Institute for the History of Venice Archives - Fondazione Giorgio Cini

Venezia e le epidemie

The exhibition Venezia e le epidemie s represents a central moment in the activities promoted by the Fondazione Giorgio Cini as part of the thematic itinerary Democracy and Pandemics.

Set up in the Longhena Library, the exhibition, curated by the Institute for the History of the Venetian Society and State, traces a documentary path on the response capabilities of the Republic of Venice in the face of the epidemic emergencies that repeatedly struck the city and Europe. The exhibition features valuable materials from the collections of the Giorgio Cini Foundation and other Venetian institutions: the State Archives, the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana and the Fondazione Musei Civici.

The works on display evoke the events of the  pestifero et contagioso morbo, testifying to an institutional framework that immediately moved from the tensions generated by the contagion to relevant measures of prevention, control and defense, until the epidemic was overcome. The choice of exhibits such as: originals of resolutions and proclamations, of measures such as contumacy, of medical remedies, of building constructions where faith was intertwined with relief for the end of the epidemic, of saints of choice to protect the sick, of health faiths attesting that the person was healthy and could roam the territory of the Republic, are all materials that cover four centuries of management, reaction and defense against epidemics.

Associated with this action was a proliferation of religious initiatives. In the second part of the 16th century, following the plague of 1575-76, the Senate dedicated a temple to Christ the Redeemer, designed by Andrea Palladio; in the first part of the 17th century, after the epidemic of 1630-31, a new temple was dedicated to Our Lady of Health, whose construction was entrusted to Baldassare Longhena. Two festivals of devotion still dear to Venetians are dedicated to the two buildings.

This documentary apparatus is accompanied by a multimedia journey, thanks to an interactive video-installation created by the camerAnebbia studio, which used the funds and archives of the Foundation and materials from Venice Long Data, the project in collaboration with Ca’ Foscari University Venice that applies Big Data and Network Science to archives and historical documents.

Opening hours and access
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The exhibition can be visited by reservation only by writing to veneziaepidemie@cini.it.

It is open daily, except Wednesdays, from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., with entrances every 45 minutes (11:00 a.m., 11:45 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 1:15 p.m., 2:00 p.m., 2:45 p.m., 3:30 p.m., last entrance at 4:15 p.m.).

For guided tours: visitcini.com

For schools: write to educational@cini.it

 

 

Casanova in Time 1725-2025

The year 2025 marks the 300th anniversary of the birth of Giacomo Casanova (1725-1798), Venetian by birth and European in his life and work. His historical figure is representative of a world that was slipping away, the Old Regime and the Republic of Venice, but also of the preoccupations of the eighteenth century and the transformations of modern society. His legend has spanned the last three centuries, reflecting the views on the eighteenth century of scholars, historians, artists, filmmakers as well as cultural and political figures. The 300th anniversary of his birth is an opportunity to examine the historical figure of Casanova, his works and their
fortunes, as well as to encourage research into his world and the imagery of the eighteenth century.

The international symposium is organised by the Department of Comparative Linguistic and Cultural Studies of Ca’ Foscari University, with the collaboration of the Società Italiana di Studi sul Secolo XVIII, the Fondazione Giorgio Cini (Institute for the History of Venetian Society and State, the Ateneo Veneto, the Venice State Archives and Ca’ Rezzonico), the Museo del Settecento Veneziano and the Correr Museum Library, Venice.

 

 

programmE

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15:00 – 19:00 | institutional greetings

Antonio Trampus

Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia

Introduzione

 

Andrea De Pasquale

Direzione Generale Educazione, Ricerca e Istituzioni Culturali, MIC Roma

Stampare il Settecento

 

Michel Delon

Sorbonne Université, Paris

Casanova couleur de rose

 

Malina Stefanovska

University of California, Los Angeles

La philosophie dans le boudoir et la ‘joie de vivre’

 

Paolo Bernardini

Università dell’Insubria, Como

I suicidi di Casanova: finzione e filosofia

 

Lisetta Lovett

Keele Medical School

Suicide: Do Casanova’s views have any relevance to today?

 

Clémence Carrasco-Vaudon

Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès

Giacomo Casanova le joueur : regard et discours sur les jeux de hasard au XVIIIe siècle

 

Giulia Delogu

Università ca’ Foscari, Venezia

Foscolo, Casanova e la storia

della Repubblica di Venezia

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09:00 – 11:00

Luca Lo Basso

Università di Genova

Guido Candiani

Università di Padova

Navigando tra intrighi e potere.

