Tradition and innovation Venice from the post-reformation to Napoleon

Hurory of European Ideas, Vol. 6. No. 3. pp 325-339. 198

I’mted in Great Bntain. 01914599iR5 $3.W + 0.00

0 1985 Pergamon Press Ltd

TRADITION AND INNOVATION VENICE FROM THE POST-REFORMATION TO NAPOLEON

MADELEINE V. CONSTABLE*

Yet. Freedom! yet thy banner. torn but flying, Streams like a thunder-storm against the wind:

Byron, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage Canto IV, St. xcviii

Thus spoke Byron in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage as he philosophised on the vicissitudes of nations and reflected on the spirit of freedom as the driving force in human enterprise. Not for the tyrannies of foreign domination to still man’s ever-springing impetus to express his need to realise new achievements. One might apply the concept to any European nation from the middle ages onwards and find evidence to support it.

But Venice presents a specially colourful scenario in which, concentrated in one circumscribed area, a number of traumatic historical events were played out over the centuries which culminated in the most spectacular event of all - the collapse of the Serenissima with the takeover by Napoleon in the closing years of the eighteenth century. These are well-known facts, better known to those outside the Italian scene than are events in the history of other countries because the history of Venice forms a more fascinating panorama within a unique background and much commiseration has been lavished on the plight of a proud republic laid low, humiliated and reduced to subservience by the action of Napoleon. Venice was reduced to a subject of pity even more so than other states overrun by foreign tyrants, by virtue of her unique character, and because she had been the focal point in eighteenth- century Europe of many illustrious visitors - popes and kings and statesmen - who were then ready to shed tears of sympathy for a well-loved arena and playground that had been degraded and were fearful that the character of Venice would be transformed by alien elements, with the start of the nineteenth century heralding a new and unwelcome era and leaving the old familiar pattern no more than a nostalgic memory.

Yet paradoxically, there had developed over the centuries from the mid 1500s onwards a number of seeds that were to come to fruition at this time despite the progressive decline of the republic as a maritime and political power. Roberto Cessi, in his history of Venice, speaks of ‘quella oculata vitalifri’ that manifested itself in Venetian society towards the end of the life of the republic, and he refers specifically to the educational reforms of those last decades, omitting, however, other manifestations of social reform. In fact, there were several signs of healthy progressiveness in social welfare that have mostly been overlooked, or at best regarded as trivial and without

*Department of French and Italian, University of Exeter, Queen’s Building, The Queen’s Drive, Exeter EX4 4QH, U.K.

325

326 Madeleine V. Constable

consequence. overshadowed as they were by the major eclipse of the Srren-

issima which descended at the end of that fateful century. Cessi himself. having concec&:d some modest signs of vitality. ends his history with the grim affirmation that

La vecchia ‘liberth’ veneziana fu stretta tra le spire della rivoluzione e dclla reazione, impotente a operare un tempestivo rinnovamento politico e social.’ [The old freedom of Venice was caught between the vice-like grip of the revolution and the reaction to it, and was powerless to bring about a timelq political and social renewal]

This is undeniable if we look at the major issues implied in the words ‘political and social renewal’, meaning the period between Napoleon and the unifi- cation of Italy, because Venice did not renew itself politically until it formed part of the united Italy almost a century after its collapse as a republic.

What Venice did achieve in its declining years is something to which far greater significance is attached today than hitherto, namely the social welfare of its people, a benefit expressed through the quality of their education and of their schools; through the achievements in music and in art and architecture; admittedly art and music benefited only a small proportion of the population. but to balance this more rarified branch of its culture came social welfare on the broader scale, in the form of child care, of homes for the destitute, shelter and nursing for the aged, infirmaries for the sick, and not least those twin mainstays of any society - the rescue of foundlings from infanticide and desertion and their upbringing and placing in the trades of the city, by means of vocational training linked to agreements with the current trades and industries. All these things flourished in post-Reformation Venice, and although some aspects suffered a decline as the republic’s vigour dwindled through economic collapse, yet other aspects appeared to assume a new lease of life as the eighteenth century drew to a close.

Not to be forgotten is the seed sown in the mid-fourteenth century. when the first foundling hospital was founded in Venice: the well-known Piefir was established through the compassionate efforts of a Franciscan friar who tramped the campi and calli of Venice crying out ‘Pietic, Pi&‘. as he rounded up the dead and dying infants who had been deserted by heartless parents too ashamed and too impoverished to care for their illegitimate offspring. The nineteenth-century historian, Pier Luigi Bembo. describes the lack of child

care in Venice thus:

Fino alla metB de1 secolo XIV non aveavi fra noi alcuna istituLione per cui fosse provveduto ai bamboli abbandonati dai loro genitori, o dalle crudeli loro madri. perch& frutto d’un fallo, tolti miseramente di vita. Fu prima a pensarvi Pietro d’Assisi il quale recatosi a Venezia nel 1330, maravigk the in questa dominante l’influcnza de1 cristianesimo non fosse bastata a sperderc le tracce delle antiche leggi di Licurgo, di Solone et di Numa.’ [Until the mid fourteenth century there were no institutions of ours that catered for the needs of infants abandoned by their parents or by cruel mothers. because they were the fruit of shame, and therefore wretchedly left to die. The first to

Venice: Post-Reformation to Napoleon 327

think of these things was Friar Pietro from Assisi . . who on coming to Venice in 1340, was amazed that in this capital city the influence of Christianity had not sufficed to disperse the traces of the ancient laws of Greece]

Although there were earlier examples of well organised foundling hospitals

in Rome and in Florence, the Pietir of Venice stands out as a model not only to other Italian cities with the same need to safeguard their child population, but also as a source of inspiration to Venetian society itself which, from these origins based on moral considerations coupled with expediency, later con- structed other forms of care and amplified the scope of their welfare. So the innovative enterprise presented by the Pietli became some two hundred years later a tradition in Venice on which other innovations rested, and from what had been a scourge of society - the abandonment of unwanted infants, with all the concomitant ills that ensued: risk of disease, population loss, not to mention a formidable transgression of what would today be called human rights - there developed within the Pieth itself and in the analogous social institutions which sprang up, as a result at least in part of the religious fervour created by the Catholic Reformation, more outlets for the young who were now no longer only saved from death but prepared for good citizenship and able to enhance the image of the republic. This enhancement is seen more by the percipient eye of retrospect than at the time when these activities flourished, but even so the Venetians were at the time aware of their reputation for philanthropy - Eamus and bonos Venetos was the cry they ascribed to all in need of care who flocked to the city in search of a safe haven and hopeful of work. And despite religious origins, the Piet& was managed by a board of governors selected from the noblemen and women and the citizens of Venice.

Thus it was that after the Pietri had cared for its foundlings for some two hundred years, sending a large proportion of them to country foster homes to be brought up in contact with the rural communities of the Veneto, came the foundation of the three other major institutions: the Derefitti, the Incurabili, and in the early years of the 1600s the Mendicanti. As their names imply, these establishments arose to fill an urgent social need, and therefore were to

a great extent the products of expediency. These too were lay organisations. As R. C. Mueller states ‘Fear and reasons of State, not Protestantism caused lay authorities to try to eliminate dangerous poverty’.’ There is abundant evidence to show that urban poverty was on the increase in many regions of Italy as a result of successive wars. famines and plague, producing disease, mendicity and vagrancy, not least in Venice itself which was a meeting place for East and West.

However, it should not be overlooked that during the sixteenth century, in addition to expediency, the impetus to build new centres for the deprived also derived from that upsurge of religious fervour peculiar to post-Reformation Italy. The names of St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Francis Xavier and St. Giro- lamo Emiliani were connected with the founding of the Incurabili and the Derelitti, more especially that of Emiliani, the founder of the Somaschian order of clerics and the organiser of the many Somaschian orphanages that sprang up in the Veneto and elsewhere as a result of his pioneering activities


to create a community environment for the many orphans in Venice and its mainland territories - an environment in which they could be given a vocational training within their institutional homes and which would fit them for

life in the trades of the local community. The statute books (Capitoli er ordini) of the Pi& stipulate that the governors should exercise a high standard of

care of its orphans, ‘perch6 siano hene ussistiti, a educati fino all’etb di peter guadagnarsi il vitto’ and that they should be ever-vigilant of the children’s needs.

the siano sovenuti e governati in tutto cib the possi bisognarle. riflettendo the non essendo abili ad addimandare quello the Ii possi occorrere, cosi debbano con la loro caritatevole assistenza intraprendere la vice de’ Padri.”

[that they may be well looked after and edcuated until old enough to earn their own living . that they be assisted and cared for in all their needs, and, bearing in mind that they are unable to ask for their needs, they (the governors) must in their charity assume the role of parents]

The governors were in loco parentis - a principle equally embedded in the conventions adopted by the other three institutions. It thus seems evident that a keen sense of moral obligation, or religious fervour to use a term more appropriate to the ethos of the post-Reformation, went hand-in-hand with expediency, to form the twin driving forces that gave rise to these innovations - innovations based on the tradition of child care originated by the Pietb, which were to burgeon throughout the ensuing centuries. with results of intrinsic merit. This freedom to act in what was an emergency situation, and to do so by utilising precedents, forged the climate of the eighteenth century in Venice. The final contributions to its civilisation may be seen on the one hand to have run, by the 175%. into the sands of frustration, because of the great shake-up of the Napoleonic takeover, but on the other hand, and this is what is significant, they may be seen to have prepared the way for modern concepts of child care and medical care, of education and training, in a word. of general social benefits. J. P. Gutton, in his work La

SocittC et les puuvres remarks that

II est juste, enfin, de souligner que I’apport du XVIII siecle ne se limite pas Cl definir les buts et les moyens de la bienfaisance. On voit aussi se developper en ce siecle, I’idee de la prevoyance. Ce n’est pas la, a proprement parler, unc idee nouvelle, puisque c’etait deja celle de Colbert creant en 1681, la Caissc des Invalides, ou celle de Defoe, Ccrivant en 1697 son Essay on Projects.’

