La dichiarazione fiscale autografa (1517) di Gasparo Dalla Vedova, segretario del Consiglio dei Dieci

Abstract

This essay is devoted to the first edition of a rare surviving autograph text written by Gasparo Dalla Vedova, principal secretary to the Council of Ten. His lengthy manuscript tax return of 1517 is written in a chancery hand in a hybrid vernacular of Venetian veined with Tuscanisms and Latinisms that recalls the language of Marin Sanudo. This declaration of taxable assets details his extensive and profitable landed interests on the Venetian mainland. It also reveals both his surprising lateness in delivering it to the authorities and, thanks to the accompanying comments of the officials at the Rialto, the tax debts he had contracted. The study provides an extensive biographical, cultural, fiscal, textual and linguistic background to a document that sheds new light on the personality and activities of a key Venetian civil servant in a crucial phase in the history of Venice.