Il giovane Casanova e la Marina veneziana del XVIII secolo

 

Mirela Mrak Kliman

Biserka Budicin

Jasna Vlahović

Državni arhiv u Pazinu – Archivio di Stato di Pisino

Il confine istriano – punto di contatto fra la Repubblica di Venezia e la Casa d’Austria

 

Rino Cigui

Centro di ricerche storiche di Rovigno

Orsera nel XVII secolo. Congiunture climatico-sanitarie e agricole 

 

Didem İşler

Bartın Üniversitesi, Bartın

Percorsi mediterranei: Venezia e l’arsenale di Tripoli e John Murray a Costantinopoli

 

Maddalena Casarini

Universität Regensburg

Casanova in fuga - »Ein zweyte[r] Trenck«?

15:00 – 18:00

Andrea Merlotti

Centro studi del Consorzio delle Residenze Reali Sabaude, Torino

Il conte Sclopis e l’affare della sposa affittata (1769-74).

Una storia con Casanova?

 

Roberto Ricci

Deputazione Abruzzese di Storia Patria,

L’Aquila – CNR-ISEM, Roma

Giacomo Casanova e il cardinale Troiano Acquaviva d’Aragona

 

Michela Messina

Museo Sartorio, Trieste

La cifra dell’amore: quattro lettere riemerse di Andrea Memmo a Giustiniana Wynne

 

Federico Vidic

Istituto di Storia Sociale e Religiosa, Gorizia

Casanova in Vienna: between poetic flattery and embassy duties

 

Jolanta Dygul

Uniwersytet Warszawski

Casanova come traduttore: il caso delle Turbolenze della Polonia

17:20 – 17:40

Stanisław Świtlik
Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II
La pensée critique de Giacomo Casanova sur le despotisme dans l’Istoria delle turbolenze della Polonia

17:40 — 18:00

Piotr Ugniewski
Uniwersytet Warszawski
Casanova et les historiens des bouleversements en Pologne

18:00 — 18:20

Rafał Waszczuk
Uniwersytet Warszawski
Conceptualisation de l’ordre européen dans l’Istoria delle turbolenze della Polonia

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9:00 — 12:30

Tommaso Scaramella

Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia

Casanova e il pudore

 

Jean-Christophe Igalens

Sorbonne Université

Corps éprouvés

 

Gregory Dowling

Università Ca’ Foscari

Exploring the legend of La fuite des Plombs

 

Dino Detailleur

Waregem, Gand/Ghent

Are the Memoirs true or false?

A Memory Approach

 

Emmanuelle Meunier

Université de Franche-Comté

Réécritures, échos et prolongements: les documents de travail de Federico Fellini au seuil de son Casanova

 

Sílvia Fernandes

Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Braga

Casanova, les plaisirs et Dieu au Portugal

 

Michela Zaccaria

Università per Stranieri di Siena

Manon Balletti senza Casanova

 

Jaroslav Stanovsky

Moravská zemská knihovna v Brně

Casanova et Max Lamberg

 

Stefano Feroci

Firenze

Sabine Herrmann

Centro Tedesco di Studi Veneziani

Antonio Croce, l’ultimo amico di Casanova

15 — 17:00

Gianluca Simeoni

CRES, Verona

La versione Childs – Samaran.

Analisi di una edizione mai nata attraverso la corrispondenza di due casanovisti

 

Laurie A. Preston

McGraw-Page Library Randolph-Macon College

The J. Rives Childs Collection of Casanoviana: The Collection, the Scholar, and the Librarian

 

Richard Shane Agin

Duquesne University

Maria Elena Versari

Carnegie Mellon University

Casanova tra fascisti e antifascisti

 

Massimo Stella

Università Ca’ Foscari

Chiara Portesine

Scuola Normale Superiore Pisa

Casanova allo specchio

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9 — 12:00

Tom Vitelli

L’Intermédiaire des Casanovistes, Salt Lake City

Translating Casanova into English:

The Case of Lana Caprina

 

Branko Aleksić

Université Philosophique Européenne, Paris

Lavori d’ingegno : Casanova e Vico

 

Benjamin Hoffmann

Ohio State University

En lisant en écrivant: de L’Icosaméron aux Minuscules

 

Marie-Paule de Weerdt-Pilorge

Université de Tours

Mystères et imaginaires de Casanova dans le roman policier français : Conjuration Casanova d’Éric

Giacometti et Jacques Ravenne (2006) et Casanova et la femme sans visage d’Olivier Barde-Cabuçon (2012)

 

