Chapter 3 Flood Mitigation, Territory, and Time: Girolamo di Pace da Prato in Early Ducal Florence
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Abstract
This chapter examines how Girolamo di Pace da Prato, a state engineer in the Duchy of Florence, understood and sought to mitigate the problems of alluvial flooding in the mid-sixteenth century, an era of exceptional aquatic and environmental volatility. In the fall of 1558, after nearly a decade of work for the Ufficiali dei Fiumi, Ducal Florence’s rivers management office, and one year after catastrophic regional flooding across the state, Girolamo penned the first comprehensive survey of Tuscany’s aquatic territory. Addressed to Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici, it identified the causes of alluvial disorder and prescribed various remedies for resolving it. Analyzing Girolamo’s missive to the duke – which may be considered one of the earliest practical manuals on alluvial flood mitigation – the chapter argues that through his empirical work in the countryside, the engineer came to understand the state’s rivers as a vast and intricate environmental system whose regulation required coordinated planning and maintenance on the territorial scale and over long spans of time. Girolamo viewed the task of rationalizing rivers not merely as a technical challenge, but also as a political one that demanded the full logistical and coercive power of the ducal state.