Illustriousness in the farmhouse villa: reading virtue from a Flemish-Veronese merchant family’s history

Abstract

The Italian nobility has a long history tied to landownership, a dynamic example of which lies in the history of Verona from the late sixteenth century. Sweeping economic change, intellectual currents, agricultural policies, and the built heritage facilitated the rise in status of some mercantile families. Tracing the pressures facing a foreign merchant family emigrating to Venice and settling in Verona’s Valpolicella reveals the importance of social integration for the family’s members. Their farmhouse villa estate represents an enduring monument not only to the contemporary value of civic virtue but also to the construction of a noble identity.