Elena Grazioli

Università Statale Milano

Marco Borrelli

Università L’Orientale, Napoli

Il «ritmo del vivere»: Giovanni Comisso e Giacomo Casanova

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Seventy years of the Institute for the History of the Venetian State and Society

One of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini’s earliest institutes, the Institute for the History of the Venetian State and Society dates back to 1955. Its main purpose for decades has been to make a fundamental contribution to the study of the history of Venice through the collection of documentation, research, the publication of the journal Studi Veneziani and the organisation
of seminars and scientific meetings. This year, through the participation of expert scholars, we are celebrating seven decades of activity by recalling the figures of the directors who have led the Institute, the scientific and publishing experiences, all with an eye to the future. As part of the seminar, volume 87–88 of Studi Veneziani (2023) will be presented.

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Egidio Ivetic
Introduction

 

Marcello Verga
Full Professor of Early Modern History, University of Florence
Italian Historiography and the History of Venice

 

Niccolò Zorzi
Full Professor of Byzantine Civilisation, University of Padua
Agostino Pertusi, Director

 

Antonella Barzazi
Full Professor of Early Modern History, University of Padua
Gaetano Cozzi, Director

 

Gino Benzoni
Member of the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti and former Director of the Institute for the History of Venetian Society and State
A Life Chapter at the Giorgio Cini Foundation

 

Egidio Ivetic
Director, Institute for the History of Venetian Society and State, Fondazione Giorgio Cini
New Challenges

 

Marco Pellegrini
Full Professor of Early Modern History, University of Bergamo
Presentation of Volume 87-88 of Studi Veneziani (2023)

moderator

Andrea Zannini
Full Professor of Early Modern History, University of Udine
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Accesso libero fino a esaurimento posti.

«Studi Veneziani» nn. 87-88 (2023)

Studies
• Ermanno Orlando, From Openness To Restriction. Mixed Marriages Between Greek And Latin Christians In Late Medieval Venice
• Francesco Bettarini, L’investitura notarile imperiali auctoritate a Venezia alla fine del Medioevo. Un paradosso guridico?
• Mario Bulgarelli, I Foscari alla borsa di Londra e Bruges (1463-1496)
• Robert G. Finlay, Noble lies: myth and reality in Gasparo Contarini’s Venice
• Franco De Checchi, Nicolò Aurelio Cancelliere grande della Repubblica di Venezia
• Cosimo Pantaleoni, I galeotti dello Stato da Mar veneziano tra sussistenza e crimine alla fine del XVI secolo: rapina ed economia sotterranea tramite i processi delle Cariche da Mar
• Gino Benzoni, Venezia: realtà che si fa mito
• Alessandro Cont, Il sistema delle nobiltà nell’area padano-veneto-friulana (1659-1714)
• Paolo Alberto Rismondo, I baroni romani Orsini e Venezia, Cesare Zoilo, il «Cavalier Tedeschi», e l’accademia Filarmonica di Verona
• Valeria Chilese – Marcella Lorenzini, Tenore di vita di una famiglia nobile veneta: Del Bene (XIX secolo)

 

Notes and Documents
• Denise-Chloe Alevizou, A source of the Codex Marcianus Graecus VII 22 (1466) miniature illustrations by Georgios Klontzas
• Antonella Barzazi, Gaetano Cozzi e le declinazioni di un trinomio: cultura, politica, religione
• Giuseppe Trebbi, Chiesa e Stato a Venezia nelle opere di Gaetano Cozzi e nella storiografia più recente
• Lorenzo Tomasin, Gianfranco Folena. Incontri di culture e lingue alla Fondazione Giorgio Cini

 

Reviews
• Antonio Lazzarini, Alberi da matadura per le navi di venezia. la vizza di san marco o bosco di somadida (M. Pitteri)
Come la marea. Successi e sconfitte durante il dogado de Leonardo Loredan (1501-1521) a cura di Donatella Calabi, Giuseppe Gullino, Gherardo Ortalli (J.-Cl. Hocquet)
Font cipriote per la caduta di Famagosta a cura di P. Kitromilidis (A. Tzavara)
• Gherardo Ortalli, Venezia inventata. Verità e leggenda della Serenissima (E. Ivetic)
• Renard Gluzman, Venetian Shipping. From the Days of Glory to Decline, 1453-1571 (E. Ivetic)
• Bernardo Sagredo, Lepanto prima e dopo la battaglia 1570-1573, a cura di V. Venturini e M. Zorzi (E. Ivetic)
• Géraud Poumarède, L’Empire de Venise et les Turcs, XVIe-XVIIe siècles (E. Ivetic)
• Cristina Setti, Una repubblica per ogni porto. Venezia e lo Stato da Mar negli itinerari dei Sindici inquisitori in Levante (secoli XVI-XVII) (E. Ivetic)
• Marco Pellegrini, Venezia e la Terraferma (E. Ivetic)
Popular Politics in an Aristocratic Republic. Political Conflict and Social Contestation in Late Medieval and Early Modern Venice, eds M. van Gelder and C. Judde de Larivière (E. Ivetic)
• Maud Harivel, Les élections politiques dans la République de Venise (XVIe-XVIIIe siècle). Entre justice distributive et corruption (E. Ivetic)

