358 The Sound of Venice Laura Moretti ! D uring the Renaissance, Venice was one of the most musical cities of Europe. Music was performed everywhere: in churches, theaters, and private houses. But what was the sound of the city itself? What could a visitor walking through the city hear? The most vivid, informative image of Renaissance Venice is the woodcut bird’s-eye view by Jacopo de’ Barbari, dated 1500 (Fig. 1). This intricately detailed view illustrates a very densely built-up city. The streets, known as calli, are often very narrow.The walls of the buildings are made of brick, sometimes clad in stone, and the alleys are either paved with stone slabs or (in De’ Barbari’s time) bare earth. These different materials create contrasting acoustics: naked brick is more absorbent than stone and, similarly, bare earth is less reverberant than paving stones. A curious feature of De’ Barbari’s view is the total absence of people or human activity in the city, conveying an impression of total silence, like an empty stage; the only people depicted are to be found in boats. The open spaces or squares of Venice are known as campi, or fields, the term piazza being reserved for that of San Marco. In the sixteenth century these squares could be either paved in stone or covered with sandy soil and grass (hence the name campo), again with differing acoustic properties.The centrally located campo di Santa Maria Formosa, for instance, was still unpaved in the Cinquecento (Fig. 2). In this campo, as in many others, the earthen surface would have had a dampening effect on the sound. One can imagine rapidly changing acoustics as one passed from the open campi to the canals and the narrow alleys enclosed by tall buildings. In the paved campi the sounds and noises were certainly more intense, amplified by the hard surfaces. The markets in particular were animated by characteristic sounds and noises. The Rialto, the oldest marketplace in the city, was the main center of commerce, frequented by large crowds (Fig. 3). It was divided into a number of sections, each dealing in specialized merchandise. In the Campo di Rialto many languages could be heard, as Francesco Sansovino recorded:“Every day the arcades are filled with merchants from Florence, Genoa, Milan, Spain, Libro Connors 01.indb 358 11/10/12 15.18