But Venice could justifiably boast of this concept of foresight, or planning ahead for its citizens, well before the eighteenth, or even the seventeenth century. In effect the eighteenth century saw the ultimate point of development of what had become by then a long-standing tradition.

The earliest records of vocational training in Venice are found in documents relating to the work of Emiliani among the orphans of the Derelitti

where they

attendevano a lavori manuali o d’agucchia o di brocchette di ferro, o di cucire, o di battere lana. o di tessere.’ [attended to hand work, or stitching, or to making iron studs, or to sewing. or beating wool, or weaving]


Stitching sails for the Venetian fleet, making iron studs for use in shipbuild- ing, beating wool or weaving cloth - these activities represented the two main industries of Venice in which the orphans started from the 1530s onwards to constitute an important element of the local work-force. The agreement between the Arsenal and the Derelitti was formalised in the late sixteenth century when in 1584 the authorities of the Arsenal stipulated the rates to be paid to the institution for the stitching of the pieces forming the different-sized sails, such as mainsails, topsails, foresails, for the warships of the fleet; as the manuscript records state

. essendo stato consuetudine anticha et praticandosi anco al presente il darsi

da questa casa [the Arsenal] al hospital of S. Gio. et Paolo [the Derelitti] la facitura de1 cuser le velle the occorrono delle galee grosse, sottili et altro.’ [it being a longstanding practice and one that prevails to the present day that this enterprise (the arsenal) should give the Derelitti the task of the stitching of the sails required for the large and the small galleys and others]

Also at this period documents show that the orphans were engaged in the inspection of already-manufactured cloth, sent them by the trade guilds, over and above their training within the premises of their institution in the craft of wool-spinning and weaving. No doubt the success of these two fundamental industries depended to a considerable extent on the regular and substantial volume of orphan workers and trainees, obliged as they were to steer a steady course in their training, strictly observing the required levels of productivity under the vigilant eye of their resident Somaschian masters, and the overall supervision of the orphanage governors. Given the numbers of orphan boys in the four places, known generically as the Luoghi Pii of Venice, it appears that not all could be trained in situ, but that some were sent out as apprentices to reside with employers. The institution thus gained in available accommo- dation while it fulfilled its main commitment to provide its charges with a specific training. The question arose of ensuring that apprentices lodged outside were duly paid for their work and that such payment was safely held by the bursar of each institution. The orphans could expect part of their earnings to be kept in custody for them until their departure into the working world as teenagers. It follows that fair play was regarded as one of the institution’s obligations, and any exploitation by the employer was obviated, at least in intention.

Among other occupations that could be regarded as formative of the good citizen was the two-year period of service expected of selected orphan boys as baflottini or ballot collectors at the Senate assemblies at the Doge’s palace. These boys, duly attired in crimson silk uniforms, despite the humble task they performed, would learn in this way more of the workings of the Venetian government procedures than would children brought up in family homes.

The year 1650-l is described in the entries of the Mendicanti record books (the Notatori), as ‘l’anno di tanta carestia’, a time when large numbers of beggars sought refuge in the Luoghi Pii, thus straining the limited resources, with the result that expediency was pushed to unacceptable limits as the


Mendicanti strove to free places wherever possible, seeking outlets wherever available. One of the commonest of these was that of cabin boy on the ships of the fleet - mozzi di nave. In such a capacity boys would receive no training, but only the roughest experience of life at sea in the most disadvan- tageous conditions. Luckily this unacceptable face of Venetian social welfare. practised in an emergency, led eventually, in the following century, to a well-organised scheme of training in seamanship of which the republic had cause to be proud. About 1741 the Scuola di nautica was formed, in which boys of fourteen and upwards were admitted to a two-year course at the expense of the Scuola di nautica and then guaranteed a career in the navy. As the entry in the Mendicanti records states

e doppo anni due di studio devono restar indispensabihnente proveduti sopra le navi della Piazza con paga e panatica.x [. and after two years of study they are to be without fail accommodated on the ships of the fleet with wages and sustenance]

Arrangements consisted of a day-release scheme in which the selected trainees spent their day on the ships of the arsenal but were still the responsibility of the institution in that they occupied orphan places for the further two years of their training. The very extent of the commitment revealed in this scheme shows the advancement in youth training in the mid eighteenth century as compared to previous makeshift arrangements in what was a mainstay of Venetian industry - the construction, manning and maintenance of ships. Not only did the orphans benefit and the institutions enhance their good name, but the arsenal could thus equip its fleet with trained seamen rather than with ill-prepared youngsters as in the past. An observation from the same Mendicanti records describes the benefits thus:

questa publica laudabilissima volonta the tende a dar stato a poveri sudditi, e provedere la navigatione di persone non solo abili, ma necessarie alla

medesima.” [this public and most laudable policy according to which poor subjects are given a status, and the navy is provided with persons who are not only skilled. but essential to the navy]

It seems appropriate to note this interesting innovation, since it covers a dual benefit both to the deprived by turning them into privileged constributors to society and to the main Venetian national product - even though at that point in history the splendour of the Venetian fleet was but a faded memory. Here we have evidence of the vitality that still sparkled in those declining decades.

