Saints, Women and Humanists in Renaissance Venice (Variorum Collected Studies) 9780754668619, 0754668614

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VARIORUM COLLECTED STUDIES SERIES

Saints, Women and Humanists in Renaissance Venice

Patricia H. Labalme

Patricia H. Labalme

Saints, Women and Humanists in Renaissance Venice

Edited by Benjamin G. Kohl

O Routledge

S^^ Taylor & Francis Group LONDON AND NEW YORK

First published 2010 by Ashgate Publishing Published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX 14 4RN 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business This edition © 2010 by George Labalme, Jr. George Labalme, Jr. has asserted the moral right of Patricia H. Labalme, under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Labalme, Patricia H. Saints, women and humanists in Renaissance Venice. - (Variorum collected studies series ; 943) 1. Renaissance - Italy - Venice. 2. Women - Italy - Venice - History - Renaissance, 1450-1600. 3. Religion and culture - Italy - Venice - History - To 1500. 4. Venice (Italy) - Intellectual life. I. Title II. Series III. Labalme, George. IV Kohl, Benjamin G. 945.3'1105-dc22 ISBN 13: 978-0-7546-6861-9 (hbk)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2009938332

VARIORUM COLLECTED STUDIES SERIES CS943

CONTENTS Introduction

vii

Acknowledgements

xi

Bibliography I

Identification and translation of a letter of Guarino Guarini of Verona

Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 18. London, 1955, pp. 142-43

xiii 1-3

II

The last will of a Venetian patrician (1489) Philosophy and Humanism, Renaissance Essays in Honor of Paul Oskar Kristeller, ed. E.P. Mahoney. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1976

483-501

III

Nobile e donna: Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia, prima donna laureata

163-167

nel mondo, ed. M. I. Tonzig. Vicenza, 1980

IV

Women's roles in early modern Venice: an exceptional case

Beyond Their Sex: Learned Women of the European Past, ed. P.H. Labalme. New York: New York University Press, 1980

V

Venetian women on women: three early modern feminists

Archivio Veneto 117. Venice, 1981

VI

Personality and politics in Venice: Pietro Aretino Titian: His World and His Legacy, ed. D. Rosand. New York:

129-152

81-109 119-132

Columbia University Press, 1982

VII

Sodomy and Venetian justice in the Renaissance The Legal History Review 52. Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff,

1984, pp. 217-54

1-46

vi

CONTENTS

VIII

No man but an angel. Early efforts to canonize Lorenzo Giustiniani (1381-1456) Continuita e discontinuity nella storia politica, economica e religiosa: Studi in onore diAldo Stella, eds P. Pecorati and G. Silvano. Vicenza: Neri Pozza Editore, 1993

IX

Religious devotion and civic division in Renaissance Venice: the case of Lorenzo Giustiniani La religion civique a I 'epoque medievale et moderne (chretiente et is lam), ed. A. Vauchez. (Actes du colloque organise par le Centre de recherche "Histoire sociale et culturelle de I'Occident, Xlle-XVIIIe siecle" de I'Universite de Paris X-Nanterre et I 'Institut universitaire de France, Nanterre, 21-23 juin 1993). Rome: Bibliotheque de VEcole Francaise de Rome, 1995

X

Holy patronage, holy promotion: the cult of saints in fifteenth-century Venice Saints: Studies in Hagiography, ed. S. Sticca. Binghamton, NY: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1995

XI

Secular and sacred heroes: Ermolao Barbaro on worldly honor Unafamiglia veneziana nella storia: I Barbaro, eds M. Marangoni and M.P. Stocchi (Atti del convegno di studi in occasione del quinto centenario della morte dell 'umanista Ermolao, Venice, 4-6 November 1993) Venice: Istituto Veneto di scienze, lettere ed arti, 1996

XII

How to (and how not to) get married in sixteenthcentury Venice (selections from the diaries of Marin Sanudo), with Laura Sanguineti White Renaissance Quarterly 52. Chicago, 1999

Index

15^3

297-308

233-249

331-344

43-72

1-4

This volume contains xvi + 252 pages

INTRODUCTION This volume collects twelve previously published essays, that appeared between 1955 and 1999, by the Renaissance historian, foundation executive and academic administrator, Patricia Hochschild Labalme (1927-2002). Patsy - as she was always called - was born in New York City on 26 February 1927, the daughter of Walter and Kathrin Samstag Hochschild, and grew up in a well-to-do and civic-minded family. She was educated at New York's Brearley School and at Bryn Mawr College, where she graduated magna cum laude in 1948. There she studied with, among others, Felix Gilbert, who urged Patsy to develop her interest in Renaissance history by undertaking graduate work at Harvard. There she worked in the fields of ancient, medieval and Renaissance history with several professors, including Helen Maud Cam and Werner Jaeger, who provided intellectual and academic models for her lifelong interest in cultural history. She wrote her doctoral dissertation on the Venetian historian and statesman, Bernardo Giustiniani, under the direction of Myron P. Gilmore, earning her M. A. from Harvard in 1950 and her Ph.D. in history in 1958. Upon graduation, Radcliffe College awarded Patsy its Caroline A. Wilby Prize for the best original work in any department for her dissertation on Giustiniani. While still a graduate student at Harvard, Patsy undertook her first research campaign in Venetian archives and libraries, published her first article, a note on Guarino Guarini in the Journal of the Warburg and CourtauldInstitutes (reprinted here as Essay I), and taught for several years as instructor in history at Wellesley College. While completing her dissertation Patsy returned to New York where she taught history at the Brearley School from 1957 to 1959. There she married French-born industrial designer and fundraiser George Labalme, Jr. and formed a family that eventually numbered four children, three daughters and a son. She published a revised version of her thesis as a book with Storia e Letteratura, Bernardo Giustiniani: A Venetian of the Quattrocento (1969), and taught as lecturer in history at Barnard College from 1961 to 1977. Patsy became an active member of Columbia's distinguished Renaissance Seminar, which met monthly under the presiding genius of Paul Oskar Kristeller. In 1976, she contributed an essay "The last will of a Venetian patrician (1489)," which included a discussion of the cultural milieu and edition of the testament of Bernardo Giustiniani, to the Kristeller Festschrift, Philosophy and Humanism (Essay II in this volume). Patsy Labalme's interests took a novel turn in the spring of 1978 when she was invited a speak at a symposium on learned women of early modern Europe

viii

INTRODUCTION

held at Vassar College in observance of the tercentenary of the awarding of the first doctorate to a woman, the Venetian Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia. Patsy also spoke at the international tercentenary conference held in Padua that autumn, and served as contributing editor of a book containing a selection of papers from several Cornaro tercentenary conferences, Beyond Their Sex: Learned Women of the European Past (1980). With authoritative essays by Natalie Zemon Davis, Werner Gundersheimer, Margaret L. King, Ann Sutherland Harris, and Kristeller, the collection was soon issued in paperback and became a standard text in university courses in the emerging field of Women's Studies. Patsy's own contributions to the achievements of la Cornaro as an exceptional woman and scholar were published in a brief synthesis in a collection of essays issued in Vicenza in 1980 and in a longer piece, "Women's roles in early modern Venice: an exceptional case," in Beyond Their Sex (see above), that she edited for the New York University Press (Essays III and IV in this volume). Her exploration of the careers, milieu and writings of cultural and literary women of early modern Venice continued in her lengthy essay, "Venetian women on women: three early modern feminists," published in the Archivio Veneto (Essay V). Her most sustained period of archival research in Venice resulted in her "Sodomy and Venetian justice in the Renaissance," published in 1984 (Essay VII). Building on the work of Gaetano Cozzi on the particular qualities of Venetian justice and the studies of younger scholars, Guido Ruggiero and Elisabeth Pavan, on violence and sexuality, Patsy examined the central role of the Council of Ten in suppressing sodomy, while emphasizing the government's flexibility in controlling and punishing deviant behavior, especially among Venice's nobles. At the same time, she continued her work in the cultural history of early Cinquecento with an examination of Pietro Aretino's lampooning of the leaders of early modern Venice (/ vertuosi) in his La cortigiana (Essay VI). By the early 1980s, Patsy's deep learning in Renaissance history, considerable administrative skills, and her shrewd judgment of people, projects and situations had propelled her into a career as an academic executive and trustee of foundations, schools, and learned societies. Already in 1975 the Brearley School had elected her to its Board of Trustees, which she served as President from 1978 to 1982 and as Life Trustee from 1983 until her death. Her service as a Trustee of the American Academy in Rome for two decades from 1979 to 1999 was anything but perfunctory. Patsy often sat on the juries for fellowships in Italian and Post-Classical Studies, relished the annual June visit of the trustees to Rome and Italy, and contributed her expertise to the Academy's efforts to endow fellowships and generate funds for new programs. The same held true for her term as Executive Director of the Renaissance Society of America (1982-85), and service as a trustee from 1982 until her death. But Patsy's most important administrative work was as a trustee of the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation

INTRODUCTION

ix

which combined programs for the humanities, performing arts and research libraries, with grants for independent research for students of Venetian history, music, art and culture from the United States, the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. From 1979 until her death Patsy Labalme was a trustee and the head of the humanities program of the Delmas Foundation. Under her leadership, the Foundation's grants for independent research have transformed research and publication in Venetian history and culture, both with its fellowships and subventions that have enabled former fellows to put their scholarship in print. During this period, Patsy Labalme also followed a distinguished career in academic administration at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. She served as Associate Director of the Institute (1982-1988), Secretary of the Corporation (1982-1992), and from 1992 to 1997 she was Assistant to the Director. Most remarkably, despite her heavy commitment to administration at the Institute and her work as a trustee for the Delmas Foundation and other institutions, including the Lawrenceville School near Princeton, Patsy Labalme continued to write and publish. In the last decade of her life, she returned to the study of the cultural and intellectual milieu of Bernardo Giustiniani and his family, which had been the subject of her dissertation written forty years earlier. In several essays, she concentrated on the process of canonization of Bernardo's uncle, the Blessed Lorenzo Giustiniani, the first Patriarch of Venice. Her account of the vicissitudes of this process shows Patsy's shrewd awareness of both the subtleties of papal politics in the late Quattrocento and Venice's singular concept of holiness (Essays VIII and IX). Her broader investigation of the Venetian government's attempts to promote at least some of its members to official sainthood was first presented as a conference paper which was later published in the volume of its proceedings as "The cult of saints in fifteenth-century Venice" (Essay X). Another paper continued her work on the Giustiniani family: it is a close reading of Ermolao Barbaro the Younger's letter of consolation of 1489 to Marco Dandolo on the occasion of the death of maternal grandfather, Bernardo Giustiniani (Essay XI). In the 1990s, Patsy Labalme also undertook a project that had been suggested by her mentor Felix Gilbert when she was an undergraduate at Bryn Mawr: a volume in translation of selections of the massive diaries of the Venetian chronicler and statesman, Marin Sanudo, which constitute an indispensable source for our knowledge of Venetian and indeed European politics in the first three decades of the sixteenth century. Supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Patsy recruited Italian professor Linda Carroll to translate selections from Sanudo's famous diaries, while she and Laura Sanguinetti White edited the volume and provided the introduction and historical commentary on the events described. A foretaste of the project (describing the politics of aristocratic marriage in early Cinquecento Venice) may be gained from the article "How to

