Controlling and documenting migration via urban “Spaces of Arrival” in Early Modern Venice

This chapter focuses on the spaces of arrival, such as ferry stations, inns, and lodging houses that also served as pillars of the surveillance systems of the local authorities. It looks at the ways in which these structures of hospitality were used to identify, record and control the presence of foreigners and the registration and identification techniques that were installed. Arriving in Venice could be a rather egalitarian experience, in which passengers of all kinds might be mixed in small commercial vessels approaching the city, the process of discrimination and identification began even as they entered the lagoon. In order to survey arrivals, the Government relied first of all on the registered members of the guild of osti who ran the city's inns. Rather than a progressive tightening of migration policy, it is probably more accurate to talk about periods of relative closure or openness, according to a variety of changing conditions and concerns.