Florence the Guelphs, Pisa led the Ghibellines of Tuscany. The land that, abandoned by the waters, gradually formed that vast plain and moved the city away from the sea, became the property of the kings of Italy, who made it width to the church or to the archbishop of Pisa, which therefore came of famous wealth and also of extensive jurisdiction. We have already seen it “in a great and noble state of great and powerful citizens of most of Italy, and they were in agreement and unity, and maintained a great state, it was imperative that the judge of Gallura, the count Ugolino, the count Fazio, count Nieri, count Anselmo and the judge of Arborea; and each for himself held a great court, and with many citizens and wind horsemen each rode across the land; and for their greatness and kindness they were lords of Sardinia, Corsica and Elba,Villani ).
Among the Pisan families who dominated Sardinia, the Visconti family prevailed; Capraja obeyed the Alberti: others, like the judges of Arborèa and the various spouses of the Gherardesca family, had their own palace, court, gang in the city. So then that [58]Genoa on the rivers, and Venice on the Illyrian coast, Pisa held possessions in Tuscany; and Henry VI granted it all royal rights in the city and a territory rich in sixty-four villages and castles. With Genoa and Lucca he disputed the possession of Lunigiana, and having occupied the fiefs of the bishops and counts of Luni, he renewed the marble quarries, already known in ancient times, in order to draw them for his cathedral and for that of Carrara [34] .
Constant to the imperial faith, he benefited from the greatness of the Swabians, suffered from their disasters. From Florence forced to revoke the exiled Guelphs, these with their riches bleed it back. The Pisans having taken as protection the judge of Ginerca in Corsica (1282), a marauder who had been beaten by the Genoese, the ancient ire between the two republics, agitated in the seas and in the ports of the Levant, was exacerbated. Nor did she want to be silent like the two emuls, so that one would not be said to have overwhelmed the other by surprise, they kept a notary each in the enemy, who would inform her of what was being prepared [35] .
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After a long maneuver, Nicolò Spinola presented himself with the Ligurian fleet at the mouth of the Arno; Rosso Buzzaccherini led the Pisan woman to meet him; and seventy Genoese and sixty-four Pisan vessels (a portentous number!) hunted each other with different luck. Pisa found itself exhausted by the expenses, but the illustrious families made up for it: the Lanfranchis armed eleven galleys, six the Gualandi, Lei, Gaetani, three the Sismondi, four the Orlandi, five the Upezzenghi, three the Visconti, two the Moschi; hence a fleet of one hundred and three galleys approached the port of Genoa shooting silver arrows. One hundred and seven galleys sailed from Genoa amidst the blessings of the archbishop and patriotic wishes, and met the enemy at Melòria (1284 – August 6), bench in front of the filled bosom of Porto Pisano, he smashed it, also taking Admiral Morosini and the banner and seal of the Municipality. Ten thousand Pisans were held prisoner in Genoa for sixteen years, not killing them so that their women could not, by remarrying themselves, compensate their homeland with new offspring. Therefore, it was said that anyone who wanted to see Pisa should go to Genoa; whence they regulated the fate of the country; new Regoli, advised against changing them with Castro di Sardegna, a fortress built by the ancestors and defended with so much cost; and they swore, if at this price they were redeemed, they would make enemies clear to those pusillanimous who had sacrificed national honor to the private good. whoever wanted to see Pisa went to Genoa; whence they regulated the fate of the country; new Regoli, advised against changing them with Castro di Sardegna, a fortress built by the ancestors and defended with so much cost; and they swore, if at this price they were redeemed, enemies would be made clear to those pusillanimous who had sacrificed national honor to the private good. whoever wanted to see Pisa went to Genoa; whence they regulated the fate of the country; new Regoli, advised against changing them with Castro di Sardegna, a fortress built by the ancestors and defended with so much cost; and they swore, if at this price they were redeemed, enemies would be made clear to those pusillanimous who had sacrificed national honor to the private good.
This collapse of Pisa left the Guelphs of Tuscany in advantage, who conspired against the only Ghibelline until it was destroyed. And it would have had the last dive, if Ugolino conte della Gherardesca (mountain land along the sea between Livorno and Piombino) did not [60]he had succeeded with his skill in breaking up the league and repairing and equipping Porto Pisano. Retaining the dominion of his country for ten years, he obtained peace from the Lucchesi and Fiorentini; but by disbanding the Ghibelline families and demolishing their palaces, he attracted very bitter enemies and mainly Nino di Gallura (1288). Referring to ancient facts, they gave voice that Meloria, where he was one of the captains, had conspired to lose the battle in order to weaken the fatherland; they added that he had bought peace by betraying the castellas to his enemies, and was now preventing any agreement with the Genoese for fear of not repaying the prisoners. Archbishop Ruggeri degli Ubaldini, a warm Ghibelline, had also opposed him, claiming to divide domination with him: and Ugolino, surrounded by enemies and discontent, doubled oppression and hatred increased. A nephew dared to tell him nothing else, namely the indignation which excited the excess of taxes; and Ugolino rushed at him with a dagger. A nephew of the archbishop, a friend of the other, parried the blow; and Ugolino revealed himself on this by slaughtering him. Ruggeri made an agreement with the Gualandi, Sismondi, Lanfranchi, Ripafratta, and attacked the count, they closed him in the Torre de ‘Gualandi alle Sette vie, with his sons Gaddo and Uguccione, and with Nino and Anselmuccio, sons of his other sons, and there they left them to starve. Ruggeri supreme then in Pisa, and entrusted the arms to Count Guido di Montefeltro, the Republic resumed its ancient borders. and Ugolino revealed himself on this by slaughtering him. Ruggeri made an agreement with the Gualandi, Sismondi, Lanfranchi, Ripafratta, and attacked the count, they closed him in the Torre de ‘Gualandi alle Sette vie, with his sons Gaddo and Uguccione, and with Nino and Anselmuccio, sons of his other sons, and there they left them to starve. Ruggeri supreme then in Pisa, and entrusted the arms to Count Guido di Montefeltro, the Republic resumed its ancient borders. and Ugolino revealed himself on this by slaughtering him. Ruggeri made an agreement with the Gualandi, Sismondi, Lanfranchi, Ripafratta, and attacked the count, they closed him in the Torre de ‘Gualandi alle Sette vie, with his sons Gaddo and Uguccione, and with Nino and Anselmuccio, sons of his other sons, and there they left them to starve. Ruggeri supreme then in Pisa, and entrusted the arms to Count Guido di Montefeltro, the Republic resumed its ancient borders.
