Girolamo Miani, like nearly all members of the noble class, owned real estate subject to taxation and derived annual income from it.
We can get an idea of his properties from the declaration of real assets that he himself submitted on the occasion of the first redecima (a form of tax) instituted in Venice in the second half of 1514. This was necessitated by a fire that broke out in Rialto on January 10, 1514, which destroyed the previous documentation held at the headquarters of the Dieci Savi (Ten Wise Men), forcing the magistrates to require citizens to file a new income declaration.
Girolamo’s Properties in Fanzolo
We know that on June 20, 1514, Girolamo was serving under Nicolò da Pesaro, likely in the cavalry, and was in Porpetto, in Friuli, not far from the fortress of Marano. There, he was with the provveditore in campo (military superintendent) Giovanni Vitturi, who sent him—bearing the superintendent’s seal ring—to Girolamo Savorgnan, to instruct him to abandon the fortress of Marano with his troops and join the other military forces assembled in San Gervasio.
Upon returning to Venice, Girolamo, like the other nobles, had to complete his redecima. In it, he stated that he owned agricultural land and two houses in the podesteria of Castelfranco, in the village of Fanzolo. These were entrusted to two farmers who paid no rent but gave him goods in kind: the first provided two or three carts of hay per year in exchange for managing 10 fields of meadow; the second, who cultivated 25 arable and 11 meadow fields, paid him with two carts of wine, four staia of wheat, three of rye, five of barley, three of sorghum, and half a staio of millet. (Staio was a unit of capacity that varied by region; in Venice, it equaled about 83 liters.)
Altogether, Girolamo owned 46 fields in Fanzolo—25 arable and 21 meadow—as well as two livelli (long-term legal leases): the first generating a fixed income of one staio each of wheat and rye, three staia of horse barley, and one of sorghum; the second yielding half a staio of wheat and half a staio of rye.
The campo was an agricultural unit of measurement used in the Republic of Venice and varied by location. In Treviso, it was approximately 5,000 square meters (about half a hectare), though in nearby areas it could be as little as 3,000 square meters. Girolamo’s land thus constituted a sizable estate—likely around twenty hectares—not cultivated intensively.
It is surprising how low the declared annual income is. Since this was a taxable income declaration, it’s understandable that Girolamo understated the profits and emphasized the difficulty of making the land productive. The land couldn’t be rented unless he gave tenants a loan (imprestanza) worth half the land’s value, probably for buying tools and livestock. The land was valued at three ducats per campo, but this valuation applied only to vineyards, which were costly to maintain and offered little profit.
Girolamo’s Properties in Venice
In Venice, Girolamo owned two houses in the parish of Sant’Angelo, on Calle del Forno, rented out for 24 ducats annually. These had been inherited from his mother, who had died that same year. He stated that the rental income from these houses, for five years, would be donated to the monks of Santo Stefano for Masses, as per his mother’s will.
The redecima was actually submitted and registered on February 7, 1515, by Francesco of Ca’ Pesaro with the Dieci Savi, and was sworn by Girolamo himself. It was countersigned by Girolamo Trevisan on the board of the Dieci Savi.
Girolamo’s annual income—owning four houses (two in Fanzolo and two in Venice) and agricultural land in Fanzolo—was declared at 41 ducats: 24 from the rental of the houses in Sant’Angelo, 16 from the land in Fanzolo, and 1 ducat for the partial rental of his own home.
By comparison, his brother Luca had an annual income of 45.6 ducats, and his brother Marco—the wealthiest—had 103.12 ducats.
To relate this to today: 100 ducats was roughly the annual salary of a skilled Arsenal worker. We might arbitrarily equate 100 ducats to around €20,000. Thus, Girolamo’s taxable income was roughly equivalent to €8,000 annually.
Luca’s Properties in Fanzolo
Luca, too, declared in his redecima the properties he held in Fanzolo, in addition to a house in Venice. He had one legal lease yielding a cart of wine per year; eight fields rented out for two carts of wine and four staia of wheat; three fields yielding one staio of wheat and three vats of wine; two more giving one staio of wheat and five vats of wine; another two fields bringing three vats of wine and four staia of rye; and a meadow that he mowed and earned 50 soldi a year from.
In total, he had 15 fields—five on sharecropping contracts and ten on consensual rental—plus a meadow and another leased plot. Though less extensive than Girolamo’s land, they yielded more, likely because Luca managed them more closely and farmed them intensively.
In Quero, above Castelnuovo, Luca owned a six-field meadow and a four-field forest from which he obtained hay and timber for his horses and stables.
This mention of horses is noteworthy. Girolamo, who managed Castelnuovo of Quero for his brother, probably also kept horses there and in Fanzolo, where he obtained five staia of barley and two or three carts of hay. He had, for a time, served in the cavalry.
Luca’s total income was valued by the tax authorities at 45.6 ducats—about five more than Girolamo’s.
Father Angelo’s Land Purchases in Fanzolo
The Miani family had long held property in Fanzolo. Girolamo’s paternal grandmother, Cristina Loredan (married to Luca Miani in 1436), already owned land there. A deed from March 22, 1476, states that after the death of her brother Marco, land from Cristina’s dowry was assigned to her son Angelo Miani as legitimate heir.
Angelo Miani began acquiring land in Fanzolo with great enthusiasm between 1467 and 1470, just before and after his marriage to Andriana Tron, sister of Antonio Tron and niece of future Doge Nicolò Tron (elected in 1471). Angelo married in 1469 and soon fathered Cristina.
