In a volume concerned with the multiple dimensions of the construction of place, a study based on the early modern land formation of a city's peripheral area may seem prosaic. By the very nature of its meaning, place is a space constituted by one or many settlements shaped by buildings, streets or landscapes. However, the analysis of an urban place may become less obvious if the focus is shifted from the physical built fabric to the set of relations, between individuals and processes, which determined its creation. As Bruno Zevi vigorously affirmed as early as 1948, the feature distinguishing architecture from other forms of art is its three-dimensional vocabulary that includes man. Urban spaces are constituted by people and neighbours who share relationships through social and political practices, as well as economic and work exchanges. Places are not empty vessels existing prior to the matter that fills them. On the contrary, they are the social product of people's activities and, thus, are intimately bound up with their occupants’ sources of meaning and experience.

Adopting this approach, this article explores the broad dynamics that led to the development and spatial organization of Venetian urban fringes by focusing on the history of the insula dei Gesuiti, a marginal area located at the northern limit of Venice, on the western tip of the Fondamente Nuove, the paved pedestrian walkway that solidifies the northern border of the city (Figure 9.1). As its boxy shape reveals, the island is the result of seamless and long-term interventions of consolidation undertaken by diverse actors.