To the detriment of Pisa he newly armed Genoa (1290), which conquered the island of Elba, and with twenty-two thousand fighters, of which five thousand had snow-white armor ( Cafaro ), he destroyed Porto Pisano, where he entered by breaking the chains, which hung in that city, an unfortunate monument of fraternal wars even after the trophies and fruits of freedom were snatched. To peace Pisa [61]he renounced the rights over Corsica and Sassari di Sardegna.
Genoa from the very beginning had been regulated as a mercantile company because of the companies, who formed themselves for the purpose of putting together a fleet or running a business for two, six, twenty years; and the consuls of these were often also consuls of the municipality. Learned in government, and who also accomplished as many enterprises as we saw, he bought the Riviere and the possessions in the Levant and prevalence in Italian affairs. At that time the administration of the city could no longer be confused with that of particular interests, and was entrusted to distinct annual heads, although still elected by the eight companies, which participated in the government in an equal portion, and who always subsisted, and became almost the means so citizens could in the state. Formed one of them, whoever showed up to give you the name in eleven days remained able to do public employment; if not, he could not appear in court except agreed, nor was any member of the Company to serve him on the galleys or patronize him before the courts. From each Company a noble was elected to constitute the council of the Clavigeri, custodians and administrators of the treasury, which soon rose to great importance. The general council, which met in San Lorenzo, does not seem to be attended by all the people, but by the best considered among the companies; the people were represented by the cintraco or public crier, not to deliberate, but to persuade. The four consuls elected by the sovereign people swore not to make war or peace without this consent, not to allow foreign goods, except for construction timber and naval ammunition, and to render exact justice. These consuls in 1121 became annual, and in 30 they were distinguished from those of the placites, [62]and between them the consuls and the parliament intervened the council of Credenza ( silentiarii ) or senate, which received the ambassadors, the appeals of the subject countries, weighed the most important affairs.
Vestiges of the ancient episcopal immunity remain in the tithe of the sea , which the archbishop collected on all ships that landed with grain or salt; furthermore, the consuls of the state and those of the placites, the senate, the councils resided in the archbishop’s palace; the treaties were made in the name of the bishop and the consuls, and many feudatarj swore the oath first to him, then to the municipality; he then dominated in San Remo, over the Marquises Malaspina and over many citizens.
Towards the middle of that century, the other towns of Liguria also aspired to be called Genoese, and the places in the neighboring valleys and mountains were incorporated into Genoa. The feudatars swore the Commune, and were inscribed in the brief of the consuls and in the book of the consular families; if they had distant lordships or titles of counts and marquises, they renounced jurisdiction before parliament, asking to be admitted to some company; and registered as they were, they were invested again as vassals of the renounced rights, promising to keep their house open in the city, to live there for three months, to serve in war with a prefix number of infantry, horses or sailors: reciprocally the Municipality was obliged to protect them, in months of absence do not oblige them to parliaments, to draw ships, nor to burden them with greater impositions;
The independent communities promised to take on the wars and peace of the Genoese: not to grant asylum to any bandit, privateer or enemy, not to send ships from April to October beyond Barcelona to the west, nor beyond the island of Sardinia to the east, without going and return [63]they touched the port of Genoa; do not harass those who sail from this or this; contribute in a given portion to the expenses of cavalcades, or naval armaments, or legations in the maritime parts. Genoa took them as protection, guaranteed their privileges, and confirmed the magistrates they elected [36] .
From the external wars and from the continuation of the magistracies and the offices of the companies in the families, a city nobility originated, which caused factions and brigas; and surrounded by customers, he erected towers and fostered internal battles. And since religion was not enough to repress them [64]nor consuls, a foreign podestà was also used here, giving him eight nobles as councilors.
Many small lordships lasted around Genoa. The Savonese in 1153 made themselves almost dependent on Genoa, forcing themselves to come with it to armaments, horse rides, collections, observe the prohibitions imposed by it, not to sail beyond Sardinia and Barcelona except by moving from the Genoese port and returning there. In 1121 he had bought Voltaggio from the Marquis Gavi in Genoa, in 28 he conquered Montaldo, in 83 he founded the castle of Porto Venere. In 91, Henry VI gave up Monaco, although as part of the Turbìa it was subjected to the bishops and to the Municipality of Nice: but many disputed it, and Genoa, by demanding it prepared a nest for the Grimaldis, who would later become haunted.
Nice had been an independent republic, divided into lower and upper cities, which had quarrels and compromises between themselves [37] until it came under the dominion of the counts of Provence, which other castles held in those surroundings. Raimondo Berengario II in 1176 recognized the rights of the commune and of the consuls of Nice, so that they remained independent, except for the honor of these counts; and in 1205 its statutes began [38] . Those counts suffered from ill-will that Genoa grew towards Nice, and always prevented it from acquiring Monaco; but in 1215 it sent Fulcone da Castello with many nobles on three galleys and other woods, with which they founded four towers, joined by a curtain thirty-three palms high, where the princely palace was later. Nice itself in that year was sworn by the Municipality of Genoa.
The port that the ancients called Ercole Moneco, a mile east of Nice, had been depopulated [65]by the Saracens, so that it served only as a shelter for pirates. Charles II, king of Provence in 1295 thought of building a new village there, which he titled Villafranca, transferring the inhabitants of Montolivo there, with the promise to surround them with walls, build a church in San Michele, bring a fountain there, keep them free from any imposition, except the repaggio and the gabelle which were customary for the Nizzardi [39] .
