The Monte della Pietà was founded by some noblemen – including Nardo di Palma and Aurelio Paparo – who wanted to give no-interest loans to needy people. In the second half of the 16th century, they also began to receive some deposits, and thus began the first banking activities.
The expansion of the activities of the institution made it necessary to create a more complex organization, which served as a model for the others. It became a bank in 1584, with the approval of the King of Spain. The Monte della Pietà began its operations in the house of its founder, Nardo di Palma, in Giudecca, not far from piazza Nicola Amore. In 1544, the Monte obtained a small office in the courtyard of the Casa Santa dell’Annunziata, and it remained there until 1592, when it was forced to rent the palace of the duchy of d’Andria Carafa in piazza San Severino, because the governors of the Casa Santa d’Annunziata had also opened a Banco in the meantime. In 1597 the bank bought a building from Delizia Gesualdo, the widow of Giolamo Carafa, in via San Biagio dei Librai for 16,300 ducats. It was then demolished and rebuilt according to the designs by the architect, Giovan Battista Cavagni. A chapel was built within the new building, and this minor masterpiece was crafted by the best artists of the time: Naccherino, Bernini, Corenzio, and Santafede.