The Lessico Veneto — Lexicon of the Veneto — by Fabio Mutinelli from 1851 is another of those must-have books for anybody interested in Venetian history, which is exact why it was written.
The title page contains this declaration:
Lessico Veneto
which contains ancient vulgar and forensic phraseology: the indication of some laws and statutes, that of the various types of ships and coins, of the beaches, ports and towns already existing in the Dogado, of the churches, of the monasteries, of the convents, hospices, and brotherhoods that were found in the city of Venice, of the customs, of the factories and public holidays, of all the magistrates, of the bishops, of the patriarchs, etc. etc.;
COMPILED
to facilitate the reading of the history of the ancient Venetian Republic, and the study of documents relating to it,
BY FABIO MUTINELLI
There’s little more to add. It does what it says on the cover, and the Lessico Veneto is an incredibly useful tool for studying the history of Venice.
Fabio Mutinelli
The person Fabio Mutinelli is a bit of a mystery, as I haven’t been able to find much about him online, except some of his many publications.
The Italian National Library OPAC simply lists him as Mutinelli, Fabio <1797-1876>.
The web-site of the Accademia delle Scienze di Torino, where he was a member from 1838, describes him as a “Writer and historian active in Venice.”
Nevertheless, he did have institutional roles, so he was somebody.
On the title page of the 1852 edition of the Lessico Veneto he is referred to as Cavaliere — Knight, but not on the 1851 edition reproduced above.
He was the director of the Archivio General in the period 1847-1861, during the second Austrian domination, and is characterised as philo-Austrian in an article in the Treccani encyclopedia. Not surprisingly, the web-site of the Archivio di Stato di Venezia, the Italian successor to the Austrian I. R. Archivio Generale di Venezia, doesn’t mention Mutinelli at all.
Translated entries
I have translated the occasional entry from the Lessico Veneto whenever other articles on this site references them.
- Avogadori del Comun
- Barbarela
- Carampane
- Concione
- Consiglio dei Dieci
- Consiglio del Doge
- Esecutori contro la Bestemmia
- Inquisitori alle Scuole Grandi
- Maggior Consiglio
- Meretrici
- Monachini, Moneghini
- Pregadi
- Quarantia
The Lessico Veneto is available digitised from Google Books.
Select bibliography
Mutinelli, Fabio. Del costume veneziano sino al secolo decimosettimo Venezia Dalla Tipografia di Commercio, 1831.
Mutinelli, Fabio. Del commercio dei veneziani Venezia Dalla tip. di Luigi Plet, 1835.
Mutinelli, Fabio, and Pividor, Giovanni. Dell’avvenimento di S.M.I.R.A. Ferdinando 1. d’Austria in Venezia, e delle civiche solennita d’allora : narrazione. Venezia co’ tipi del Gondoliere, 1838
Mutinelli, Fabio. Annali urbani di Venezia : dall’anno 810 al 12 maggio 1797. Venezia Tip. G. B. Merlo, 1841.
Mutinelli, Fabio. Guida del forestiero per Venezia antica : passeggiate quattro. Venezia co’ tipi del Gondoliere, 1842.
Mutinelli, Fabio. Storia del Regno d’Italia, divisa in quattro libri Venezia Co’ tipi di Gio. Cecchini, 1848.
Mutinelli, Fabio. Lessico veneto che contiene l'antica fraseologia volgare e forense … / compilato per agevolare la lettura della storia dell'antica Repubblica veneta e lo studio de'documenti a lei relativi. Venezia : co' tipi di Giambatista Andreola, 1851.
Mutinelli, Fabio. Memorie storiche degli ultimi cinquant’anni della Repubblica Veneta : tratte da scritti e monumenti contemporanei con note. Venezia Tip. di G. Grimaldo, 1854.
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