The Archives of the Ateneo Veneto are a legacy of its history and of the Members that have been associated with it. The original documents of the establishment of the Ateneo in 1812, are preserved and collected in approximately 350 files arranged in 12 various thematic categories and chronologically subdivided. The historical section can be consulted through an index drawn up following its re-organisation in 1996.

In addition to its own documentation, three files are preserved containing all the activities undertaken by the Medical Society and of the two literary academies Belle Lettere and the  Sofronomi o Modesti from which the Ateneo Veneto evolved and were fully implemented as requested in the Napoleonic Decree of December 1810.

Also in the Archives, there are documents relevant to the funds provided by donations by the Ateneo’s Members:

• The Pietro Zampetti Fund, inherent to his scientific activities between the 1950’s-1980’s as an art historian during his stay in Venice, donated by the daughters of the distinguished scholar who was also President of the Ateneo from 1971 to 1975;
• The 65 files relevant to the trial of the Vajont tragedy (October 9, 1963) donated by the lawyer Mario Vianello, who at the time of the trial was a young law student working in Alessandro Brass’ law office. Brass was in charge of the defence council of Alberico Biadene, the then director-general of Sade and later ENEL, the main defendant of the judiciary trial. Within these files, there are stenographic transcripts of the hearings, reports, bibliographic materials, geological surveys, correspondence between the barristerand various protagonists related to the design and construction of the dam before the disaster, various documents of hydraulic, geo-mechanical and geological nature, drafted by Italian experts of the time and other information necessary for the defence council;
• The private archives of Professor Giuseppe Delogu, political exile during Fascism, and professor of the Belle Arti (fine arts) in the post war period;
• The private archives of Professor Francesco Semi, of Istrian origin, well known in the city for his column in the local newspaper “Il Gazzettino” about language;
• The private archives and library collection of Professor Paola Rigo, academic of Dantesque literature at the University of Ca’ Foscari of Venice.