After a few centuries from its construction, first as a simple country house for the control of agricultural estates, then as a patrician residence for holidays, the villa passed for hereditary reasons from the Frigimelica family to the Estense Selvatico family, also of ancient Paduan nobility.
In 1786, following the death of Antonio Frigimelica, the last descendant of this lineage, his assets in Codiverno were inherited by his sister Maddalena, married to Alvise Selvatico, and then passed into the hands of her children. At the time it was a large property with 750 fields, with a manor house and a farmhouse, and other small farms scattered throughout the surrounding villages.
Towards the end of the 18th century, a significant restoration and expansion of the villa was carried out, as indicated on the plaque located under the Selvatico coat of arms on the north facade, which bears the engraving “Restauravit et auxit A.D. MDCCXCII”.
A drawing from 1799 by the public expert Antonio Rossi, commissioned by Monsignor Giovanni Andrea Estense Selvatico (State Archives of Venice), depicts the villa with the waterways surrounding it and the nearby Quattro Ca’ Mill, giving us a representation entirely similar to the current one.
The Estense Selvatico family remained in possession of the Villa until the mid-1930s, when in the space of a few years it changed hands twice and was finally purchased, together with the surrounding farm, in 1951 by the da Porto family, originally from Vicenza.