Introduction

Abstract

What news on the Rialto?" Shylock asks in the first act of The Merchant of Venice. As Shakespeare's contemporaries knew from countless travel accounts, the bridge and the market area around it was the main site of trade in one of Europe's busiest cities. Merchants, ambassadors, spies, traders and artisans knew they could obtain information there about commerce, people, and events, both local and far away. The Rialto was also regarded as a symbol for the very act of information exchange. Authorities published decrees there, and the expression "publicato sopra le scale di Rialto" was a legal formula indicating the most inclusive act of distributing knowledge, both literally and figuratively. The flow of information in the Rialto shaped and influenced the physical space of the area: towncriers affixed decrees onto its columns, scurrilous placards were placed on its statues or sheltered from the rain under its porches, and graffiti was scribbled on the walls of its walkways.The marketplace in the Rialto did not obliterate distinctions of wealth, status or ethnicity. Rather, trading required knowledge transactions between different social and professional groups, whether that knowledge was shared intentionally or, in a crowded space, overheard. Sailors and sea captains brought news of distant events, which local operators -ranging from investors to maritime insurers -could compare with news they received from their agents or passed on by the authorities, who in turn had their own extensive networks of informers, from diplomats to consuls. Authorities also had a keen interest in collecting information at Rialto, through both market-regulating magistracies and strategically located moles. 1 And at all levels of the market, effective bargaining required secure, or at least confident, knowledge, both local and international. Moreover, the information available at Rialto had a powerful effect on people well beyond its boundaries. The price of commodities all over Venice, for instance, was determined by the influx of news received at Rialto. As such, Rialto acted both as a crossroads and as a magnet for the movement of people, goods, and news.For these reasons Rialto had a particularly iconic status although other, more marginal areas played similar roles in Venice, as did squares and neighborhoods in other cities of Italy. This collection of essays investigates how the physical spaces of Italian cities shaped the circulation of knowledge in the early modern era, with ramifications for other European cities. We ask how such spaces acted not merely as settings for interactions, but as conduits that facilitated, directed, or limited the content and exchange of ideas. Our study is grounded in the assumption that spaces are "practiced places," based on Michel de Certeau's distinction between place (lieu) and space (espace) where place is a fixed, physical site and space is the actualization of place through bodily experiences. 2 We consider both specific locations and types of places, including artists' workshops, marketplaces,...