Working on the Tiber
Title
Working on the Tiber
Description
In the medieval city of Rome, the Tiber River was an important part of the economic and everyday life. It was used as the major water source, a valuable transportation center, and also the production center for several industries that were restricted by law to the area around the Tiber for reasons such as the repellant smell and the low prestige of such work. As a consequence, people of lower economic status lived and worked near the river.
Life along the Tiber was not an easy one for many reasons. Before the walls surrounding the river were built in 1870, floods were quite frequent around the river. Every time the river flooded, workers whose jobs were located on and around the Tiber would be severely damaged. Fishing platforms and mills, which were owned by richer families and institutions and leased out to millers and fishermen in exchange for a portion of their income, would be almost fully destroyed. Since the less prosperous people could not afford to rebuild their businesses immediately after the floods, life of a worker along the Tiber was not an easy one.
Some of the most popular jobs in Borgo near the Tiber were held by tanners, fishermen, ferry-men, millers, dyers, laundresses and water-sellers. None of these jobs paid as well as a more prestigious jobs that were allowed near the city center such as printing and weaving did. A few of the major jobs such as washing laundry and selling water were gendered. Laundry business was usually held by women while water-sellers were mostly men, except for a few exceptions such as the mother of Cola di Rienzo, who was both a water-seller and a laundress. Even though the working class of Rome did not receive much support from the rich families and institutions of Rome, there was still some form of protection by the Papacy. The Papacy, for instance, passed a law that banned men and prostitutes from bathing near the bend of the Tiber as laundresses usually occupied the opposite side of the river for work.
After the construction of aqueducts and laundry fountains throughout the city, fewer people depended on the Tiber for their businesses. However, the Tiber continued to be an important part of life in Rome as many Romans considered the Tiber’s water to be the best water of Europe, and many laundresses carried on washing their laundry on their usual platforms by the river.
Life along the Tiber was not an easy one for many reasons. Before the walls surrounding the river were built in 1870, floods were quite frequent around the river. Every time the river flooded, workers whose jobs were located on and around the Tiber would be severely damaged. Fishing platforms and mills, which were owned by richer families and institutions and leased out to millers and fishermen in exchange for a portion of their income, would be almost fully destroyed. Since the less prosperous people could not afford to rebuild their businesses immediately after the floods, life of a worker along the Tiber was not an easy one.
Some of the most popular jobs in Borgo near the Tiber were held by tanners, fishermen, ferry-men, millers, dyers, laundresses and water-sellers. None of these jobs paid as well as a more prestigious jobs that were allowed near the city center such as printing and weaving did. A few of the major jobs such as washing laundry and selling water were gendered. Laundry business was usually held by women while water-sellers were mostly men, except for a few exceptions such as the mother of Cola di Rienzo, who was both a water-seller and a laundress. Even though the working class of Rome did not receive much support from the rich families and institutions of Rome, there was still some form of protection by the Papacy. The Papacy, for instance, passed a law that banned men and prostitutes from bathing near the bend of the Tiber as laundresses usually occupied the opposite side of the river for work.
After the construction of aqueducts and laundry fountains throughout the city, fewer people depended on the Tiber for their businesses. However, the Tiber continued to be an important part of life in Rome as many Romans considered the Tiber’s water to be the best water of Europe, and many laundresses carried on washing their laundry on their usual platforms by the river.
Creator
Alperen Turkol (2018)
Source
Rinne, Katherine Wentworth. The Waters of Rome: Aqueducts, Fountains, and the Birth of the Baroque City. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010.
Bianchi, L. “Medieval Survivals in Modern Rome. ” Transactions on the Built Environment 9(1999): 441-450.
Identifier
workingtiber_2017
Coverage
Description
In the medieval city of Rome, the Tiber River was an important part of the economic and everyday life. It was used as the major water source, a valuable transportation center, and also the production center for several industries that were restricted by law to the area around the Tiber for reasons such as the repellant smell and the low prestige of such work. As a consequence, people of lower economic status lived and worked near the river.Life along the Tiber was not an easy one for many reasons. Before the walls surrounding the river were built in 1870, floods were quite frequent around the river. Every time the river flooded, workers whose jobs were located on and around the Tiber would be severely damaged. Fishing platforms and mills, which were owned by richer families and institutions and leased out to millers and fishermen in exchange for a portion of their income, would be almost fully destroyed. Since the less prosperous people could not afford to rebuild their businesses immediately after the floods, life of a worker along the Tiber was not an easy one.
Some of the most popular jobs in Borgo near the Tiber were held by tanners, fishermen, ferry-men, millers, dyers, laundresses and water-sellers. None of these jobs paid as well as a more prestigious jobs that were allowed near the city center such as printing and weaving did. A few of the major jobs such as washing laundry and selling water were gendered. Laundry business was usually held by women while water-sellers were mostly men, except for a few exceptions such as the mother of Cola di Rienzo, who was both a water-seller and a laundress. Even though the working class of Rome did not receive much support from the rich families and institutions of Rome, there was still some form of protection by the Papacy. The Papacy, for instance, passed a law that banned men and prostitutes from bathing near the bend of the Tiber as laundresses usually occupied the opposite side of the river for work.
After the construction of aqueducts and laundry fountains throughout the city, fewer people depended on the Tiber for their businesses. However, the Tiber continued to be an important part of life in Rome as many Romans considered the Tiber’s water to be the best water of Europe, and many laundresses carried on washing their laundry on their usual platforms by the river.