The road master (

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

: ''viarius''; Italian: ''Maestro delle Strade'') was a middle- to high-ranking urban official common across the central and northern regions of

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

between c . 1250-1550, that is the communal and despotic era. Often part of the

podestà Podestà (, English: Potestate, Podesta) was the name given to the holder of the highest civil office in the government of the cities of Central and Northern Italy during the Late Middle Ages. Sometimes, it meant the chief magistrate of a city ...

’s or

capitano del popolo Captain of the People ( it, Capitano del popolo, Lombard: ''Capitani del Popol'') was an administrative title used in Italy during the Middle Ages, established essentially to balance the power and authority of the noble families of the Italian ci ...

’s entourage, the road master worked in small teams of builders and administrators to maintain a city's network of roads and waterways, including nodal points such as gates, bridges, sluices and markets. In many towns and cities across the peninsula, road masters not only built and maintained such amenities, but they also monitored human and animal behavior that impacted their traversability, and fined pertinent offenders. For instance, they could punish artisans polluting a public street or neighborhood, enforcing a distinct form of urban

zoning Zoning is a method of urban planning in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into areas called zones, each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for a si ...

. Road masters also fought against domestic practices that were seen as causing harm to the population at large, including unlawful refuse disposal and neglecting to restrain pigs. Roads officials were also active in ensuring urban

markets Market is a term used to describe concepts such as: * Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand * Market economy *Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market Geography *Märket, a ...

ran smoothly. Beyond the upkeep of roads and canals allowing produce to reach and leave markets, these officials often examined the accuracy of weights and measures used by retailers. They also pursued people who tried to sell produce outside the allowed time and place or wares of inferior quality, such as rotten meat or fish. In doing so, they resembled the Islamicate market inspector or ''

muhtasib A muḥtasib ( ar, محتسب, from the root ''ḥisbah'', or "accountability"Sami Zubaida (2005), Law and Power in the Islamic World, , pages 58-60) was "a holder of the office of al-hisbah in classical Islamic administrations", according to Ox ...

''. Lastly, roads officials also policed inns and

tavern A tavern is a place of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and be served food such as different types of roast meats and cheese, and (mostly historically) where travelers would receive lodging. An inn is a tavern that h ...

s, places where food and drink were sold, to ensure these were of good quality and served at the correct amounts and for the right price. The presence in taverns of

alcohol Alcohol most commonly refers to: * Alcohol (chemistry), an organic compound in which a hydroxyl group is bound to a carbon atom * Alcohol (drug), an intoxicant found in alcoholic drinks Alcohol may also refer to: Chemicals * Ethanol, one of sev ...

and abundance of foreigners, including

sex worker A sex worker is a person who provides sex work, either on a regular or occasional basis. The term is used in reference to those who work in all areas of the sex industry.Oxford English Dictionary, "sex worker" According to one view, sex work is d ...

s, sometimes meant that roads masters also operated as a moral

police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and t ...

force, fighting

gambling Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. Gambling thus requires three el ...

, rowdiness and sexual promiscuity. In doing all this, road masters participated in earlier cities’ preventative and harm-reductive programs, designed to promote

public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the det ...

and fight disease at the population level. They had rural parallels in the office of the field warden. Road masters and their teams are especially well documented for

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

, where they were known as the Dirt masters (''Ufficiali del fango'');

Lucca Lucca ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the Serchio River, in a fertile plain near the Ligurian Sea. The city has a population of about 89,000, while its province has a population of 383,957. Lucca is known as one o ...

; and

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

References

{{Improve categories, date=November 2020 Public health Medieval Italian engineers Medieval occupations Sanitation