Scuole Grandi of Venice

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The Scuole Grandi (literally 'Great Schools', plural of Italian: Scuola Grande) were confraternity or sodality institutions in Venice, Italy. They were founded as early as the 13th century as charitable and religious organizations for the laity. These institutions had a key role in the history and development of music. The first groups of bowed instrument players named Violoni were born there in the early 16th century.^[1]