Institute for the History of the Venetian State and Society

Expats-Foresti. Foreigners in Venice in the Modern Age. A Fluctating Population

The Institute for the History of the Venetian State and Society in collaboration with the Deputazione per la Storia Patria per le Venezie, the RiVe Study Center of the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage of Ca’ Foscari University Venice and the Groupe de Recherche d’Histoire of the Université de Rouen Normandie is proposing a conference dedicated to foreigners in Venice in the modern age.

 

The program sees a rich harvest of papers, divided into four thematic sessions and spread over three days, two of which are at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini.

The sessions cover Nations/Communities/Esilii (with Elisa Andretta, José Pardo Tomas, Isabella Cecchini, Alessia Ceccarelli, Katerina B. Korrè, Igor Melani, Alana Mailes); Religious Alterities/Dissensions (with Magnus Ressel, Mario Infelise, Rachele Scuro, Marija Andrić, Bruno Pomara Saverino); the Structures/Institutions/Interactions (with Jean-François Chauvard, Rosa Salzberg, Sandra Toffolo, Massimo Galtarossa, Teresa Bernardi, Francesco Zambonin); the Biographies (with Claudia Terribile, Flavio Rurale, Despina Vlassi, Vittorio Mandelli).

The speakers come from a variety of universities and research institutions: University of Udine, CNRS Paris, CSIC Barcelona, CNR-ISEM Rome, University of Rome-La Sapienza, University of Patras, University of Florence, Trinity College Cambridge, Universität Bremen, University Ca’ Foscari Venice, Istorijski institut Beograd, Universitat de València, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, University of Trento, University of St Andrews, University of Padua.

    Institute for the History of the Venetian State and Society

    The Institute, since its establishment in 1955, has aimed to be a national and international reference for the study of the history of Venice. Due to its exceptional length and complexity, the history of Venice encompasses several other histories: Byzantine history, the history of Italy, the history of the Mediterranean, and European history. Venice is of significant importance for all areas surrounding the Mediterranean, from its origins to its demise in 1797. In many respects, it represents a unique history on a global scale. Venice was a state situated at the crossroads of civilisations, constantly in confrontation with the Byzantine Empire and, later, the Ottoman Empire and Islam in general, in a way no other European state experienced. For centuries, Venice was an Italian state free from foreign subjugation, a diplomatic hub in Europe, and an essential artistic and cultural reference point.

    The Institute for the History of the Venetian State and Society was founded in 1955. In addition to organising conferences, seminars, and study days, often in collaboration with national and international universities and research centres, the Institute publishes the scientific journal Studi Veneziani. Originally founded in 1959 as the Institute’s Bulletin, it changed its name in 1965. The Institute also houses an important Microfilm Library, which, in addition to reproducing documents and manuscripts from Italian and foreign libraries and archives, includes significant diplomatic series: the dispatches of the Este, French, Genoese, English, Savoy, Sforza, Medici, Parma, Papal, and Imperial ambassadors.

    Since 2021, the Institute has been directed by Egidio Ivetic.

    foto di repertorio venezia 1600

    Canaletto, The Return of the Bucintoro to the Wharf on Ascension Day, 1732.

    The Institute is a centre for historical research, but it also embodies a distinctive culture of engagement with the past, continuously striving to reconstruct, interpret, and reflect upon a place — Venice — that is unique in both history and the collective imagination of the world.

    STUDI VENEZIANI

    Studi Veneziani is an interdisciplinary study journal dedicated to the history of Venice and the Venetian state, as well as the expressions of Venetian civilisation in the realms of politics, institutions, society, culture, art, and literature. It publishes articles, documents, notes, and reviews. Founded as the Institute’s Bulletin in 1959, it has been published under its current name since 1965. The journal has been directed by Gian Piero Bognetti, Agostino Pertusi, Gaetano Cozzi, and Gino Benzoni. It is currently directed by Egidio Ivetic, the director of the Institute for the History of the Venetian State and Society.

