The Scuola di Rialto was a public school in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

founded between 1397 and 1408, through a bequest of

Tommaso Talenti Tommaso is an Italian given name. It has also been used as a surname. Notable people with the name include: Given name A * Tommaso Acquaviva d'Aragona (1600–1672), Roman Catholic prelate * Tommaso Aldrovandini (1653–1736), Italian painter of ...

.James Bruce Ross (1976), "Venetian Schools and Teachers Fourteenth to Early Sixteenth Century: A Survey and a Study of Giovanni Battista Egnazio", ''Renaissance Quarterly'' 29 (4): 521–566, esp. 528–532. It did not confer degrees, so as not to compete with the University of Padua, the only degree-granting institution in the Republic of Venice. It had a single professor, almost always a patrician, who lectured on terminist logic and Aristotelian natural philosophy.Paul F. Grendler, ''The Universities of the Italian Renaissance'' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002), pp. 138–139. The salary was 200

ducat The ducat () coin was used as a trade coin in Europe from the later Middle Ages from the 13th to 19th centuries. Its most familiar version, the gold ducat or sequin containing around of 98.6% fine gold, originated in Venice in 1284 and gained wi ...

s and the professor was usually chosen by the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

through open competition. Although Greek was not taught, its knowledge by the professor was valued. The fourth professor was, unusually, a clergyman,

Paolo della Pergola Paolo della Pergola (died 1455, Venice) was an Italian humanist philosopher, mathematician and Occamist logician. He was a pupil of Paul of Venice. Works Paolo della Pergola's most important work was probably ''De sensu composito et diviso''. His ...

, who held the chair from 1421 until 1455. The republic quashed his attempt to convert the school into a university in 1445. He was succeeded by Domenico Bragadin (1455–1482), the first chosen by competition. The longest serving professor was Sebastian Foscarin, who held the chair from 1505 to 1552. Foscarin had several substitutes over his long career, since he often held public office. One of these substitutes was the future Doge

Nicolò da Ponte Nicolò da Ponte (15 January 1491 – 30 July 1585) was the 87th Doge of Venice from 1578 to 1585. He reigned in a fairly quiet period. Life Da Ponte was born in Sant’Agnese in Venice to the patrician Antonio da Ponte and his wife Regina Sp ...

References

{{reflist Education in Venice Culture of the Republic of Venice