Historical graffiti, ranging from symbols to dedications, adorns Venice’s columns, entrances, and walls, weaving a rich tapestry of the city’s narrative. Spearheaded by Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, a research initiative is underway to survey and analyze these remnants. Despite mapping only 20 percent of Venice’s urban area, the project has already uncovered around 40,000 graffiti pieces.
The research team is now gearing up to explore one of the city’s most iconic landmarks: the Doge’s Palace. Collaborating with the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia and the Superintendence of Architectural Heritage and Landscape of Venice and its Lagoon, Professor Flavia De Rubeis, an expert in Latin Palaeography and the project’s lead investigator, will lead her team in documenting the wealth of graffiti inscriptions and drawings within the palace.
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Armed with cameras, tablets, and scanners, the team, comprising epigraphist Giulia Frambusto, palaeographer Debora Pasquariello, and archaeologist Francesco Masiero, will meticulously explore the palace’s every nook and cranny to unveil yet undiscovered graffiti. These findings will complement the 20,000 graffiti pieces already identified, with 9,000 of them having undergone analysis.
Photo courtesy Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
“Many people have left their mark inside the Doge’s Palace,” says Flavia De Rubeis. “With our research, we will link those ‘signatures’ to the graffiti we discovered around the city and the lagoon. This will highlight stories of apparently marginal people and show us where they went, enriching our knowledge of the Venetian cultural landscape over the centuries”.
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Chiara Squarcina, Scientific Director of the Musei Civici di Venezia, says: “The opportunity to study the graffiti of the Doge’s Palace is of great importance. This research materialises the silent testimony of many people associated with this illustrious and extraordinary building and its multiple functions. The well-established collaboration with Ca’ Foscari University enables us to explore new and unpublished pages of the history of the Doge’s Palace.”
Unraveling New Narratives
The graffiti engraved in stone were not mere impulsive acts; rather, they were deliberate endeavors requiring meticulous craftsmanship and time. Since 2019, researchers involved in the ‘VeLA: Venezia Libro Aperto’ project have employed experimental archaeology techniques to gain insights into the process of inscribing graffiti. Whether depicting a ship or crafting a signature, individuals needed precise tools akin to sculptors and invested considerable time and effort, sometimes spanning hours or even days. Such dedication suggests a clear intent and motivation.
For instance, within the Doge’s Palace, traces left by the same individual are found several years apart. Similarly, anonymous individuals expressed their connection to the Serenissima by etching or drawing seven Lions of Saint Mark with graphite or candle smoke. These discoveries can sometimes have implications for art history; for instance, the signature of the Greek painter Theodoros Rallis, who visited Venice in 1875, offers insights into his travels.
Photo courtesy Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
National and International Support
The VeLA project aims to raise awareness about the importance of historical graffiti, which often goes unprotected as part of our heritage. With support from various sources, including European funding from IRHT and a national PRIN grant in collaboration with IUAV, the research group has received €300,000 in funding for the Doge’s Palace project.
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The project will employ digital survey tools to study from a palaeographical, historical and linguistic point of view all the traces that were incised, drawn or painted inside the Doge’s Palace. Data will be made available through a dedicated website, with the collaboration of the Institute of Computational Linguistics of the National Research Council, Biblissima+, the Venice Centre for Digital and Public Humanities of the Department of Humanities at Ca’ Foscari, Clarin-IT (MUR’s Common Language Resources and Technology Infrastructure) and IUAV.
By the project’s end, the graffiti will be accessible to visually impaired and blind visitors through an audio reading in five languages (Italian, English, Spanish, French and German) describing the graffiti and the protagonists of the stories they tell.
A Focus on Monasteries
The Doge’s Palace project forms part of a broader initiative to survey graffiti throughout Venice and its lagoon comprehensively. The research will involve cataloging, sketching, and mapping graffiti, and correlating findings with historical cartography to understand patterns of graffiti distribution and why so much historical graffiti appears in certain parts of the city. This effort will receive additional support from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, particularly the CHANGES project, which will focus on Venice’s cultural landscapes, with a particular emphasis on monasteries in the city and the surrounding area.
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To learn more, please visit the VeLA project Facebook or Instagram pages.
