First Woman Philosopher with a Doctorate: Elena Cornaro Piscopia

The study analyses the circumstances under which Elena Cornaro Piscopia became the first woman in the world to earn a Doctor degree in Philosophy, which she received from the University of Padua in 1678. The author presents the broader context of the outstanding accomplishment. She points out that, although universities did not allow women to enrol to study, Elena Cornaro managed to earn a doctorate thanks to several favourable circumstances. Of these, the author emphasises the tradition of intellectual centres at Renaissance courts in Italy, which were led by educated women-aristocrats; the development of the Venetian Republic in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, which affected the position of women, particularly those from aristocratic families; the openness of universities, namely the Universities of Padua and Bologna. Special attention is given to the family background, life, and studies of Elena Cornaro. The final part of the paper deals with other women philosophers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The Venetian Bride

A true story of vendetta and intrigue, triumph and tragedy, exile and repatriation in early modern Venice, this book focuses on the marriage between the feudal lord Count Girolamo Della Torre and Giulia Bembo, daughter of a powerful Venetian senator and grand-niece of Cardinal Pietro Bembo. Exiled to Crete for pursuing vendetta to avenge the murder of his father, Girolamo marries Giulia with the aim of enlisting her father as a powerful ally. Thus begins a challenging itinerary that leads from the Mediterranean back to Venice and its mainland territories in the Veneto and the Patria del Friuli. It plays out against a backdrop of the birth of ten children, the Council of Trent, papal and imperial politics, the rise of Girolamo’s brother Michele to the cardinalate, the Ottoman threat, and the golden age of Venetian art. Once a pawn in a marital strategy that failed, Giulia is celebrated after her death with the first independent biography of an ordinary woman published in Italy. The fortunes and misfortunes of the Della Torre bloodline, which survived the end of the Venetian Republic in 1797, are emblematic of a change in feudal culture from clan solidarity to individualism and intrafamily strife, and ultimately redemption. This epic tale opens a precious window into a contentious period in which Venetian republican values clash with the deeply rooted feudal traditions of honour and blood feuds of the mainland.

“Esto perpetua!”: “Two Cities” of Paolo Sarpi

The article examines the life path, the formation of the personality and ideas of the ideologist of the Venetian ecclesiastical independence, Paolo Sarpi. The main source for the study is Sarpi’s biography, “Vita del padre Paolo”, written by his secretary Fulgenzio Micanzio. Ac-cording to Sarpi, the ecclesiastical tradition of the Venetian Republic was based on the Byz-antine symphony of the authorities, which he sought to apply to contemporary circumstances related to the conflict between Venice and the Holy See in 1606–1607. After the Council of Trent, the “War of the Interdict” became a significant event for Christian Europe, and Father Paolo was the central figure of that “war”. The study aims to show, however, that Sarpi’s church ministry and public service were only one of the facets of his activity. They were of an antinomical character in relation to his spiritual and scientific aspirations. The logic of the thinker's choice is revealed in the philosophical credo, which allowed him to remain a whole person, despite the variety of spheres of his activities. For all his involvement in the affairs of church politics, Father Paolo practised “abstinence from judgment”, outwardly expressed in sceptical “ataraxia”. The article concludes that the duality of Sarpi's ethics is resolved through a clear separation of the areas of his life – spiritual, intellectual, and social – that he formulat-ed in the ethical principle of “indifferent participation.”

Lorenzo de Monacis: A vérszopó Ezerino borzalmas története

Even in the early twentieth century, northern Italian children were intimidated by the Bloodsucker Ezerino. We find Ezerino or Ezzelino Da Romano (1194-1259) also in the seventh circle of Dante's Hell, but the horror tale of the cruel tyrant has been mentioned in several romantic literary works as well. The reign of the Ghibellin Ezerino could only be terminated by the alliance of the Pope, the Lombard League and the Venetian Republic through a crusade against the tyrant, but its terror and the hatred of his opponents left their mark on later narratives as well. Later analysts pointed out that most of the horrors detailed here may only have been exaggerations or fictions with which the victors tried to defeat the former deadly enemy – as we have already seen by a few examples. But also the history of the 20th century demonstrates clearly that there is no unimaginable horror committed by man over time. Our presented text is the 13th chapter of an early 15th century Venetian chronicle. The first half of the story is a slightly confusing story of petty family quarrels, wealth-seeking tricks, minor skirmishes, but later there are unfolding terrible events before our very eyes that remember the tragedy of Richard the III. We can see how an average nobleman became an almost unearthly evil, paranoid tyrant by the end of his life. The narrative is slowly rising from the middle of the text to literary niveau and deepens into an impressive tyrannical biography framed by the completely meaningless Guelf-Ghibelline wars. Its pages are populated by historical and supra-historical figures: ruthless mercenaries, cruel hangmen keeping the account of their victims, family members whistleblowing each order, self-whipping flagellants, diligent denunciators and humiliated truncated children liberated from their prison as living sceletons.