Further evidence of a thrustful advance in youth training schemes occurs even at the republic’s eleventh hour, when in the late 1780s plans were tabled for the setting up of weaving looms within the premises of the lncurabili by professional cloth weavers of Venice, to train the orphans in that craft to

provide them with a means of livelihood,


the possa riuscir loro in progress0 come mezzo opportuno di sostentamento. ” [that it may prove to be eventually a means of livelihood]

This venture was quickly followed by similar schemes, as for example the installation by a Venetian milliner of straw hat manufacture, to be carried out by the orphan girls of the Incurabili, rates of payment being specified according to the fine or less fine quality of the straw used, and the number of rounds of straw required to complete the hat. Comparison was made with the straw hats made in London, ‘ad use di Londra’ as the entry states, showing an awareness of the practices of other competitive markets. An even more ambitious scheme was introduced at the Pietci as late as 1791 in which a Gastaldo, or supervisor of the guild of fustian cloth makers, petitioned the Pietci authorities for permission to set up a large-scale weaving operation at the Pietri for the tuition of both boys and girls from the early age of seven until their departure as teenagers. The tasks of this complex preparation for the making of fustian cloth were assigned to the children to match their capacity, starting with those from the ages of seven to eleven who were to spin the cotton and to make ready the spools for the spinning, while those aged from eleven to thirteen were to weave cords and bands. The actual weaving of the fustian cloth and a range of other materials was entrusted to those of thirteen years and older.

Clearly a training of this intensity and duration formed a valuable preparation for a future livelihood in the textile industry, in whatever part of the country an orphan might later settle. Of special interest in this enterprise is the merging of the sexes to form one single work-force - a practice unheard of hitherto, since the boys’ domain was kept separate from that of the girls. Here again, the innovation, an early forerunner of much later training concepts, had its roots in the earlier practice of assigning stitching and wool- spinning to the boy apprentices while the girls devoted themselves to the traditional feminine crafts of sewing clothes, gold thread altar cloths and vestments, and lace-making. As it became apparent that the entire process of cloth manufacture called for skills possessed by both sexes, the opportunity presented itself to combine the work of both boys and girls for a single product, in view of their equal ability and the increased productivity that ensued. This was an early example of team work brought about by expediency at a period in Venetian history when the original concept of charitable enterprise that had created these institutions was yielding to materialistic considerations, as the shadows of bankruptcy gathered over them, in the face of dwindling resources. Thus, necessity being the mother of invention, every effort was made to improve the training of the young orphans that they might compete better in a rough world where, during the eighteenth century, unemployment in Venice was widespread. To send teenagers into the world only to find that they swelled the hordes of the unem- ployed was in the long term no way to deal with the problems that the four Luoghi pii had been set up to solve. Nevertheless, unhappily, the winds of change, if they did bring development in the broader sense, also brought a curtailment of those promising advances. But through the two-and-half cen-


turies that had elapsed since the origin of the Incwabili, the Derelitti and the Mendicanti much had been achieved not only in methods and scope of vocational training but also in schooling.

At the initial period of the Derelitri, at the time of the agreement by the governors to the installation of the Somaschian priests as resident curators of the spiritual needs of the community - the children, the infirm, the aged and the short-stay visitors, all inmates of the place and all equally in need of moral sustenance - in those pioneering days of the mid sixteenth century one of the Sonlaschians. duties towards the orphans was to teach them to read and write; only later was the ahaco or arithmetic added to the sparse curriculum. It should be stressed, however. that the Somaschians were employed on the understanding that they had no part in the policy-making of the institution. The statute book of the Derefitti plainly states that the priest in charge of the boys was diligently to teach

con ogni applications a leggere, scrivere e ogn‘altro esercitio Cristiano. [most diligently to read and write and every other Christian exercise]

Noticeable is the merging of their basic schooling with the usual practices of a Catholic upbringing; attendance at Mass and other functions, frequent prayers and other pious devotions. No particular importance was given to the learning of reading and writing. The girls. on the other hand, were to be taught to read. but not to write, by appointed mistresses, under the supervision of the Priora or prioress.

