Fondazione Querini Stampalia
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The Fondazione Querini Stampalia was founded in Venice in 1869 at the behest of Conte Giovanni (Count John), the last descendant of the Venetian Querini Stampalia family.
The site of the Foundation between San Marco and the Rialto Bridge, is composed of the living quarters, an archive, a library, and a museum of paintings and furnishings (see Pinacoteca Querini Stampalia. Located just South of the Church of Santa Maria Formosa in the sestiere Castello, the Foundation is open to the public for academic research. The museum has a substantial art collection, specially of masterpieces of Venetian Baroque and Rococo, including paintings by Pietro Longhi, Giandomenico Tiepolo, Giulio Carpioni, Federico Cervelli, Matteo Ghidoni, Pietro and Alessandro Longhi, Pietro Muttoni, (also called della Vecchia), and Marco and Sebastiano Ricci among others. Particularly prized are the arcadian landscapes, genre scenes, and Longhi's series on the Seven Sacraments.
The Biblioteca della Fondazione Querini Stampalia, the Foundation Library, is open on Sundays, the only one of its kind in the city, from 10 AM to 7 PM. Count Giovanni, in his testament in 1868, wished to ensure that the Library was open even when other libraries in the city were closed.
Students may find the library uncomfortable during the summer because of the heat and lack of air conditioning (AC). Certain rooms include individual wall AC units and help to regulate the temperature to a certain degree. Wireless internet access for laptop users is available upon user identification due to Italian law. The internet access is free only for some Online Public Access Catalogues, to browse the entire network you have to pay a small amount.