Dimensioni e dinamiche dei flussi migratori da Livinallongo/Fodom e da Colle Santa Lucia/Col nel corso del Novecento

This essay compares the migration from Livinallongo/Fodom and Colle Santa Lucia/Col, which were Ladin villages belonging to Austria until World War I, with the migration from the villages situated in the Alto Agordino, which be-longed to the neighbouring Kingdom of Italy. The research goes on until the 1980s, highlighting similarities and differences between the two areas, which have not only a different political history but also a dissimilar socio-economic and identity history. An element that has greatly influenced both, the quantity and type of emigration, is the model of inheritance of ownership that charac-terised the two areas, and which was very important before the tourism boom. In Fodom and Col there was the custom of undivided ownership according to Germanic law, while in the villages which had belonged to the Venetian Republic there was in force the Latin inheritance law, according to which the ownership was divided equally between the heirs, but did not allow any of them to live on the sole income from land ownership; this generated a temporary or permanent mass departure from the mountains. In Col and Fodom the departure of adults was more limited, however the emigration of minors was extremely widespread, especially towards Val Pusteria and Val Gardena, a sad phenomenon documen-ted through life testimonies.

Prisege zvestobe istrskih mest v 12. stoletju

Still today, historiography questions whether the purpose of oaths of fealty (fidelitas), dedicated to the Venetian Republic by Istrian towns from 12th Century, was to conclude friendships between the equal communities or was just a form of alliances against common enemies, or were even the subordination of Istrian towns? Insofar as it was actually a matter of concluding alliances even after the feuds, later vents clearly testify in support of the fact that those oaths of fealtywere the first step towards the later Venetian subordination of Istrian towns, the basis of the process which ended only in 1420. This paper argues that the above events should be understood and interpreted in accordance with then prevailing system of conflict resolution and within the framework of the ritual: homage, fealty, peace (homagium, fidelitas, pax).

Libri e stampe di casa Manfrin a Venezia tra Sette e Ottocento. Prime considerazioni

Manfrin’s gallery in Venice has been one of the most famous private collections assembled in the Venetian Republic at the end of the eighteenth century, becoming a must-to-see for visitors and artists during the following century. Recent literature addressed mainly his painting collection, shedding light on its history and dispersal, while less attention has been paid to his library and print cabinet, both formed and increased from the last years of Settecento onwards. New documentary sources allow us to explore more in detail the taste for ancient and modern prints and the contents of the library, which was physically incorporated into the last room of the painting gallery and whose importance for the presence of art history publications, illustrated books and volumes of prints, was pointed out in the guides of contemporary writers and critics such as Giannantonio Moschini and Francesco Zanotto. This essay covers a lacuna in the studies on Venetian collecting during the period comprised between the fall of the Republic and the establishment of the Austrian government, providing a preliminary survey of what was until now a missing chapter in the reconstruction of the cultural ‘tradition’ that Girolamo Manfrin and his son Pietro tempted to obtain in the Venetian society of the time.

Le città nelle fortificazioni: le isole ioniche in Grecia. Conoscenza e valorizzazione di un patrimonio

The cities in the fortifications: the Ionian islands in Greece. Knowledge and enhancement of a heritage Residing in the Mediterranean Sea, Ionian islands signify the passage from the west to the east. A constantly sought-after region due to the trade routes, was for a long time garrisoned and under the authority of the Venetian Republic (fourteenth-eighteenth centuries) that hindered with its fleet the Turkish invasions. The bigger islands that constitute the cluster of the Eptanisa: Corfu, Lefkada or Santa Maura, Ithaka, Kefalonia, Kythira, Zakinthos and more, that had strategic positions with respect to the usual routes, had since the middle ages fortifications like walls, towers and castles, that over the time were expanded and restructured by the Venetians in order to defend those islands from the enemy attacks. The rich iconographic historic material, considering the Ionian Islands, allows to document the characteristics of those wide spread defensive structures and to identify each strong part of this big and unique fortification cluster. It has to be noted that every one of those structures gives us clues about the urban history of the city it resides since they were part of the urban landscape revealing this way the urban layout. The compelling story of the architectural consistency of those fortresses, as it is described in the historic documents, cannot be always verified. Many of those structures are nowadays completely destroyed and only a few remains are left. There are many ways to organize a project for saving those structures and in particular one that will be related with the cultural tourism.

The Venetian Republic, the Byzantine Empire, and the Duchy of Milan

This chapter examines the rise of the Venetian Republic and its victories over autocratic rivals. The Venetian Republic was one of the most open polities of the Middle Ages, and it found itself in strategic competitions with other rival powers, including the Byzantine Empire, Genoa, and the Duchy of Milan. Like other dominant democracies before and since, Venice became a major trading, financial, and naval power and it was renowned for its shrewd diplomacy. In the end, Venice bested its rivals, even sacking the imperial city of Constantinople in AD 1204. At the peak of its power, the Venetian Empire’s territorial control spanned from northern Italy, along the Dalmatian Coast, to much of Greece and Anatolia, including Constantinople, with significant influence in the Levant, North Africa, and the Black Sea. Our friend Machiavelli admired Venice as “excellent among modern republics.”