I Predicatori dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo e Venezia: strategie di insediamento e dinamiche urbane

The urban development of Venice, especially in the XIII and XIV centuries, was strongly influenced by the presence of the settlements of the Mendicant Orders. In particular, in the marginal areas of the city, the construction of churches and convents, often of large dimensions, influenced the growth of the city the definition of its shape and the economic and social transformations. The case of the convent of the friar. Preacher Santi Giovanni e Paolo i particularly useful for investigating these dynamics because the northern side of the city was already on the way toward a process of proto-industrialization in the XIII century. Yet, the same analysis can be carried out by expanding to a more systematic approach, also considering the dynamics of residential settlement, which in an area that has always been characterized by a considerable social variety can be used as sort of litmus papers to precisely and clearly identify the real impact of the foundation of a Dominican convent on a rapidly changing city. The proposed analysis also makes use of digital technologies and considers transformations up to the XVIII century, when the island doubled in size and took on new urban functions, precisely because of the presence of the convent.