Venetian nobility
The Venetian Patriciate (Italian: Patriziato veneziano, Venetian: Patrisiato venesian) was one of the three social bodies into which the society of the Republic of Venice was divided, together with citizens and foreigners. Patrizio was the noble title of the members of the aristocracy ruling the city of Venice and the Republic. The title was abbreviated, in front of the name, by the initials N.H. (Nobil Homo), together with the feminine variant N.D. (Nobildonna). Holding the title of a Venetian patrician was a great honour and many European kings and princes, as well as foreign noble families, are known to have asked for and obtained the prestigious title.
The noble houses were primarily divided into Old (Case vecchie) and New houses (Case nuove), with the former being noted for traditionally electing the first Doge in 697 AD. The New houses were no less significant, as many became very prominent and important in influencing the history of the Republic of Venice. The families were furthermore divided into several other "categories", including Ducal houses (which gave Doges), Newest houses (Case nuovissime), Non-Venetian patricians, and "Houses made for money" (usually very wealthy landowning or bourgeoise families enriched through trade).
Although there were numerous noble houses across Venice's home and overseas land possessions, the Republic was in fact ruled as an oligarchy by about 20 to 30 families of Venice's urban nobility, who elected the Doge, held political and military offices and directly participated in the daily governing of the state. They were predominantly merchants, with their main source of income being trade with the East and other entrepreneurial activities, on which they became incredibly wealthy. Some of the most important families, who dominated the politics and the history of the state, include those such as the Contarini, Cornaro, Dandolo, Giustiniani, Loredan, Mocenigo, Morosini and the Venier families.
Characteristics
The basic foundation of belonging to the Patriciate was the exclusive possession of political power. Starting from the Great Council Lockout (Serrata del Maggior Consiglio) of 1297 and the law of 1320 which precluded the access of new families, this social body became the only one to have the privilege of sitting in the Great Council, the highest governing body of the city and the state. Privilege concretised with the right for each male member of noble families, starting from the age of majority, to participate in the sessions.
Within the patriciate there was absolute political equality among all members. Each vote, including that of the Doge, had the same value during the voting of the councils. Everyone had, at least theoretically, the same possibility of accessing any public office, up to becoming a Wise Man of the College, Procurator of Saint Mark or the Doge. Reflection of this principle was the equal title of "Nobleman" (Nobilis Vir, Nobilis Homo, Nobil Homo) recognized to the patricians, without any distinction, throughout the Republic. Whoever wore it carried within himself a portion of that sovereignty in which every patrician was a participant, together with the other members of his class. This made the Venetian patricians, in the noble hierarchy, of a rank equal to that of the Princes of the Blood (also given the equal possibility of rising to the royal rank of Doge).
The importance of this social body was such that every aspect of the Venetian noble's life was carefully monitored and regulated by the State, which took care to carefully verify all family ties and deeds necessary to prove the registration of the nobles into the Golden Book (Libro d'Oro), the register of nobles strictly guarded in the Doge's Palace.
The robe of the nobles was the toga of black cloth with wide sleeves, lined in red for the Savi, the Avogadori and the leaders of the Quarantia. The toga became completely red for the senators and the ducal councilors. The whole was completed by the squat beret (a low cylindrical hat of black cloth) and the fur indicating the rank within the magistracy. It was an absolute obligation to wear the regalia during the exercise of one's office, in the councils and in the entire area of Saint Mark's Square.
Alongside this political aspect, however, the Venetian nobility had another peculiar character in their mercantile vocation. Contrary to the feudal nobility, in fact, the patriciate in Venice based its power not on the possession of land, but on the wealth of trade with the East as the basis of the entire economy. This stimulated this social class to a remarkable dynamism and resulted in incredible wealth.
The patricians thus served themselves and the state as captains of galleys, merchants, ambassadors, governors, public officials, and in every other form of civil and military organisation of the Republic.
Being Venetian patricians was an honour for all of European nobility and it was common with princes and kings of other states to ask for and obtain the title of N.H., including, among others, the kings of France, the Savoy, the Mancinis, the Rospigliosi, and the papal families of the Orsini and the Colonna.
