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At least two transient events of extreme global warming occurred superimposed on the long‐term latest Paleocene and early Eocene warming trend in the Paleocene‐Eocene thermal maximum (PETM) (or ETM1 ∼55.5 Ma) and the Elmo (or ETM2 ∼53.6 Ma). Other than warmth, the best known PETM is characterized by (1) significant injection of ¹³C‐depleted carbon into the ocean‐atmosphere system, (2) deep‐sea carbonate dissolution, (3) strong biotic responses, and (4) perturbations of the hydrological cycle. Documentation of the other documented and suspected “hyperthermals” is, as yet, insufficient to assess whether they are similar in nature to the PETM. Here we present and discuss biomagnetostratigraphic data and geochemical records across two lower Eocene successions deposited on a continental margin of the western Tethys: the Farra and Possagno sections in the Venetian pre‐Alps. We recognize …