Yet this rudimentary tuition can be regarded as an innovation in the upbringing of the underprivileged for many children of poor families at that stage would not have been assured of as much elementary educati~)n as were the orphans in care. No evidence of any further elaboration of this basic grounding occurs in the available documentation, but what may be ascer- tained is that the orphans would have been obliged to learn through the system of institutional life imposed upon them. Not that this sector of Vene- tian society was singled out for the benefit of a rudimentary education. The sc~olef?l~bbZic~e or people’s schools had existed from about the mid sixteenth century and continued until the late eighteenth century, and these form a milestone in popular education, being the expression of an awareness by the State that a prosperous nation needs to educate its youth if its image is to be enhanced. A senate decree of 1551 states that the new schools were to be designated as the Scuole dei Sestieri, being established in each of the six areas of the city of Venice. Clearly, the intr~~duction of sch~)o~~ng within the welfare institutions, albeit tow-key and cited almost as an afterthought, went pcrri pxsu with the establishment of State schools for the people. which, it trans- pires from eighteenth-century documents, were on the whole poorly attended, since attendance was optional. What degree of success was in fact attained is hardly ascertainable. but it may safely be assumed that the results of institutional learning were more certain, even though restricted to the

merest fundamentals. Yet, here was a two-pronged campaign against illi- teracy in the post-Reformation period, and, let it be noted - the Scuole dei Sestieri incorporated a broader syllabus that included Latin literature - an ambitious scheme devised in the interests of popular enlightenment. but one


which, it seems fair to guess, might explain the lack of popular support. In the eighteenth century Gasparo Gozzi was to criticise this irrelevance in his plea for a more realistic syhabus for the people.

A further milestone in Venetian educational advancement appears with the establishment of the Accademia dei Nobili which functioned between 1619 and 1797, attracting much acclaim for the breadth and excellence of its curriculum, and for the public service it offered to a sector of Venetian society - the Rarnaboti - who, by comparison with what was on offer to the populace and the orphans, had until then been deprived through lack of means of an education befitting their status as noblemen. Many Venetians of the aristocracy were impoverished and thus unable to meet the expense of private tuition for their sons. For these, the Accademia dei Nobili filled a pressing need: that of adequately preparing future generations of the ruling class. For Venice, with all its campaigns to educate the masses, still retained and cherished its traditional image of oligarchic rule:

se vi era gioventir, the fosse necessario di vedere fino dai primi anni nella scienza addottrinata, cert’era la patrizia, the doveva per diritto di sangue succedere nel govern0 e formare lo sostegno e la felicita della Veneta Repubbhca,” ]if ever there was a category of youth needful of education from an early age, it was surely that of the nobility which had by right to take up the reins of government and form the support and prosperity of the Venetian republic]

wrote a nineteenth-century Venetian social historian. The overall advancement of knowledge which permeated the entire fabric

of that society points towards a more literate and numerate class structure, in which success began to be measured less in terms of military gains and much more, and with increasing conviction, in terms of educational standards, seen by then as a more effective leavening force in procuring advantages in the world of trade at a time when Venice faced greater competition in the markets of Europe. These improvements and reforms in education went hand in hand with more efficient and sophisticated forms of training as the eighteenth century advanced; so much so that, in the final decade of the republic, in the course of a much-needed radical revision of its organisation and the range of facilities offered to its foundling charges, the Pieth thought fit to introduce a broadened syllabus to its senior boys, whereby prizes of money were offered during the year to those whose work in essay-writing and arithmetic were deemed the most meritorious, thus stimulating a sense of pride in academic performance. These were the boys engaged at the same time in learning a trade, and for whom special concessions were made in order that they might devote adequate time to the preparation of their school work. A present-day Venetian scholar, Giuseppe Gullino, observes with some acumen

b tuttavia certo the il ‘700 vide il manifestarsi di quel legame tra scuola e mondo de1 lavoro the da allora sarebbe stato considerato . . una conquista acquisita nella storia detl’istituto scolastico.”

Madeleine V. Constable

[it is, however, certain that the eighteenth century saw the link between school and the working world, which was from then on to be regarded as a step forward in the history of education]

Thus, sadly, it was only at the end of the republic that, when an apprentice was adopted by one of the many trade guilds of Venice - weavers, coopers, founders, smiths, etc. - to begin his work experience, he would have acquired a certain standard of what today would be classed as elementary education. This would have been more likely, during the 1790s. if he had been brought up at the Pi&. The relevant chapter in the Pieth’s plan for a general restructuring, dated 1791. states:

Ad oggetto di promovere la piu utile gara tra d:ti [detti] Figli nello studio di leggere, scrivere, e conteggio. resta stabilita I’assegnazione di due premi, da distribuirsi ogni mesi sei a ciascuna compagnia uno di L. 8 al piu abile nello scrivere. I’altro di L. 12 al piti capace nel conteggio.”

