In search of Vivaldi's Venice
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Antonio Lucio Vivaldi was born on March 4th, 1678, in the sestiere of Castello, where he would live with his family for much of his life. Vivaldi was baptised immediately after his birth by the midwife, who feared he would not live long. Her fears proved groundless and two months later, on May 6th, Vivaldi was baptised for a second time in the parish church of San Giovanni in Bragora.
"Antonio Lucio, son of Giovanni Battista, instrumentalist and son of the late Agostino Vivaldi, and his wife, Camilla, daughter of the late Camillo Calicchio, born this fourth of March, on which day he received home baptism from midwife Margarita Veronese due to danger of death, was brought to the church this day. I, pastor Giacomo Fornacieri, performed the exorcisms and christening…." Although we cannot identify the exact house where Vivaldi was born (and where he lived until 1705), we do know that it was situated in the Campo Grande alla Bragora (today's Campo San Giovanni in Bragora o Bandiera e Moro). Vivaldi's father was a barber and a highly regarded violinist, who played in the orchestra of San Marco. Although he taught his son the violin, the young Vivaldi seemed destined for a career in the church. At the age of fifteen he began training for the priesthood and ten years later, on March 23rd 1703, he was ordained. Nicknamed Il Prete Rosso (The Red Priest), on account of his red hair, Vivaldi said mass for the first (and almost the last) time in the church of San Giovanni in Oleo, known in Venetian dialect as San Zaninovo. Six months later he took up a post at the Ospedale della Pietà, as maestro di violino. He also had duties as a house priest or mansionario. The ospedale and its church used to stand on the site where, today, we find the Hotel Metropole. In 1705 Vivaldi and his family moved to Campo Santi Filippo e Giacomo, where they lived in a house (4358) which is now part of the Hotel Rio. They lived there until 1710, returning to the campo sixteen months later to live in the house next door. Where they lived between January 1st, 1710, and April 20th, 1711, remains a mystery! Between 1722 and 1730 Vivaldi (always with his family) lived in the Fondamenta del Dose (5879), in the house at the foot of the Ponte del Paradiso. Vivaldi's final years (1730-40) in Venice were spent in a house in the Riva del Carbon. In 1740 the composer left the city of his birth and moved to Vienna, where he died a year later on July 28th, 1741. |
Antonio Vivaldi by Pier Leone Ghezzi, 1723
Plaque to Antonio Vivaldi, San Giovanni in Bragora
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