Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- List of Figures and Charts
- Introduction
- 1 Cleanliness, Civility, and the City in Medieval Ideals and Scripts
- 2 The View from the Streets: The Records of Hundred and Leet Courts as a Source for Sanitary Policing in Late Medieval English Towns
- 3 Urban Viarii and the Prosecution of Public Health Offenders in Late Medieval Italy
- 4 Food Offenders: Public Health and the Marketplace in the Late Medieval Low Countries
- 5 Policing the Environment of Late Medieval Dordrecht
- 6 Muddy Waters in Medieval Montpellier
- 7 Regulating Water Sources in the Towns and Cities of Late Medieval Normandy
- 8 Policing the Environment in Premodern Imperial Cities and Towns: A Preliminary Approach
- 9 Official Objectives of theVisitatio Leprosorum: Ambiguity, Ambivalence, and Variance
- Index
6 - Muddy Waters in Medieval Montpellier
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 November 2020
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- List of Figures and Charts
- Introduction
- 1 Cleanliness, Civility, and the City in Medieval Ideals and Scripts
- 2 The View from the Streets: The Records of Hundred and Leet Courts as a Source for Sanitary Policing in Late Medieval English Towns
- 3 Urban Viarii and the Prosecution of Public Health Offenders in Late Medieval Italy
- 4 Food Offenders: Public Health and the Marketplace in the Late Medieval Low Countries
- 5 Policing the Environment of Late Medieval Dordrecht
- 6 Muddy Waters in Medieval Montpellier
- 7 Regulating Water Sources in the Towns and Cities of Late Medieval Normandy
- 8 Policing the Environment in Premodern Imperial Cities and Towns: A Preliminary Approach
- 9 Official Objectives of theVisitatio Leprosorum: Ambiguity, Ambivalence, and Variance
- Index
Summary
Abstract
Medieval Montpellier occupied an aquatic setting, which gave rise to numerous sanitary and environmental problems. Summer storms caused heavy floods; drains became blocked, filling the streets with filth; and the ditches that encircled the city often overran with stagnant water. Magistrates had to ensure that there was an adequate supply of uncontaminated water for domestic and industrial use, while keeping the hydraulic infrastructure in working order. They had also to maintain the river that conveyed merchandise to the town centre, provide for the effective disposal of dirty water, and guard against pollution. Using Montpellier's rich civic archive, this chapter examines the strategies and regulations developed by the authorities in order to minimise the health risks arising from these issues.
Key words: Montpellier; public health; waterworks; sanitation; floods
The study of premodern water management and the development of water supplies is enjoying something of a renaissance, especially in England and Italy. Recent research tends to demonstrate that even small towns were not devoid of rational sanitary provisions, especially when it came to the supply of uncontaminated water, a valuable resource in the Middle Ages. As in most medieval urban communities, water in Montpellier gave rise to multiple sanitary and environmental concerns. The vagaries of the weather frequently caused floods. Intra-muros, sewers were subject to overflows and filled the streets with mud and filth. The city council had to cope with numerous problems related to water, including the provision of a reliable supply of fresh water by means of fountains, and other hydraulic infrastructures, as well as river maintenance, the upkeep of sewers, and the management of wastewater and water pollution. Using Montpellier's rich medieval archives, this chapter will examine the various means by which the council attempted to police the urban environment in order to cope with health risks caused by water-related issues.
Montpellier stands on a group of hills which constitute a link between the low ridge of the Cevennes Mountains and the coastline, being furnished with a number of ponds. These three sand hills provided a suitable site for the establishment of a human settlement.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Policing the Urban Environment in Premodern Europe , pp. 179 - 206Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2019