Strong and proud were the War counts of Ventimiglia, in which Stati San Remo obeyed the archbishop of Genoa. The Counts Quaranta, the Casanova lords had lordships in Lingueglia and Garlenda and in the Castellani: the marquises Taggiaferro di Clavesana in Porto Maurizio, Diano, Andóra: the del Carretto family were very powerful from Capodimele to Albissóla, and lords of Savona [40]. Distinct municipalities formed Albenga, Savona, Noli. The Marquises of Ponzone ruled Varazze, a land then divided between an infinity of condominiums. The tenimenti of the abbey of San Fruttuoso in Capodimonte followed. The Counts of Lavagna dominated, beyond Lavagna, above Sestri, Varese, Val di Taro, and as far as Pontrémoli, and west of the Entella as far as Rapallo, and on the other side as far as Brugnato and Magra; they bordered with the lords of Passano, and with the Malaspina of Lunigiana. Minor were those of Lagnoto and Celasco, of Rivalta, of Vezzano, of Trebiano; finally came the Marquises of Massa, the Municipality of Lucca and the emula Pisa. More between land, Genoa was next to the Municipality of Tortona, the marquises of [66]Parodi, of Gavi, of Bosco, which reached as far as the yoke of Voltri; the marquises of Incisa, of Ceva, of Garessio; the lords of Pornassio, the counts of Badalucco, Maro, and Sospello; and more powerful those of Monferrato and Provence [41] .
The two Rivieras were not happy with the supremacy of Genoa, on the contrary Savona and more often Ventimiglia denied it, and leaned on the imitation of Pisa. Among the castellan nobility the Fieschi and Grimaldi, dedicated to the Guelphs or Rampini, and the Doria and Spinola to the Ghibellines or Mascherati excelled; they uprooted the republic, reluctant to magistrates, mutually brought their creatures to podestà, abbots, captains of liberty; they pushed to minute wars and expeditions, falling or rising according to the norms of the general events of Italy, for which the interior government was also changed. Meanwhile everything [67]he went into internal quarrels, which filled the city and the Rivieras with violence and crimes.
Sometimes there arose one of these who know how to flatter the people, and in their name he procured supreme authority. At the end of the administration of Filippo Torriano, the people raised a noise (1257) claiming that he had stolen, and that the corrupt syndicators had acquitted him; it is time to finish the extortion of the nobles; only to deserve the confidence of him Guglielmo Boccanegra. And from behind, carrying him to the altar of San Siro, they proclaim him captain of the people; the city nobility is for him, and he wants him to be ten years old, even with the will to appoint the annual podestà; the feudal nobility keeps up with him, and he tames them, raises new people, caresses the common people, then made bold, abuses power to raise money and arrogate new prerogatives, gives and takes away jobs at whim, despises the deliberations of the councils , check the judgments of the courts. He had planned to imprison all the primans; but these mutinied took the doors so that he could not call the people of the country, and overthrew him, barely granting him life at the request of the archbishop; and he returned to the institution of the foreign mayor. But the position of the captain of the people and Genoese municipality was the aim of the nobility’s ambition, and the cause of incessant disputes.
Suddenly it seemed (1262) that Roberto Spinola was about to forfeit the supreme dominion; but that fragmentation of the ambitious which caused the dispute prevented the tyranny of a single one. It was believed that the rivalries were avoided by making the way of forming the great council less arbitrary, by agreeing that each company should elect fifty members, who would appoint four councilors in another company, and these thirty-two would assign the city councilors and eight. The pretensions of the families removed any lasting agreement, as long as [68]in 1339 the domain of the nobles was broken into to replace the common houses of the Adorno and Fregoso: but the nobles kept a large part in the magistracy, administration, fleets, and placing themselves now with one or the other of the predominant factions, they produced a instability that could not even result in tyranny [42] .
The first Genoese establishments in Corsica rather demonstrate private companies or companies aimed at piracy; but in 1195 the Republic bought San Bonifazio there, reducing it to a colony with a podestà and with wide privileges. The exiles of Genoa took hold of the island and then opposed the metropolis; so much so that the judge Sincello of Pisa returned to make his city prevail there, and the Genoese found themselves again restricted to San Bonifazio. The vassals paid a tax on the wax and half of the testatic, and exercised inferior jurisdictions, dependent on the judge: but relying on one in Pisa, the other in Genoa, anarchy ensued, fomented by the privileges that they conceded in competition to make them friends.
Of greater importance establishments had Genoa in the Ionian and Black Seas, and extensive trade, as we have seen and will see. Fifty to seventy large vessels set sail each year from the mighty Ligurians, bringing drugs and other goods to Sardinia, Sicily, Greece, Provence; others much with wool and skins: and from the lucrative wealth the country was made beautiful, comfortable, strong. From the [69]1276 to 1983 the two docks and the great wall of the pier were completed; in 95 the magnificent aqueduct, across rugged mountains.
Venice, according to the times, developed the germs that had deposited its origin there. Doge Vitale Michiel II wanted to repress the perfidy of Manuele Comneno by bringing him great war: but the people, who saw the trade go to ruin, prevented him from tumult. However, when the Venetian ships returned to trafficking in the East, the Comnenus surprised them, confiscated the cargo, imprisoned the crews. Then the people cackling ask for the war that cackling they had repulsed; the doge second them, but the emperor’s arts slow down that ardor: meanwhile the plague attacks the fleet, and thousands of men perished, few woods return to the lagoons. Since in disasters a victim is wanted, all blame is placed on the doge; and the plebs, who had already seen nine deposed, five blinded, as many killed, nine forced to abdicate, slaughtered Michiel.
The extension of the city made it impossible to gather all the citizens, and even more so to supervise the acts of the Government. It was therefore thought of a representation, establishing that every year two electors were taken from each sestiere, who together would choose four hundred and eighty people to form a major council, which would have the sovereignty of the republic and appoint all the offices, even its own electors; in which way the elect always succeeded in the same families. In the middle of the thirteenth century , the annual renewal was no longer done by twelve electors, but by a college of four members, which annually appointed one hundred new councilors; and by one of three, who elected successors to those who died or otherwise left a void. In cases that [70]all were to compete for some burdens, the people were summoned, who voted for the arrival by acclamation: the only remnant of the primitive sovereignty.
The election of the doge was attributed to forty-one electors with that complication of extractions and scrutinies that we have expounded elsewhere (t. vi , p. 181); nor did the people retain it except that he was presented to his applause, and the masters of the arsenal carried him in chairs on their backs in the procession which three times a year circled the Piazza San Marco. Thus the doges ceased to be elected by direct universal vote; and from then on they no longer conspired to become sovereigns, nor did the people slaughter them. They swore to fulfill their duties, which were expressed in a promise : the people swore to obey them, in which the oath was then sworn by the mayor who each district elected every four years and who was responsible for the crimes committed in its district.
