690 paul f. grendler
the original citizen and man of letters Gasparo Gozzi (1713–86) pro-
vided the intellectual rationale for pedagogical changes. at the request
of the Riformatori dello Studio di padova and another magistracy, Gozzi
drafted six memoranda on education between 1770 and 1775. influenced
by European philosophes, Gozzi wanted education to teach good morals
and civic values defined in non-religious terms. he wanted education to
be practical, which he would accomplish by making italian the language
of instruction. he wanted to eject clergymen from the classroom, and
he was hostile to the Jesuits. in 1770 he dismissed them as “consummate
masters in teaching useless matter with pompous ostentation.”45 although
the leadership of the Republic asked Gozzi for advice, it did not always
follow it.
the Republic began with reform of the state sestieri schools. in the
early 18th century there were six, each with a teacher. in 1774 the Venetian
government banned latin and added arithmetic and a little geometry to
the curriculum. Most important, it expanded the number of teachers and
schools. by 1787 Venice had 19 sestieri schools, each with a teacher. they
enrolled 761 students, 40 per teacher. the students (still all boys) were the
sons of boatmen (the largest group), cabinet makers, builders, jewelers,
small grocers ( fruttivendoli), minor civil servants, and other workers and
tradesmen. the sons of nobles and original citizens studied elsewhere.
the median age of the students was eight years and ten months, which
probably meant that almost all the students were between the ages of six
and 12. thus, the state sestieri schools became free elementary schools for
a larger, but still small, fraction of the non-elite population. the Republic
saw this as an act of charity; it never articulated an obligation to educate
all its subjects. nevertheless, Venice had as large a system of state schools
45 “furono verso il 1550 introdotte nella città [Venice] le caritatevoli scuole de’ pp.
Gesuiti, maestri sommi dell’insegnare inutilità con pompose apparenze”; Gasparo Gozzi,
Scritti di Gasparo Gozzi, ed. niccolo tommaseo, 3 vols (florence, 1849), 2:307, from his
“Sulla riforma degli studi,” dated 12 august 1770. Gozzi’s six tracts on education are found
in ibid., 2:297–396. two of Gozzi’s treatises of 1770 on educational reform, including the
above one, are found in Gozzi, Scritti scelti, ed. nicola Mangini (turin, 1960), pp. 753–93.
however, this edition omits the phrase “maestri... apparenze” (p. 766). for analysis of
Gozzi’s educational ideas, see bruno Rosada, “Gaspare Gozzi tra morale e pedagogia,”
in Gasparo Gozzi. Il lavoro di un intellettuale nel Settecento veneziano, atti del convegno
(Venezia/pordenone, 4–6 dicembre 1986), ed. ilaria crotti and Ricciarda Ricorda (padua,
1989), p. 88. See also piero del negro, “Gaspare Gozzi e la politica veneziana,” in crotti
and Ricorda, eds., Gasparo Gozzi. Il lavoro di un intellettuale nel Settecento veneziano,
pp. 45–63.