Some notable notarial deeds include:
- Thursday, July 9, 1467 (15th indiction): Angelo buys land in Fanzolo. The deed was drawn up by a notary “at the well” in the village.
- Friday, October 16, 1467: More land purchased via a notary in Treviso “in the crossroads square.”
- Friday, October 30, 1467: Another land purchase, the deed drawn up at Angelo’s home in Fanzolo, proving he had a residence there.
- Thursday, November 24, 1468 (1st indiction): Purchase via a notary at Angelo’s home in Treviso—evidence he also had a residence there for his frequent travels between Venice, Fanzolo, and Feltre.
- Tuesday, November 28, 1469 (2nd indiction): More land bought; the deed executed in a Fanzolo field in the presence of Angelo and witnesses.
- Friday, May 18, 1470 (3rd indiction): Land purchased at Angelo’s home in Fanzolo, then leased back to the sellers.
Notarial Acts of Girolamo Miani
We have three notarial acts involving Girolamo Miani:
- Tuesday, March 30, 1518 (6th indiction): In Venice, at the chancery above Piazza San Marco, with Luca and Marco present, Girolamo sells one-third of his land in Fanzolo (19 fields and 162 tavole, including arable, vineyards, and woodland) to his brother Luca and heirs for a symbolic price (6½ denari per campo).
Luca, by then the father of three, shared their father’s zeal for acquiring land in Fanzolo. He had already bought more land on December 7, 1516 and, after acquiring Girolamo’s third, bought more on June 20, 1518.
Luca died on July 21, 1519, at 44. Girolamo was shortly after appointed for another three terms as castellan of Quero, in place of Luca, as he had already served there. He also became guardian to Luca’s children and administrator of their substantial property holdings in Fanzolo and Castelnuovo di Quero—duties requiring his frequent personal attention.
- Tuesday, June 21, 1524 (12th indiction): At the Miani family house in Fanzolo, Girolamo buys a meadow on behalf of his late brother Luca’s children. The purchase is strategic, as the plot adjoined their land.
Excerpt:
“In the year 1524… Tuesday, June 21, in the village of Fanzolo… in the house of the heirs of the late noble Signor Luca Miani of Venice… the brothers Giovanni and Miato, residents of Fanzolo, sold to the noble Signor Girolamo, son of the late Angelo Miani of Venice, here present to negotiate on behalf of the heirs of Signor Luca… a meadow plot… They declared they had received 44 lire in small, valid coins from Treviso.”
- Thursday, November 2, 1525 (13th indiction): In Castelfranco Veneto, at notary Battista Dotto’s house, Girolamo buys on behalf of his nephews a one-and-a-half campo arable field in Vedelago for 18 ducats—a high price, suggesting it was very productive.
Final Observations
Unfortunately, the Venetian chronicler Sanudo—our main source for this period—says nothing about Girolamo from May 14, 1523 (when he was among the doge electors) until April 2, 1528, when he reappears as superintendent of the San Zanipolo hospital—a completely different kind of life and social commitment.
Between these dates, we are left only with a few dry parchments from Girolamo’s three contracts and his relatives’.
Still, it seems unlikely that Girolamo simply secluded himself in the castle at Castelnuovo di Quero to meditate and pray. As his biographer notes, he was deeply religious but had an extremely active personality, as shown throughout his life.
As castellan at Castelnuovo—as Sanudo confirms—he managed the castle’s maintenance and defense, maintained contacts with Feltre and Venice authorities, collected tolls, fought smuggling, and settled disputes. He also kept horses and a stable, like his brother Luca.
The Republic had many such castles run by noble castellans appointed and paid by the state to represent central authority and guard civil and military fortresses.
From here, Girolamo often rode to Fanzolo and Vedelago to check on tenant houses and his own and his nephews’ extensive lands, to oversee labor and collect rents. His notarial acts were drawn up in Venice, Fanzolo, and Castelfranco.
He also frequently visited Venice to see his sister-in-law and nephews (for whom he was guardian), manage their estate, and maintain political and religious ties within the noble class.
It is likely he stopped in Treviso—where his father once owned a house—reliving the dramatic memory of his liberation from captivity and the vow he made to the Madonna Grande.
Thus, the period from 1519 to 1525 was one of clear growth in responsibilities, administrative commitment, and transition for Girolamo Miani.
I believe the widespread conviction that Girolamo spent years in inaction and solitude at the castle of Quero, consumed by penance and asceticism, is not accurate. His conversion to a deeper interior life and to works of charity matured especially through contact with his friends in Venice and the spirituality of the devotio moderna, which he gradually absorbed from his spiritual director at the Monastery of the Carità and from the Compagnia del Divino Amore, whose center of activity was the Hospital of the Incurables, founded in the city in 1522.
I believe that in this period, more than being an ascetic, he was a cavallaro—to use a term dear to Ludovico Ariosto—a person compelled by necessity to travel constantly on horseback for work commitments, moving between Quero, Feltre, Fanzolo, Treviso, and Venice, leaving his animals in some stable in Mestre before reaching his home in the parish of San Vidal by boat. This mobility, which borders on restlessness and a strong drive to achieve his goals, seems to me a typical trait of the Miani family—from his father Angelo to his sons Luca, Carlo, Marco, and above all Girolamo.
By Father Giuseppe Oddone, CRS