1. According to Wladimiro Dorigo, it was in documents from the tenth century that references were first made to "la civitas Rivoalti" (Wladimiro Dorigo, Venezia origini: fondamenti, ipotesi, metodi [Milan: 1983], I, 181-85). By the sixteenth century, Venice's origins were well-established in myth and legend. Frederic C. Lane, in Venice: A Maritime Republic (Baltimore: 1973), 12, notes that the "waters were gradually narrowed into canals." For a fuller description, see below and Elisabeth Crouzet-Pavan, "Sopre le acque salse": espaces, pouvoir et société à Venise à la fin du moyen âge (Rome: 1992); for the earliest settlements, see particularly 63-65 in Crouzet-Pavan.