Documentary sources of the sea surges in Venice fromad 787 to 1867

• DOI: 10.1007/bf00596222
• Publication Date: 2023-08-11T13:10:51Z
• Authors: Silvia Enzi; Dario Camuffo

Hundreds of documents containing data about the climate of the past, collected in public libraries and archives of Northern Italy, have been gathered and analyzed. All the descriptions of the sea surges that have occurred in Venice fromad 787 till the beginning of the modern instrumental records have been here reported and critically commented. This data set is very useful in improving our knowledge about the Mediterranean climate and natural hazards, especially with reference to the protection of Venice. In evaluating the reliability of the data, the historical approach has been applied to verify the sources and the descriptions they give, following rigorous criteria and methodologies. The majority of the data allows a qualitative evaluation of the height reached by the sea level; some of them a quantitative one. The level was expressed in old local styles, and has been transformed into the modern metric unit. A very interesting document dated 1867 reports the height of the surge above both the mark of the average high-tide level and the steps of St. Mark's Square, so that now it is possible to determine the subsidence that has occurred since that date, i.e., 34cm, in accordance with other findings.