Guglielmo Berchet (1833 – 15 June 1913) was an Italian patriot and historian. With regards to the latter, most of his works were related to the

history of Venice The Republic of Venice (; ) was a sovereign state and maritime republic in Northeast Italy, which existed for a millennium between the 8th century and 1797. It was based in the lagoon communities of the historically prosperous city of Venice, a ...

Biography

He was born in Villa Carpanedo near

Mestre Mestre () is a borough of the comune of Venice on the mainland opposite the historical island city in the region of Veneto, Italy. Administratively, Mestre forms (together with the nearby Carpenedo) the Municipalità di Mestre-Carpenedo, one ...

. He was the grandson of the poet

Giovanni Berchet Giovanni Berchet (; 23 December 1783 – 23 December 1851) was an Italian poet and patriot. He wrote an influential manifesto on Italian Romanticism, ''Lettera semiseria di Grisostomo'', which appeared in 1816, and contributed to ''Il Conciliat ...

. At the age of 16 years, he joined the civil guards in the brief defense of the Venetian republic against the Austrian reconquest. He studied jurisprudence in the

University of Padua The University of Padua (, UNIPD) is an Italian public research university in Padua, Italy. It was founded in 1222 by a group of students and teachers from the University of Bologna, who previously settled in Vicenza; thus, it is the second-oldest ...

, but soon after graduation began writing books on Venetian history. With Niccolo Barozzi, he collated ''Relazione degli ambasciatori della Republica Veneta''. Returning to Venice, his close friendship with Cristoforo Negri, Foreign Minister of Piedmont, and his activities made his suspect in the eyes of the Austrian authorities, and he fled to Garda. With the annexation of Venice to the Kingdom of Italy, Berchet served in various positions as a councilor to the Royal Commissioner,

Giuseppe Pasolini Giuseppe Pasolini (7 February 1815 in Ravenna – 4 December 1876) was an Italian politician. He initially served as a councilor of the Papal States and advised the pope to name Pellegrino Rossi as leader of the Council in Rome. After Rossi's a ...

. He also was director and published in the Venetian gazette (''Gazzetta di Venezia''). He continued to write historical works, availing himself of the information in the Venetian archives. He published a study of the '' Mappamundo'' of

Fra Mauro Fra Mauro, O.S.B. Cam., (c.1400–1464) was an Italian ( Venetian) cartographer who lived in the Republic of Venice. He created the most detailed and accurate map of the world up until that time, the Fra Mauro map. Mauro was a monk of the Ca ...

and studies on

Marco Polo Marco Polo (; ; ; 8 January 1324) was a Republic of Venice, Venetian merchant, explorer and writer who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295. His travels are recorded in ''The Travels of Marco Polo'' (also known a ...

. Among his major works is his contribution to the 58 volumes of comprising the ''Diaries of Marino Sanuto'', a statesman of the Republic who lived from 1466 to 1536. This work was completed alongside Rinaldo Fulin, Federigo Stefani, and Niccolò Barozzi. He also published a ''Fonti Italiane per la storia della scoperta d'America'' (1892). In 1893, he published the correspondence between his grandfather Giovanni and Giacinto di Collegno. He served for many years as secretary for the Istituto Veneto di Scienze.Rivista enciclopedica contemporanea
Editore Francesco Vallardi, Milan, (1913), entry by Adriano Augusto Michele, pages 227-228.

Works

Diarii di Marino Sanuto
Volume 56, 1901.
I Republica di Venezia e la Persia
(1865): covers the period circa 1460 - 1673
Cromwell e la repubblica di Venezia
(1864): Contemporary documents regarding

Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English statesman, politician and soldier, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in British history. He came to prominence during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, initially ...

in Venetian archives
Portulani esistenti nelle principali biblioteche di Venezia
(1866): Nautical Charts found in Venetian libraries
Relazioni dei consoli veneti nella Siria
(1866)
Fonti italiane per la storia della scoperta del Nuovo mondo
Volume I, part 3, (1892)
I Malatesta a Venezia
(1862): Documents regarding the

House of Malatesta The House of Malatesta was an Italian family that ruled over Rimini from 1295 until 1500, as well as (in different periods) other lands and towns in Romagna and holding high positions in the government of cities in present-day Tuscany, Lombardy ...

in Venetian archives

References

1833 births 1913 deaths 19th-century Italian historians Historians of the Republic of Venice {{Italy-writer-stub