A full Moon, strong winds and a vicious cyclone combined to hit Venice with its second-worst flood in history in 2019. Today, books saved from the water tell a story of loss and resistance.

On the night of 12 November 2019, photographer Patrizia Zelano saw the tragic news that one of the worst floods had hit Venice. The next morning, she left her home in Rimini, drove two-and-a-half hours north-east, parked on the mainland, and finally arrived by train to the stricken city, which was still in a state of emergency.

Due to a perfect storm of factors – a sirocco wind surge combined with a full Moon tidal peak and a fast-moving cyclone – the sea level had risen by 1.89m and 85% of the centre of the city had gone underwater. The disaster was second only to the catastrophic 1966 Acqua Granda, which first called the world's attention to the issue of Venice's survival.

On her two-day adventure, Zelano salvaged 40 books. Though most are now unreadable, her photographs of the ruined books tell the story of the fragility of the lagoon and its cultural heritage – as well as a push towards possible solutions.

Wearing rubber boots, Zelano waded from the train station through Strada Nova, which was still about 40cm (1ft 3in) underwater. She went to the house of a friend of a friend. The tide had retreated by the time she got there. "All sorts of objects, pieces of furniture, chairs, were piled up, like trash, everything was completely drenched," she tells the BBC. As the homeowners were busy saving the salvageable, Zelano focused on their books, which struck her as beautiful in their decay and symbolism. One of the books from the house (pictured above) looks like "an archeological find from the Stone Age," she says. "It doesn't open anymore, it's cemented."

Zelano decided that she needed to save more books. She called Lino Frizzo, a bookseller in Venice, whose store is aptly called Acqua Alta, "high water", the Venetian name for floods. Frizzo recently told her that, because of the hectic activity of those days, he doesn't remember her being there. Together with his employees, they worked non-stop to clean up and save the inventory. They gave Zelano books beyond repair. Most were from the early 1900s, which for Italian and........

© BBC