462 benjamin ravid
around 1580, based on information given to him by a Jesuit priest, almost
200 merchants and their servants resided in the fondaco out of around
900 Germans in the city, of whom 700 were Protestant.35 De facto, many
other Germans settled in Venice with their families while other individu-
als lodged in special inns or in private homes. they engaged in a very
wide range of professional activities, including metallurgy, goldsmithing,
working with textiles, tailoring, baking, shoe-making, and other artisanal
activities, as well as domestic service. Printing was introduced into Venice
by John of speyer in 1469, who was followed by other significant German
printers, and that industry also employed many Germans. some Germans
possessed their own scuole, for example, the shoe-makers and the bakers,
who manufactured biscuits for the Venetian fleet, and met in the church
of san stefano.36 the Germans in Venice also possessed an inn for pil-
grims in which, according to the oft-quoted observation of the German
pilgrim Felix Faber from Ulm, who passed through Venice on his way to
the Holy Land in 1483, the host, hostess, domestics, and servants all spoke
German and one did not hear a word of italian; even the dog of the estab-
lishment was glad when anyone from any part of Germany entered, while
he growled at the arrival of italians, French, Greeks, and slavs.37
V
the Greeks in Venice, who may have rivaled the Germans for the distinc-
tion of being the largest minority group in the city, constituted the most
important Greek community in the Hellenic diaspora.38 since Venice
had initially been a part of the Byzantine empire and remained in close
contact with Byzantium, it is understandable that Byzantine Greeks vis-
ited Venice during the Middle ages, primarily in diplomatic missions
stein, “remarques sur la population allemande de Venise a la fin du moyen age,” in Beck,
Manoussacas, and Pertusi, eds., Venezia: Centro di mediazione, 1:233–34.
35 see chambers and Pullan, eds., Venice: A Documentary History, pp. 330–31.
36 see calabi, “Gli stranieri e la città,” pp. 927–28; and Zannini, Venezia città aperta,
p. 43.
37 see Zannini, Venezia città aperta, p. 46.
38 comprehensive specialized articles on many of the developments and institutions
referred to in the following discussion of the Greeks in Venice have been published in
M. F. tiepolo and e. tonetti, eds., I Greci a Venezia, Atti del Convegno Internazionale di
Studio: Venezia, 5–7 novembre 1998 (Venice, 2002), with précis in italian, english, and Greek.
according to the available consulted records, during the period from 1250 to 1500, fewer
than 60 Greek immigrants to the city of Venice itself obtained citizenship; see r. Mueller,
“Greeks in Venice,” in c. a. Maltezou, ed., Ricchi e poveri nella società dell’Oriente Grecola-
tino (Venice, 1998), p. 157.