The doge, personifying the guardian authority of public salvation, had to represent, not operate; no resolution taking without the concurrence of six councilors, annually chosen by the major council, one per sestiere, then called the lordship . In cases for which there was no previous example, or concerning public credit and trade, or if he deemed it appropriate to have the opinion or consent of believed citizens, and to support them in opinion, he prayed quite a few to come to himself: occasional form , who then, by dictating Jacopo Tiepolo, became stable in the constitution with the sixty priests or senators, no longer chosen by the doge, but by the great council with the usual forms. In this way the nobles found themselves participating in the government, and the famous senate began.
Perhaps from the gathering of the many courts that judged on principle in the various islands, the supreme court of criminal quarentia was formed , which judged collegially, [71]instead of the only podestà used by the Lombard municipalities. The quarentia being called to pronounce in the affairs of state, he acquired political attributions as an intermediate college between the Signoria and the major council, and pondered the propositions of that, before exposing them to this. The three leaders of quarentìa later became perpetual members of the Signoria. Having taken a party, the major council entrusted its execution to the Signoria, that is, to the Doge with his council of six, or to the Forty.
The seal of the state remained with the great chancellor, chosen not from noble houses but from towns, supreme notary of legislative acts, present at the greater council and at all solemnities, distinguished for honors and emoluments, up to eighty thousand ducats a year drawing from the propine; and being immovable, he remained independent of the doge, to whom he hardly yielded in dignity. Three advogadori of the Commune, especially the tribunes of the people, patronized the public part in state cases and in particular, watching over legality, the collection of taxes, the appointment of magistrates, good order; they kept the birth registers of the nobles; and their veto suspended the acts of any magistracy, except the major council, for a month and a day, and they could repeat it three times, after which they set out the reasons for their opposition.
The Venetian statute had already been reformed three times when Jacopo Tiepolo in 1232 published a new one, called Promissione del maleficio ; then after ten years he had the old laws collected, corrected and disposed of; and were published in five books, which with ever new additions formed the code of the republic.
It was said that Alexander III, when he came to conference with Barbarossa, gave the doge a ring saying: – The sea is subject to you as the bride [72]to her husband, because with the victories you acquired the domain ». Hence the feast of the Ascension, when the doge on the splendid bucintoro went to marry the sea, throwing a ring on it, and saying: Desponsamus te, mare, in signum vero perpetuique dominii. Considering themselves therefore as lords of the Adriatic, the Venetians wanted to impose a gabelle on all ships that ascended beyond a line drawn from Ravenna to the Gulf of Fiume. This closing a sea, common to the coastal ones, was without example; and wars ensued, especially with the Bolognese, but they were reduced to resign themselves. Later Giulio demanded to deprive them, and having told the ambassador Girolamo Donato to show the document that attributed the gulf to the republic, he replied: “It is written on the reverse of the donation made by Constantine to San Silvestro”. This motto hints at the frankness that Venice always kept in the face of the Roman curia; since she never let clerical pretensions transcend, and always kept a high hand over churches, although she showed religious spirits, and many doges abdicated to retire to monasteries,
Later, Clement V forbade trading with infidels, imposing a fine on the transgressors for the apostolic chamber. The Venetians paid no attention to it; but many in the article of death did not obtain absolution if they did not satisfy this fine, which sometimes absorbed the whole substance. The government, however, did not let this money go out, and when John XXII (1322) sent two nuncios to collect those posthumous penances, or to excommunicate those who denied them, he ordered them to leave. The pope forbade the defaulters, citing them to Avignon; but implicated with Bàvaro, he was unable to carry out this act, and Benedict XII granted dispensations to market with the Infidels.
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When the question of the Three Chapters arose, the patriarch of Grado broke away from the schismatic patriarch of Aquileja, to whom Venice and the subject lands obeyed. A concord between the two patriarchs kept company at peace with Alexander III, renouncing the gradense to the reasons on the province of that one and on the treasures which he had stolen from his church. Nicholas V allowed the patriarchal dignity from Grado to be transported to the cathedral of Castello in Venice, and San Lorenzo Giustiniani was its first patriarch: they were also called primates of Dalmatia.
The individual islands had their own tribunes from the very beginning, and were divided into Greek schools of trades, not dependent on one another. After the doge was in charge of all, the internal order was not altered, and the tribunes, changed into massaj or gastaldi, deliberated what was appropriate with respect to war, trade, internal administration. In the schools a foreigner was rarely admitted, so that the new commoners were separated from the original ones, who alone had a voice in the election of the doge and in the government. The ancient nobles drew strength from their interference in these municipalities, with which they were considered identical, having grown up with them; and with this they stumbled heavily on the doge, who therefore turned rather to external things. Enrico Dandolo, robust in spirit and adamant on purpose, expanded the power of Venice,[43] : [74]lordship scattered on the coasts or in the islands, the main one being Candia.
The Venetians married to Constantinople received a podestà from the metropolis, dependent on the doge and the major council, and they also had a large and a small council, six judges for civil and criminal affairs, two chamberlain to administer finances, two lawyers for tax disputes, and a fleet captain, all dispatched from Venice. The other colonies were constituted in the same or similar way, and since the magistrates of them depended on the Signoria, the doge could exercise there activities prevented him at home, he had independent entrances from the citizens, making him courted by the nobles who aspired to those lucrative jobs, and who by the conquests some families were intent on making new ones.
In fact, many families took up residence on the islands and on the coasts, which led to consolidation of the aristocracy. But this did not derive, as elsewhere, from conquest, but from believing that they were descendants of the first who passed from the mainland to the islands, and created the soil of the homeland; the feudal system and the rights born of stable possession were ignored, not having territories. Others, reported in the judiciary, had passed on their personal prestige to their families; others had enriched themselves with [75]trade and with possessions in the islands and in the mainland, which did not confer political rights: so that a nobility that was not idle and dangerous, but which gradually acquired privileges, arose; quite distinct from the plebeians, yet linked to them by a kind of patronage, which contracted by becoming their cronies, and by taking them as protection when they aspired to pass.