[For the purpose of promoting competition among the boys in reading, writing and arithmetic, it is stipulated that two prizes be awarded, every six months to each group of students; one of 8 lire to the most able boy in writing, the other of 12 lire to the most deserving in arithmetic, or accountancy]

The move to create a more positive attitude towards learning within an institution for the deprived may be seen as a reflection of the overall move towards a general reform of the educational system in Venice during the late eighteenth century. This forms the subject of Gullino’s book.

The by-now outmoded Scuole dei Sestieri were no longer effective due to changed circumstances and needs, and Gasparo Gozzi, Venetian man of letters and educationalist, spoke openly in 1770, in his report on the current situation in Venice, of the need to match education to the world of work, advocating the teaching of accountancy, geometry, mechanics and draughtmanship as skills more suited to the employment open to the youth of his day. The expulsion of the Jesuits from Venice in 1773 brought a vacuum in the field of school teaching, since this learned order had, in addition to a religiously orientated curriculum, constituted a model of excellence in the teaching they offered of general school subjects. The Riformutori dello studio di Padovu, an authority that dealt with all forms of education in Venice and its territories, intervened at an opportune moment in time to establish new substitute schools for those which until then had been run by the Jesuits for the benefit of the populace, thus promoting a laicisation of education at the same time as a broadening of the curriculum and a prolongation of the period of study to eight years, to cover such subjects as draughtsmanship, Italian, Latin, literature, prosody, rhetoric, mythology, Venetian, Roman and foreign histories, geography, logic, philosophy and rudimentary metaphysics. in addition to reading and writing. This major development in Venetian education, when the republic was on the brink of disintegration as an inde- pendent body, can be perceived in various lights - as an instrument of the State, a political weapon matching those of other European nations. as Gullino believes; as a further development in post-Reformation zeal; or as a natural expression of the evolution of society, of use in furthering trade relationships. In each of these possible interpretations the spirit of tradition


lingers on, and upon it. as the ethos changes, is built innovation - a sudden

dramatic swerve into a new channel imposed by the extraneous forces of the

Napoleonic regime. The jewel in the crown has not so far been mentioned. I refer to a quite

different form of cultural enhancement, and one which has fired the imagi- nation of generations, from the eighteenth century, when it reached its peak in Venice, onwards - in a word, the achievement of the famous women’s choirs which produced many notable names in music. Certain musicians became celebrated figures through their service to these choirs - perhaps Vivaldi is the most highly acclaimed today. I am breaking no new ground by going over the musical activities of the Figlie de1 core, as they were known. for much has been written about their singing, and about the music that was composed for them. That music. some only recently discovered, remains with us today as evidence of the standards reached. The quality of the vocal and instrumental performances must be assessed by referring to the appreciation expressed by the many distinguished foreign visitors to Venice in the mid and late eighteenth century; Charles Burney, the English musicologist, J.-J. Rousseau, Charles de Brosse, Maximilien Misson and many others. Among the Italian commentators of the eighteenth century, Luigi Ballarini gives a shrewd insight into the popularity of these choirs when he describes how the performances of the Figlie def Coro were regarded as the pinnacle of musical entertainment on offer to visiting dignitaries. In January 1782, as he recounts in his letters, the Grand Duke and Duchess of Russia, when visiting Venice, were regaled with the combined choirs of the four then highly celebrated institutions, totalling an ensemble of eighty voices - a magnificent occasion. In 1782 Pope Pius VI attended the Incurabili to hear a cantata by Galuppi, and in 1784 King Gustav III of Sweden was given a similar musical entertainment, ” So resounding was the reputation of the Figlie de1 Coro, that George Sand wrote her novel Consuelo on the subject of one of the choristers, at a time when their name was but a memory. The performance of oratorio on a lavish scale by the Figfie de1 Coro was the musical form which they developed over the eighteenth century, and to which many composers contributed significant works. This semi-operatic, semi-religious music was an apt vehicle for the potential of the voices of these highly trained girls, to which were added able performances as instrumentalists and as actresses, since acting ability was required by the dramatic tone of the biblical themes. Performances, with all their flamboyance, were an effective box-office draw. The girls were dressed in attractive close-fitting costumes with wide white collars, as the painting by Bella in the Querini-Stampalia gallery in Venice shows - but a notable degree of laxity in morals was concealed - a fact which is well

known to social historians. The eighteenth-century French observer, Jean- Pierre Grosley openly comments ‘la musique fait la partie capitale d’une tducation qui paroit plus propre ir former des Lai’s et des Aspasies, que des religieuses ou des mtres de famille’. ” Such a great musical publicity drive, as the shadows gathered over the republic, can be seen in the dual light of innovation and tradition. Innovation because, by comparison with early post- Reformation premises, the choirs of the Venetian orphanages had, by the eighteenth century, been transformed almost beyond recognition into some-


thing conspicuously secular. They paraded all the glitter of the theatre and were closely controlled by the grasping hand of the money-spinning entrep- reneurs that the governors of these institutions had allowed themselves to become as they struggled to offset bankruptcy by masterminding these ‘show- biz’ productions which aimed to draw rich and famous audiences to Venice. It was a splendid yet tragic swansong set up in a desperate effort to ward off the imminent financial collapse that engulfed the four welfare institutions. In so far as the image of the women’s choirs had been transformed in this way, as the spirit of religious zeal that sparked off the initial impetus was eroded by the sophistication wafted over from eighteenth-century France which impinged on the Venetian scene turning Venice into the playground of Europe, the picture of these renowned choirs can be seen as a new image. Yet it was at base the fruit of tradition, for its raison d’&tre originated in the first half of the sixteenth century when the musical element in the orphanages was simply choral singing as an accompaniment to standard church functions.

