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Hidden corners

The prohibitions of Campo San Zaccaria

Campo San Zaccaria: the prohibition plaques of 1620 are walled into the walls around the campo, one in the sotoportego and one on a house wall
Campo San Zaccaria: the prohibition plaques of 1620 are walled into the walls around the campo, one in the sotoportego and one on a house wall Photo: Rodrigo Pereira da Sa, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

On the wall, at the mouth of the sotoportego, there is a plaque in densely packed capitals that almost nobody stops to decipher: ’IN QVESTO CAMPO NELLA CLAVSVRA’. It is a proclamation of 1620: no playing, no brawling, no shouting, no obscene words, no ’commetter disonestà’ (no indecent behaviour), no filth, and even no trees, awnings or ’qualsivoglia altra sorte di robe’ — anything of any other kind.

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