education in the republic of venice 683
the Veneto, and the Venetian vernacular writers Veronica franco (1546–
91), Moderata fonte (1555–92), and lucrezia Marinella (1571–1653).24
in order to estimate literacy rates, it is necessary to add the number
of boys and girls who attended formal schools with those who received
informal schooling. it is likely that about 26 per cent of boys of school age,
defined as ages six through 15, attended formal schools in 1587. in addi-
tion, some boys learned at home, as apprentices in shops. other children
acquired basic literacy at the numerous Schools of christian doctrine
(catechism schools taught by laymen and laywomen) in the city. Meeting
on Sundays and the many religious holidays of the year, the Schools of
christian doctrine imparted basic literacy by teaching boys and girls (in
separate schools) how to read common prayers and to do a little writing.25
When estimates of the number of boys who acquired basic literacy in
these ways are added, Venice may have had a male literacy rate of about
33 per cent. if most boys left school at the ages of 12 or 13, the literacy rate
was higher. by contrast, fewer than 1 per cent of girls attended formal
schools outside the home or convent. When girls who acquired at least
basic literacy at home or in catechism schools, plus an estimated num-
ber of educande, are added to the total, the female literacy rate reached
12 per cent to 13 per cent. if the school age is assumed to be 6 through 12,
then the female literacy rate was higher.26
towns and villages in the Venetian mainland state acted much like
Venice, not because Venice imposed its pedagogical will but because all
followed a peninsula-wide educational pattern. bergamo, brescia, Verona,
and Vicenza, as well as hamlets in the bergamasco, shared broad educa-
tional experiences with local variations.27 they offered a mix of indepen-
dent, communal, and church schools; in bergamo a major confraternity
also sponsored schools and provided subsidies to students. because
resources were limited, the lines separating schools were permeable, as
parents, communal authorities, and others worked together to create
schools. individual initiatives and local connections mattered a great deal:
24 patricia h. labalme, “Venetian Women on Women: three Early Modern feminists,”
Archivio veneto, 5th serie, vol. 117 (1981), 98–104.
25 Grendler, Schooling, pp. 333–62.
26 See Grendler, Schooling, pp. 42–47, for further explanation.
27 christopher carlsmith, A Renaissance Education: Schooling in Bergamo and the
Venetian Republic, 1500–1650 (toronto/buffalo, 2010), provides a comprehensive study of
schooling in bergamo plus information on schooling elsewhere in the Veneto. it is an
excellent comparative study. for Verona, see Marchi, “istituzioni scolastiche,” which
covers the Middle ages to 1797.