Wide view of Venice: Piazza San Marco - Riva degli Schiavoni

LA STROLEGA - The Astrologer

by Gaetano Zompini - 1700-1778

Sort of a sorceress, but a benevolent one, she reads the good books and makes predictions to who wants to know about his/her future.

Unmarried girls are the preferred ones, but as we can tell from the image also old ladies and men.

"Son qua chi vol la strolega mi crio;
Per veder de becar qualche traireto,
Massime ale putazze da mario."

"Who wants the fortune teller,
here I am, I scream;
To try to make some small change,
Especially from the marriageable girls."


This Astrologer setup is the perfect one here:

  • St. Mark's Square, quite in the middle of it
  • small stage and chair: so the Astrologer can work from a vantage point, and comfortable
  • all the right instruments to deliver her wisdom: book with planets & stuff, long cane for the "personal and magical predictions".
    Can't go wrong.
Gaetano Zompini: "La Strolega" (The Astrologer)
engraving (1785)

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