Wardrobe of the Commissarìa Marcorà, in the caskets of the Scuola Grande. The symbol of Saint Roch is painted on the two superior panels of the two small doors and the Marcorà coat of arms and the writing TESTATOR CONSTANTINUS THEODORI MARCORA’ on the two inferior panels.

One of the tools which allowed the Venetian Schools to carry out their humanitarian action towards the needy was represented by the Commissarìe which were, and, though in a very reduced number, still are modest foundations for mainly assistance and charity purposes.
The origin of the foundations goes back to the first centuries A.D. and was due to the influence of the Christian religion which spread the concepts of charitableness and charity. These institutions, generally called piae causae, were not born with a legal nature of foundations nor with proper statutes: the goods were still part of a private patrimony. With time, the legal intervention was intense, but the recognition of a private patrimony was lacking for a long time. Pope Innocenzo IV was the first to create the theory of the juridical person, at least in the welfare field. In this way several foundations with cult, assistance and charity to the needy, and cultural or other purposes also flourished in the Republic of Venice.
Next to the foundations, the Commissarìe were also born, modest and at times very modest foundations, modest both because of the value of the goods they used for their purposes and because of the simplicity of the rules which regulated their life and activity. In the Commissarìa, the main element was a patrimony whose goods and mainly income were devolved according to the direction of the founder. In Venice , as elsewhere, with the passing of years these Commissarìe were reduced in number because they were absorbed by new public institutions of assistance and charity.
Among the very few surviving Commissarìe, the Commissarìa Marcorà (see fig.) is still alive in Venice, with its seat at the Scuola Grande of Saint Roch; it has its origin in the will of Costantino Marcorà fu (quondam) Teodoro of 17 March 1538 and in the codicil of 18 May of the same year. This Brother arranged that after his death his patrimony should be devolved in la Scola di S. Rocco dei Battudi and that the net income should be given every year in so many dowries of 15 ducats to every young lady of marriageable age and what was left to corn-meal to give to the poor brothers of the School and to the Monache Osservanti of Venice and of Santa Chiara of Murano. For the administration of the estate the testator nominated three people he trusted who, in the distribution of the income should proceed together with the managers of the School. At the beginning the Commissarìa had a patrimony evaluated in Veneti Ducati 6675. The law of 17 July 1890 n. 6972 ordered the incorporation of the Commissarìa in the Congregazione di Carità of Venice, but the Scuola Grande of Saint Roch asked that the Decree were revoked. This appeal was received by the Consiglio di Stato in 1896 and the patrimony given back to the Marcorà Commissari. The Commissarìa, reconstituted as in its origin and endowed with a Statute, of which the last dates 1905, is now IPAB by law.
The Commissaria at the moment has some shops and flats in Mestre and Venice and a modest personal property. The donations are made every year mainly to the Monasteries of poor nuns, Institutes of assistance and training of the young and to needy families and people.