Palazzo Gradinben Negri, Venice

The Palazzo Gradinben Negri is a small brick palace located facing the Rio of Ca' en Duo, adjacent to the larger Palazzo Erizzo, and diagonally across the rear of the church of San Martino in the sestiere of Castello in Venice, Italy.

History

The palace was commissioned by Nicolò Grandiben of the equestrian (non-noble) Gradinben family. A son of a 15th-century merchant, Melchiorre Grandiben, Nicolò, was ducal secretary. In 1478 he traveled to Brescia, to request that Lorenzo Zane, Patriarch of Antioch and Bishop of Brescia, who had revealed political secrets to the pope, to appear before the council and explain himself. Nicolò Gradinben, in his will of August 8, 1490, left to his son Girolamo (also ducal secretary), the house and contents, except for part of the well with columns and marble table, were endowed for the church of San Martino for construction of a baptistery in memory of the family. This baptistery was once found in a chapel of the former church of San Daniele in Venice (destroyed 1839). By 1630, the palace passed on to the Negri family, into which Diana, daughter of Girolamo Gradinben, had married. Francesco Negri, a prominent writer (1769-1827) was born here.^[1] It is now houses a rental property.^[2]

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