Nota Bene: Canadian Undergraduate Journal of Musicology

Volume 3 | Issue 1 Article 2

Venice's Ospedali Grandi: Music and Culture in the

Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
Alison Curcio
The University of Western Ontario

Recommended Citation
Curcio, Alison (2010) "Venice's Ospedali Grandi: Music and Culture in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries," Nota Bene:
Canadian Undergraduate Journal of Musicology: Vol. 3: Iss. 1, Article 2.
 Venice's Ospedali Grandi

Venice's Ospedali Grandi

Music and Culture in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries

Alison Curcio
Year II – University of Western Ontario

At the core of Venetian culture in the seventeenth and

eighteenth centuries were the institutions known as ospedali grandi.
This welfare system included four charitable institutions called
ospedali, each attached to a church. The four ospedali housed
female wards with various ailments and social conditions that
made them undesirable to the rest of Venice. The Ospedale
degl’Incurabili accepted syphilitics, orphans and reformed
prostitutes; the Ospedale della Pietà housed abandoned children; the
Ospedale di Santa Maria dei Derelitti ai Santi Giovanni e Paolo took in
homeless children; the Ospedale di San Lazarus e dei Mendicanti cared
for lepers. 1 One element of the ospedali’s services was to educate
their wards in many subjects, including music. 2 The ospedali also
formed musical ensembles, called cori, and gave performances in
their respective churches in order to raise funds and attract
patronage. 3 Each ward who entered into the care of one of the

1 Jane L. Berdes, Women Musicians of Venice: Musical Foundations, 1525-1855 (Oxford:

Clarendon Press, 1993), 2.

2 Mark Pincherle and Manton Monroe Marble, “Vivaldi and the ‘Ospitali’ of Venice,”

Musical Quarterly 24, no. 3 (July 1938): 300.

3 Mary Oleskiewicz, “The Rise of Italian Chamber Music,” in The World of Baroque

Music: New Perspectives, ed. George B. Stauffer (Bloomington: Indiana University Press,
2006), 71.
Nota Bene
ospedali received some degree of musical training, and the most
talented girls were selected to become figlie del coro and perform in
the cori. 4 The cori grew quite famous and did indeed draw the
attention of audiences and patrons. Financial support from the
wealthier Venetians allowed the cori to flourish and reach a high
standard of musicianship. The cori then began accepting students
who did not qualify as wards at the ospedali but who showed
promise of musical talent. 5 The ospedali, which started merely as
charitable institutions, began to draw international attention from
European aristocrats and tourists because of the cori’s high-
calibre performances. 6 The cori of the ospedali grandi contributed to
Venetian culture by breaking gender and class barriers and by
attracting attention from patrons and audiences within Venice,
and throughout Europe.
The ospedali contributed to Venetian culture by empowering
women, in opposition to the social conventions of the time.
Since the majority of the wards and students, and many of the
employees of the ospedali were girls and women, the structure of
the ospedali relied on female leadership and encouraged the
education of females. The ospedali developed educated women,
virtuosic female musicians, and leading female administrators.
Each ward in the ospedali received a thorough education,
including rigorous musical training. Pupils studied vocal and
instrumental performance (on several instruments), sight-singing,
and ear-training daily. 7 Figlie del coro who chose to remain with the
cori once they reached adulthood received further education in
performance, copying music, and sometimes in composition. 8
The ospedali viewed the education of their wards as an important

4 Berdes, Women Musicians, 101-102.

5 Berdes, Women Musicians, 56-57.
6 Pincherle and Marble, “Vivaldi,” 309.
7 Berdes, Women Musicians, 128.
8 Berdes, Women Musicians, 127.

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part of the girls’ “spiritual development,” and therefore took a

serious approach to learning. 9 Accounts of the education at the
ospedali suggest that the young women studying there might have
received a better education than higher class women studying
elsewhere. 10 The educational systems at the ospedali grew in
acclaim so that by the eighteenth century, the ospedali were known
more for their schools than for the charitable work that was their
original purpose. 11 These schools provided female wards with a
well-rounded education (including musical studies), that likely
would not have been available to them outside of the ospedali.
The ospedali also allowed their cori to perform in public,
though convention generally discouraged women from such
activities. An eighteenth-century account describes how the figlie
del coro were exceptions to the public view that women who
appeared onstage were immoral. 12 Somehow, the cori escaped the
common association of immorality with female public
performance and audiences not only accepted, but celebrated the
cori’s concerts. Restrictions applied to some of the cori’s church
performances, however. A 1722 account of one such
performance describes a scene where an all-female cori comprised
of singers, organists, and other instrumentalists performed
behind an iron curtain so as not to be seen by the audience. 13
While the members of the cori did hide themselves during some
church performances, there are also accounts that tell otherwise.
A 1739 account depicts a woman “conducting an orchestra and
beating time with all the grace and precision imaginable.” 14 This