However, when negotiating with the knights of France in the crusade, the nobles saw how they could overpower the plebs, stripping them of all rights; in foreign governments they contracted the habit of excelling, with the result that they ended up with contempt for the ignoble. By counting the people in the elections, the doge had nothing more than to coax the major council, from which he was created. On the other hand, observing the republics of the continent torn apart by factions and ending in domestic tyranny, some wished sovereignty to be confined to a few, and proposed not to admit to the great council except those who sat there then, and of whom there were seated the father, the grandfather and the great-grandfather. Doge Giovanni Dandolo, in any case from a very ancient family and enraptured by conquests and therefore frowned upon, opposed this restriction, and siding and bloodshed followed. He died, while the forty-one electors deliberated (1289), the multitude, already exacerbated by a heavy tax on the millstone, began to shout at the usurpations of the nobles, who had formed their creature of the doge, magistrate of the people, and proclaimed Jacopo Tiepolo , whose father and ancestor had already been doges. With this popular aura he could have become a tyrant, like the others in Italy: but either magnanimous in sacrificing his ambition for the freedom of the fatherland, or pusillanimous not to face the risks of a revolution perhaps fomented by him, he went into exile. volunteer, and the oligarchs succeeded in putting Doge Pier Gradenigo, a still fresh man, inclined to humiliate the magistrate of the people, they had formed their child, and proclaimed Jacopo Tiepolo, whose father and ancestor had already been doges. With this popular aura he could have become a tyrannical, like the others in Italy: but either magnanimous to sacrifice the ambition to the freedom of the fatherland, or pusillanimous not to face the risks of a revolution perhaps fomented by him, he went into exile. volunteer, and the oligarchs succeeded in putting Doge Pier Gradenigo, a still fresh man, inclined to humiliate the magistrate of the people, they had formed their child, and proclaimed Jacopo Tiepolo, whose father and ancestor had already been doges. With this popular aura he could have become a tyrant, like the others in Italy: but either magnanimous in sacrificing his ambition for the freedom of the fatherland, or pusillanimous not to face the risks of a revolution perhaps fomented by him, he went into exile. volunteer, and the oligarchs succeeded in putting Doge Pier Gradenigo, a still fresh man, inclined to humiliate the [76]people and the new nobles under a hereditary nobility, whereupon time gave him opportunities.
The enlargement of Venice excited jealousy in Genoa and Pisa. The Genoese also waged open war against it in Ptolemais, but at their serious cost: then to oppose it they favored the Greeks, to the detriment of the Frankish emperors of Constantinople; when this was resumed, many advantages stipulated, and made the Venetians close the three routes of the Euxine, Egypt and Syria. A long nimism ensued, which in the end was composed for the care of the pope: but when it broke out again, the emperor Andronicus II Palaeologus took away the opportunity to have the Venetians captured; and the Genoese attacked the prisoners, and slaughtered them.
In revenge (1293) Ruggero Morosini led sixty Venetian galleys to plunder the Genoese establishments, took and demolished Pera, where they kept a quarter, and attacked the imperial palace; meanwhile another flotilla was destroying Caffa, and for all the seas it preyed on the woods and subverted the colonies of Genoa. The two fleets clashed in front of Cùrzola (8 7bre), island of Dalmatia; and the Genoese, governed by Lamba Doria, were so emboldened that they proposed abandoning the ships to the Venetians, as long as the crew were safe. Having said no, they assume the courage of despair, and win, from ten thousand enemies they kill, six thousand take prisoners, including Marco Polo and Andrea Dandolo himself, admiral, who, not knowing how to give peace of the loss of a battle attacked against his will , said of the boss in the enemy antenna and finished.
Genoa rejoiced; he established that every 8 September the Signoria was to offer a pallium of gold brocade in San Matteo, where a palace would be built for the victorious admiral. But Venice was not distressed, on the contrary, growing spirit to the extent of the loss, it immediately suffered [77]water a hundred other galleys, he called in cars and pilots from Catalonia, welcomed the Guelphs who had escaped from Genoa; and Domenico Sciavo, already illustrating himself in the wars of Romelìa, brought terror into the Genoese fleets, entered the enemy’s port, and on that pier (1294) struck coins and erected a monument of dishonor. Matteo Visconti interposed, a perpetual peace was made, which each ship captain had to swear before setting sail. These cases gave prevalence to the aristocracy.
Venice, a vessel anchored in the lagoons, lived entirely on its relations with foreigners, so it could not abandon itself to the popular tide, and had the professions of attentive gaze, cold calculation, severe and coherent politics, of sustained energy, of a centralization of forces. , which cannot be obtained from the multitude. Therefore, the constitutional dominance of the aristocracy was consolidated, and especially in this war, whose expenses, commands and glory fell to it; whence with such a wind she enacted a law entirely in favor of her. Although the major council elected its own members, it was asserted that for a long time the choice always fell on the same families; hence the doge Gradenigo, a firm man, superior to the vociferation of the people and opposed to this because he denied him the applause, proposed what had been rejected at other times: it was no longer examined whether the members of the families then sitting on the great council should be re-elected, but whether they deserved to be excluded; which judgment would be made by the first court of the state. Therefore, the judges of the fortieth ballot, one by one, those who had participated in the council in the last four years; and whoever reported twelve of the forty votes was confirmed there for a year; after which the successors were elected in the same way; so as not to raise all hopes, a supplementary list with names was added Therefore, the judges of the fortieth ballot, one by one, those who had participated in the council in the last four years; and whoever reported twelve of the forty votes was confirmed there for a year; after which the successors were elected in the same way; so as not to raise all hopes, a supplementary list with names was added Therefore, the judges of the fortieth ballot, one by one, those who had participated in the council in the last four years; and whoever reported twelve of the forty votes was confirmed there for a year; after which the successors were elected in the same way; so as not to raise all hopes, a supplementary list with names was added [78]of other citizens ( de aliis ) to be balloted if necessary.