produced with the minimum expense to the establishment by using the resident orphan girls whose stay in the orphanage would be of longer duration than that of the boys sent out to apprenticeships and regularly occupied in their vocational training.

Precedents for the use of female voices can be traced back to the choirs of nunneries, which had long since existed in Catholic countries. A further factor to stimulate the use of women’s voices in choral singing was the growth of the opera houses in the mid sixteenth century. It is worth noting that Handel’s celebrated prima donna Fausta Bordoni was in fact trained at the Pietir, thus reflecting the link between institutional choirs and the opera - a link that reached its maximum development in the mid eighteenth century. Therefore the welfare institutions were in the first place following the traditions set by religious orders for women; later they were confirmed in their use of oratorio through the rise of grand opera. These two powerful influences converged, the first to provide the initial motive force and the second to direct the music of the orphanage choirs towards a more worldly interpretation of their original principle, according to which church singing was intended solely to express homage to the Creator. Of course, it was the worldly interpretation of music that drew the crowds, and Handel’s much-loved oratorio served as a stamp of respectability and of authority to the direction taken by the orphanage choirs.

The early days of the four choirs for which the Pietk was the model reflected that pristine spirituality when the Luoghi Pii let no worldly considerations blur the principle that underlined their raison d’&tre. - namely to serve a deprived and suffering humanity for the greater glory of God. In 1579 at the Derelitti a warning note was sounded against the introduction of any form of novelty, such as instrumental accompaniment to the reciting of Vespers or other divine offices sung by the girl choristers. But before many decades had elapsed, restrictions on musical accompaniment were gradually lifted and by 1619 the Mendicanti authorities were permitting the use of the organ, but no more; by 1639, however, the purchase of violins was authorised for use with the choir. Music was now recognised as a fruitful source of

Venice:Post-Reformation to Napoleon 337

revenue, and the first steps were taken to employ music masters as well as music mistresses to teach the girls. This practice proliferated enormously reaching a peak in the mid eighteenth century when Nicola Porpora, music master at the Derelitti, was earning as much as four hundred ducats a year, and other music masters serving under him were earning lower but still considerable salaries. This practice, in the long term, served to deal a fatal blow to the economy of the Luoghi Pii. Nevertheless, in the matter of monetary gain the institutions showed a sense of fair play towards their charges from an early date, as evidenced by the records of the Derelitti for the sixteenth century. In 157.5 it was first established that monies from the church collection given in appreciation of the singing by the choir be set aside, partly for a dowry for the girls on marriage or the religious life in later years, and partly for the institution’s general funds. In this way the choir became a vehicle for financial gain - an admirable departure in the sense that here lay the first seeds of forward planning and foresight for the future wellbeing of the orphans. From then on the choir as a profit-making venture scarcely set limits on this objective, seeing it as a significant source of revenue, especially as during the course of the eighteenth century the original form of financial support, namely donations and legacies, gradually dwindled and vanished away.‘6

And what of the lives led by the girls themselves, those Virgines, Orfanelle dictae in Hospitalibus Venetiarum, ad Musicalia inservientes, as Coronelli’s caption to his illustration of one of the choristers shows?7 In the early days their discipline was strict and their dress revealed the spirit of chastity and piety. At the Mendicanti, however, in an entry of 1679 in the record books, the indignant governors voiced their sense of outrage, stating that

Conosciuta . molto indecente la forma de1 vestito con il quale cadauna delle figliole di Coro si adornano a proprio capricio, et convenendosi provedere ad un tal inconveniente, foment0 de maggiori licenze. Pero, andera parte the dette figliole siino vestite tutte da un solo sartore the sara sopra cio destinato da Sig.ri Pressidenti a quale siino date quelle prescrizioni et regole the saranno con-

osciute piii conferenti per la forma de1 habit0 di quella quahta the sara conosciuta piti conveniente, pur the sii di lana et di color sodo .l* [Having been made aware of the great indecency of the dress of the Figlie de1 Coro, who adorn themselves to their own taste, thus undesirably provoking further licentiousness, it is resolved forthwith that they all be clothed by the same tailor, to be appointed by the presidents, in a woollen habit of a plain colour and all of a uniform pattern]

It is this nun-like attire that Coronelli shows in his illustration. Had not freedom now become licence?

