A group of drawing manuals that were published in Venice in the early 1600s have taken on a high profile in the modern literature, being viewed as evidence of an impetus to reform Venetian disegno (drawing or design) by introducing Bolognese-inspired teaching methods. I argue that the concept of disegno in its tactile and abstract forms, as a practice and as an admirable element in art, was strongly rooted in 16th-century Venetian artistic culture. These manuals do not reflect a crisis in V...