The election of the sovereign council, then of about five hundred members, was therefore transferred by the people to the criminal court: when it was then forbidden to admit new men, a privileged hereditary nobility remained, excluding even opulent and very ancient families, such as the Badoero, due to the fact that none of them sat on the council that year. Finally, the periodic renewal of this was removed, and the electors were abolished by deciding that whoever possessed the required conditions at twenty-five would be registered from forty years, and thus enter the grand council. Who, no longer filled than with nobles, provided for the benefit of the nobles alone, without remaining a counterweight to their podestà, nor hope of merit: soon also the opposition of the commune avogadori was muted, the aristocracy remained hereditary.
The nobility excluded from the greater council was struggling; he claimed, and saw the claimants hanged [44] ; so that, having no legitimate way of opposition, he resorted to plots in order to acquire not equality with everyone, but privileges with a few. Bajamonte (1310) son of Jacopo Tiepolo, personally opposed to the doge, united with the Querini families who claim to be descended from Galba emperor, Badoero who were the Participazj seven times doges, Barbaro, Maffei, Barozzi, Vendelini and others, who affected [79]the name of Guelphs and the protection of the Church, conspired to occupy the republic and restore the annual election. He kept many weapons in every house, yes for luxury, yes to protect maritime trade: Padua promised help. But the doge knew of it, and prevented them; he assembled the few forces and the arsenalotti in Piazza San Marco; he fought in the streets, and many of the chiefs also perished; Bajamonte, who sustained himself for some time in the Rialto, refused the forgiveness offered, and went to die among the Croats. Bloody justice was done to the others captured; bounties and sicarj were launched on the refugees; the buildings demolished and the names of the Querini and Tiepolos removed [45]. In order to prevent such attacks, the judiciary de ‘Ten was established, with arbitrariness over the life and possessions of citizens and the public. It was an extraordinary commission; but he knew how to lengthen the processes and concatenate the clues so much, [80]which was declared stable, and “a very tenacious bond of public harmony”.
News also tried Marin Faliero, of one of the three oldest houses in Venice. Violent man, being the mayor of Treviso, he had slapped the bishop in public because he was late in going out in procession; then made doge (1354), and at seventy-six years married a beautiful girl, on this account he received a bloody mockery from Michele Steno, one of the three leaders of the forty; and having no other satisfaction than seeing him flogged in foxtails and stranded for a year, he plotted. Old man, having reached the greatest place to which ambition could aspire, out of mere spite he connected with people of little account, with Bertuccio Israeli admiral of the arsenal, that is, head of the workers, and with the sculptor Filippo Calendaro, plebeians much listened to among the people ; whose sufferings they exaggerated, blaming the aristocracy, and encouraging them to break in. Everything was prepared for an uprising in which to slaughter all the nobles, when the Ten had spied on him, and the convinced Faliero (1355 – 17 April) was beheaded where the doges took the oath; to the accomplices the gallows, to the people reiterate the chains, and established that arengo , that is the general parliament, “neither for messer dose it nor for others pol be called, except that, creating el dose, arengo must be called to publish the creation according to custom”.
It was the time when republics were seen succumbing to tyrants throughout Italy; and this attempt made Venice fear the same. Therefore, the precautions multiplied; and the doge, from head of the Republic reduced to delegate of a few, more and more hands were tied; and five corregidors of the promission dogale , in the pacts to be imposed on each new doge, introduced changes and expounded any reforms of government that seemed opportune; three inquisitors of the dead doge [81]they reviewed the documents in comparison with the oath taken. Which from time to time shrinking, came to be a renunciation of all the ancient prerogatives, and almost also of personal freedom. The doge’s council was no longer chosen by him, but by the senate; finally it was confirmed by the parliament; the six members were renewed half every four months, nor should there ever be two of the surname or of the sestiere itself; they opened the letters addressed to the doge, sending them back to the various offices for sale; they made proposals in the senate and in the major council, and the doge had no greater vote than one of them.
So that the sovereignty was then ensured by the administration, it was established that the three heads of the forties should sit with the six councilors apart from their offices. The Doge could no longer receive embassies or letters from strangers, nor papers from subjects, unless his advice was present; do not answer a little yes or no without consulting with that; do not allow any citizen to bend his knee or kiss his hand; suffer no other title than Messer il Doge; not to possess fiefdom, wealth, level or stable assets outside the duchy, that is, of the islands and the little coast between the mouths of the Musone and the Adige; not marry a foreigner, nor marry their children with foreigners without permission; no one could take up employment as long as he was on her salary and a year later. The decorated pupil reviewed the accounts every month, and if he owed anyone, some money was withheld: he was even prescribed not to spend more than a thousand lire in receiving foreigners; the first six months he bought a golden brocade vest, neither he nor his wife or children would accept gifts. On the election of Nicola Marcello (1473) it was imposed that, while the doge was alive, his children and grandchildren could not accept office, benefit or dignity in life or in time, nor sit in any council, [82]except the great one and the prayers, even where they had no voice; only in the Ten could a brother of the Doge enter.
This menagerie jealousy was extended to all the nobility, forbidding them to marry foreigners, nor to cover public functions outside, or to serve as a prince or foreign state in war or in peace, nor to possess on the continent of Italy: law lived until Venice was dominant. of the mainland. Not even the commands of the armies could have; and after they were entrusted to Pietro de Rossi, already lord of that city, in the war in Padua, the general was always a mercenary, supervised by provedidori chosen from among the patricians.
The severity of the Ten weighed heavily on the nobles, rather a brake on the aristocracy than an instrument of tyranny over the people. The doge, six ducal councilors and the Ten made up that council, all with a deliberative voice; their meeting is illegal if an avogador from the Municipality is not present. They lasted a year, and remained in absentia for a year; they were elected a few at a time by the major council, and during that magistracy they could receive no other office; accepting a salary or premium will cost the boss. The secret denunciations were received there, as by all the magistrates, but they required examination and proofs. On January 28, 1432 he leftthat “if from now on some or some of our nobles, by himself or by means of others, under any pretext, color, manner, form or ingenuity that one can say or imagine, will dare to make some sect, confederation, company or other intelligence clear or hidden, with words or deeds, with or without oath, to help each other in our councils, are perpetually banished; and if they return from the ban, they will be sentenced to prison in life ». Similar tenor hold the laws of the Ten, all aimed at repressing the nobles with a summary procedure: moreover they exercised a high police on the [83]people, on the most secret treaties, on forgeries of jewelry or coins, on games, on spies; any non-civil affair concerned the clergy, the six great brotherhoods of the city, the feasts, the woods, the masks, the gondolas, was their responsibility; their decrees obliged the senate and even the great council; they disposed of the treasury, gave instructions to ambassadors, generals, governors, modified the ducal promise. On the occasion of the trial against Marin Faliero they called a junta of twenty gentlemen, which then remained permanent until 1582, and was a great reinforcement to their power.
