The Vivaldis of Brescia

Among Antonio Vivaldi’s paternal ancestors in Brescia, the earliest we know was Giovanni Pavolo Vivaldi (1554–1613/1626), who identified himself as a pittor. He was the son of Antonio Vivaldi Veronese, whose place of residence is not known. In Brescia the Vivaldis were associated with the church of San Giovanni Evangelista. Agostino i (1601-1656/1662), the last child of Giovanni Pavolo’s first marriage, was a cloth-maker (tessadro), merchant, and guild (arte) member. Agostino ii (1641-1693), the oldest surviving son of Agostino i, assisted his father as a youth, but after army service in Zara (today Zadar, 1662-1664), he resettled in Venice. His marriage to Domenica Petternella Buonamigo (12 November 1664) drew his mother (Margherita), sister (Cecilia), young brother (Zan Battista), and another minor, Antonio Casari, to Venice. Giovanni Floighen, the operator of the Venetian guesthouse in which the Vivaldis initially stayed, arranged Agostino’s marriage to his orphaned niece. Giovanni (Zan) Battista Vivaldi (1655–1736) worked in adolescence for Floighen, but by 1677 he had taken up the violin in earnest. Via theater orchestras he found his way (1685) to an appointment at San Marco. The mercantile tactics exemplified by Agostino ii served Giovanni Battista well in promoting his own career and that of his eldest son, Antonio (1678–1741). We can imagine that two rare violins Giovanni Battista had acquired by 1708 were heard in Antonio’s earliest published concertos (L’Estro armonico, 1711).