29 



Comacchio lagoon was due to Roman influence and 

 owed its inception there to the enterprise of men familiar 

 with the fish-pond culture of Rome and Naples. 



We know little or nothing of its history during the 

 middle ages ; whoever ruled in Ferrara from time to 

 time doubtless dominated the lagoon, this being the 

 greatest of the feudal strongholds of the immediate 

 neighbourhood. In the 16th century the fishery in the 

 lagoon was one of the chief sources of revenue to the 

 Este family, Dukes of Ferrara. In 1598 Pope Clement 

 VIII dispossessed the Estes and seized both the Duchy 

 and the Comacchio lagoon. The claim for compensation 

 made by the Este family against the Papal Court stated 

 their annual receipts from the fishery at 300,000 lire (Rs. 

 1,80,000) but this was probably an exaggeration. At 

 this period, the end of the 16th century, the lagoon pre- 

 sented a very different appearance to what it does now. 

 In spite of much extensive reclamation made of recent 

 years the area at the period above named was consider- 

 ably smaller. Then the greater portion of the Mezzano, 

 now by far the largest of the lagoon fish-farms, did not 

 exist as such. It was a marsh choked with reeds and 

 rushes into which flowed the drainage of a great area 

 of cultivated land lying to the westward ; here this water 

 stagnated, percolating slowly through the separating 

 dykes into the adjoining valli. From its position as a 

 vast marsh between the lagoon proper and the cultivated 

 land it indeed derived its name Mezzano or middle. 



In this condition the lao-oon remained till Cardinal 

 Palotta was appointed by the Papal Court as Governor 

 of Ferrara in 1631. Finding the sea-channel from 

 Magnavacca to Comacchio badly silted and capable 

 neither of admitting a sufficiency of tidal water for the 

 health and prosperity of the different valli nor of per- 

 mitting easy navigation to Comacchio, he had the channel 

 not only cleared and widened but extended beyond 

 Comacchio sufficiently far to give access to the northern 

 region of the Mezzano, a distance of 6 kilometres from 

 the city. This canal, known to this day in its seaward 

 section as the Canal Palotta, measures 6\ to 7J yards 

 wide with a depth of some 6 feet. By these means the 

 whole of the Mezzano was brought under control and 

 useless marshes were converted to fish-rearing purposes. 



