Page 15 - Upland Families, Elites and Communities

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Economy and Networks of Rural Elite

Families in a Manufacturing Area:
Schio in the Republic of Venice between

the Sixteenth-Nineteenth Centuries

Giulio Ongaro
University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy

Edoardo Demo
University of Verona, Italy

©2025GiulioOngaroand Edoardo Demo
https://doi.org/10.26493/978-961-293-486-6.13-52

The Case Study: A City or a Rural Village?
Schio è medesimamente terra grossa situata a pié del monte Sum-
mano epiendipopulo che negotiainlane,seda ebiava pergrossa
summa di capitale [...] si governa con magistratti simili a quelli del-
la Città di Vicenza, con la quale continuamente litiga non volendo in
contoalcunocedergli
Nicolò Pizzamano, Capitain of Vicenza, 1603
(Istituto di Storia Economica 1976)

Schioisa rural village(or, at least, formally a village) located in the north-
ern part of the province of Vicenza, on the border of the Republic of Venice,
connected with the Imperial territories (the cities of Rovereto and Trento)
thanks to the Pian delle Fugazze and Borcola passes (figure 1.1).
Schio was annexed to the Republic of Venice in 1406, two years after
the annexation of the provincial capital, Vicenza, being a private domain
of Giorgio Cavalli (Mantese 1969; Ongaro 2008). After its inclusion in the
Venetian State, Schio became one of the eleven vicariati (administrative
districts) of the province of Vicenza, maintaining during the entire Vene-
tian period the legal status of ‘rural village’: this meant that a Vicentine
vicario resided in Schio – often a member of the Vicentine families with
relevant economic interests in the area, such as the Magrè family – even if

Panjek,A.,ed.2025. Upland Families, Elites and Communities: Long-Run Micro
Perspectives on Persistence and Change. University of Primorska Press.