Nicolò Massa, his family and his fortune.

THE VARIED interests of the Venetian physician Nicolo Massa (d. 1569) found expression in a range of publications on subjects which included anatomy, syphilis, plague and other pestilential fevers, venesection, and logic. Successful as a writer, he was also renowned as a practitioner and as a teacher, though he never held a university chair. He combined a shrewd common sense and an eye to business with a flair for selfadvertisement, for the telling story in which he appeared more acute and resourceful than his fellows. The result was success, and Massa became a rich man. Not surprisingly in view of his many interests and self-dramatizing character, Massa has caught the attention of a succession of historians.' But there are still aspects of his career which deserve to be better known, and sources which have been largely overlooked. These include a rich vein of biographical information running through Cicogna's monumental work on Venetian inscriptions.2 This material is important because Cicogna had access to family papers in the possession of a descendant of Nicolo's nephew Lorenzo, especially Nicolo's biographical notes concerning himself and his family, dated 1565, and a draft will, dated 1566, the second of the three he is known to have made. Although the present whereabouts of these papers is not known, Cicogna has left a useful indication of their contents. In addition, a new source relating to Nicol6 Massa has recently come to light in Venice at the Istituzioni di Ricovero e di Educazione.3 Amongst the archives preserved at the Istituzioni are those of the Zitelle, founded in 1560 to house and protect girls in moral danger. It was to the Zitelle that Nicol6 Massa's principal heir, his daughter Maria, bequeathed her estate, and with it a variety of financial and legal papers.' These consist primarily of