All’ombra dell’Albero d’Oro. Fragments of a Venetian Dynasty. From the Vendramin to the Marcello Grimani Giustinian

In the Shadow of the Albero d’Oro. Fragments of a Venetian Dynasty. From the Vendramin to the Marcello Grimani Giustinian

Fondazione dell'Albero d'Oro Edizioni

Texts by: Massimo Favilla, Ruggero Rugolo
Photographs by: Ugo Carmeni
First edition: June 2025
ISBN: 978-88-946252-8-8

Starting from the origin of the nickname “dell’Albero d’Oro”, the pages of this volume invite readers to discover the soul of Palazzo Vendramin Grimani by retracing the history of the ancient lineage that inhabited it – from the Vendramin to the Marcello Grimani Giustinian – through both its male and female representatives, with an immersion in the daily, social, and cultural life of Venice.

The reader will also witness some of the great challenges of history: the fall of the Republic of Venice, the French occupation, the long Austrian domination, the Kingdom of Italy, technological innovations, social progress, the loss of class privileges, economic difficulties, family disputes, human vulnerabilities, and even a love-driven escape. All of this unfolds between the Venetian palace in San Polo, now home to the Fondazione dell’Albero d’Oro – which once housed a rich art collection and a library open to friends and scholars – and the mainland estates such as the now-gone villa in Fiesso on the Riviera del Brenta and the Montegalda castle in the Vicenza area, reaching, with a European perspective, as far as London, Paris, Vienna, Constantinople, Moscow, and St. Petersburg.

Thanks to a vast and largely unpublished iconographic and documentary archive – consisting of inventories, invoices, calling cards, invitations, advertisements, theater posters, train schedules and tickets, certificates, vouchers, menus, recipes, devotional cards, diaries, memoirs, and personal letters rich with news, concerns, anecdotes, and sometimes gossip – unforgettable characters come to life in a vivid group portrait that offers a retrospective view, without nostalgia or regret, a reflection that projects the past into the future of Venice itself.