Although other European cities had well-established systems of welfare, Venice's system is noteworthy for its connections to both Church and State as well as for its breadth, especially in regards to orphans. Baldauf-Berdes argues that the city's social services "went beyond traditional almsgiving" and surpassed those found elsewhere in Italy. Venice's four ospedali grandi, like similar institutions throughout Europe, grew out of the medieval idea that almsgiving could be "a passport to eternal salvation" and therefore received much of their financial support from testators eager to buy their way into heaven. According to legend, the Pietà  was founded in 1346 by Frà  Pietro d'Assisi. However, there are records that indicate a home for foundlings (illegitimate children) was actually begun in 1313 by women from the Consorelle di Santa Maria dell'Umilità . Though the Pietà  came under the jurisdiction of the State in 1353, it continued to be funded primarily by private donors. In 1475, the ospedale moved to its current location on the Riva degli Schiavoni, where it became associated with the Parish of San Giovanni in Bragora. Unlike the other three ospedali, which had relatively strict guidelines for who they would accept into their care, the Pietà  had only one restriction: that the infant be deposited anonymously through the ospedale's revolving drawer. From its founding, the Pietà  was divided into two sections, one to care for girls and one to care for boys. The boys' division was originally housed separately, but was moved to the girls' facility in 1515 after the building was expanded. All four Venetian ospedali were governed by volunteers who formed an elected board of directors called congregazioni. In the case of the Pietà , these governors were almost entirely lay nobles. Though the Pietà 's congregazione primarily consisted of men, women were allowed to serve when approved by the procurators. The forty governors were organized into thirteen committees each in charge of specific administrative aspects, including a committee of two assigned to musical activities. In addition, there were three presiding officers and a vice-president. The job of the governors was to oversee all aspects of the children's lives, as if they were part of a family. They were responsible for procuring the necessary funding and for monitoring the children's education and discipline. They provided the girls with dowries and determined whom they could marry. In addition, the governors were responsible for ensuring that when the children reached the appropriate age and were released from the ospedale, they were capable of providing for themselves and becoming functioning members of society. The Pietà 's staff consisted of several professionals, including an accountant, a doctor, and music teachers, as well as two hundred domestic workers. It was directed by a prioress, often a woman from the coro, who was elected for life by the governors. The music teachers were divided into two categories: external maestri who were professional musicians brought in from outside the institution, and internal maestre who were talented inmates asked to stay on at the ospedale to teach after they would otherwise have left. The governors of the Pietà  hired Alvise Grani as the first external maestro sometime before 1633. A trombonist in the cappella musicale at San Marco, Grani's job at the Pietà  was to teach instrumental music. Grani was followed by Antonio Gualtieri in 1633 and by Johann Rosenmà¼ller who was appointed maestro di coro in 1658. Rosenmà¼ller was the first of the maestri di coro to fill a position similar to that of maestro di cappella in Italy's major cathedrals. Where previously the maestro's main responsibility had been teaching, it was now to compose music specifically for performance by the ospedale's coro. As the musical performances became ever more popular, their growing scale required that the governors increase the size of the external staff. Giacomo Filippo Spada and his brother Bonaventura Spada both served as maestro di coro before the Roman opera composer, Francesco Gasparini, was appointed maestro in 1701. By the beginning of Gasparini's tenure the only instrumental teachers were internal maestre, in spite of the growth of the external staff during the second half of the seventeenth century. Rostirolla proposes that the internal maestre were not as competent and consequently that the quality music at the Pietà  had declined by Gasparini's arrival. Perhaps because of a concern for quality, the governors were willing to grant his request to hire more external help, the result of which was the appointment of the most well known of the Pietà  maestri, Antonio Vivaldi, as maestro di violino in 1703. Antonio Vivaldi was born in Venice in 1678. His father Giovanni Battista Vivaldi, a well respected professional violinist from Brescia, moved to Venice in 1665. Giovanni was eventually hired to play in the orchestra at San Marco in 1685 and also served as maestro di strumenti at the Mendicanti. Little is known about Antonio's musical education. Presumably, his earliest training came from his father, but no records remain indicating any specific teachers with whom he studied. While Antonio must have received excellent musical instruction, his primary professional training was religious rather than musical. In fact, he began his career as a priest but in 1705 abandoned that direction in favor of music. Although well known as a virtuoso violinist, Antonio Vivaldi never worked at the cappella of San Marco. He was first hired by the Pietà  in 1703 to be maestro di violino, with a contract to last until 1710. He received a significant pay raise in 1706 and in 1711 was given a new contract extending his duties. When Gasparini took a leave of absence and moved to Rome never to return, Vivaldi took on yet more responsibilities at the Pietà  essentially filling Gasparini's role of in-house-composer, though his official title remained the same. In May of 1716, he was appointed maestro de' concerti. After his contract expired in 1718, Vivaldi left the Pietà  to travel extensively throughout Italy and Europe. He was again listed as maestro di violino at the Pietà  from 1735 through 1738. Vivaldi died in 1741. A number of Vivaldi's early instrumental works were composed for the women of the Pietà , as were a number of his famous choral works including his Gloria, RV589, Magnificat, RV610-611, and oratorio Juditha Triumphans.

Antonio Vivaldi, one of the most well-known composers of the Baroque era, began his career at the Ospedale della Pieta in Venice, one of Europe's most well-known charitable institutions. This brief essay provides a summary of history and organizational structure of the Pieta. It also outlines the origins of Vivaldi's connections with the Ospedale.