Freedom can be seen as a plus or a minus. These girl choristers, as evidence has shown, rebelled against the discipline imposed by the institution, but they broke new ground in music under the talented guidance of master musicians who vied with one another at the four Luoghi Pii, in an effort to produce ever greater compositions and performances. This the girls expressed in their singing, and also in their playing, revealing their ebullience and joie de vivre,


and also their love of ostentation and admiration. An anonymous manuscript of thirty-nine stanzas entitled Carnevale per le putte dei Mendicanti in stile

bernesco and bearing the date 1750. discloses in spirited vein the girls’ delight in their music, their appreciation of their music master, Galuppi. and also their frustration at not being free to indulge in the jollifications of the Venetian carnival, cloistered as they were in their orphanage. The urge to gain freedom by straining at the leash of convention is perceptible in this remarkable poem. And the whole picture of these fascinating and scandal- making choristers - for they were well known for their amorous escapades - brings both credit and disrepute to the institutions that fostered their activities. The post-Reformation zeal had moved a long way forward on the path of emancipation, and Venice throws a spotlight on that path of progression, from having been a state of very restricted welfare before the Reformation, with the Pietir, to having attained a well-structured system of vocational training and placement in society; from a lack of popular education to a diversified range of tuition for the people and the sons of poor noblemen, even though these latter things were of recent introduction at the time of the fall of the republic and time was needed before they could fully flourish; from a basic musical rendering of the liturgical office to the fully orchestrated, massed oratorio composed and conducted by eminent musicians which evolved during the final decades of the eighteenth century. By the 1790s all this was a reality.

But Napoleon was too occupied with political issues and the reorganisation of his newly acquired gain to appreciate that the republic which had subsided - apparently in an ignoble demise - was in fact peopled by a relatively cultivated and well-trained population, possessing musical bril- liance, by a caring society that might prove a model to other countries,

certainly in the field of child care and poor relief. So in the midst of its loss of

identity, the banner of freedom of which Byron spoke still fluttered in Venice as evidence of the use its people had made of their traditions and the innovations they had forged from them.

University of Exeter Madeleine V. Constable

NOTES

1. R. Cessi, Storia della Repubblica di Venezia (Firenze: Giunti Martello. 1981), Pt 3, ix, p. 782.

2. P. L. Bembo. Del/e istituziorzi di betwficenza di Venezia (Venezia: Naratovich,

1859), chap. 1. p. 3. 3. R. C. Mueller, ‘Charitable institutions ~ the Jewish community and Venetian

society - a discussion of the recent volume by Brian Pullan’. Studi veneziuni XIV

(1972), 75. 4. Archivio di Stato, Capitoli et ordini - Pier& (Venezia: 1720), p. 31. 5. J. P. Gutton, La Soci&! et les pauvres (Paris: Societe, d’edition Les Belles,

Lettres, 1971), Pt 2, iv, p. 436.


6. P. G. de Ferrari, Vitu di Girolamo Miani, fondatore dei Chierici regolari della

Congregatione di Somasca (Venetia, 1676), chap. xii, p. 4. 7. Arch.I.R.E., Der F.4, busta Ill - Libretto di conti della cucitura di vele per

I’Arsenale (1(X-1669), entry 143 for 6 July 1643. 8. Arch.I.R.E., Men.A.6, (1732-17_56), entry 5558 for 23 May 1741. 9. Arch.I.R.E., ibid.

10. Archivio di Stato Venezia, Proveditori sipra Ospedali et Luoghi pii, busta 71.

entry for 17 May 1786. 11. L. Zenoni, L’Accademia dei nobili alla Giudecca, (1619-1797)(Deputazione

Storia Patria per Ie Venezie, 1916), p. xiii. 12. G. Gullino, La Politica scolastica Veneziana nell’eta delle riforme (Deputazione

Storia Patria per le Venezie, 1973), Vol. XV, p. 34. 13. Archivio di Stato Venezia, Piano di generale regolazione de1 Pio Ospedale della

Pieta (Venezia: Dei Lavoranti, 1791), chap. ix, pp. 234. 14. See P. Molmenti, ‘Venezia nel tramonto della Repubblica - dall’epistolario di

Luigi Ballarini’. Epistolari veneziani de1 secolo XV111 (Milano: Sandron. 1919). chaps, V, VI passim.

15. P. J. Grosley, Observations sur l’ltalie et sur les Italiens (Londres: 1770), Vol. 2, I, p. 53.

16. See M. V. Constable, ‘The Venetian Figlie de1 Coro - their environment and achievement’. Music and Letters 63 (1982), 181-212,

17. V. Coronelli, Ordinum religiosorum in ecclesia militante (Venetia, 1707), p. 111. 18. Arch.I.R.E., Men.A.2 (1649-1682), p. 204.

Documents

Tradition and innovation Venice from the post-reformation to Napoleon