This volume is the most recent publication in the Chiese di Venezia series, an initiative begun in 2010 by Gianmario Guidarelli (University of Padua) that aims to deepen understanding of Venice's devotional sites through annual interdisciplinary conferences, guided tours, and a book series. An impressive publication timetable has led to the edited volumes of the proceedings of these meetings appearing in swift succession, and this is the first of the seven titles to be double-blind peer reviewed. Sixteen chapters written in Italian, English, and French examine multifaceted aspects of the parish of San Polo, once home to a great number of patricians, and famous for its huge campo (second in size in Venice only to Saint Mark's Square) and parish church embellished with works by a pantheon of important artists, including Jacopo Tintoretto, Alessandro Vittoria, and Giandomenico Tiepolo. The studies contained in this book pivot around two principal and deeply interlinked themes: San Polo's social history and local significance, and its structural and decorative history, spanning from its origins in the ninth century to the early years of the Ottocento. Accompanying the texts are a wealth of images, the majority of which were photographed by Francesco Turio Böhm, whose studio was responsible for the similarly lovely campaigns presented in previous volumes. Since high-quality reproductions of artworks and architectural details in Venice's parish churches are not always easily available, it is a boon for readers to have so many of them now united in a single book.
One of the challenges inherent in these kinds of projects is finding enough scholars working on the various periods of the parish to ensure that important phases of its history are adequately treated. As the editors point out, the rich history of San Polo from 1814 onwards was beyond the scope of this volume, and even if a dedicated chapter on the later interventions would have been a welcome addition, fascinating findings garnered from more recent scientific studies on the church are referred to on a number of occasions (see chapters by Lorenzo Lazzarini, Myriam Pilutti Namer, Valentina Baradel, and Ester Brunet), as is the neoclassical remodeling of the church by Davide Rossi (see, in particular, the chapter by Massimo Bisson). An important essay by the late Thomas Worthen published in the 2014 volume Celebrazione e autocritica should have been included in the bibliography, since this included a discussion of the soazoni of San Polo and the drawings of Rossi first published by Anna Toniolo.
As a whole, the chronological breadth, methodological variation, and interdisciplinary focus of the chapters invite the reader to form their own connections according to their interests. For this reviewer, what emerged most strikingly was the deep affection in which San Polo was held by its clergy and parishioners. Numerous parish priests in sixteenth-century Venice were dynamic patrons of the arts, but none of them personified the buildings entrusted to their care as poetically as Antonio Gatto, who touchingly referred to San Polo in his 1591 will as “my beloved and dear bride,” his largesse having resulted in a grand multimedia renovation of the high altar (see Emma Jones's chapter). Remarkable also was the resolve of the parishioners who were emboldened to fund the renovations of San Polo at a moment of great political instability in the years of Napoleonic and Austrian rule, their generosity all the more poignant considering the dissolution of their parish just a few years later in 1810 (Nora Gietz). These microhistories point to larger phenomenon relating to the collective willingness of Venetians of all classes to contribute to the amelioration of their parish locales, even in times of great adversity.
Sensibly, volumes like this do not seek to provide definitive answers to every aspect of the history of the chosen site. Instead, their strength lies in how they direct readers to the available source material, illuminate the current state of research on the parish by presenting new discoveries, and highlight avenues for further research. This latest offering in an ever-expanding corpus of studies on Venice's churches will be a useful point of reference for scholars, students, and interested readers for years to come.
