History Walks in Venice

Carboneri — transporters and sellers of charcoal — Zompini — Arti #8

Gaetano Zompini - Arti che vanno per via - plate 08 - Carboneri - transporters and sellers of coal and charcoal

Carboneri — plate 8

The Arti che vanno per via nella città di Venezia (1753, 1770, 1785, etc.), by Gaetano Zompini (1700–1778), contains sixty engravings of common, mostly poor people, peddling their trades on the streets of Venice in the mid-1700s.

Gaetano Zompini - Arti che vanno per via - plate 08 - Carboneri - transporters and sellers of coal and charcoal
Gaetano Zompini – Arti che vanno per via – plate 08 – Carboneri – transporters and sellers of coal and charcoal
Gaetano Zompini - Arti che vanno per via - plate 08 - Carboneri - transporters and sellers of coal and charcoal - coloured
Gaetano Zompini – Arti che vanno per via – plate 08 – Carboneri – transporters and sellers of coal and charcoal – coloured

Text

Negri co ne vedè privileggiai
Semo nù soli in portar via carbon;
E in st’arte non se stà de bando mai.

Translation

Black when you see us privileged
We are the only ones who can transport coal
And in this trade you're never idle

Notes

Charcoal for heating and cooking was an important trade, and as such it was licenced, hence the reference to a privilege.

The privilege meant that the trade had a formal organisation as a guild (scuola or fraglia), and only members of that guild could engage in the trade. See Tassini (1863), entry Carbon, for more details of the carbonai.

The phrase star de bando means being idle, having nothing to do. See Boerio (1829), entry STAR DE BANDO.

All images

Gaetano Zompini - Arti che vanno per via - plate 08 - Carboneri - transporters and sellers of coal and charcoal (8) - study
Gaetano Zompini – Arti che vanno per via – plate 08 – Carboneri – transporters and sellers of coal and charcoal (8) – study
Gaetano Zompini - Arti che vanno per via - plate 08 - Carboneri - transporters and sellers of coal and charcoal (8b) - study
Gaetano Zompini – Arti che vanno per via – plate 08 – Carboneri – transporters and sellers of coal and charcoal (8b) – study
Gaetano Zompini - Arti che vanno per via - plate 08 - Carboneri - transporters and sellers of coal and charcoal (8c) - study
Gaetano Zompini – Arti che vanno per via – plate 08 – Carboneri – transporters and sellers of coal and charcoal (8c) – study
Gaetano Zompini - Arti che vanno per via - plate 08 - Carboneri - transporters and sellers of coal and charcoal - coloured
Gaetano Zompini – Arti che vanno per via – plate 08 – Carboneri – transporters and sellers of coal and charcoal – coloured
Gaetano Zompini - Arti che vanno per via - plate 08 - Carboneri - transporters and sellers of coal and charcoal
Gaetano Zompini – Arti che vanno per via – plate 08 – Carboneri – transporters and sellers of coal and charcoal

Related articles

Bibliography

Boerio, Giuseppe. Dizionario del dialetto veneziano. Venezia : coi tipi di Andrea Santini e figlio, 1829.

Tassini, Giuseppe. Curiosità Veneziane ovvero Origini delle denominazioni stradali di Venezia. 1863.

Zompini, Gaetano. Le arti che vanno per via nella città di Venezia inventate ed incise da Gaetano Zompini, Aggiuntavi una memoria di detto autore. Venezia, 1785.

More translations …

René Seindal

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