Historical graffiti, ranging from symbols to dedications, adorns Venice’s columns, entrances, and walls, weaving a rich tapestry of the city’s narrative. Spearheaded by Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, a research initiative is underway to survey and analyze these remnants. Despite mapping only 20 percent of Venice’s urban area, the project has already uncovered around 40,000 graffiti pieces.
The research team is now gearing up to explore one of the city’s most iconic landmarks: the Doge’s Palace. Collaborating with the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia and the Superintendence of Architectural Heritage and Landscape of Venice and its Lagoon, Professor Flavia De Rubeis, an expert in Latin Palaeography and the project’s lead investigator, will lead her team in documenting the wealth of graffiti inscriptions and drawings within the palace.
Armed with cameras, tablets, and scanners, the team, comprising epigraphist Giulia Frambusto, palaeographer Debora Pasquariello, and archaeologist Francesco Masiero, will meticulously explore the palace’s every nook and cranny to unveil yet undiscovered graffiti. These findings will complement the 20,000 graffiti pieces already identified, with 9,000 of them having undergone analysis.
“Many people have left their mark inside the Doge’s Palace,” says Flavia De Rubeis. “With our research, we will link those ‘signatures’ to the graffiti we discovered around the city and the lagoon. This will highlight stories of apparently marginal people and show us where they went, enriching our knowledge of the Venetian cultural landscape over the centuries”.
Chiara Squarcina, Scientific Director of the Musei Civici di Venezia, says: “The opportunity to study the graffiti of the Doge’s Palace is of great importance. This research materialises the silent testimony of many people associated with this illustrious and extraordinary building and its multiple functions. The well-established collaboration with Ca’ Foscari University enables us to explore new and unpublished pages of the history of the Doge’s Palace.”
Unraveling New Narratives
The graffiti engraved in stone were not mere impulsive acts; rather, they were deliberate endeavors requiring meticulous craftsmanship and time. Since 2019, researchers involved in the ‘VeLA: Venezia Libro Aperto’ project have employed experimental archaeology techniques to gain insights into the process of inscribing graffiti. Whether depicting a ship or crafting a signature, individuals needed precise tools akin to sculptors and invested considerable time and effort, sometimes spanning hours or even days. Such dedication suggests a clear intent and motivation.
For instance, within the Doge’s Palace, traces left by the same individual are found several years apart. Similarly, anonymous individuals expressed their connection to the Serenissima by etching or drawing seven Lions of Saint Mark with graphite or candle smoke. These discoveries can sometimes have implications for art history; for instance, the signature of the Greek painter Theodoros Rallis, who visited Venice in 1875, offers insights into his travels.
National and International Support
The VeLA project aims to raise awareness about the importance of historical graffiti, which often goes unprotected as part of our heritage. With support from various sources, including European funding from IRHT and a national PRIN grant in collaboration with IUAV, the research group has received €300,000 in funding for the Doge’s Palace project.
The project will employ digital survey tools to study from a palaeographical, historical and linguistic point of view all the traces that were incised, drawn or painted inside the Doge’s Palace. Data will be made available through a dedicated website, with the collaboration of the Institute of Computational Linguistics of the National Research Council, Biblissima+, the Venice Centre for Digital and Public Humanities of the Department of Humanities at Ca’ Foscari, Clarin-IT (MUR’s Common Language Resources and Technology Infrastructure) and IUAV.
By the project’s end, the graffiti will be accessible to visually impaired and blind visitors through an audio reading in five languages (Italian, English, Spanish, French and German) describing the graffiti and the protagonists of the stories they tell.
A Focus on Monasteries
The Doge’s Palace project forms part of a broader initiative to survey graffiti throughout Venice and its lagoon comprehensively. The research will involve cataloging, sketching, and mapping graffiti, and correlating findings with historical cartography to understand patterns of graffiti distribution and why so much historical graffiti appears in certain parts of the city. This effort will receive additional support from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, particularly the CHANGES project, which will focus on Venice’s cultural landscapes, with a particular emphasis on monasteries in the city and the surrounding area.
To learn more, please visit the VeLA project Facebook or Instagram pages.
Top Image: Francesco Sforza portrait in the Palazzo Ducale prisons – photo courtesy Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
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