x

INTRODUCTION

(and how not to) get married in sixteenth-century Venice (selections from the diaries of Marin Sanudo)," published in Renaissance Quarterly in 1999 (our Essay XII). At the end of her life, she was awarded special status as a visitor in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute, where she worked at finishing her book of selections from Sanudo's diaries, which was eventually published by the Johns Hopkins University Press in 2008 as Venice, Cita Excellentissima, Selections from the Renaissance Diaries of Marin Sanudo. Patricia Labalme was a quintessential New Yorker whose gracious presence enlivened any event or occasion. But those who knew her well perceived other qualities: moments of fun-loving exuberance and a passion for tough intellectual inquiry beneath her refined and elegant exterior. She especially relished the give and take of conferences dedicated to Venetian themes. For example, she had the Delmas Foundation provide travel stipends for an international conference on Venice and the Veneto sponsored by the Society for Renaissance Studies and held at the Folger Shakespeare Library in September 1993; a selection of the papers was later published in a special issue of Renaissance Studies, 8, no. 4 (1994). Throughout her career, Patsy Labalme took a lively interest in the research and aspirations of the Delmas fellows and other younger scholars. Following Gladys Delmas's death in 1991, she and the other trustees continued the tradition of hosting luncheons to welcome new fellows in Venice. At the end of her life Patsy saw the world of Renaissance, and especially Venetian, studies as a vast cooperative enterprise where scholars would share their knowledge and expertise in the advancement of common goals. Her own career had been advanced by working closely with older mentors and scholars. In addition to her famous friendship with Jean and Gladys Krieble Delmas, she remained devoted to her mentors, Felix Gilbert, Werner Jaeger and Myron Gilmore, and found new ones in Paul Oskar Kristeller and Vittore Branca. She forged a special friendship with the Renaissance scholar and book collector Phyllis Goodhart Gordan, who shared Patsy's love for their three almae matres, the Brearley School, Bryn Mawr, and Harvard. During her years as an administrator at the Institute and as the Delmas trustee most concerned with the Venetian fellow program, Patsy served as a mentor to and became a beloved friend of numerous scholars of the next generation. The essays reprinted here document another aspect of Patsy Labalme's achievement: she was simply the most accomplished student of the culture, politics and historiography of Renaissance Venice that her generation produced. Betterton, Maryland October 2009

BENJAMIN G. KOHL

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following persons, institutions and publishers for their kind permission to reproduce the articles included in this volume: The Warburg Institute London (I); EJ. Brill, Leiden (II and VII); New York University Press (IV); President Federico Seneca, Deputazione di storia patria per le Venezie, Venice (V); Columbia University Press, New York (VI); George Labalme, Jr, New York (VIII); 1'Ecole francaise de Rome, Rome (IX); Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, Tempe, AZ (X); Istituto Veneto di scienze, lettere ed arti, Venice (XI); The Renaissance Society of America, New York (XII). Grateful thanks are due to George Labalme, Jr. for aid in identifying and collecting the off-prints reproduced in this volume, and his active encouragement in its conception and completion. All royalties for this volume are donated to the Patricia H. Labalme Fund of the Renaissance Society of America, New York.

PUBLISHER'S NOTE The articles in this volume, as in all others in the Variorum Collected Studies Series, have not been given a new, continuous pagination. In order to avoid confusion, and to facilitate their use where these same studies have been referred to elsewhere, the original pagination has been maintained wherever possible. Each article has been given a Roman number in order of appearance, as listed in the Contents. This number is repeated on each page and is quoted in the index entries.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF PATRICIA HOCHSCHILD LABALME, 1955-2008 Books Bernardo Giustiniani: A Venetian of the Quattrocento. Uomini e Dottrine, 13 (Rome: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 1969). Editor, Beyond Their Sex: Learned Women of the European Past (New York: New York University Press, 1980). Editor, A Century Recalled: Essays in Honor of Bryn Mawr College (Bryn Mawr, PA.: Bryn Mawr College Library, 1987). Edited by Patricia H. Labalme and Laura Sanguineti White, translated by Linda L. Carroll, Venice, Cita Excellentissima: Selections from the Renaissance Diaries ofMarin Sanudo. (Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008). Articles Patricia Hochschild [Labalme], "Identification and translation of a letter of Guarino Guarini of Verona." Jo urnalofthe Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 18 (1955), pp. 142-3.* "The last will of a Venetian patrician (1489)." in Philosophy and Humanism: Renaissance Essays in Honor of Paul Oskar Kristeller, ed. Edward P. Mahoney (Leiden: EJ. Brill, 1976), pp. 483-501. * "Women then - expectations and experience: a symposium on women's role in the past, medieval and early modern period." The Brearley Bulletin (Fall 1979), pp. 8-13.

xiv

BIBLIOGRAPHY

"Nobile e donne: Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia," in Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia, prima donna laureata nel mondo (Vicenza, 1980), pp. 163-7. * "Women's roles in early modern Venice: an exceptional case," Beyond Their Sex: Learned Women of the European Past, ed. Patricia H. Labalme (New York, New York University Press, 1980), pp. 129-52. * "Introduction," in Ibid., pp. 1-8. "Venetian women on women: three early modern feminists," Archivio Veneto 117 (1981), pp. 81-109. * "Personality and politics in Venice: Pietro Aretino," in Titian: His World and Legacy, ed. David Rosand (New York: Columbia University Press, 1982), pp. 19-32. * "Sodomy and Venetian justice in the Renaissance," Legal History Review 52 (1984), pp. 217-54. * "Felix Gilbert [obituary]." Renaissance Quarterly 44 (1991), pp. 385-7. "Phyllis Goodhart Gordan - A Memoir." Renaissance Quarterly 47 (1994), pp. 150-52. [Memoir], Keith Joseph CH, PC, MA (17 January 1918-10 December 1994), Oxford All Souls College, 3 June 1995 [pp. 28-30]. "No man but an angel, early effort to canonize Lorenzo Giustiniani (13811456)," in Continuita e discontinuity nella storia politica, economica e religiosa, Studi in onore di Aldo Stella, eds P. Pecorati and G. Silvano (Vicenza: Neri Pozza Editore, 1993), pp. 15-42. * "Religious devotion and civic division in Renaissance Venice: the case of Lorenzo Giustiniani" in A. Vauchez, ed., La religion civique a I'epoque medievale et moderne (chretiente et is lam). Actes du colloque organise par le Centre de recherche 'Histoire sociale et culturelle de I'Occident, XlleXVIIIe siecle 'de I 'Universite de Paris X-Nanterre et I 'Institut universitaire de France (Nanterre, 21-23 juin 1993). (Rome: Bibliotheque de 1'Ecole Francaise de Rome, 1995) pp. 297-306. *

BIBLIOGRAPHY

xv

"Holy patronage, holy promotion: the cult of saints in fifteenth-century Venice," in Saints: Studies in Hagiography, ed. Sandro Sticca (Binghamton, NY: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1996), pp. 231—49. * "Sacred and secular heroes: Ermolao Barbaro on worldly honor," in Una famiglia veneziana nella storia, I Barbaro, eds Michela Marangoni and Manlio Pastore Stocchi (Venice: Istituto Veneto di scienze, lettere ed arti, 1996), pp. 331^2. * With Laura Sanguineti White, "How to (and how not to) get married in sixteenth century Venice (selections from the Diaries of Marin Sanudo),''"Renaissance Quarterly 52 (1999), pp. 43-92. * "Paul Oskar Kristeller and the fine arts: vivid recollections,"in Kris teller Reconsidered, Essays on His Life and Scholarship, ed. J. Monfasani. Italica Press Studies in Art and History (New York: Italica Press, 2006), pp. 153-62. * reprinted in this volume Book Reviews Oliver Logan, Culture and Society in Venice, 1470-1790: The Renaissance and Its Heritage, in American Historical Review, 78 (1973), pp. 1493-4. Marcella T. Grendler, The 'Trattato Politico-Morale' of Giovanni Cavalcanti (1381-c. 1451), m Renaissance Quarterly, 28 (1975), pp. 63-4. Leonardas V Gerulaitis, Printing and Publishing in Fifteenth Century Venice, m Renaissance Quarterly, 31 (1978), pp. 347-9. Jose Guidi, Marie-Francoise Piejus, Adelin-Charles Fiorato, Images de lafemme dans la literature italienne de la Renaissance, in Renaissance Quarterly, 35 (1982), pp. 258-61. Christopher Cairns, Pietro Aretino and the Republic of Venice: Researches on Aretino and his Circle in Venice 1537-1556, m Renaissance Quarterly, 41 (1988), pp 302-5. Marino Sanudo il Giovane, Le Vite del Dogi (1474-1494), I, in Renaissance Quarterly, 46 (1993), pp. 810-12.

I Identification and Translation of a Letter of Guarino Guarini of Verona A letter from Guarino unknown to Remigio Sabbadini and consequently not included in his edition of Guarino's correspondence1 was discovered by Mr. E. Lobel in one of the Bywater manuscripts of the Bodleian Library2 The letter is in Greek and is addressed to "Leonardo." It was written in Padua and is dated August 1 st, but no year is given. It will be seen that the recipient was Leonardo Giustiniani, a Venetian patrician and poet (1389?-!446), a pupil and friend of Guarino's, and that the letter was written in 1416. The identification of the recipient as Leonardo Giustiniani rests primarily upon a reference to a brother Marco. While neither of the other two "Leonard!" who were correspondents of Guarino, i.e. Leonardo Aretino (also known as Leonardo Bruni),3 and Leonardo Teronda, a Veronese notary,4 can be shown to have had a brother with that name, Leonardo Giustiniani did have an older brother, Marco, sufficiently friendly with Guarino to be mentioned in a letter of 1424 from Leonardo Giustiniani to Guarino.5 Then, Francesco Barbaro, "so dear" to the recipient, was indeed a close friend of Leonardo Giustiniani's, their relationship dating back to the time when they were both pupils of Guarino's. The mention of "the handsome Maffei" may or may not be the

1 Epistolario di Guarino Veronese,, I-III, ed. Remigio Sabbadini, Miscellanea di Storia Veneta,, Series 3, VIII, XI, XIV, 1915-19. 2

E. Lobel, "A Letter of Guarino and Other Things," The Bodleian Quarterly Record, V, 1926, pp. 43—6.1 am indebted to Roberto Weiss who, in his article, "Some unpublished correspondence of Guarino da Verona," Italian Studies^ 11, 1939, pp. 110—17, first drew my attention to Lobel's discovery. 3

See F. Beck, Studien ^u Uonardo Bruni, Berlin, 1912, and Mehus, Leonardi Bruni Epistolarum libn VIII, Florence, 1741. 4 Leonardo Teronda was a Veronese notary. There is only one known letter from Guarino to him, written on the 25th of March, 1416 (Epistolario, I, p. 105; III, p. 47). The fact that the two men were in correspondence in 1416 is offset by the date of March since Guarino's elaborate apologies for not writing would hardly have applied to a silence of four months between men who, according to extant evidence, rarely corresponded. 5

Epistolario, I, p. 419,1. 45.

