The Foundation represents one of the most important private European enterprises of the twentieth century. The investment for the 1950s restoration and the ongoing maintenance of the entire complex are as exceptional as the vast number of initiatives the Foundation promotes and hosts and the size of the cultural patrimony it has amassed through subsequent donations. Significant among these was the donation of the gallery of Palazzo Cini at San Vio and the collections of Renaissance paintings by Tuscan and Ferrarese masters in 1984 now on display there.

Alongside its own research and study endeavours, the Foundation offers an unparalleled site for conferences held by scientific and cultural organisations from Italy and abroad. The Foundation has also maintained an active commitment to the city, the state and the international community, hosting events such as the G7 summits in 1980 and 1987.

The Foundation's multifarious endeavours are attested by the many esteemed intellectuals, artists, scholars, politicians and economists who have visited the Island for conferences, study-encounters, concerts, or performances at the Teatro Verde.

The eight institutes of the Fondazione are: Art History, History of the Venetian State and Society, Literature, Theatre and Opera, Venice and the East, Music, Antonio Vivaldi, Intercultural Institute of Comparative Music Studies, Venice and Europe.

Istituto Italiano Antonio Vivaldi

The Istituto Italiano Antonio Vivaldi was founded in 1947 by Antonio Fanna, for the purpose of publishing and propagating the music of the great Venetian composer, most of which as yet unknown (the relative manuscripts - mostly autograph - were discovered between 1926 and 1930).

From 1947 to 1972, under the artistic directorship of Gian Francesco Malipiero, and in close collaboration with the Ricordi Publishing Company of Milan, the Institute published 529 Vivaldi concertos, symphonies and sonatas and 13 compositions of sacred vocal music.

In 1947 the Vivaldi Institute also created the first orchestra in Italy specialising in Baroque music (l'Orchestra della Scuola Veneziana) which, under the baton of Angelo Ephrikian, performed these recently discovered works of Vivaldi.

In 1978, on the occasion of the tercentenary of Antonio Vivaldi's birth, the Institute was absorbed into the Giorgio Cini Foundation, to which it donated all the material collected in over thirty years of systematic research, an almost complete collection - in photocopies, photostats and microfilm - of the manuscript and printed sources of Antonio Vivaldi's compositions preserved in libraries all over the world. The entire archive is at present being transferred onto computer.

The Institute's Library, kept constantly up to date, collects works - texts, essays, articles and dissertations - published all over the world concerning the life and work of Antonio Vivaldi. A tape and record-library has also been set up, containing most disk-recordings, as well as sound-documents of musical events of particular importance, concerning Vivaldi and his contemporaries.

Since 1979 the documentation centre has been enlarged and a Scientific Committee has been appointed to draw up the editorial guidelines for the new critical edition of the Works of Antonio Vivaldi.

The Institute has made its own scientific contribution to the propagation of Vivaldi's works by helping to set up seven Vivaldi Festivals in Venice, in collaboration with the Town Council of Venice and the Teatro La Fenice.

Since 1980 the Vivaldi Institute has published the annual bulletin “Informazioni E Studi Vivaldiani”, which is sent to Institutions, music-libraries and scholars all over the world.

In 1980 the first volume of the “Quaderni Vivaldiani” came out.

In 1982 the Vivaldi Institute started a new critical edition of the works of the composer, in collaboration with Casa Ricordi, starting with the vocal works and the instrumental ones not published between 1947 and 1972.

By 1995, with the publication of 23 instrumental and 69 vocal compositions since 1982, all of Vivaldi's compositions (634), with the exception of his theatrical works, had been published. The Institute's publishing projects also include the series "Drammaturgia musicale veneta" (a 30-volume project, 15 of which have already come out), which is intended to illustrate the evolution of Opera in Venice between 1640 and 1800.

COMMITTEE

Director
Maestro Francesco Fanna

Board Of Directors
Francesco Fanna
Francesco Degrada
Mario Messinis
Giovanni Morelli
Maria Teresa Muraro

Editorial Committee
Francesco Degrada
Paul Everett
Peter Ryom
Reinhard Strohm
Michael Talbot

Secretary
Bianca Maria Tonello

Directors "Drammaturgia Musicale Veneta"
Giovanni Morelli
Reinhard Strohm

Directors "Informazioni e studi vivaldiani"
Francesco Fanna
Michael Talbot