education in the republic of venice 693
4200 boys and a handful of girls were enrolled in formal schools in 1787,
when the population of the city was about 140,000.56 as noted earlier,
about 4625 boys attended formal schools in the academic year 1587–88,
when the population of Venice was about 146,600. the formal schooling
rate in 1587–88 was about 26 per cent for school-age boys and the male
literacy rate probably 33 per cent or a little higher. it appears that the
schooling rate for boys and the male literacy rate was about the same or
slightly lower in 1787. in addition, the vast majority of the boys received
only elementary educations in 1787, as was the case in the 16th century.
Very few girls attended formal schools outside the home in 1787, again as
in 1587–88.
the educational reforms of the 1770s did not produce great change.
the state, aided by the papal suppression of the Society of Jesus, largely
expelled the regular clergy from the classroom. it substituted a state
school for the Jesuit school and took control of the clerical sestieri schools.
but it appointed secular clergymen to replace Jesuit schoolmasters and
to teach in the clerical sestieri schools. the majority of the independent
teachers were also secular clergymen, as many were in the 16th century,
and may have been in the intervening centuries. the Republic decreed
that the vernacular would be the language of instruction, and it wanted
schools to teach utilitarian skills. nevertheless, even the state schools
continued to teach latin grammar and prose, Greek, philosophy, and even
theology.
Terraferma towns followed the lead of Venice. for example, when the
Jesuits were suppressed, the communal government of brescia took own-
ership of the building that housed the Jesuit school and turned it into a
communal school. in Verona the commune did the same and hired former
56 the total comes from the figures provided by Gullino, “Educazione.” there were 2536
boys (and a handful of girls) in independent schools in 1787 (p. 783). there were 312 boys
in the state fondamenta nuove school in 1788 (p. 772, table 1). there were 761 boys in the
state sestieri schools in 1787 (p. 780, table 3.) and although Gullino does not give total
enrollment figures for the clerical sestieri schools, there were 129 boys in the two upper-
level clerical schools in 1795 (p. 776). in addition, there were 60 boys in the patriarchal
seminary at Murano in the 1780s (p. 776). if one estimates that there were another
40 boys in the other seminary, and at least another 170 boys in the lower level clerical
sestieri schools, that produces a total of 400 students. one may add another 100 boys for
the 60 boys in the boarding school for nobles (p. 764), 18 in the navigation school, and
an unknown number of boys in the Scuola di San Marco. that makes a total male school
population of 4109 (2536 + 312 + 761 + 400 + 100). of course, this is only an estimate.