Cavà Rii — plate 19
The Arti che vanno per via nella città di Venezia (1753, 1770, 1785, etc.), by Gaetano Zompini (1700–1778), contains sixty engravings of common, mostly poor people, peddling their trades on the streets of Venice in the mid-1700s.
Text
Sechemo l’acqua, e prima la se ferma; Da i rii cavemo el fango col bail, E in burchiele el portemo in tera ferma.
Translation
We remove the water, and before it returns;
from the canals, we dig mud with a shovel,
and in boats we bring it to the mainland.
Notes
In Venice, the canals are called rio, plural rii. The canals being the main roads of the city, their maintenances has always been important, but also a dirty and back-breaking job.
All images
Related articles
Bibliography
Zompini, Gaetano. Le arti che vanno per via nella città di Venezia inventate ed incise da Gaetano Zompini, Aggiuntavi una memoria di detto autore. Venezia, 1785.
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