Giuseppe Tassini (12 November 1827 - 22 December 1899) was an Italian historian and one of the most notable scholars of the toponymy of his birthplace of Venice. His most notable work was Curiosità Veneziane, a minute toponymical study first published in 1863 and universally considered the most important bibliographical source of its kind.[1][2]

Life

Born into an old middle-class Venetian family, he was the son of Carlo (1781-1848), an official with the Austro-Hungarian Navy and his noble-born wife Elisabetta de Wasserfall. He had a bumpy childhood which only settled down after his father's death, gaining a laurea in law in 1860. He then mainly focussed on administering his family estates, including lands in Scorzè and several houses in Venice, and on further study.[3]

He died of an apoplectic fit in his house near the sotoportego delle Cariole in Venice, not far from San Zulian. His body was discovered by a chamberlain of the Caffè dei Segretari who usually brought Tassini breakfast each morning - on 22 December 1899 he had not already opened his door and the chamberlain called a blacksmith to force it open. He was buried in a common grave and the location of his remains is now unknown. His manuscript books, houses and lands passed to a cousin who had emigrated to America, who then sold them off, with most of Tassini's notes bought by the Correr Museum.[4]

Works (in date order)

  • La barba
  • Gli occhiali
  • Curiosità Veneziane - Ovvero: Origini delle denominazioni stradali di Venezia
  • Il libertinaggio a Venezia
  • Veronica Franco celebre letterata e cortigiana veneziana
  • Feste, spettacoli, divertimenti e piaceri degli antichi veneziani
  • Alcuni palazzi ed antichi edifizii di Venezia storicamente illustrati
  • Edifici di Venezia distrutti o volti ad altro uso diverso da quello a cui furono in origine destinati
  • Osservazioni critiche sopra le innovazioni praticate nella nomenclatura stradale di Venezia
  • Alcune delle più clamorose condanne capitali eseguite in Venezia sotto la Repubblica
  • Il veridico - Diario storico veneziano
  • Le iscrizioni nella chiesa e convento di San Salvatore in Venezia
  • Aneddoti storici veneziani
  • Notizie storiche e genealogiche sui cittadini veneziani (unfinished)

Some of his works are in a Miscellanea published by Editrice Filippi.

References

  1. ↑ (in Italian) Edizione on line delle voci riportate in Curiosità Veneziane (ed.)
  2. ↑ (in Italian) Giuseppe Tassini, Curiosità veneziane, Editrice Filippi, edizione 2009, with a preface by Lino Moretti and Elio Zorzi
  3. ↑ (in Italian) Nuovo Rinascimento, Venezia, re-launched into the public domain
  4. ↑ (in Italian) Giuseppe Tassini, Curiosità Veneziane, note integrative e revisione a cura di Marina Crivellari Bizio, Franco Filippi, Andrea Perego, Venezia, Filippi Editore, 2009 [1863], pp. 5-32.
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