verona, Statutes (1276) IIII: lxxxvi. 
 
 Verona, Statutes (1276) IIII: lxxxviii. 
 
 Ferrara Statutes (1287) IV: lxxvi. 
 
 Piran Statutes (1307) X: i. 
 
 Piran Statutes (1307) X: ii. 
 
 Piran Statutes (1307) X: iii. 
 
 Piran Statutes (1307) X: iiii, v. 
 
 Piran Statutes (1307) X: vi. 
 
 Piran Statutes (1307) X: vii. 
 
 Piran Statutes (1307) X: vii, viii. 
 
 Piran Statutes (1307) X: ix. 
 
 Piran Statutes (1307) X: x. 
 
 Retting is the process whereby seed capsules were removed 
 and the fibers in the stalk were separated from the woody tis- 
 sues through a fermentation process.