Research topics
Ancient and rare books
Ancient book collections in the 20th century
Illustration and mise en page of Venetian 15th and 16th century books
Art History
Drawings from Emilia in the Antonio Certani Bequest at the Giorgio Cini Foundation
The Giorgio Cini Foundation’s collections include over 5,000 drawings mainly by Bolognese and Emilian artists from the collection put together in the first half of the 20th century by the celebrated cellist and composer Antonio Certani. Proposed research projects should focus on studying and cataloguing a group of works in the collection to be identified within the following sections: figurative drawings, drawings for quadrature, and drawings for the decorative arts.
The Sandberg Vavalà Bequest at the Giorgio Cini Foundation
The bequest consists of a variety of materials, including photographs, cuttings, prints, manuscript notes, and bibliographic index cards, ordered according to a monographic and typological criterion and mainly concerning Evelyn Sandberg Vavalà’s studies on Italian painting from the 13th to the 16th century. The collection also includes substantial documentation of mediaeval mosaics and frescoes, Romanesque sculpture and important areas of applied arts such as cassoni, ivories, and objects produced by goldsmiths. Proposed research projects should focus on analyzing the content of the Vavalà Bequest also in relation to similar documentary collections and its importance for medieval art studies.
Veneto iconography
As part of an enquiry into Veneto iconography for the purposes of creating a complete catalogue of portraits of Veneto and Venetian personages, accompanied by systematic descriptions (including, besides biographical profile of the sitters, historical and critical information on each work), we suggest the following currents as potentially fertile specific fields of research: portraits of literati and artists; portraits of clerics; portraits of state and government personalities and officials; and portraits of leading female figures.
Collecting and the art market in 18th- and 19th-century Venice
The enquiry aims to explore the art market and collecting in 18th- and 19th-century Venice; it involves bibliographical and archive research and the publication of catalogues, inventories and indices. Proposed studies can focus on one of the following topics: the role of Pietro Edwards in the dispersion of the Venetian artistic heritage in the early 19th century; the patrician gallery in the 17th-18th century; and the collector Gian Maria Sasso.
Veneto garden statues: patrons and artists in the archive documents
As part of a study of Veneto garden statues for the purposes of producing a complete “atlas” of works (which will be the result of an overall survey and specific photographic campaigns, as well as of historical-critical analyses and in-depth thematic studies), the proposed research project will be focused on sourcing archive data on patrons to provide useful information for the chronology of the works and in settling questions of attribution.
Letters on art in 18th-century Venice
The enquiry is aimed at analyzing the Venetian artistic milieu from a specific viewpoint, i.e. through the letters of artists and their correspondents. The proposed research project could thus focus on studying the correspondence between artists and leading 18th-century figures.
The art collection in the monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore
The research project will mainly focus on a bibliographical and archive enquiry for the purposes of exploring the works of art preserved in the Benedictine monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore before the “Napoleonic suppression.”
Early Music
Studies on sacred polyphonic music printed in Italy from 1500 to 1725
Ethnomusicology
Studies on the manuscripts of Indian music theory kept in the Giorgio Cini Foundation
Alain Daniélou and research into Indian music
The Intercultural Institute of Comparative Music Studies at the Giorgio Cini Foundation and the popularizing of Indian music in Italy: a history of forty years of courses, seminars and concerts
For a history of IISMC: birth and development of a new idea of popularization and research on world music.
History of the Venetian State and Society
The Archive of the History of the Venetian State contains not only a microfilm library of over 2 million slides reproducing material on the Venetian Republic kept in non-Venetian archives, but also collections of Italian and international books and periodicals on the history and culture of territories influenced by Venetian culture. It thus provides opportunities for detailed, multifaceted studies on the role played by Venice in European diplomacy. Examples of specific themes that may be referred to are:
The relationship between the Serenissima and the Holy See
The knowledge of the territory ruled by the government of the Republic – both on land and at sea – at Palazzo Ducale
Venice’s perception of the world “expanded” by discoveries, as a privileged observatory of changing horizons and therefore as an “eye on the world”
Venice in the “Grand Tour"
Literature
The artistic-literary debate in the years of early Futurism, based on documents in the Botta Bequest
Venetian scholarly journals in the mid-18th century
The 18th-century Repubblica letteraria from Ludovico Antonio Muratori to Angelo Calogerà
The Arrigo Boito-Eleonora Duse correspondence: a man of letters and an actress in the late 19th century
Giovanni Pascoli and Vittorio Cian: the correspondence between a poet and an intellectual in the early 20th century
Gabriele D’Annunzio and the “Fiume exploit,” based on the documents in the Frumi Bequest
Art and literature in Italy, Germany and the rest of Europe in the mid-20th century, based on the documents in the Geiger Bequest
Women’s literature at the turn of the 20th century: Sibilla Aleramo
Italian literary circles in the early 20th century, based on the documents in the Nardi Bequest
The “Veneto tradition” in 20th-century culture and the role of Diego Valeri
Musicology
“Alberto Bruni Tedeschi” Archive
"Gian Francesco Malipiero" Archive
Studies on Antonio Vivaldi
The Italian Antonio Vivaldi Institute at the Giorgio Cini Foundation is an indispensable resource for anyone wishing to study the Venetian composer. The Institute has microfilms and photographic copies of autograph works and copies of all his compositions (operas, sacred music, cantatas, symphonies, sonatas and concertos) held in libraries and archives worldwide as well as all the international literature on Vivaldi (monographs and essays) and a complete collection of the various recordings and records. Any research projects on new lines of enquiry or little known aspects of Antonio Vivaldi’s biography, work and compositional ideas would be welcome.
Theater
Stage designs in the Certani Bequest
Pietro Gonzaga, Italian stage design in the second half of the 18th century and its relations with Russian art
Iconography as a study source for the history of drama, based on the images in the Duse Bequest
The life and art of Eleonora Duse (in relation, for example, to one of the following themes: her correspondence with the Casale family; her interpretation of Ibsen’s plays; her relationship with French culture; her correspondence with Emma Garzes; Eleonora Duse and fashion; and Eleonora Duse’s annotations on D’Annunzio’s texts)
The life and art of Aurel A. Milloss (in relation, for example, to one of the following themes: his iconographic albums; his choreographies for stage and film; his friendship with Signorelli; his essay-writing activities; and the South American productions)
Stage design for opera in musica in 17th-century Venice
19th-century stage design in the Veneto
The iconography of the 19th-century actor