Barnabotti
A particular category of patricians was constituted by the fallen nobles, called Barnabotti, who, having dissipated the family wealth, still maintained their right to vote in the Great Council.[2] They were a class of impoverished nobility whose name is derived from the fact that the group met and lived in the zone of the Campo San Barnaba (the area, being distant from the city centre, attracted lower rents).[3] Towards the end of the Republic they often represented the tip of the balance between the political factions of the Council, influencing it through the trading of their votes to which they were often dedicated, usually selling them in the Orchard of Saint Mark.[4]
During the eighteenth century the Venetian political system underwent a sclerosis. The aristocracy in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was very numerous; a high birth rate among the nobility, combined with the mercantile (and merchant-entrepreneur) profession undertaken by a large part of this class, involved a broad aristocratic government with varied interests, in which the poor nobles were a minority. There were, however, numerous events of social mobility within the class, brought about by the rapid enrichments in trade with the East and by the new factories set up in the Lagoon. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the economic situation worsened, more and more after 1618, and the Venetian aristocracy was increasingly dependent on their properties in the mainland and in the colonies, as well as on public sinecures. In Europe the idea spread that trade and industry were unworthy of the aristocracy, an idea rejected by the Venetian aristocracy, but which nevertheless changed the mentality of the nobility. The wars against the Ottomans of the mid- and late-1600s decreased trade with the East for many years, as well as in the early 1700s, ruining other merchant families or those who had not been able to diversify their investments in land and real estate. Few families changed their economic status considerably and rapidly upward, allowing an increasingly small group of families to maintain a relatively large wealth, while many others were constantly losing their position, often without even the money to decently live on.
This made the Barnabotti an evident phenomenon of Venetian society, while a reflection began on how to change forms of government. In fact, a group, the oligarchs, consisting of the richest families, managed, even by corrupting the poorest nobles, to exclude the middle and poor who were not at their service. The Venetian government, through the Council of Ten and the state inquisitors, however, prevented reforms of any kind (also because these bodies were in the hands of the oligarchy that was taking over the state, to its exclusive advantage). Attempts at reform were tried, but never implemented, in particular during the reign of Francesco Loredan, when Angelo Querini in 1761 tried to restore power to the more collegial organs of the Venetian aristocracy, while in the late 1770s Giorgio Pisani and Carlo Contarini, through the formation of a sort of "noble party", attempted an overall reform. At the center of their proposals there was precisely the social and political recovery of the poorest parts of the Venetian nobility, done through the assignment of dowries to the young patricians, especially the poor ones, increase in the salaries of the Forty and other Colleges, granting of donations for some prestigious political positions (previously free and then monopolised by rich nobles), setting a uniform for the nobles in order to distinguish them from the commoners, etc. In practice, they advocated for the creation of a "political" aristocracy and service, collectively capable of governing the city and the empire. Then there were some issues arising with the new Enlightenment ideas, such as opposition to internal espionage (which was very common in Venice), freedom of speech, defence and resumption of trade, etc. Precisely this attempt at a "noble reaction", not without populist maneuvers in favour of the Barnabotti, was crushed by the spies of the inquisitors, who, well informed, accused the two of having bought electoral votes from some Barnabottis, and also accused them of conspiring. They imprisoned Contarini in Cattaro (where he died, perhaps poisoned) and Pisani in Vicenza. When the French and the Jacobins arrived, Pisani tried to legitimise himself as an opponent of the despotism of the state inquisitors, of which he had been a victim, but, recognized for what he was, namely an aristocrat who had tried to modernise the structures of the Republic of Venice, however still remaining within the nobility, and indeed strengthening its aristocratic character, the new rulers marginalised it.
Bibliography
- Dorit Raines, Cooptazione, aggregazione e presenza al Maggior Consiglio: le casate del patriziato veneziano, 1297-1797 (PDF), in Storia di Venezia - Rivista, I, 2003, pp. 2-64, ISSN 1724-7446 (WC · ACNP).
- Todesco Maria-Teresa, Andamento demografico della nobiltà veneziana allo specchio delle votazioni nel Maggior Consiglio (1297-1797) (PDF), in Ateneo Veneto, CLXXVI, 1989.
- Francesco Schröeder, Repertorio genealogico delle famiglie confermate nobili e dei titolati nobili esistenti nelle Provincie Venete, Venezia, Tipografia di Alvisopoli, 1830, p. 246.
- Renzo Derosas, Dal patriziato alla nobiltà. Aspetti della crisi dell'aristocrazia veneziana nella prima metà dell'Ottocento. Publications de l'École française de Rome 107.1 (1988): 333-363.
References
- ^ AB. "Famiglia Loredano | Conoscere Venezia" (in Italian). Retrieved 2021-08-03.
- ^ James H. Johnson (2 March 2011). Venice Incognito: Masks in the Serene Republic. University of California Press. pp. 149–. ISBN 978-0-520-26771-8. Retrieved 8 May 2012.
- ^ Beverle Graves Myers (27 May 2011). Painted Veil: A Tito Amato Mystery. Poisoned Pen Press Inc. p. 85. ISBN 978-1-61595-141-3. Retrieved 8 May 2012.
- ^ Eco O. G. Haitsma Mulier (1980). The myth of Venice and Dutch republican thought in the seventeenth century. Van Gorcum. p. 12. ISBN 978-90-232-1781-7. Retrieved 8 May 2012.