I 2

Identification and Translation of a "Letter of Guarino Guarini

same as the Maffei of a letter from Leonardo to his son Bernardo,6 but he cannot be definitely identified. A minor confirmation lies in Guarino's appeal in the Greek letter to Leonardo's gentle nature, for in two other letters from Guarino to Leonardo, a similar allusion is found.7 The date of the letter is indicated by Guarino's presence in Padua on what was obviously not a permanent stay, since, as he writes, his home was in Venice at that time. From 1414 to 1418 Guarino lived in Venice,8 but in 1416, when the plague broke out there,9 he took temporary refuge in Padua. A precipitous departure from his house, which he left empty of servants, but where most of his books remained, is hinted at in the letter. That Francesco Barbaro was also in Padua at this time and for the same reason is known from two discourses which he delivered there one of the 26th of August, 1416, and one on the 25th of October, 1416.10 This letter, then, is the first of the ten extant letters of the Guarino-Gius tiniani correspondence. It is the only one in Greek. The next one chronologically was also written by Guarino to Leonardo from Padua, three months later, on the 5th of November, 1416.11 It opens with a greeting identical to that of the Greek letter, the Greek words being a translation of the Latin formula, si vales bene est, ego quoque valeo. It is significant that both letters mention, each twice, certain "conversations," ojuiAiav and ovvr\Q£.iav in one, sermones and consuetudo12 in the other. For these two men as well as for other humanists of their day, these words epitomized the interchange, the dynamic relationship between student and teacher, friend and friend, or reader and author, by means of which the power of the new learning was experienced and of which these letters were a reverent expression.

6 Bernardo Giustiniani, Orationes, nonnullae epistole, traductio in Isocratis Ubellum ad Nicoclem regem: Eeonardi Justiniani epistolae (Venice, 1492?). The letter begins "Navigationem hanc tibi" and was written March 3, 1434 7 Epistolario, II, p. 133,1. 6: "mansuetudo"; p. 378,1. 76: "humanitate ac moderatione." In the Greek letter, both adjective npao^ and adverb npaux; are used. 8 Epistolario, I, p. XI. 9 Remigio Sabbadini, Guarino Veronese e il suo epistolario, Salerno, 1885, p. 61. Epistolario, III, pp. 49—50. For the outbreak of the plague in 1416 v. Sanudo, Vite deiDogi, in Rerum Italicae Scriptores (ed. Muratori), Mian, 1733, XXII, 90IA, 910D, 10 Epistolario, III, pp. 51, 82. 11 Ibid., I, pp. 123-4; III, pp. 56-7. 12 IfeW.,I,p. 124,11. 31-2-

I Identification and Translation of a Letter of Guarino Guarini

3

Translation of the Greek Letter Guarino of Verona sends greetings to Leonardo, learned and best of all men. If you are well, it is well. And I am also well. If I did not know you as indulgent and charitable, I would fear your abusing and reproaching me, which I know that I deserve from you, having delayed so long in writing to you. In this time you should have received countless letters from me, which would have filled up our absence and would have provided the accustomed conversation and sweetest intimacy. I, being naturally slow, have acted according to my nature, but you, being naturally gentle, will act according to yours and will forgive me, although I am willing to pay the penalty due. Just now the handsome Maffei has asked for the Republic of Plato on your behalf, but though I examined all the books here, I do not find it. Therefore I have come to realize that I left it behind in Venice, for I have not brought all my books with me from there. But I do not quite know to whom I might write about it, since I left my home empty. Now I am discontented; now I am vexed; now I take it ill that I have not brought it hither, because I cannot do a favour for my dearest and much beloved Leonardo. So then, bear gently my inability for the moment. May you long prosper, best of men. Give my regards to Marco, your brother, a very prudent and fine man. Barbaro, who is so dear to you, sends you many greetings. From Padua, the first of August.

II THE LAST WILL OF A VENETIAN PATRICIAN (1489)

On March 10, 1489, Bernardo Giustiniani, Venetian patrician, statesman, and man of letters, died at the age of eighty-one. Five days earlier, "sound in mind although weighed down by bodily infirmity," he had made his last will and testament. Disposing of his earthly goods, according to conscience and custom, he bequeathed at the same time to the historian a document of considerable interest. A man of wealth and prominence, belonging to one of the oldest Venetian families, famous, after his death, as the first able historian of his city's past, his final words, couched in the legal formulae and careful script of the notary, outline the possessions and preoccupations of an unusual human being.1 Yet Bernardo Giustiniani's will reveals more than the material, religious, and intellectual concerns of his life. It suggests much about the Venetian world he inhabited. His chosen executors included men of importance. His religious bequests are a partial guide to the monasteries and churches of fifteenth-century Venice. The division of his real estate outlines the property holdings and the industrial enterprise of a rich Venetian concerned for his family's future. Particularly interesting are the provisions he made for the manuscript of his History of Venice, his selection of scholars who were to edit it and supervise its publication. It was upon this work, appearing three years after his death, that his later reputation would rest, long after the ducats had been dissipated and the palazzi converted into civic offices and museums and the will itself folded, filed, executed and forgotten. The will exists in two copies, not identical but alike in their principal dispositions. One is presently in the Archivio di Stato, part of the original notary's collection of wills, written on paper;2 the other is among the "manuscripts of diverse provenance" in the Biblioteca 1 For Bernardo Giustiniani's life, see Patricia H. Labalme, Bernardo Giustiniani : a Venetian of the Quattrocento (Borne, 1969). 2 Archivio di Stato di Venezia, Notarile, Testamenti, b. 1203, n. 33.

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Museo Correr, written on a large sheet of parchment.3 Both are dated March 5. The notary, Nicolo Eosso, parish priest of the church of San Gemignano, is the same, as are the two witnesses, but whereas the two witnesses signed both copies, the notary signed only the Correr.4 This and other dissimilarities argue that the Correr copy was the later, more elegant and refined copy, presented to the family, whereas the Archivio copy was only a notebook draft, preserved among the notary's own papers and, upon his death, given, as was customary, to the appropriate officials. What was inserted in the Archivio copy is fully entered into the lines of the parchment; what was cancelled in the Archivio copy does not appear in the Correr manuscript. Abbreviations of et in the first have been written out in the second. A passage added at the end in the Correr version affirms and increases the executors' powers of agency. And there are words written large in the Correr manuscript to indicate the various sections of the will: the first marking religious bequests, specific minor legacies to servants, friends, unwed granddaughters, and the payment or forgiveness of debts owed and outstanding; the next indicating the major division of property between son and grandchildren; a third preceding real estate arrangements; a fourth introducing the testator's literary bequest; a fifth accounting for what he might have neglected to mention. There are, in the margin of this same Correr copy, faint markings of A, B, and C, to distinguish certain sections, and there are lines drawn under the date, indiction, name and titles of the testator and his father, his parish and further on, half-way through the will, certain properties bequeathed to his son. It seems likely that the Correr parchment was that son's own copy in which he marked and from which he must have made his claims.5 3 Biblioteca Museo Correr, MS. P. D. c. 751/83. The text of this will is published below. 4 On Nicolo Rosso and the notarial office in Venice, see Andrea da Mosto, UArchivio di Stato di Venezia (Rome, 1937), I, 226 and 232. The Church of San Gemignano as it existed in Bernardo's time is described by Francesco Sansovino, Venetia citta nobilissima et singolare (Venice, 1581), ff. 42-44v. 5 Venetian testamentary practice at the time of Bernardo's death is clarified by a directive of the Maggior Consiglio dated December 2, 1474 (see Antonio Pinelli, Parti Veneziani, ff. 544-545v, an eighteenth-century collection of official documents in the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana). Here three copies are mentioned. The first, which was the draft read aloud to the testator and accepted and signed by the witnesses, remained in the notary's possession as the "prothocolo"; a second and third (cedulae) were copied forthwith, signed by the witnesses, and one of these copies was sealed and deposited with

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This same son, Lorenzo, the only survivor of his father's three sons, was the principal heir and among the most important executors of his father's estate. Lorenzo shared his legal task with his sister and brother-in-law, Orsa and Andrea Dandolo; his own wife Eleanora (originally of the Contarini family); his four nephews and Bernardo's grandsons by the deceased Marco : Luigi, Pietro, Leonardo, and Nicolo Giustiniani; and Bernardo's two brothers-in-law, Constantino and Francesco Priuli. Such family participation was normal. More selective were the two men named as executors who did not belong by blood or marriage to the Giustiniani. One was Ser Antonio Errizo (En£io in the text), formerly a "gastaldo" or appellate judge of civil sentences attached to the Procurators de citra and thus a man experienced in the administration of legacies and judgments arising from disputes between heirs.6 The other was Domenico Morosini, first named among the executors and himself a major figure in the political and cultural affairs of Venice. Born in 1417 and ten years Bernardo's junior, Domenico Morosini led a life equally long and active.7 He served in various governmental positions which must, at times, have coincided with those of Bernardo. Certainly he shared a similar interest in the cultural progress of the the Cancelleria Inferiore, the other remaining with the notary, "accio che con il prothocolo, et con 1'una, et Paltra cedula 1'autentico, che poi die trar fuora, et roborare, se possa sempre conferire." The Archivio copy appears to be the drafted version, "il prothocolo." The Correr copy, to which was added then the final standard section giving larger powers of agency to the executors, because of its full complement of signatures, its marginal markings, its eventual arrival among the Correr collections, and because of its elegance, would appear to be a fourth copy belonging to the family. This would mean that the second and third copies, the Chancery copy, sealed as neither of the two extant copies are, and the extra notarial copy have disappeared. For additional information on Venetian testamentary law, see G. Pedrinelli, 11 notaio istruito nel suo ministero (Venice, 1768). 6 For this office, see da Mosto, I, 102-103, and G. Rezasco, Dizionario del linguaggio italiano storico ed amministrativo (Florence, 1881), 170-171. 7 On the life of Domenico Morosini, see Claudio Finzi's edition of and introduction to the De bene instituta re publica (Milan, 1969), 1-56. It appears that by the time Bernardo's History was published in 1492, there was a family connection. Lorenzo's daughter Elisabetta had married a Morosini and Brognoli in his letter of dedication to Lorenzo refers to Domenico Morosini as "affine tuo." For the marriage see P. Litta, Famiglie celebri italiane (Milan, 1819-1902), "Giustiniani," Tavola X, and for the dedicatory letter see note 20. Morosini's material worth was noted by Marino Sanudo and provides some indication, lacking to us in Bernardo's case, of the wealth of a rich Venetian : "Era gran richo, lasso faculta per ducati 80 milia, contadi 20 milia e piu." / Diarii (Venice, 1879-1903), VIII, 27.

