Un pantheon borghese. Benefattori ai Mendicanti nel Seicento

In early modern Venice collaboration between members of social groups which were formally distinct was not confined to the philantropic sphere, and in any case the formal separation which existed between the three orders of inhabitants (patricians, 'cittadini' and 'popolani') found numerous exceptions in practice. Over the course of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, however, in the face of the gradual tightening of definitions of social status, collaboration promoted inclusion and social mobility which culminated in the process of the re-opening of the patriciate in 1646. As in other Venetian charitable institutions, the financial and organisational contributions of individuals who did not belong to the governing class were substantial, and were particularly important in the early decades of the hospital's history. As the coexistence in the church of monuments to patricians and non-patricians benefactors demonstrates (a common characteristic of many Venetian churches), the administration of the hospital involved close collaboration between patricians and non-patricians. For some governors, the relationships forged at the Mendicanti, and likewise at other charitable institutions, probably facilitated a vote in their favour in the Great Council and thereby the entry of their family to the patrician class. Many members of families which joined the patriciate had been involved with the Mendicanti. The analysis of those who were elected each year to administrative and managerial positions at the Mendicanti reveals how all governors could be called upon to contribute to its administration - and thereby to engage in a genuine collaboration with colleagues from a social group which was not their own. The success of the institution, which grew rapidly, demonstrates the efficacy of this practice, and ultimately proves that the wealthiest stratum of Venetian society was fluid: 'bourgeois' rather than elitist.