9 Wendy Heller, “Usurping the Place of the Muses: Barbara Strozzi and the Female

Composer in Seventeenth-Century Italy,” in The World of Baroque Music: New Perspectives,

146.
10 Heller, “Usurping the Place of the Muses,” 146.
11 Pincherle and Marble, “Vivaldi,” 300.
12 Berdes, Women Musicians, 103.
13 Pincherle and Marble, “Vivaldi,” 301.
14 Charles de Brosses, quoted in Pincherle and Marble, “Vivaldi,” 301-2.

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account draws particular attention to the physical beauty of the
conductor while she and her ensemble are performing. The
inconsistency between these two accounts suggests that in some
situations, women were allowed to perform without restriction,
while many church performances required them to be hidden
from view. Since social convention generally forbade women
from any kind of participation in liturgical services, even a hidden
performance represented a relative freedom for the members of
the cori.
Like the commercial opera theatre, the cori produced and
recognized virtuosic soloists among their singers. Some of the
scores that Antonio Vivaldi composed for the coro at the Pietà
(where he was resident composer during the beginning of the
eighteenth century) include names of specific soloists for whom
he wrote them. 15 Composers wrote and rewrote works to
showcase individual figlie del coro. Some of the cori’s music includes
alternate cadenzas for performance by a new soloist. 16 Denis
Arnold describes the difficulty of the music these soloists
performed and explains that by Vivaldi’s time, the coro soloists at
the Pietà were “no longer girl-pupils from an orphanage, but just
as professional as those who were receiving large fees in the
Teatro S. Angelo or S. Giovanni Grisostomo.” 17 Arnold’s comparison
of the cori singers to operatic professionals is a testament not only
to the quality of the musical training at the Pietà, but also to the
opportunity for success and recognition the ospedale gave to their
figlie del coro.

15 Pincherle and Marble, “Vivaldi,” 305-306; Denis Arnold, “Music at the ‘Ospedali,’ ”

Journal of the Royal Musical Association 113, no. 2 (1988): 161-2.

16 Faun Tanenbaum Tiedge, ed., preface to Selected Sacred Music from the Ospedale della

Pietà, vol. 74 of Recent Researches in the Music of the Baroque Era, ed. Christoph Wolff
(Middleton, WI.: A-R Editions, 1995), xix.
17 Arnold, “Music at the ‘Ospedali,’” 161-2.

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 Venice's Ospedali Grandi

Women at the ospedali were not all performers, however.

There were also administrative and teaching positions open to
women. Each ospedale had a Prioress to take care of
administration. The Prioress was in charge of the professional
and domestic staff of the ospedale (one account of the staff at the
Pietà counts over 200 members), and had female assistants to
help manage and supervise the activity of the ospedale, including
the musical activity of the coro. 18 Board members at the ospedali
appointed the Prioress positions to senior members of the cori.
Jane Berdes explains that the Prioress was “the highest post open
to a member of a coro and quite possibly to any Venetian
woman.” 19 This position represented a great opportunity for the
female wards. In addition to internal positions, such as the
Prioress, external musicians were often hired by the ospedali to
teach at their schools. While many of these teachers were male,
the first external musician to teach at any of the ospedali was in
fact a woman – Marieta Giusti in 1612 at the Pietà. 20 Even the
teaching positions, though not exclusively for women, brought
female leaders to the ospedali.
Traditionally, when women reached adulthood, they either
married or entered a convent. The combination of education and
work opportunities that the ospedali provided for their female
students gave these women a third possibility; they could choose
to become inservienti della musica, servants of music, and continue
contributing to the cori as adults. 21 Life as an inservienta della musica
appealed to many of the figlie del coro. A letter from an eighteenth-
century visitor to Venice claims that the figlie del coro “were too
educated to be content to assume either of the two roles