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city. We know that in 1487, Morosini as ducal councillor was instrumental in more than doubling the salary of Giovanni Calfurnio, professor of rhetoric in Padua, a man whom Bernardo was to propose, only two years later, as one of his literary executors. Morosini appears to have inspired a work De verbo civiltate dedicated to him by Matteo Colacio in 1486 and he himself, probably in the last years of the Quattrocento, wrote a treatise De bene instituta re publica which remained unfinished at the time of his death. Although Bernardo's correspondence contains no reference to Morosini, the families were close enough for Morosini to undertake a written description of the Blessed Lorenzo Giustiniani's miracles which would serve later in the process of sanctification of Bernardo's uncle.8 Bernardo esteemed him sufficiently to constitute him along with his son Lorenzo and son-in-law Andrea Dandolo "the greater part" of his executors, and he gave him the power of final decision in the emendation of his History of Venice. A man of stature, his authority must have helped to validate Bernardo's every intention for the disposing of his last remains and the distribution of his wordly goods. Bernardo's first concern in his will was his place of burial. He chose not the church on the Lido where his father lay, but the Patriarchal Church of San Pietro di Castello where his holy uncle had been buried thirty years before. He arranged for a marble tomb and composed its inscription : "Bernardus lustinianus Leonardi procuratoris filius Beati Laurentii patriarche nepos miles orator et procurator"; and he left instructions and funds for a more suitable and ornate tomb for his uncle than that which had previously existed. At the same time, he contributed to the endowment of a benefice, established by his uncle's will but still inoperative because of the failure of the Venetian Camera degli Imprestiti regularly to meet its obligations : "And because the Blessed Lorenzo Giustiniani, my uncle, established with his ducats a mansionaria in the cathedral church at the altar of San Michele for masses to be celebrated in perpetuity, as may be found in his will, and because due to the failure of the Camera the money was not wholly forthcoming, I therefore will and ordain that what is lacking should be supplied to the sum of thirty ducats every year." This money was to come from the profits of Bernardo's soap workshop or from his own income from investments in the Monte Vecchio.9 8 The Miracula B. Laurentii lustiniani Venetiarum patriarchae are discussed by Finzi, 7, and E. A. Cicogna, Delle inscrizioni veneziane, II (Venice, 1827), 96. 9 The income from the soap workshop is called "refusuris saponorum." J. F.

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What was this soap workshop which is mentioned twice in Bernardo's will but nowhere else in his writings ? Later in the will he refers to it as an apotheca saponarie and fabrica, attached to his house in San Fantin. He must have owned one of the many small domestic soap workshops which, by the fifteenth century, provided a major product for Venice's export trade and which, only a few months after Bernardo's death, were to be protected by a statute forbidding production outside the city in the Terra Ferma.10 The industry depended on the arrival of soda, in the form of ashes from Egypt and Syria obtained by burning plants rich in alkaline substance, and oil from Apulia, and it flourished until the seventeenth century, when the difficulty of obtaining these necessary ingredients by sea encouraged the rise of competition elsewhere.11 But at the time of Bernardo's death, revenue from this source was still certain enough to provide prayers for his uncle "in perpetuity" and on behalf of Bernardo's own soul, pro anima mea. The benefice established for his uncle was followed, in the will, by a long list of bequests pro anima mea. There were thirty-five in all, sometimes in the form of a forgiveness of debt, sometimes with words specifying the relationship of a particular church or scuola to Bernardo and his family. The largest bequest went to the Monastery of Santa Croce "de scopulo" on the Giudecca and consisted of 1,000 ducats in shares of the Monte Nuovo to be given within one month of Bernardo's death.12 It was to this monastery that three of Bernardo's daughters had gone as nuns, bringing with them already a considerable Niermeyer defines "refusio" as a restitution or refund (Media Latinitatis Lexicon Minus) and Rezasco defines "refusura" as a "pagamento d'Imposta anticipate." A mansionaria was an endowment which supported a chapelry. 10 "Per la parte 1489, 9 ottobre ... fu vietato la fabbrica dei savoni fuori della Dominante, stante la floridezza nella quale all'hora si atrovava." The law is quoted byDomenico Sella, Commerci e Industrie a Venezia nel secolo XVII (Venice, 1961), 132. See also Gino Luzzatto, Storia economica di Venezia dalVXI al XVI secolo (Venice, 1961), 187-88, 197, and F. Lane, Venice and History (Baltimore, 1966), 261. 11 Sella, 80. On Venetian soapmaking, see F. Lane, Venice : A Maritime Republic (Baltimore, 1973), 160. 12 This forced loan for the funded public debt had been established in April of 1482 at a time when the Monte Vecchio was many years in arrears with its interest payments. See G. Luzzatto, II debito pubblico della Eepubblica di Venezia dagli ultimi decenni del XII secolo alia fine del XV (Milan, 1963), 229-65; Finzi, 40, n. 122. Gino Luzzatto in Studi di storia economica Veneziana (Padua, 1954), 169-70, has provided figures for similar bequests of shares in the public debt made by Girolamo Querini in 1457.

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sum of money as dowries for their spiritual marriages.13 And it was in this monastery that the Blessed Eufemia Giustiniani had lived and had died, two years prior to the will. One can only speculate on her relationship to Bernardo, but it is possible that she was his sister. Bernardo's exeptional generosity to this foundation argues the closest of ties.14 It also seems possible that the current abbess of Santa Croce was one of his daughters, for to the abbess' care and accountancy were committed all the other pious bequests, amounting to about five hundred ducats, that they might be more swiftly fulfilled and distributed. Other churches received lesser amounts. The Monastery of San 13

A. Stella, Bernardi lustiniani Patritii Veneti Sanatoria, Equestris, Procuratoriique ordinis viri ampliss[imi] Vita (Venice, 1553), f. 10V. 14 Litta, Famiglie, "Giustiniani," Tavola X, suggests that Eufemia was Bernardo's sister, explaining the uncertainty surrounding her as due to a Venetian indifference to cloistered females : "I veneziani erano si rigorosi nel loro oligarchico isolamento, che non si curavano di conservar memoria delle donne passate ne' chiostri." Da Mosto, II, 129, records the same relationship. On the history of the Church of Santa Croce see Flaminio Corner, Notizie storicke delle chiese e monasteri di Venezia e di Torcello tratte dalle chiese veneziane e torcellane illustrate (Padua, 1758), 534-544; da Mosto, II, 129, "Archivi degli istituti religiosi"; and Giulio Lorenzetti, Venezia e il suo estuario (Rome, 1956), 757. Earlier members of the Giustiniani family had been associated with many of the churches mentioned in this will, but the proof that Santa Croce on the Giudecca had a special connection with the family lies in its archives which contain a collection of Giustiniani documents, mostly property deeds and wills dating from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries (Archivio di Stato di Venezia, Santa Croce alia Giudecca, Busta 6). Particularly interesting among this collection are nos. 338 and 339, two very partial copies of Bernardo's will, one of which is in Mcol6 Rosso's hand (no. 339), an account of that will's pious bequests probably kept by the abbess as Bernardo instructed (see below), a series of notes sent the abbess by Bernardo's son Lorenzo and his grandsons Leonardo and Luigi concerning the writings of Bernardo and his father Leonardo, the distribution of legacies to individuals and institutions named in the will, and payments for the work done on the marble altar in San Pietro di Castello. One of the notes from Lorenzo dated August 28, 1490, requests thirty ducats "per conto di castelo" and the abbess' prayers on behalf of her relative ("cugnia") : "confesso le forze non son da taiito, che'l non basteria diexe, non che eser solo." But the specific problem Lorenzo faced is not made clear. Another note asks for a disbursement of ten ducats "da dar a maestro Zorzi che e sta' soprastante a Castel dei lavorieri fatti." The marble tomb, not yet visible to Sanudo in 1493 when he began his Vite dei Dogi (ed. Monticolo, RIS, Citta di Castello, 1900), 76, was completed by the time of Sansovino's Venetia citta nobilissima (1581) when an "oratorio del Beato Lorenzo Giustiniano" existed with altar, chapel, and marble statue, containing also Bernardo's tomb, inscribed as he had instructed (f. 5V). One sees here how the grandeur of family monuments was already of considerable importance in the late fifteenth century.

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Domenico di Castello was to have sixty ducats, the Scuola Santa Maria di Carita in Padua fifty ducats. Several foundations received thirty ducats, the great majority only five ducats. A number of charities caring for the poor received bequests of ten to fifty ducats, including the "poveri carceratis," the indigent of the prisons, perhaps debtors for whom such charity was the only means of recourse.15 What proportion of the estate such bequests represented is hard to estimate, but, for all the devotion they indicate, it is doubtful that they signified, as according to St. Augustine they should, a share equal to that bestowed on every heir, or even the tenth part as seems to have been customary a century earlier.16 Following the religious bequests came the gifts to servants, artisans, and friends, each individually named and some distinguished by receiving their legacies "in signum amoris." Then there was allowance for a granddaughter's dowry, the sum to be the same as Bernardo had given previously for the marriage of another granddaughter. He stipulated that if this girl Cecilia should die before her marriage, then her oldest sister should receive it, and so successively; if all the sisters should die, then the sum, never mentioned, was to be divided equally among her brothers. A debt of fifty ducats, borrowed towards a dowry for Maria Dandolo, another granddaughter, and still owed Bernardo by his son-in-law, Andrea Dandolo, was to be forgiven in signum dilectionis.17 A sentence authorized the estate's repayment of monies owed "for uncertain matters," matters which the testator may have neglected and which he wanted settled before the major division of his goods. And then he proceeded to that major division,

15 Brian Pullan, "The Relief of Prisoners in Sixteenth-Century Venice," Studi Veneziani 10 (1968), 221-29. 16 Enrico Besta in Le successioni nella storia del diritto italiano (Milan, 1961), 119-20, cites St. Augustine, Sermo 86, cap. 11, nr. 13 (Migne, PL, XXXVIII, col. 529) : "Fac locum Christo cum filiis tuis, accedat familiae tuae Dominus tuus... Duos filios habes, tertium ilium computa; tres habes, quartus numeretur; quintum habes, sextus dicetur; decem habes, undecimus sit." For the tenth part given by Bernardo's grandfather, amounting to 300 ducats, see below. Bernardo's religious bequests totalled 1532 ducats. 17 It would seem that Andrea Dandolo's debt had been largely paid off, for the entire dowry towards which Bernardo had contributed must have been much greater. Dowries in Venice were, by this time, reaching such proportions (5,000 to 10,000 ducats) that in 1505 a legal limit of 3000 ducats was set. See F. Lane, "Naval actions and fleet organization" in Renaissance Venice, ed. J. R. Hale (London, 1973), 166 and G. Priuli, / Diarii, R. I. 8, XXIV, Part 3, II, 392-93.

