442 david d’andrea
charitable organizations.64 More recent scholarship has shifted the pri-
mary focus from the scuole grandi to the scuole piccole and the relation-
ship between confraternities and cultural patronage. there still remains
much work to be done in all aspects of charity and confraternities after
- We know relatively little about the roles of the scuole piccole and of
women, the activities of the national brotherhoods, and the relationship
between Venice and charities throughout the Veneto. forty years after
Pullan’s groundbreaking study, we still lack a general survey of poverty in
early modern Venice.
the state of the scholarship reflects the sources available to schol-
ars. Most of the records of the scuole grandi and piccole were dispersed,
destroyed, or lost in the 19th century. although there is no comprehen-
sive survey of early modern Venetian charitable and confraternal associa-
tions, there are several places where one can turn for critical guides for
research. the most complete description of the hospital archives can be
found in the catalogue of the state archive of Venice (asVe), Guida gener-
ale degli Archivi di Stato, Venezia, iV: “opere pie, istituzioni di assistenza
e beneficenza, ospedali” (rome, 1994), pp. 1080–1101; and the collections of
the istituzioni di ricovero e di educazione (ire) catalogued by Giuseppe
ellero, L’archivio IRE (Venice, 1987). the majority of documents related
to charity and confraternities can be found in the asVe and ire, but the
work by Gastone Vio provides an invaluable list of the 925 devotional con-
fraternities whose records can be found scattered throughout the public,
parochial, and private archives of Venice.
there have been a number of efforts to inventory the architectural
and artistic patrimony of the confraternities, and as a result there are
a number of finding aids to locate existing structures and artwork. sil-
via Gramigna’s Scuole provides a map with the location of eighty scuole
buildings. raymond Lifchez’s “a digital archive” contains 1000 images of
139 sites related to charity and confraternities. one can consult the web
page http://www.mip.berkeley.edu/spiro/ and search “Lifchez Gift” for Venice
and/or subject “scuole.” Jonathan Glixon, Honoring God, appendix 2: “a
Calendar of religious occasions Celebrated by the scuole,” lists the activi-
ties of various confraternities throughout the year. richard Mackenney,
Tradesmen, appendix i: “the sestieri of Venice: Churches, scuole, altars
c.1250–c.1650,” lists 128 churches, altars, and buildings associated with con-
fraternities. Pullan, Rich and Poor, appendix to Part ii: “Venetian hospitals
64 see Bibliography for publication details of works cited here.