18 Berdes, Women Musicians, 74-5.

19 Berdes, Women Musicians, 122-3.
20 Berdes, Women Musicians, 110.
21 Berdes, Women Musicians, 57.

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traditionally open to women.” 22 It is also possible that these
educated women were less desirable in marriage since a man
would never take wife who was more educated than himself. 23
Women who became inservienti della musica also secured some level
of financial independence for their continuing work with the cori.
Everyone living in the ospedali worked and earned a basic salary,
which in turn paid for their room and board. 24 Additionally, the
more qualified employees could often make a larger salary.
Female music teachers often taught extra lessons to paying
students who came to the ospedali to benefit from the renowned
musical training. 25 Students talented enough to become figlie del
coro, including the inservienti della musica, also made a larger salary
of at least 100 lire per year. 26 The ospedali allowed women to
choose education and independence over marriage or a convent.
The ospedali and their cori contributed to Venetian culture by
making exceptions to social gender conventions. The ospedali
provided women with a high-quality education and allowed them
to perform in public. Additionally, the ospedali created paying jobs
for their wards that were likely unavailable outside of the ospedali.
As a result, women could choose an independent life at the
ospedali over marriage or life in a convent. In addition to altering
gender conventions, the ospedali also revised some conventions of
social class.
The four ospedali took care of wards that the rest of Venice
did not want to support. As the cori gained a reputation for their
music, the Venetian public recognized these lowly wards for their
talents, rather than for their poor social rank. An account from
Jean-Jacques Rousseau describes his surprise upon meeting the

22 Grosley de Troyes, quoted in Berdes, Women Musicians, 81-2.

23 Berdes, Women Musicians, 82.
24 Berdes, Women Musicians, 83.
25 Berdes, Women Musicians, 127.
26 Pincherle and Marble, “Vivaldi,” 307.

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 Venice's Ospedali Grandi

“angels of beauty” he heard perform at the Mendicanti, and

realizing that the beautiful voices of the figlie del coro belonged to
poor, disfigured women. Rousseau writes, “M. le Blond
presented one after the other of these renowned singers to me
whom I had known only by name and by voice. “Come
Sophie…” She was hideous. “Come Cattina…” She had only one
eye. “Come, Bettina…” She was disfigured by pockmarks.
Scarcely one of them but had some notable defect.” 27 At the
other ospedali, the figlie del coro may not have been visibly
disfigured, but society would still have considered them
undesirable due to their social status. Berdes speaks of the
dichotomy present in the ospedali; audiences would come from
across Europe to rejoice in the fine musical performances of the
cori, starring some of the least desirable people in Venice – people
whom the upper classes generally tried to ignore. 28 The cori’s
performances attracted positive attention toward the lower social
classes. The ospedali also generated direct interaction among social
classes.
In contrast to convents, which restricted entrance to nobles,
the ospedali accepted girls from all classes and ranks. 29 The ospedali
initially took in wards from only the lowliest groups, but as the
educational systems of the ospedali gained a positive reputation,
they began to attract higher-class students who wanted a high-
quality education. Two categories existed for these middle- and
upper-class girls. The figlie d’educazione received free admission
based on a musical audition, and with the expectation that they
would perform with the cori. The figlie di spese were paying
students who took music lessons from teachers at the ospedali. 30
The admission of girls from higher classes created an increasing

27 Jean-Jacques Rousseau, quoted in Pincherle and Marble, “Vivaldi,” 302.

28 Berdes, Women Musicians, 63.
29 Berdes, Women Musicians, 28.
30 Berdes, Women Musicians, 116-7.

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variety of social classes among the figlie del coro. While some of the
classroom lessons at the ospedali might have separated aristocratic
students from lower class students, the cori contained all of the
most musically-talented students, regardless of social class. 31 In
fact, when an opening occurred in one of the cori, governors of
the ospedale searched for and recruited a replacement based
primarily on her musical talent, not social class. 32 The coro
therefore became one of the only places where girls of all
backgrounds joined in the shared goal of creating high-quality
music.
The cori dissolved barriers of class in Venetian society by
drawing international attention to performances by the lowliest
people in Venice, and by recruiting higher class girls with musical
talent to perform in these same ensembles. The cori also drew the
attention of Venice’s wealthier citizens. Patronage became an
important part of the ospedali and of Venetian culture since
patrons who enjoyed the cori’s performances often contributed
financially to further develop the ospedali and the cori.
One of the purposes for musical performance at the ospedali
was to attract benefactors. Venetians valued high-quality music in
their church services, and were more likely to become patrons of
a church and affiliated ospedale if they were impressed by the coro’s
music. 33 Additionally, the indulgence system encouraged
wealthier Venetians to contribute to the ospedali. One could earn
indulgences by providing funds or attending services at the
ospedali’s affiliated churches. 34 This system therefore attracted an
audience to the cori’s performances. As the cori drew the attention
of patrons to the ospedali, new funds allowed the cori to further

