His father
was a recording clerk in the salt trade for the Venetian Republic and became an
influential resident of Piran. Piran was a small but culturally very vivid
town. Even as far back as in the 16th century, there were cultural societies
called Academies, where educated noblemen gathered to discuss music,
literature, science and philosophy and shared news. One of them was Giovanni
Battista Goineo, who studied in Bologna and Padua and wrote an important work
on Istria titled De situ Histriae.