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marked by a faint "B" in the margin of the Correr parchment, the most significant section of the will : Furthermore, I leave all my goods, movable and immovable, to be divided equally between the aforesaid Lorenzo Giustiniani, my son and executor, and Luigi, Pietro, Leonardo, and Nicolo Giustiniani, my grandsons and executors, ordaining that one part belong to the aforesaid Lorenzo Giustiniani, my son and executor, and the other part belong to Luigi, Pietro, Leonardo, and Nicolo, my grandsons and executors. I wish, moreover, that Lorenzo Giustiniani... may, in life as in death, dispose of his share in whatever way he might wish or that it should please him. However, my grandsons may not alienate any portion of the aforesaid goods bequeathed by me, but in the event of any heir's death, the portion of the deceased should go to the living heirs as long as the line shall last... and should the line of the aforesaid grandsons die out, those goods should go to the heirs of the aforesaid Lorenzo Giustiniani, if any remain... If, however, no heirs of the aforesaid Lorenzo Giustiniani remain, then the Lord Procurators of San Marco should sell those goods and dispense the proceeds of the sale pro anima mea.

So the family wealth was to be protected and preserved. Of the grandsons by Marco, only Luigi's line would survive through the sixteenth century, dying out in 1601. But Lorenzo's line survived his father's death by three hundred years, the last direct heir dying in 1792, only a few years before Napoleon's destruction of the Venetian Kepublic. To Lorenzo also went the important real estate properties, to be distributed before the division of goods, the home at San Fantin (with soap storehouse and workshop) and the home in Murano with its gardens and outbuildings, to go from oldest son to oldest son, "so that both house and garden may be maintained more elegantly," because these had been committed to Bernardo by his father Leonardo, "who greatly loved that home." In compensation, the grandsons received the "great house" built on the Grand Canal, unless Lorenzo preferred to exchange with them his house in San Fantin for this property; and in compensation for the Murano property the grandsons were to receive four other houses near the great house on the Grand Canal together with a boat-shed. These four houses and boat-shed were to be appraised "by common friends" and if found to be worth less than one thousand ducats, Lorenzo was to make good the difference in cash. No heir, at the risk of forfeiting his share, was in any way to infringe upon these arrangements.18 18 The Giustiniani had been associated with property in San Mois& since the early fourteenth century, although the "great house" is referred to in the will as newly built, "novam positam," on the Grand Canal. G. Fontana in his Venezia Monumentale : i

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Having divided and disposed of his liquid capital and his property, Bernardo turned to that which he had specially treasured in his later years, his work on the History of Venice. He had already much revised the work, as the Cicogna manuscript bears witness,19 and in his will he spoke of having given his Historia "a final polish." He thought, nevertheless, that it would require an editor's touch, and so he appointed Benedetto Brognoli da Legnano as his principal editor who together with another (whom he hoped would be Giovanni Calfurnio of Padua) should examine and emend the work as necessary, with Domenico Morosini to arbitrate any disputes which might arise between the two. His choice of editor was fortunate. Benedetto Brognoli was wellknown as a scholar and widely experienced as an editor of the classics, having seen many works of Cicero through the press as well as the writings of contemporaries such as Giorgio da Trebisonda, the printing of whose Rettorica Brognoli had supervised in 1472.20 A teacher of grammar, rhetoric, and philosophy in Venice for over forty years, he was honored at his death in 1502 with an oration, a tomb in the Church of the Frari, and an inscribed monument, still visible today. Palazzi (Venice, 1967), 237, mentions a document stating that in 1474 the mason, Master Paolo da Bergamo, acquired stones and little columns for the restoration of the palazzo, at that time the property of Franeeso Giustiniani, first cousin of Leonardo, Bernardo's father. There is also a document among the Commissarie of the Procuratori di San Marco, Citra, 115 (Archivio di Stato di Venezia), listing expenses for the restoration of the Casa Grande in 1477, still in Francesco's possession. When Bernardo acquired the palazzo is not certain, but a property deed of 1485 in the Archives of Santa Croce (Busta 6, no. 348) and the record of a lawsuit brought by Bernardo against Francesco's will in 1486 (Procuratori di San Marco, Citra, 115, no. 14) indicate that these years mark the date of Bernardo's claim and imminent possession. Lorenzo, Bernardo's son, evidently exercised his option, since in 1506 Priuli records that he was rebuilding "il palazzo che al presente si vede a S. Moise dietro la chiesa sopra il Canal Grande, antiche habitazioni de' suoi maggiori" (Giuseppe Tassini, Alcuni palazzi ed antichi edifici di Venezia [Venice, 1879], 206-207). The Murano house is now the Museo Vetrario di Murano. Both this country home and the "great house" were labelled "astacio" indicating that they were "abitazione del padrone, la casa padronale o domenicale" (Rezasco, "stazio"). 19 The Cicogna MS. 1809, now in the Biblioteca Museo Correr, contains many additions, corrections, and cancellations, some of which are undoubtedly the author's. 20 On Benedetto Brognoli, see G. Mazzuchelli, Gli scrittori d'ltalia, II (Brescia, 175363), 2134-36, and Bruno Nardi, "Letteratura e cultura veneziana del Quattrocento," in La Civilta veneziana del Quattrocento (Florence, 1957), 120 and 142, n. 53. For Brognoli's connection with Giorgio da Trebisonda, see G. Castellani, "Giorgio da Trebisonda, maestro di eloquenza a Vicenza e a Venezia," Nuovo Archivio Veneto 11 (1896), part 1, 138.

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This erudite man found little to change in Bernardo's history, as he wrote in a dedicatory letter to Bernardo's son, Lorenzo.21 Even those narrative descriptions of the Goths and Lombards, which Bernardo himself had recognized as perhaps too lengthy, Brognoli left essentially untouched. And in effect the work was published within four years of Bernardo's death, soon earning interest and acclaim. What part was played by the second editor, Calfurnio of Padua, is hard to say. He was also an able scholar, originally from Bergamo, whose abilities as a teacher of rhetoric so commended him to the Venetian authorities that his salary at Padua was raised from to 100 fiorini in 1487 and to 120 fiorini by 1500. He, too, had edited Latin authors for the press, adding commentaries to the works of Terence, Vergil, and Ovid. But except for his appearance in Bernardo's testament, there is no indication that he actually participated in the publication of Bernardo's History.'2'2' Nor is there much likelihood that Domenico Morosini's arbitration between the two scholars was ever necessary. The historical and literary problems which had presented themselves so forcibly to Bernardo as he wrote must have seemed minor to his editor, not worth learned argument or academic consultation. Two further sections concluded the will. One was a restatement of the division between son and grandsons of all "present and future goods," including whatever was left unordered and undescribed, with the same distinction between Lorenzo's freedom of action and the limitations placed on what the grandsons might do. But here a further division was made among the grandsons : Luigi and Pietro could do what they pleased, but Leonardo, while he himself could sail and traffic freely with his goods, could not give his share to others to trade for him, and the same restriction would apply to the youngest brother Mcolo when he reached the age of eighteen.23 21

"Praeter paucula quaedam quae vel rudia vel inchoata relicta fuerant, quibus manum imposuimus extremam, nihil prorsus reperri, quod ut in opera cuius auctor prius extinctus esset, quam ederetur non magnopere probandum esse censerem." The letter was printed with the work itself in Venice in 1493 : Bernardo Giustiniani, De origine urbis Venetiarum rebusque eius ab ipsa ad quadringentesimum usque annum gestis Historia, A2-A4. 22 For Calfurnio see Vittorio Cian, "Un umanista bergamesco del rinascimento, Giovanni Calfurnio," Archivio Storico Lombardo, 4th ser., 37 (1916), 221-48. Finzi (8, n. 27) cites the decision of the Venetian Senate in 1487 to raise the salary of Calfurnio from 40 to 100 fiorini. 23 Such precautions show Bernardo's care to have his grandchildren experienced

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The last passage in the will affirmed the powers of the executors to settle debts, make agreements, ask for receipts from debtors, establish power of attorney, appear in court and swear upon the soul of the testator, as he himself might do were he still alive. A curse and monetary fine were placed on any who dared to violate this will. So devised, the document was ratified by the signatures of the witnesses and the notary and entrusted to its executors and the legal processes of the city. One hundred years earlier, another Bernardo Giustiniani, who was grandfather to the later one, wrote a will which provides significant contrast. That fourteenth-century Bernardo had faced an untimely death during a visit to Chioggia. He had written his own will in that city and given the Italian text to a notary who introduced it and concluded it with the customary Latin formulae and had it witnessed by three other men.24 In this will of 1388, the religious bequest of 300 ducats is made without further specification, simply as a "dreto diexemo per anima mia." 400 ducats went to his wife, still young, her third child not yet born. This would be Leonardo, father of the later Bernardo. Servants were remembered with ten, twenty, and fifty ducats; one bondsman was to be freed after five more years of service. The estate was to be divided between his sons, and should his wife be pregnant with a daughter, a suitable dowry was to be provided for her. His sons, upon reaching the age of eighteen, were each to be given 1000 ducats "per merchadezar," and when they were twenty should become their own masters if that should seem proper to the executors. There were a number of family loans and debts to be regulated, assets to be disposed of, relatives to be provided for. So much was in the vernacular. Then, in Latin, there were bestowed upon the executors the same full powers of acting on behalf of the testator, and a similar curse called upon any who violated the will plus the identical fine of five pounds of gold. in commercial affairs, mindful perhaps of the many young men in this time who sought to make their fortunes otherwise, in political careers or Terra Ferma investments, precautions which his grandfather, a century earlier, did not find necessary (see below). 24 The will, dated October 8, 1388, was published by M. Dazzi in the Arckivio Veneto 15 (1934), 312-19, along with other "Documenti su Leonardo Giustinian." This fourteenthcentury Bernardo did not die until a few years after he made his will, since he mentions only three children (two born, one perhaps in utero) and his grandson records in his Vita Beati Laurentii that his grandmother Quirina was left with five children to raise after her husband died "iuvenili aetate" (Ada sanctorum, I [Antwerp, 1643], 552).