This concentrating the direction of the state and powers gave the government extreme authority and strength; this vigilance prevented individuals or families from assuming sovereignty. But a procedure, where there were no known laws or prefixed penalties, where the witnesses were not confronted or named tampoco, offered no assurances to society or the individual, opened the way to perfidious disclosure and paid espionage, established despotism to preserve the Government.
However, let us not be dismayed by the declamations, and remember that the Ten after a year fell under the common laws; in addition to the secretaries of the city order, from fifty to sixty people attended, removed from the main assemblies of the state, and the avogador was able to suspend their acts; the judgments were secret, but written; the defendant was not denied a defense counsel; the great council could modify that of the Ten or even shut it down by not renewing the appointments; the people then liked it as a safeguard against the abuses of the patricians; these consoled themselves with the hope of arriving there.
In 1454 the council of ten chose three state inquisitors, two blacks from their own bosom, and a red from among the doge’s advisers, who initiated the trials, exercised [84]a high police force on any person, not even except the Ten, and in union with these they could punish secret or public death, dispose of the box without accounting [46] .
This constitution developed in later times than we are now narrating; but we wanted it collected here as an understanding of the future history of that great and maligned Republic. Time made us forget the violence with which the aristocracy had established itself, which consolidated, was very concerned with political relations, and acquired prudence and shrewdness from them. The houses prior to the nineteenth century were said to be old, the later aggregated new ones. Sixteen of the latter, namely Barbarighi, Donati, Fóscari, Grimani, Gritti, Lando, Loredani, Malipieri, Marcelli, Mocenigo, Moro, Priúli, Trevisan, Tron, Vendramin, Venier, in 1450 conspired not to let any of the families go up again. ancient: at least this opinion ran, and in reality no one was elected until 1612, when Marcantonio Memmo was unexpectedly left.
When the doge was introduced, they stopped asking the people – Do you like it? ” but the elder of the electors said: – I know you will like it »; instead of the mayor taking an oath in the name of the people, the steward or, as the popular saying goes, the doge de ‘Nicolotti , chief of fishermen, was enough. Even whoever lived in Venice could believe that they had part in the sovereignty, because he was called master; whence that reverence towards the homeland and its leaders, which made the country identical [85]his own will and the law, and disposed to whatever sacrifice was made for its preservation.
At first the people were divided into convicini and customers, that is optimates and plebeians: when the greater council was closed, the excluded formed a third order, called the original citizens, in distinction from the purchasing citizens, who had lived in Venice for less than twenty-five years. . The original citizens alone were entitled to full citizenship, and the precious right to do maritime trade under the flag of San Marco, and thus to aspire to citizen jobs, the supreme of which was the great chancellor; followed by the others of the Doge’s chancellery, the positions in the workers and in the numerous brotherhoods, some legations and consulates in foreign lands. The trade remained entirely to the citizens, excluding the nobles because they could overpower. Pure plebs remained the artisans, merchants, doctors, arsenalotti, a robust corporation. Only old people allow themselves to be a reseller. Neither was the way to arms opened up, since these were entrusted to mercenaries or subjects.
Individual security, the prosperity assured by commerce, access to the judiciary, were compensations for the nullity of the citizens. As in all aristocracies, they were careful to make the people feel good; whence those most splendid institutions of charity, which in part still survive so many dilapidations; and the riches of the monasteries and brotherhoods, moral bodies which, not needing to make leftovers, benefited the plebs. This kept attached to the patricians, not only with the patronage of wealth and services, but with each of them having his companion; she lavished bowings and titles of excellence, putting no limits on submission or decorum in reverence; as much as today’s London plebs, she obeyed a simple nod [86]of the great messer, bargello who, with his cap marked by the zecchino and the club, was enough to keep order in the crowded parties. These were a new opportunity to mix rich and common people, subjects and magistrates, whether at the festivals of Santa Marta or the Redeemer, where they mingle in improvised dinners, whether at the Assensa, where the triumph of the gondolier made him caress by ‘nobles, was when the fisherman from Poveglia or the glassmaker from Murano was even allowed to kiss the prince. The rivalries between Castellani and Nicolotti, inhabitants of the two parts of the city, often reduced to competitions of better value in regattas or to the forces of Hercules; and if they broke into fights, the patrician indulgence forgave them, even though they cost blood.
The overseas subjects were treated as conquest, vilified, sacrificed to the monopoly of the dominant; the country was fortified enough to keep them in subjection, not to protect them from their enemies; municipal offices were not left there shortly; and sending the podestà and the captain of the people there offered a way to occupy the nobles, and to compensate them for the oppression that was growing at home. In fact from these colonies came an alteration to the constitution, introducing another nobility, less dependent on the Signoria, and which could have emancipated itself if it had not been prevented by the vigilance of the Inquisitors.
The subjects of the mainland stipulated prerogatives when they gave themselves to the republic; supported by which, they preserved the prischi statutes, the procedures, even the ancient officers, and the attack was the case of the State, competent to the tribunal of the Ten. The nobility formed a body with privilege and authority, but did not participate in the dominion at all; therefore he hated the Venetian aristocracy, of which he was equal in rank, subject in law: and he was one [87]one of the greatest mistakes of the Venetian government was that it did not, like ancient Rome, fuse the best of the nobility of the mainland with the ruler, with which it would bleed the latter of families and money, and join the rulers with the rulers.
A podestà went there from Venice, which lasted sixteen months, and to whom the council of nobles was subject, which represented each city: the territorial representation, elected by the various municipalities, was subjected to the captain, also sent there. Every city and every territory held nunzj in Venice to protect its interests; the smaller places often chose as patron some of the most illustrious and powerful Veneto. The fortresses commanded a supervisor, dependent on the captain of the province.
