Scuole were religious confraternities. They existed for the purpose of religious selfimproement, charitable deeds, and general fellowship. Scuole grandi were large all-male confraternities whose memberships were drawn from the upper and middle classes across the entire city. There were six of these by the end of the sixteenth century and a seventh was added in the seventeenth century. The original four (San Marco, San Giovani Evangelista, Carita, and Misericordia) were created in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries from scuole di battuti, or confraternities that had incorporated self-flagellation as part of their regime. The others (San Teodoro, San Rocco, and in the seventeenth century, the Carmini) were raised up by the city government from scuola piccolo status. Sucole piccoli were more likely to have a membership limited to a particular parish or ethnic descentk or to be given trade or guild; they also sometimes were either all-female or mixed gender. All the scuole, but particularly the scuole grandi, were involved in public processions both on specifically religious occasions and also as part of civic celebrations.

All the scuole, whether grande or piccolo, had meeting places. Sometimes these were churches, but more often (always in the case of the scuole grandi) there were separate buildings, which would frequently be adjacent to a church, monastery or convent.