Located on the 4th floor of Palazzo Barbarigo alla Maddalena, the palazzo was rebuilt at the beginning of 1500, on the Canal Grande, just in front of the church of S. Stae. It is well known for the external frescoes of the same period, which are the only ones preserved in Venice, and at one time it was the home of Maria Malibran. The apartment has been completely renovated and furnished with antique and modern furniture. From its 7 windows in the front, a very large view is open on the Canal Grande, up to S. Marco, Frari, S. Geremia. The apartment is about 75 square meters large, and is composed of an entrance, a large double bedded room, a smaller room with bunk bed, a dining room and a perfectly equipped kitchenette, and a bathroom. A fully equipped laundry is available on the same floor. Children, pets and smokers welcome. No lift. Monthly rent is 1300 Euros. Minimum stay 3 weeks. Contact: Schenkel@uniud.it.

Five apartments for rent: 1. Smaller mezzanine apt., ideal for one person or couple plus guest, air-conditioning, washing machine, dishwasher. One double bedroom, one sitting room with two sofabeds, live-in beautiful kitchen, Fully equipped. Wi-Fi. Very central, near Santa Maria Formosa. 2. Large apt., very spacious, beautiful balcony on canal, two bedrooms, dining room, sitting room, kitchen, one bathroom, plus one bathroom with WC and basin, washing machine, entrance hall, plus small bedroom. Can sleep 7. Wi-Fi. Very central, near Santa Maria Formosa. 3. Small apartment on Fondamente Nuove: one double bedroom, one dining-sitting room, kitchen, bathroom. Wi-Fi. Washing machine. Heating. 4. Baroque piano nobile on Fondamente Nuove. Salon with stuccoed doors and chandeliers, one double bedroom with stuccoed alcove, one bedroom with two beds, dining room, kitchenette, one bathroom plus one WC. One small bedroom. Wi-Fi. Can sleep 6. Available only from June 1st to September 30th. 5. Small apt on mezzanine, one bedroom with two  beds, one kitchen-living room, washing machine, wifi, overlooking a campo, heating, very central, near S.M. Formosa.  Contact: mamoli@unive.it.

Graduate students, scholars and practitioners are invited to apply for grants for travel to and research on Venice and the former Venetian empire, and for the study of contemporary Venetian society and culture. Applicants from all disciplines of the humanities and social sciences are eligible for areas of study including, but not limited to: anthropology; archaeology; architecture; art; bibliography; economics; history; history of science; law; literature; music; political thought; religion; theatre; film and television. Applications for research on the environment and conservation are also welcomed. Other relevant research interests will be considered. The closing date for applications is 1 May 2023. Awards will be announced in the early summer. On-line applications and further particulars are to be found at https://www.delmas.org/how-to-apply-british-commonwealth

This historical research programme directed by J.-F. Chauvard (Université de Lyon 2) analyses the interactions between an institution and a practice: on the one hand, marriage, a sacrament of the Church and a crucial step in setting up as a professional, transmitting property and integrating society; on the other, mobility, understood in both spatial and social terms. This programme’s field of study is modern Venice, which was both a very large city of more than 150,000 inhabitants at the end of the 16th century, and a world-city whose mixed population came from around the Mediterranean basin and the Transalpine countries. Venice is therefore an excellent vantage point for studying interconfessional marriages (between Catholics and Orthodox), marriages between foreigners, and marriages between natives and immigrants. This project relies on a massive volume of documentation: the processetti matrimoniali. These enquiries were made by the Catholic Church to ensure that future spouses were indeed either single or widowed. Initially, these enquiries were carried out for all individuals whose marital status was in doubt, especially non-native Venetians. They were based on witness testimony, and recorded in 340 registries between 1592 and 1807. This serial and diachronic documentation will be used to create a collaborative database developed using a project hosting platform (symoghi.com) with support from the Digital History Unit of LARHRA. The database input will consist of one-third of the processetti collection (120 registries, i.e. around 10,000 enquiries).

This unique documentation will be processed in two ways. Firstly, the processetti will be studied as the central component of a system that the Catholic Church set up in an attempt to reconcile human mobility with the respect of marriage rules. The analysis of this process will be expanded to the Italian peninsula and to the Greek world under Venetian dominion in order to gain a better understanding of the circulation of ecclesiastical norms and practices.

Then, we will regard the processetti as a source of information for grasping marriage as a pivotal moment in a migratory trajectory and an integration process. The processetti lend themselves to both a quantitative and qualitative approach that enables a full range of migratory trajectories to be reconstructed, including for example migrations by women (who leave little trace in the sources typically used for research). Lastly, we will examine how, at the end of a migratory trajectory, marriage could be an instrument for social integration (by looking at the significance of exogamous and interfconfessional marriages) and for social mobility (paying special attention to the sequence of events surrounding the 1630 plague outbreak, which appears to have opened up matrimonial and economic opportunities). This research programme aims to better understand what inclusion and social mobility mean in an open, cosmopolitan city that is still affected by legal, religious and social barriers.

This project is underpinned by a partnership between LARHRA-University of Lyon 2, the University of Padua, the French Schools of Rome and Athens, and the National University of Athens.

As you all well know, the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana continues to be an indispensable resource to scholars around the world and across the disciplines whose work opens up new perspectives on Venetian history and culture. For more than a decade the International Friends have been sustaining this great institution. To serve a broad scholarly audience, funds have been dedicated to building an online data base of printed books, making the Marciana a leader in on-line services. Our funds have also helped sustain the Golem project, which is part of the On line Public Access Catalogue. In addition to enhancing access to collections we have even helped to improve the library’s lighting. More recently the Friends made two separate grants- – one to supplement the Marciana’s acquisition budget for printed materials and one to support digitization and web access for unique manuscript materials.

We remain committed to supporting this institution’s mission and facilitating its consultation by an auspicious list of students and scholars the world over. I kindly invite you to join this effort by making a donation, payable by check to the address listed below. For those of you who wish to make a donation in a currency other than US dollars, you may send an email to marcianafriends@icloud.com stating how much you want to give and in what currency. We will then email you an invoice from the PayPal website. You can donate using your own PayPal account, if you have one, a credit card, or bank cash transfer. PayPal accepts most currencies. Your contribution is tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.

With great appreciation for your support.

Joanne M. Ferraro
President

The International Friends of the Marciana Library, Inc.
25 East End Avenue, Suite 15G
New York, New York 10028-7052