In the cities of the mainland the council was made up of only nobles: but some, like Padua, among these admitted new families, through the disbursement of five thousand ducats; financial expedient that opened an access to the houses that came up. Generally, those who were indebted to the public were excluded. In Verona the council consisted of fifty-two nobles, thirty of whom each year remained on vacation; of the remaining hundred and twenty-two, fifty lasted in office all year round: of the other seventy-two a pack every two months formed the council of the Twelve, which with the fifty intervened in the council: every year the fifty passed into the packs, and those of the packs into the fifty, leaving thirty to accommodate those on vacation; the dead or absent for office was made up for by drawing lots of new ones. In some cities every noble had entered the council and had a voice in the most important affairs; to which council, in addition to voting the taxes and administering them, and making decrees for good order, was responsible for electing all the municipal offices. Justice too [88]rendeasi from village colleges, and according to their own statutes; and the statute of Verona deserved to be inserted in the Republics of the Elzeviri; and we want to remember how he required that disputes between relatives be compromised in arbitrators, who resolved without noise of judgment and without appeal.
The taxes were very low, reducing to a slight testatic and to the tax on the millstones; on the contrary, Dalmatia cost far more than it did not yield, if not that it brought about great commercial activity. The magistrates were rather soft than tyrannical; they could accuse themselves of negligence in protecting and punishing, rather than overbearing intervention; and if there was any doubt of bad government, inquisitive mayors were sent there.
Everything was therefore prepared for conservation, and no state solved this problem more eminently, lasting for centuries without almost revolution, and therefore deserving the praise of our own and foreign politicians. Feelings and forces were directed towards the preservation and growth of the metropolis, everything was sacrificed there, even freedom; and if one thinks about the contentment of the subjects, the ease, the calm, the help, one can only praise the Signoria. But it is also the obligation of man and of the States to progress, therefore not wanting to weaken all the members for the sake of the head, not to intercede the ways of signaling oneself, not to subrogate the reason of state to justice, not to want a major class to depress the others, nor with violent authority to stifle personal passions, and to overthrow anyone who rises from the crowd.
The aristocracy brought to the government the virtues that are its own, a politics not hallucinated by personal passion, a constancy that does not break down under the greatest difficulties, a jealous secret, a wiser economy when public wealth was greater; [89]but at the same time it lacked the impetus of free peoples, of generosity towards the vanquished, of those hopes that are not valued for money: he never looked at Italy as a brother country; and just as he allied himself with Tuscany to defend freedom from Mastino della Scala, so he allied himself with the Visconti to acquire lordship in the peninsula.
When the republics perished and the independence in Italy ended, the golden book was compiled in Venice , an indelible title of the nobility; and then all the ailments of the aristocracy entered, primogeniture, fidecommessi, exclusion of noble marriages; and behind that, wasting on luxury, in factories, in villas in Murano, then on the mainland, and in decorating negligence.
Those who had secured domination increasingly made their superiority felt to the minor nobles and the plebs. Besides the rich nobles, there were some poor people, called Barnabotti, unable to sustain the expensive honor of jobs; and with sovereign arrogance they claimed what is now called the right to work, and the state had to satisfy you by maintaining superfluous magistrates and offices, from whose salaries they lived. And they were truly the ballast and disorder of the republic, petulant with the common people whose protectors they flaunted, crawling with the great, turmoilers of intrigue, solicitation and fraud. In the greater council, which still remained nominally the true sovereign, all the nobles had an equal vote, and therefore the poor, who were most of them, prevailed; hence the need to caress them; and rich nobles and poor nobles wasted their bows under the procuratìe and in the brolo, where the young man admitted to the major council was presented by twelve cronies, and recognized by those in whose ranks he entered; where those who aspired to dignity appeared in a pleading act, taking the stole off his shoulder to put it on his arm, [90]behind relatives and friends in the act itself, and pouring out curtsy and kissing hands.
We repeat that all this refers to later times; but we wanted to reduce it here, in comparison with the governments of the prische Italian republics, and with the good and evil that could have arisen from their spontaneous development. Certainly, for new times of experience, the order of Venice was admirable; if the aristocracy became tyrant, it was however loved by the people, who even today did not lose the desire for it; she overloaded herself with burdens, and remembered that it does not so much affect power as the way it is exercised. Moreover, refugees from every country and fallen princes found asylum in Venice; there, greater freedom of customs, and then of the press; and the espionage, which formed the opprobrium of his old age, was more a vexation than a tyranny, while that permanent power shielded from the popular extravagances and tumults customary in other cities.
In relations with the Italian republics, Venice tended to grab the trade on the Po, and extract its grain whenever the Black Sea was impeded or if it found more favorable conditions there. And since the annona is of supreme importance in cities without land, he appointed stewards for this purpose, and in imitation of the Saracens he forbade its removal except when it had come down to a given price.
Among this the conquests continued, and Corfu, Modone, Corone received conservatives from it, which procured new colonies by assigning fiefdoms. He waged many wars, singularly to keep Candia submissive, which for sixty years (1307-65) remained, one can say, in a state of insurrection, which will mean either rebellion, or generous resistance to an ugly market. Then the Venetians themselves placed there in the colony mutinied, wanting that twenty wise men were chosen from among them. [91]for the greater council of the mother country, not having to lose this right because they were married elsewhere: refused, they even separated from the Latin Church, and in place of St. Mark they took away from the patron saint St. Titus; they killed those who did not want to side with them, and having received the deputies of Venice in mockery, they prepared to reject their weapons. Luchino Dal Verme captain of fortune brought six thousand men on thirty-three galleys against the island of a hundred cities, and with great difficulty he subdued it: but soon it got up again, and to keep it in awe the leaders were killed, the cities of Anapoli and Lasito destroyed and all the rôcche, taken away the inhabitants, deserted the boundary and forbidden to approach it, and removed every right, every judiciary. These are sad pages in the history of a republic.
Even the Levant should have been the field of activities of Venice, which instead wanted to get involved with the events of Italy, and after Ezelino fell, he began to set a foot on the mainland, at his grave cost. The misfortunes and humiliations which she touched after closing the great council were not a consequence of this act; yet they disproved those who believed that concentration should produce strength.
