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Abstract: The Renaissance aqueducts were not a simple reestablishment of the ancient Roman ones. The nature and structure of the old means of supplying water were very different: a system of numerous aqueducts that were specialized by use and subject to construction and maintenance costs that were distant from the logic of the medieval and modern city. Among the functional aspects, the role of hydraulic energy is of special interest, important for both the ancient and the Renaissance city, but radically different in the two cases in terms of the means of construction and the consequences on the form of the city and its social and productive capacity. Next to surprising similarities and inevitable differences with ancient Rome, it is necessary to keep in mind the resemblances with a water supply system common to all of the Apennine Italian cities, and somewhat typical of the Mediterranean area, based on the vicinity of karstic mountains and combining milling and irrigation of urban gardens.