31 Berdes, Women Musicians, 57.

32 Berdes, Women Musicians, 101-2.
33 Berdes, Women Musicians, 10.
34 Berdes, Women Musicians, 25.

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 Venice's Ospedali Grandi

develop. This cycle allowed for the rapid success of the cori. 35
Patronage became crucial to the success of the ospedali and the
cori. Some patrons left legacies to the ospedali after their deaths;
others “adopted” a figlia del coro by helping her financially and
including her in family vacations. 36 The cori affected Venetian
culture by drawing significant attention from patrons to the
ospedali and their churches.
Finally, foreigners from other European countries
recognized the cori as important tourist attractions in Venice. 37 A
number of documents recount travellers’ awe at music’s elevated
status in Venetian culture after attending a concert by one of the
cori. A guidebook from 1740, describing the musical activity at the
Incurabili, reads,

Those little girls who are left without their parents are
accepted into this holy place, where they are trained to
sing and to play for the holy functions held in the church.
Such is the perfection which they attain in so doing that
for this very reason many foreigners are attracted here
throughout the year; no visitor of importance who was
come to Venice leaves without having first honoured this
holy place with his presence. 38

Tourists to Venice viewed the ospedali as attractions because

of the high quality of the cori’s performances. Additionally, the
cori put on special performances to honour sovereigns from other
countries who visited Venice. 39 One account of such a
performance, in honour of the Duke of Saxony, describes forty

35 Berdes, Women Musicians, 10.

36 Berdes, Women Musicians, 88, 92.
37 Heller, “Usurping the Place of the Muses,” 146.
38 G. B. Albrizzi, quoted in Berdes, Women Musicians, 104-5.
39 Pincherle and Marble, “Vivaldi,” 309.

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girls, ten from each coro, singing newly-composed music. 40 This
performance was not a regular church service, but a special
program to honour the Duke. The cori thus played a crucial role
in projecting a positive image of Venetian culture to important
visitors.
Musical activity at the ospedali grandi contributed to Venetian
culture by dissolving conventions of gender and class, by
attracting the attention of patrons, and by projecting the image of
a music-loving Venice across Europe. The ospedali gave young
girls a quality education in a number of subjects, including music.
Musically-talented wards earned opportunities to perform
publicly, and some achieved great success as musicians. Other
female wards took on leadership and employment opportunities
within the ospedali and the cori. The cori allowed women to pursue
lives as musicians rather than marrying or entering a convent.
Such educational and employment opportunities were generally
not available to women outside of the ospedali. In addition to
granting opportunities to women, the ospedali also brought
together people of different social classes for the sake of creating
and enjoying music. Venetians celebrated the cori’s concerts,
performances primarily consisting of girls and women from the
lowest social ranks. With time, the cori began to accept members
from all social classes, thus bringing together girls from different
social backgrounds to perform in one ensemble. The cori's
success drew attention from within Venice and from across
Europe. While patrons and tourists were interested in the cori for
their music, this attention also helped the ospedali develop their
education and welfare systems. The ospedali used their cori to
attract positive attention from patrons and draw in funds. The
cori at the Venetian ospedali grandi allowed women and men,
aristocrats and orphans, patrons of the arts in Venice, and

40 Arnold, “Music at the ‘Ospedali,’” 165.

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 Venice's Ospedali Grandi

tourists and nobles from across Europe to unite in their

appreciation and love of well-performed music.

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Bibliography

Arnold, Denis. “Music at the ‘Ospedali.’” Journal of the Royal Musical Association
113, no. 2 (1988): 156-167.

Berdes, Jane L. Women Musicians of Venice: Musical Foundations, 1525-1855.

Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993.

Heller, Wendy. “Usurping the Place of the Muses: Barbara Strozzi and the
Female Composer in Seventeenth-Century Italy.” In The World of Baroque
Music: New Perspectives, edited by George B. Stauffer. Bloomington:
Indiana University Press, 2006.

Oleskiewicz, Mary. “The Rise of Italian Chamber Music.” In The World of

Baroque Music: New Perspectives, edited by George B. Stauffer.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006.

Pincherle, Mark, and Manton Monroe Marble. “Vivaldi and the ‘Ospitali’ of
Venice.” Musical Quarterly 24, no. 3 (July 1938): 300-312.

Tiedge, Faun Tanenbaum, ed. Preface to Selected Sacred Music from the Ospedale
della Pietà. Vol. 74 of Recent Researches in the Music of the Baroque Era, edited
by Christoph Wolff. Middleton, WI: A-R Editions, 1995, vii-xxii.

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