Giuseppe Tassini (12 November 1827 - 22 December 1899) was an Italian historian and one of the most notable scholars of the toponymy of his birthplace of Venice. His most notable work was Curiosità Veneziane, a minute toponymical study first published in 1863 and universally considered the most important bibliographical source of its kind.[1] [2]
Born into an old middle-class Venetian family, he was the son of Carlo (1781-1848), an official with the Austro-Hungarian Navy and his noble-born wife Elisabetta de Wasserfall. He had a bumpy childhood which only settled down after his father's death, gaining a laurea in law in 1860. He then mainly focussed on administering his family estates, including lands in Scorzè and several houses in Venice, and on further study.[3]
He died of an apoplectic fit in his house near the sotoportego delle Cariole in Venice, not far from San Zulian. His body was discovered by a chamberlain of the Caffè dei Segretari who usually brought Tassini breakfast each morning - on 22 December 1899 he had not already opened his door and the chamberlain called a blacksmith to force it open. He was buried in a common grave and the location of his remains is now unknown. His manuscript books, houses and lands passed to a cousin who had emigrated to America, who then sold them off, with most of Tassini's notes bought by the Correr Museum.[4]
Some of his works are in a Miscellanea published by Editrice Filippi.