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No real estate was specified, nor was there any literary work to provide for. Here was a man contemplating death in the very midst of an active commercial career, with his children not even fully born. What was potential for him appears realized in his fifteenth-century namesake who lived out his full measure of years and gave to his final dispositions more order and more definition. Long after 1489, the family would survive and flourish. There would be other Giustiniani of prominence and power in later centuries. But one catches here, in 1489, a clear portrait of an unusual member of this line, glimpsing in such concrete and formalized arrangements a particular human being in the final allotment of his material substance, in order to promote the spiritual health of his soul, the publication of his History in which his city's destiny was magnified, and the honor, progression, and profit of his patrician descendants. Text In nomine dei eterni amen. Anno ab incarnatione domini nostri lesu christi Millesimo quadrigentesimo octuagesimo nono, mensis marcii, die quinto, Inditione septima Eivoalti.25 Solicite unusquisque vivere debet et luxta salomonis dictum sua semper novissima cogitare ne in caute occumbat et sua bona indisposita derelinquat, Quapropter Ego Bernardus lustinianus procurator miles et orator filius quondam magnifici domini leonardi procuratoris de ultra de confinio sancti geminiani dei gratia sanus mente licet infirmitate corporea sim pregravatus cogitans quod premissum est et nolens abintestato decedere sed de bonis meis dum mihi facultas suppetit condere testamentum et anime mee saluti providere desiderans, Accersito ad me presbitero nicolao rubeo ecclesie sancti geminiani plebano et venetiarum notario Ipsum diligenter rogavi ut hoc meum ultimum scriberet testamentum pariter et compleret cum clausulis et additionibus consuetis et opportunis salvis semper statutis consiliis ordinibus et consuetudinibus communis Venetiarum. In quo quidem meo testamento constituo et esse volo meos fidei commissarios et huius mee ultime voluntatis exequtores Magnificum 25 The text of the will is given as found in the Biblioteca Museo Correr manuscript. Abbreviations have been written out and the use of u/v and i/j follows modern typographical conventions. Punctuation and paragraphing have been added for clarity.

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dominum dominicum maure2enum quondam domini petri Magnificos dominos constantimim et franciscum de priolis quondam magnifici domini loannis olim procuratoris cognates meos dilectissimos dominum andream dandulo generum meum amantissimum dominam ursiam dandulo uxorem predict! domini andree filiam meam amantissimam Laurentium Justinianum filium meum amantissimum dominam helenam lustiniano nurum meam amantissimam Aluisium petrum leonardum et nicolaum lustiniano fratres et filios quondam marci lustiniano nepotes meos amantissimos et Ser Antonium en§io olim magnificorum dominorum procuratorum de citra gastaldionem amicum meum carissimum qui omnes seu eorum maior pars post mei obitum adimplere facere et exequtioni mandare teneantur sive teneatur declarando illam esse maiorem partem inqua erit voluntas Magnifici domini dominici maure9eno domini andree dandulo generi mei et Laurentii lustiniani amantissimi filii mei. In primis namque recomendans animam meam creatori altissimo ordino corpus meum sepeliendum in ecclesia sancti petri de castello cohopertum sepultura marmorea convenienter in terra posita inter altare sancti michaelis et sepulcrum beati laurentii lustiniani olim patriarche venetiarum et patrui mei colendissimi. Inqua sepultura marmorea volo me sculpiri debere in hec verba Bernardus lustinianus leonardi procuratoris filius beati Laurentii patriarche nepos miles orator et procurator. Et quoniam illud altare sancti michaelis in predicta ecclesia sancti petri de castello positum non est bene ornatum pro ut de lure deberet et pro simili sepulcrum beati laurentii lustiniani volo quod de bonis meis sint de novo constructa et exornata marmoribus et picturis condecentibus ita quod ille locus pulcer et ornatus haberi possit. Item volo ad sepulturam meam capitulum sancti marci cui dari volo pro ut moris est. Item volo quod structura seu laborerium suprascriptum ordinetur et compleatur per magnificum dominum dominicum maure£eno et laurentium lustinianum commissarios meos supracriptos et si aliquis eorum decederet antequam laborerium predictum fuisset expletum quod deus advertat, tune volo quod loco decedentis sit et esse deb eat dominus andreas dandulo suprascriptus commissarius meus. Item quia beatus laurentius lustinianus patruus meus dimissit unam mansionariam in ecclesia cathedrali ad altare sancti michaelis celebrandam in perpetuum de ducatis pro ut in eius testamento apparet et propter defectum camere ipsi denarii totaliter exigi non possunt,

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Ideo volo et ordino quod illud quod deficeret ad sumam ducatorum triginta omni anno solvendam dicto masionario [sic] sicut ipse voluit de bonis meis videlicet refusuris saponorum seu montis veteris suppleatur et adiungetur tantum quod ascendat ad sumam ducatorum triginta omni anno pro dicta mansionaria pro anima mea. Item dimicto capitulo sancti petri de castello ducatos tres omni anno ut ipsi celebrare debeant unum anniversarium pro anima mea. Item dimicto monasterio sancte crucis de scopulo a ludaica ducatos mile in prestitorum montis novi quos dari volo infra terminum unius mensis post mei obitum. Item dimicto suprascripto monasterio sante crucis ducatos tres omni anno in perpetuum ut moniales teneantur facere omni anno unum anniversarium pro anima mea. Item quia habere debeo a monasterio sancte marie ab angelis de muriano pro ut apparet in libris meis et domus hec decha lustiniano cum maioribus meis habuerit sumam devotionem monasterio predicto et expendiderit temporibus elapsis maiorem sumam denariorum pro fabrica ipsius monasterii, Ideo ego volo quicquid dictum monasterium apparebit debitor totum lib ere dono ipsi monasterio pro eius fabrica ut ipse moniales teneantur orare pro anima mea. Item dimicto scole sancte marie de caritate de padua ducatos quingentos prodium imprestitorum montis veteris ut orent deum pro anima mea et defunctorum meorum. Ipsi et enim scole multum debeo pro caritate quam erga me declaraverunt. Item dimicto monasterio sancti dominici de castello ducatos sexaginta auri ut celebrent et orent pro anima mea. Item dimicto monasterio sancti petri Martiris de Muriano ducatos quadraginta auri ut celebrent et orent pro anima mea. Item dimicto pauperibus lesuatis ducatos triginta auri ut orent pro anima mea. Item dimicto monasterio sancti andree de littore ducatos triginta auri ut celebrent pro anima mea. Item dimicto monasterio sancti lacobi a ludaica ordinis servorum ducatos decem ut celebrent pro anima mea. Item dimicto monasterio sancti sebastiani ducatos decem ut celebrent pro anima mea. Item dimicto monasterio sancti bernardi de muriano ducatos quinque auri ut moniales orent pro anima mea. Item dimicto monasterio sancti lacobi de muriano ducatos sex auri ut moniales orent pro anima mea. Item dimicto monasterio sancti mathie de muriano ducatos quinque auri ut celebrent pro anima mea. Item dimicto monasterio m o n a s terio[^'c] sancti michaelis de muriano ducatos quinque auri ut celebrent pro anima mea. Item dimicto monasterio corporis christi ducatos quinque auri ut moniales orent pro anima mea. Item dimicto monasterio sancte Catherine asaccis ducatos sex auri ut moniales orent pro

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anima mea. Item dimicto monasterio anuntiate ducatos viginti auri ut moniales orent pro anima mea. Item dimicto monasterio sancti francisci astigmatibus apud sanctam crucem de venetiis ducatos decem auri ut moniales orent pro anima mea. Item dimicto monasterio sancti ludovici ducatos quinque auri ut moniales orent pro anima mea. Item dimicto monasterio sancte marie ab orto ordinis sancti georgii in alega ducatos decem auri ut celebrent pro anima mea. Item dimicto monasterio sancti andree de cirada ducatos quinque auri ut moniales orent pro anima mea. Item dimicto monasterio sancti antonii ducatos quinque ut celebrent pro anima mea. Item dimicto monasterio sancti servuli ducatos quinque auri ut moniales orent pro anima mea. Item dimicto monasterio sanctorum cosme et damiani ducatos quinque ut moniales orent pro anima mea. Item dimicto monasterio spiritus sancti ducatos quinque ut moniales orent pro anima mea. Item dimicto monasterio sante marie de gratia ducatos quinque ut celebrent pro anima mea. Item dimicto capitulo sancti geminiani ducatos quinque omni anno imperpetuum ut celebrent pro anima mea. Item dimicto capitulo sancti moisi ducatos quinque omni anno in perpetuum ut celebrent pro anima mea. Item dimicto capitulo sancti fantini ducatos quinque omni anno imperpetuum ut celebrent pro anima mea. Item dimicto ecclesie sancti fantini pro resto omnium rationum ducatos quadraginta quatuor auri pro anima mea. Item dimicto pauperibus sancti geminiani ducatos viginti auri pro anima mea. Item dimicto pauperibus sancti moysi ducatos viginti auri pro anima mea. Item dimicto pauperibus sancti fantini ducatos decem auri pro anima mea. Item dimicto pauperibus carceratis ductos quinquaginta auri pro anima mea. Item dimicto sebastiano servitori meo ducatos triginta quinque auri pro suo fideli servire. Item dimicto ludovico stra9arolo servitori meo ducatos duodecim auri. Item dimicto magdalene furlane ducatos decem auri pro suo psalario et legato semel tantum. Item dimicto victori de loane servitori meo ducatos vigintiquinque auri in signum amoris. Item dimicto hieronimo bondi servitori meo ducatos vigintiquinque auri in signum amoris. Item dimicto presbitero philippo firmano canonico venetiarum ducatos sex ut oret pro anima mea. Item dimicto helene famule ducatos quatuor auri. Item dimicto capellanis et clerico sancte crucis a ludaica id quod videbitur domine abbatisse. Item dimicto magistro tomasio de brisio familiari meo ducatos triginta auri in signum amoris et fidelitatis. Item dimicto magistro loanni dominico familiari meo ducatos decem auri in signum

