Alessandro Caravia

Born in 1503, most likely in the city of Venice. He lived all his life in the Republic of Venice. By profession, he was a jeweler and the owner of a jewelry store in the Venetian quarter of Rialto. In addition to three of his own children, he raised two nephews - the children of his deceased brother.

Little is known about the details of the biography of Caravia - probably she was not rich in events. Only one significant episode in the life of Alessandro Caravia has survived in the archives - in 1557-59 he became accused by the Inquisition as the author of a poetic work entitled La verra antiga de Castellani, Canaruoli e Gnatti. The accusers discovered a reformist heresy in the jeweler's work, which was quite possible, since the Venetian Republic, on the one hand, had great trade relations with many Protestant German states, and on the other hand, until the Council of Trent (1545), it was famous in Italy for relative religious tolerance. The decision in the case of Karavia was not preserved in the archives - perhaps the case was put on the brakes, given the rather high social status of the accused, as well as his willingness to cooperate with church authorities. The text of Alessandro Caravia's testament dated May 1563 that has come down to us shows, however, that if Caravia was not a Protestant, then the Protestant ethics had a clear influence on his consciousness. Despite the repressions that fell upon the jeweler (and perhaps precisely because of them), Alessandro Caravia does not give orders for a magnificent funeral and directly prohibits any spending on church rites, indicating only that he trusts in Christ, who alone knows all his sins. Alessandro Caravia died in Venice in 1568.

Alessandro Caravia - Venetian poet and jeweler of the 16th century.