You have full access to this open access article. Naples was perhaps unique in relying on a vast and tortuous underground network of reservoirs, cisterns, channels and conduits, accessed by well shafts, all fed by an ancient aqueduct.
This is interwoven with reference to pertinent printed accounts, from contemporary guide books to medical regimens and health manuals. We examine both water quantity, in terms of availability and accessibility by looking at the structure and its management, and the technicians responsible for its maintenance and water quality by looking at contemporary attitudes and perceptions.
These waters were characterised by their accessibility, freshness and abundance ibid. As they flowed from the aqueduct through a series of underground channels and cisterns, they were filtered and purified. However, foreign visitors to the city were just as favourable, beginning with those on the Grand Tour De Seta ; Sweet , pp. All of this praise may come as some surprise to those who know Naples and its more recent history.
The safety of its water supply has been frequently called into question. These included the small underground cisterns, dug straight into the tuff and difficult to clean, the proximity of well water to waste water in kitchens, the uncleanliness of rainwater cisterns, and contamination by brackish water De Renzi , pp.
Studies on the management of the water supply in early modern Naples are sorely lacking, despite growing interest in the subject at both an Italian and European level Rinne ; Prato Some of the most interesting recent studies have been comparative investigations of the technical advancements in accessing water in early modern Europe Fournier ; Shulman On Naples in particular, the architectural historian Giuseppe Fiengo presented a picture of corrupt urban authorities unable or unwilling to provide the city with the water it needed during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, resulting in ongoing water shortages Fiengo , pp.