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caritatis. Item dimicto domine riche de alberto ducatos quatuor auri pro anima mea. Item volo et ordino quod post obitum meum quam primum fieri poterit ponatur totum illud quod dispensari volo pro anima mea in monasterio sancte crucis a ludaica ut cito expleatur voluntas mea et teneatur computus per dominam abbatissam et aliam ut sibi videbitur omnium dispensationum ad pias causas ultra particularia legata monasterii. Item dimicto de bonis cecilie lustiniano nepti mee et filie laurentii lustiniani suprascripti filii et commissarii mei pro suo maritare tantum quantum habuit Ursia neptis mea et filia quondam marci olim filii mei, et si dicta cecilia decederet ante suum maritare tune volo quod illud quod sibi dimicto deveniat in aliam sororem suam et sic successive. Et si omnes decederent ante suum maritare tune volo quod illud quod sibi dimicto deveniat inter fratres suos equaliter. Item quia habeo unum scriptum manu domini andree dandulo generi mei de ducatis quingentis auri quos exbursavi pro dotte marie filie sue nupte in dominum hieronimum bembo quos ipse mini promissit restituere, Nolo ut commissarii mei ullo umquam tempore molestent ipsum dominum andream sed ipsi domino andree dandulo libere remicto et ipsos ducatos quingentos dono in signum dilectionis. Et quoniam superius ordinavi depositum in monasterio sancte crucis a ludaica poni debere pro rebus ad pias causas dimissis et posset esse quod aliquod restituere neccesse esset pro in certis que mini essent obscura volo quod ille peccunie sint obligate pro incertis que fortasse reperirentur, et que super essent alegatis superius specificatis id quod supererit suppleatur. Item dimicto omnia mea bona In mobilia seu stabilia equaliter dividenda in duas partes inter suprascriptum laurentium lustinianum filium et commissarium meum et aluisium petrum leonardum et nicolaum lustiniano nepotes et commissarios meos videlicet quod una pars sit suprascripti laurentii lustiniano filii et commissarii mei, Altera vero sit aluisii petri leonardi et nicolai lustiniano nepotum et commissariorum meorum. Volo autem quod laurentius lustinianus suprascriptus filius et commissarius meus possit tarn in vita quam in morte disponere de parte sua quicquid voluerit seu sibi placuerit, Nepotes autem mei non possent alienare quidpiam de dictis bonis meis per me sibi dimissis sed deficientibus aliquibus eorum vadat pars decedentis inter super viventes de heredibus in heredes quousque durabit stirps et descendentes ipsorum meorum nepotum semper in propinquiores, deficientibus autem omnibus destirpe predictorum meorum nepotum,

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Vadant ipsa bona in stirpem suprascripti laurentii lustiniani si qua remaneret, si autem stirps suprascripti laurentii filii mei nulla remaneret tune domini procuratores sancti marci vendant ipsa bona et dispensent tractum pro anima mea. Verum ante divisionem predictorum meorum bonorum stabilium fiendam volo quod sit in libertate suprascripti laurentii lustiniani filii et commissarii mei accipere pro sua parte domum sancti fantini astacio cum apotheca saponarie et cum omni et toto eo quod comprehendit dicta fabrica et ad incontrum dimictere nepotibus meis suprascriptis domum magnam astacio novam positam in confinio sancti moisi super canale magnum cum omni et toto eo quod comprehendit ipsa domus tarn inferius quam superius. Sed si dictus laurentius suprascriptus filius et commissarius meus velet ipsam domum magnam astacio novam positam in predicto confinio sancti moisi ut supra, volo quod in sua libertate sit Ipsam domum accipere et libere possidere demictendo domum sancti fantini cum apotheca ut supra suprasscriptis nepotibus meis conditionatam sicut superius conditionavi bona stabilia nepotibus meis. Item dimicto laurentio lustiniano suprascripto filio et commissario meo domum meam astacio positam muriani in confinio sancti stephani cum orto et domuncula vinearii que vadat de heredibus in heredes predicti laurentii filii mei de singulo in singulum heredem ut teneatur ornatior tarn domus quam ortus quoniam hoc habui in precepto amagnifico genitore meo qui maxime domum illam dilexit. Volo autem ut pro compenso nepotes mei suprascripti habeant illas quatuor domus cum squaro quas habeo luxta predictam domum magnam et estimentur per communes amicos, et si extimate fuerint minoris precii ducatorum mille addantur per laurentium lustiniano filium meum tot denarii qui ascendant ad sumam ducatorum mille et sint conditionate ut supra in divisione. Item volo et ordino quod si laurentius lustinianus suprascriptus filius et commissarius meus et aluisius petrus leonardus et nicolaus nepotes mei et commissarii in aliquo molestarent commissariam meam tune volo et ordino quod illud totum quod sibi dimicto tarn stabile quam mobile deveniat et devenire debeat in commissariam meam cassando et anullando legata ipsi filio seu nepotibus dimissa deveniendo ipsa legata parentibus et obedientibus in totum testamento et voluntati mee. Erit autem mihi per quam gratissimum ut quandocumque videbitur tempus Magnifico domino dominico mauregeno suprascripto commissario meo et laurentio lustiniano suprascripto filio et commissario meo dent operam ut magister benedictus lignacensis qui nunc tenet

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ludum venetiis adhibito alio qui magis sibi placeret mihi autem non displiceret caphurnius patavii rhetoricam legens ambo vel separatim percurrent et examinent quindecim libros ame composites et ad ultimam limam reddactos et quicquid illis quoquomodo mutandum aut demendum videatur mutent et demant, et si illi discreparent ludicet inter eos magnificus dominus dominicus maure9enus et emendent ut ipse ludicabit. Residuum vero omnium aliorum meorum bonorum mobilium presentium et futurorum mini quocumque modo lure forma causa titulo et colore aut commissarie mee spectantium et pertinentium et omne caducum inordonatum et pro non scriptum et id quod ad caducum in ordinatum et pro non scriptum posset quomodolibet devenire dimicto dividendum in duas partes, Quarum una sit laurentii lustiniani suprascripti filii et commissarii mei libera possendi earn alienare et quicquid sibi placuerit de ea facere. Alia vero medietas sit aluisii petri leonardi et nicolai lustiniano suprascriptorum nepotum et commissariorum meorum inter eos equaliter dividenda hac tamen conditione quod aluisius et petrus possint facere de suis partibus quicquid sibi placuerit leonardus vero in omnibus bonis per eum acquisitis liber dominus sit et posset partem suam ipse met navigare et trafficare non dando partem suam adtrafficandum aliis neque bona sua et mercantias aliis comendare. Illud idem dico de parte spectante nicolao suprascripto nepoti et commissario meo cum fuerit perventus ad etatem decem octo annorum. Notario vero dimicto ducatos decem pro anima mea et pro lab ore suo. Inter ogatis inter ogandis dixit nil aliud or dinar e vele. Preterea plenissimam virtutem et potestatem do tribuo confero penitus et concedo suprascriptis commissariis meis seu maiori parti eorum post mei obitum meam intromictendi administrandi seu furniendi commisariam. Et in super perectendi exigendi et recipiendi sive recuperandi denarios res bona et havere quodlibet a cunctis mihi et dicte mee commissarie nunc et in futurum qua vis ratione modo iure forma et causa dare debentibus ac ubicumque et apud quoscumque ea vel ex eis poterunt quomodolibet reperiri. Item cum quibuslibet meis et dicte mee commissarie debitoribus presentibus et futuris paciscendi concordandi et pacta quelibet faciendi. Item cartulam securitatis et omnes alias cartulas rogandi et fieri faciendi. Item procuratorem costituendi et etiam revocandi et cum pleno mandato substituendi et si opus fuerit in iudicio quolibet comparendi, agendi, defendendi nee non in animam meam iurandi sicut egomet facere possem

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si viverem. Et generaliter omnia et singula pro dicta mea commissaria faciendi quequilibet verus et legiptimus procurator facere potest et debet. Statuens firmum et ratum quicquid predictos meos commissarios seu per maiorem partem eorum factum fuerit sen gestum. Siquis vero hoc meum ultimum testamentum seu meam hanc ultimam voluntatem infringere seu violare presumpserit omnipotentis Dei se noverit in cursurum et componat se omnibus suis heredibus soluturum auri libras quinque. Et hec mei testamenti carta in sua nihilominus firmitate perduret. Signum suprascripti clarissimi viri domini Bernardi lustiniani qui hec fieri rogavit. Ego presbiter Hieronymi Boneto ecclesie Sancti Gemianani iuratus testis subscripsi. Ego Franzesco dezuane deiveri sartor insanziminian iurado testis subscripsi. Ego presbiter Nicolaus rubeus ecclesie sancti geminiani plebanus et venetiarum notarius Complevi et Roboravi.

Ill

Nobile e donna: Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia

Members of the audience, distinguished colleagues and friends of learning, it gives me great pleasure to be here with you today, to represent the interest which Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia has awoken in so many American academic communities, and above all, to share in the honors paid by the city and University of Padua to a Venetian noblewoman. For that is the essence of what Elena Cornaro was: « nobile e donna », a member of the Venetian nobility, and a Venetian lady. It was her sense of belonging to the great clan of the Cornaro which defined her commitment; it was her position as a woman which gave that commitment its particular shape. It is those two aspects of Elena Cornaro that I wish to treat briefly today* The Cornaro were among the oldest, the richest, and the most numerous of the Venetian noble families. Caterina Cornaro, Queen of Cyprus in the 15th century, who ceded that independent kingdom to the Venetian Republic; Alvise Cornaro, whose Trattato de la Vita Sobria in the 16th century earned him a venerable reputation-these are only two of the most illustrious members of that clan which gave four doges and four procurators to the Venetian state, and nine cardinals and at least four bishops to the Church. Cornaro funerary monuments still grace the chapels of Venice; Cornaro names are still preserved in countless Venetian governmental documents as those who bore them fulfilled their political functions, at every level, on behalf of that island empire. Giambattista Cornaro, Elena's father, was formed by that tradition, as was his daughter after him. An early 18th-century document described Giambattista as «uomo di gran spirito e testa, et abilita singolare, e come tale da tutti considerate ». He was proud, ambitious, and dedicated to the advancement of his family. He himself achieved the high position of Procurator, for an enormous sum of ducats, to be sure, and he was able, for another large sum, to secure the admission of his sons to the Maggior Consiglio, an act made difficult because they were born to a plebeian Lombard

Ill 164 woman (*). For his two daughters, he planned the highest alliances. But Elena would not further her father's ambitions in that way. Profoundly religious, she adhered to an early vow of chastity. Yet she put aside her own desire for a cloistered life. Out of deference to her parents' wishes, she agreed to live in the world. And cognizant of her patrician name, she let her astounding talent serve her father and her city. Now Giambattista himself was not unlearned. « Giove di quella Minerva » he was called, and his library, his art collection, his patronage of academies and scholarship attest to his personal culture. He procured the finest tutors for his prodigal child, and then, when she was sufficiently educated, he did not let her hide her learning. What brilliant gatherings the Ca' Cornaro at San Luca must have witnessed! We know of one, in May of 1677, when Elena spoke before a distinguished group which included the entire Collegio of the Venetian government, and many Senators, whom she regaled with her learning, her linguistic and musical skills. Not only were the Venetian patricians «amiratissimi ma consolatissimi » — filled with admiration and consolation — that the virtue of the noblewomen of Venice was sustained by such lustre and glory ( 2 ). This type of performance was not to Elena's liking. According to one of her biographers, these public demonstrations of her genius grieved her spirit and contradicted her vows. « The highest ornament of women », she wrote in 1669 when she was 23 years old, « is silence. They are made onlv to stay at home, not to go abroad » ( 3 ) . Yet for all that, she did speak, she suffered her reputation to wander throughout Italy and Europe, and she concurred, albeit reluctantly, in the ceremony of a doctorate of philosophy which her strong-willed father had arranged and which we celebrate here today in this congenial Paduan reunion. That she did so, contrary to her inclinations, has been interpreted as an act of filial piety. Certainly, her abilities and her eventual fame suited her father's purposes. But Elena seems to have shared Giambattista's family pride, and she actively concerned herself with her father's pursuits. When, in 1680, Giambattista sought unsuccessfully to revive the knighthood bestowed three centuries earlier upon his ancestor by the King of (1) Biblioteca del Civico Museo Correr, ms. Cicogna 1213 (= 86), f. 23 v. On this alliance and eventual marriage, see F. L. MASCHIETTO, Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia (1646-1684) (Padua, 1978), p. 23 ff. ( 2 ) E. A. CICOGNA, Delle inscrizioni veneziane (Venice, 1824-53), IV, p. 443; A. DE SANTI, Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia: Nuove ricerche, « La Civilta Cattolica», ser. 17, IV (1898), pp. 428-29. (3) B. BACCHINI, Helenae Lucretiae Corneliae Piscopiae opera quae quidem haberi poterunt (Parma, 1688), p. 184.

