PREDELLI, RICCARDO. - Scholar, born at Rovereto on 19 May 1840, died at Venice on 1 March 1909. Forced to leave his native Trentino because of his Italian nationalist sentiments, he moved to Venice, where he was employed by a banking house.
In 1868 his fellow countryman T. Gar, director of the State Archives of Venice, chose him as his collaborator, and for many decades P. was the driving force of the Venetian Archives, where he also undertook the teaching of palaeography and diplomatics. Not only did he reorder and catalogue the extremely rich archival collections, but he also published a great number of original studies, such as the Saggio di scritture in cifra usate dalla Repubblica veneto, the Regesti del « Liber Communis », and the Libri Commemoriali della Repubblica veneta. He devoted particular attention to investigating the historical relations between the Serenissima and his Trentino, publishing a very rich selection of Monumenti veneto-trentini. A member of many Italian and foreign academies, he was a leading figure in Venetian Catholic organizations, which brought him to the municipal council under the Grimani administration. He exercised a beneficial influence upon scholarly youth, to whom he was an example of moral integrity and profound piety.