[262] The council of Valencia often discussed hydraulic problems of interest to the city. A proposal for irrigating the garden of the Commodities Exchange (Lonja) in 1529 ⁽¹⁾ included plans for the construction of a sâniya:

All the magnificent jurates, the treasurer, and the syndic take note that the garden (ort) of the Lonja is very dry and ruined because it has no water for irrigation, which redounds to the great blame and shame of the city inasmuch as the Lonja is so beautiful, famous, and important and a thing which so ennobles the city. For this reason the magnificent jurates who held office in times gone by . . . wished to provide for the needs of the said garden and made a great expenditure on a certain work which was begun in hopes of drawing water from the Favara Canal at the bridge of Les Mealles ⁽²⁾ and diverting it to the garden of the Lonja in order to make a fountain which would irrigate and embellish the said garden. This expenditure was totally useless and unfruitful because it was impossible to make the water come that way.

Taking into consideration this difficulty and the needs of the said garden . . . the jurates, treasurer, and syndic, desiring the retention of the said garden for the great embellishment which it provides the Lonja (in which not only merchants do business but also many knights and honorable persons, not only of the said [263] city but also others who come here from diverse parts of the world). . . have decided to make a hydraulic wheel (cenia) in a place set off from the said garden and even to make a fountain in the middle which might honor and beautify both it and the Lonja.

And now at present there stands vacant a house belonging to the widow of Anthoni Aliaga, the merchant, which is adjoining to and part of the [house] constructed on a dead-end street ⁽³⁾ which used to be between the said house and another house belonging to the father of the said Anthoni Aliaga, which street is behind the house of Pere Lobet, the notary, which is in front of the garden of the Lonja, the which house of the said widow, together with the said street, is most handy and suited to the making of such a hydraulic device so that from there water might come along the said street in front of the house of Pere Lobet with very little work and expense . . . to the middle of the garden where the said fountain could be made, from which, by means of the said device . . water could flow (rajar) all day in the said fountain and irrigate the garden whenever necessary.

And in this manner the garden will be preserved and the Lonja ennobled and beautified and the city much decorated and honored.

Therefore the magnificent jurates, treasurer, and syndic, moved by these considerations, provide that the house of the widow ot Anthoni Aliaga be bought by the city for the price agreed upon by the magnificent treasurer and syndic, to whom they give power to discuss and agree upon the price as it seems best to them. They provide that the house, together with the said street, be seized by the city in order to make the wheel and its works, and that the fountain be made in the garden of the Lonja in the form abovestated, and that the expense which it will entail, not only in the price of the house but also in the making of the wheel and fountain mentioned above, be paid by the administrator of the Lonja.

Once the wheel is completed and the space which will be necessary for its functioning marked off and set aside, they provide that that which is left over . . . be sold by the city in order to make up all which is possible of the said expense.

1. AMV, Manuals de Consell, 63, n.p. (Nov. 27, 1529).

2. For this bridge (on the Quart road) see Lop, Murs e valls, pp 490-491.

3. Carrero açucach: açucach (or atzucach) is derived from the Arabic zanaqa (narrow street). See Arnold Steiger, Origin and Spread of Oriental Words in European Languages (New York: S. F. Varini, 1963), pp. 35--36.