    MICROFILM LIBRARY

    In addition to microfilms of individual documents and manuscripts of direct or indirect Venetian interest held in Italian and foreign libraries and archives, the microfilm library possesses entire and impressive diplomatic series, including the dispatches of the Este, French, Genoese, English, Savoy, Sforza, Medici, Parma, Papal, and Imperial ambassadors.

    Institute for the History of the Venetian State and Society

    DIRECTOR
    Egidio Ivetic

    Books at San Giorgio | Studi Veneziani

    May sees the resumption of the review that aims to promote and publicise the Fondazione Giorgio Cini’s publishing work. On Friday 3 May, in conjunction with the seminar Il Mediterraneo di Napoli, il Mediterraneo di Venezia, the academic journal Studi Veneziani, published by the Institute for the History of the Venetian State and Society, will be presented. This will be an opportunity to present the latest volumes (LXXXV-LXXXVI), once again highlighting the extraordinary wealth of topics addressed and the interdisciplinary approach of the only periodical entirely devoted to the history of Venice, the Venetian State and the expressions of Venetian civilisation in the form of politics, institutions, society, culture, art and literature.

     

    Will present Marco Pellegrini

    Will participate Egidio Ivetic

    Neapolitan Mediterranean, Venetian Mediterranean

    The seminar aims to highlight two perspectives and ways of being a Mediterranean state through the prism of medieval and modern history. Venice and Naples are two great capitals of the ancient sea and are above all two
    unique places, cities that were able to express their own specific civilisations.
    They are states located in the heart of the Mediterranean, both on the border with different worlds. The Kingdom of Naples and the Republic of Venice are also, in their own way, declinations of the history of Italy, the
    history of the Mediterranean and indeed of Europe. The seminar is also a proposal to examine the inverse, Mediterranean perspectives of these civilisations.
    The approach is thus comparative, intertwined with wide-ranging visions and interpretations of history and culture.

     

    On the occasion of the seminar, the latest issues of Studi Veneziani, published by the Institute for the History of the Venetian State and Society, will be presented.

    Appointments for Cini Ambassador

    The cycle of guided tours dedicated exclusively to Cini Ambassadors resumes in March, with a meeting curated by Egidio Ivetic, director of the Institute for the History of the Venetian State and Society – one of the first institutes of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, founded in 1955 and dedicated to the study of the history of Venice through the collection of documentation, research, the organisation of academic encounters and the publication of the journal Studi Veneziani.

     

    During the opening week of the Sixtieth Venice Biennale, there will be several initiatives promoted and hosted by the Fondazione Giorgio Cini: on Thursday 18 April, Cini Ambassadors may participate exclusively in the opening on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore of the following exhibitions: in Le Stanze del Vetro (in partnership with Pentagram Stiftung) there will be the exhibition 1912-1930 Il vetro di Murano e la Biennale di Venezia; the spaces of the former Piscina Gandini will host the exhibition In Nebula by the artist Chu Teh-Chun, promoted by the Swiss foundation of the same name; the collaboration with the Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery will also continue with an exhibition of previously unpublished works by the American artist Alex Katz, curated by Luca Massimo Barbero, and at Palazzo Cini, on the second floor of the Gallery, there will be an exhibition dedicated to the Austrian artist Martha Jungwirth. At Le Stanze della Fotografia, two exhibitions are planned during the Art Biennale: a major retrospective on Helmut Newton and an exhibition of photographs selected through a call for the contributions of young photographers.

     

    On 7 May, will witness the presentation at the Centro Studi del Vetro (‘Glass Study Centre’), the most important and complete General Archive of Venetian Glass, founded in 2012 by the joint initiative of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini and Pentagram Stiftung, which has recently transferred its collections to the renovated Sala Messina, following major restoration work carried out with the contribution of the Interregional Superintendency for Public Works for Veneto, Trentino Alto Adige, Friuli Venezia Giulia and Pentagram Stiftung.

     

    Finally, on 18 June the Cini Ambassadors will discover the new and extraordinary renovation of the Longhena Library with open shelving, reserved exclusively for the study of the history of the Republic of Venice in its historical, cultural and artistic aspects. To achieve this, the room itself has been enriched with publications from the Institute of Letters and that of Venice and the East, and in particular, from the Institute for the History of the Venetian Society and State, thanks to which it was also possible to acquire the major book collection of the historian Alberto Tenenti (1924-2002) in 2017.