588 margaret l. king
Philosophy on the RialtoJust as humanism in Venice inclined to christian themes, so too did it
attend to philosophy. Whereas in other settings humanists were often
dismissive of scholastic methodology, and indifferent to aristotelian
metaphysics, in Venice, humanism and philosophy commingled in the same
individual and in the same circles. Two factors help explain the melding
of humanist and philosophical enthusiasms in Venice: first, the nearby
presence of the university of Padua; second, the openness of the city to
the Greek tradition.
already in Petrarch’s day, as has been seen, members of the Venetian
elite trained at Padua52 (which by Senate decree after 1407 was the only
university at which Venetian nobles were permitted to study).^ There many
took degrees in both canon and civil law, an excellent preparation for
future statesmen; but many also studied the arts curriculum, which, since
the Trecento, was thoroughly saturated by aristotelianism. The circula-
tion of people and ideas between Venice and Padua, and its resultant
impact on the culture of Venice and its aristocracy, is evident throughout
the renaissance and Baroque eras.53
Venetian contact with the Greek tradition also had long, indeed ancient
roots, as Venice during its early centuries had been subject to Byzantium,
and both in political and commercial interactions, Venetians interacted
Contarini, pp. 79–211; and hubert Jedin, “Gasparo contarini e il contributo veneziano alla
riforma cattolica,” in Branca, ed., Storia della civiltà veneziana, 2:271–80.
52 Grendler profiles the university of Padua and its relationship to Venice in Paul F.
Grendler, The Universities of the Italian Renaissance (Baltimore, 2002). For the philosophical
culture of Padua, with ramifications for Venice, cesare Vasoli, “la logica,” in Storia della
cultura veneta, vol. 3 (1981): Dal primo Quattrocento al Concilio di Trento, part 3, pp. 35–73;
for the 13th- and early 14th-century setting, see Girolamo arnaldi, “il primo secolo dello
studio di Padova,” in Storia della cultura veneta, vol. 2 (1976): Il Trecento, pp. 1–18; Franco
alessio, “Filosofia e scienza: Pietro da abano,” in Storia della cultura veneta, 2 (1976): Il
Trecento, pp. 171–206; and Vasoli, “Marsilio di Padova,” in Storia della cultura veneta, vol. 2
(1976): Il Trecento, pp. 207–37.
53 For the later period, in addition to titles earlier cited in n. 54, see also carlo Maccagni,
“le scienze nello studio di Padova e nel Veneto,” in Storia della cultura veneta, vol. 3
(1981): Dal primo Quattrocento al Concilio di Trento, part 3, pp. 135–71; and adriano carugo,
“l’insegnamento matematica all’università di Padova prima e dopo Galileo,” in Storia della
cultura veneta, vol. 4 (1984): Dalla Controriforma alla fine della Repubblica. Il Seicento, part 2,
pp. 115–99. For Venetians and Paduan academic culture in the early 17th century, see also
edward Muir, The Culture Wars of the Late Renaissance: Skeptics, Libertines, and Opera
(cambridge, Mass., 2007).