Ill 165 Cyprus, Elena wrote him from Padua: « Inform us as diligently as possible about what you are doing for the honor of the knighthood and what you are going to do ». And earlier in the same year she wrote her father another revealing statement from Padua: «I am hopeful », she said, « that in the future I shall be able to serve the cause of learning and to rescue the name of our house from extinction and oblivion »( 4 ). Why extinction and oblivion? Surely the opprobrium of Giambattista's unsuitable marriage no longer loomed so large. Elena may here have been referring to a case of political treason which involved a Cornaro from another branch and which had taken place over twenty years earlier, casting shame on the whole clan ( 5 ) . Or she may have hoped that her learning would substitute for the continuity of Giambattista's line which neither of her brothers had hitherto supplied. Either possibility indicates that in her own mind her talent was attached to the cause of her family's noble status and reputation. Beyond her commitment to the Cornaro clan, she sought to serve her « amata ed adorata patria » for which she would gladly open her veins, if circumstances required it, « benche non sia Amazone ». Her first Academic Discourse, undated, but undoubtedly after her doctorate in 1678, was « In Lode della Serenissima Repubblica e Citta di Venezia ». The problem posed on that occasion was, which did greater damage to a state, excessive luxury or excessive greed? Elena undertook to prove, in her 17th-century idiom, that neither the feet of Heliogabulus (representing gluttony) nor those of Caligula (representing luxury) had ever been planted in the Venetian Republic; neither abundance of nourishment nor splendor of pomp had besotted or bedazzled the reason of the nobility. Never had they abandoned the pains of Mars for the blandishments of Venus or the parsimony of the Muses for the stimuli of Goddess Greed. Her country, Elena continued, was resplendent in the counsel of its Senators, the courage of its generals, and the unity of its nobility. That nobility, she continued, were born princely, but they accepted obedience and voluntary subjection. They concerned themselves with morals, with the acquisition of the sciences, with political activity. Elena knew her learned audience would appreciate her insistence — following Cato — that an idle nobility is a mischievous nobility, and that in times of peace, the nobility should cultivate letters, « the basis of every prudent opinion». Learning served the state. It was a time-honored Venetian formula, and this young woman knew it well. Let those in power contemplate their obligation, she said in a second Discourse. I have been born and nourished, ( 4 ) Ibid., pp. 154, 156. ( 5 ) A. DA MOSTO, I Dogi di Venezia (Milan, n. d.), p. 441.

Ill 166 she said in a third Discourse, in a climate and in a Republic which is twin to Justice, and I do not wish to depart from the maxims of my forbears (6). There is a confidence here, almost Amazonian, which perhaps came to her later in her life. As a girl she was puritanical, rejecting all that marked a Venetian noblewoman's world. Not for her the sumptuary pleasures which characterized the costume, the cuisine, and the furnishings of the Venetian nobility. She idealized, and falsely, the fastidiousness of Venice; but from childhood on, Elena had practised it herself. After her death, an orator for the Academy of the Infecondi in Rome, one of the several academies which had invited Elena to membership, gave a funeral oration in which he described how the child Elena, no sooner dressed in feminine garb, had tossed her garments about her quarters, « so that they seemed a battlefield on which lay the remnants of the massacre of luxury ». « Ribbons untied, hair-pieces unfastened, broken mirrors, caskets emptied, strewn pearls, torn veils, scattered ornaments, the whole arsenal of beauty sacked and destroyed! »( 7 ). Elena would not accept the customary accoutrements of her sex and station, no more than she would accept the marital dowry which her father would have gladly bestowed upon her. Neither sumptuary assertiveness, nor the monetary power which a marital dowry could bring, were to be hers. Yet it is my belief that by virtue of being a Venetian noblewoman, she shared in that sense of self and status which Venetian noblewomen might command. What was a Venetian noblewoman's sense of self? It is an important question, and there is not time today to explore it fully. Nor can that question be answered simply, using Venetian genealogies which hardly mention women or political documents where women never appear. But in the archives, we discover their wills; from these and other records we can assess the size of their dowries, remembering that a Venetian woman owned absolutely her dowry, that it could be borrowed but not alienated or dissipated by her husband. So we begin to measure the Venetian noblewomen's contribution to the economic and social ligaments of the state. In documents about the convents, we learn from the latitude accorded patrician nuns how necessary it seemed to patricians to have access to their cloistered female relatives, for political purposes. « I see, » wrote a 16thcentury papal nuncio in Venice, « that in the acquisition of political office in this Republic, relatives and friends are important; everyone capitalizes on

( 6 ) See BacchinFs edition of Elena Cornaro's discourses. ( 7 ) Le pompe funebri celebrate da' slgnori accademid infecondi di Roma per la morte dell'illustrissima Signora Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia (Padua, 1686), p. 16.

Ill 167 the nuns ("il tuto si fa grandissimo capitale delle Monache") who can send for their fathers and brothers and other relations and by favoring that one or this one can significantly help or hinder [political careers] »( & ). We find, in Elena's own century, that ladies were writing books On the Nobility and Excellence of Women together with the Defects and Deficiencies of Men, on Paternal Tyranny (9), commenting on the superiority of Eve to Adam, defending the use of female luxury. We recognize, in the « admiration and consolation » of the Venetian patricians who heard Elena speak, how her learning, like the fabled wealth and beauty of Venetian women, bolstered patriarchal pride, just as Giambattista profited from his daughter's intellectual virtuosity. A woman, said the young Elena, is made to stay at home. But in her home, paternal, marital, or conventual, what role might she not play, participating in the private political negotiations of that highly complex system, manipulating her connections in the elaborate network of noble families, as cognizant as were Venetian men of the endless and necessary manoeuvring for lucrative positions in the government? Surely the more confident voice of Elena's later years, after her doctorate, indicates a sense of place and position in the Venetian hierarchy, for which she could wax eloquent and didactic. Much of the contemporary eulogy expended on this extraordinary woman deals with her as a « dama superiore al sesso », in moribus et doctrina supra sexum. She might well have been pleased to be considered beyond the accepted frailty and frivolity of her sex. But with our growing appreciation for and understanding of the actual role a Venetian noblewoman might play, with our sense of Elena's awareness of the contemporary political and social scene, let us rather echo the words of a French savant who hailed her as the highest ornament of her country and of her sex: Vale, summum sexus et Pdtriae decusl (10).

( 8 ) P. PASCHINI, I monasteri femminili in Italia nel Cinquecento, « Italia Sacra », II (1960), p. 57. (9) L. MARINELLA, La Nohilta et L} Eccellenza delle Donne co' Diffetti, e Mancamenti degli Huomini (Venice, 1621), and A. TARABOTTI, La semplicita ingannata (1651-52), which was a later title for her « Tirannia Paterna ». (10) E. MUSATTI, La donna in Venezia (Padua, 1891), p. 170; B. BACCHINI, op. cit., pp. 167, 266.

IV

Women's Roles in Early Modern Venice: An Exceptional Case

On June 25, 1678, in the old university town of Padua, a Venetian woman thirty-two years of age prepared to receive her doctorate. A crowd had gathered, so large that the ceremony had to be moved out of the university halls into the great cathedral chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary. There, in the presence of her professors and the principal figures of the university and the city, Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia defended the Aristotelian theses assigned to her the day before and earned the symbols of the laurea: the book, the doctor's ring, the ermine cape, the poet's laurel crown.1 Her academic performance was flawless, her acclaim resounding. Yet we are told by her early biographers that before she began, she faltered, nearly fainting. It was evidently a characteristic loss of confidence, and on another occasion of public appearance, she revealed its source: "This I cannot do," she said, "because in the end I am a maiden." 2 She was, then, not a married lady, not a nun, but a maiden, thirty-two years old, one whose life was conditioned by roles she had not assumed and by expectations she had not realized. It is only against the background of those roles and

IV 130 expectations that her achievement and her limitations can be clearly assessed. It is an appropriate moment for a reassessment of women's roles in early modern Venice. Thanks to the work of Stanley Chojnacki, James Davis, and Margaret King, we are in a better position to understand women in medieval and Renaissance Venice than was Pompeo Molmenti, the great nineteenth-century chronicler of Venetian society. For Molmenti, the earlier history of Venetian women was obscure, and he found a moral rationale for that obscurity. He refers to the silent and discreet shadow that hides the life of women in the earlier and more vigorous centuries of the republic, a shadow which, for him, increased their attractions. He wrote: For women appear to us more beautiful and dear when they do not try to compete with men, when they do not involve themselves with civic affairs but pass their days in sheltered peace, sweet symbols of domestic virtue. So, in the ancient period of Venice, when it was strong and glorious, women had absolutely no importance in public life but remained ignored amidst the ardor of struggle, the glories of victory, the fervent pursuit of business. But when the succeeding ages came in which splendor and pomp concealed the germs of decadence, the Venetian woman appeared in all the luxuriant brilliance of her beauty, amid the ceremony of public festivities or in salons lit by the lamps of Murano, with walls covered by tapestries or adorned with the paintings of Titian, of Veronese, of Tintoretto.3 Molmenti's sigh is almost audible as he regrets the passage of that masculine age of triumphant endeavor and invokes the feminine presence only when Venice begins her long decline, amid artistic magnificence and the glow of Murano glass. It is an ambivalent and incomplete presentation. For as the shadows that hide the lives of women in the Venetian past are dispersed, a far more interesting, complex, even powerful feminine presence is perceived than the older historian could possibly have imagined.4 To be sure, Molmenti's sense of shadow reflects a historical fact.

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There did seem to be a scarcity of information about women. Maritar o monacar: to marry or take the veil. That was their choice. Those who went to the cloister apparently faded into a separating silence. Those who married were absorbed into the families of their husbands where their traces are made elusive by the Venetian concern for continuity of line through the male patrician. "Everyone knows," opined a Venetian lawyer in the sixteenth century, "it is men who continue families/' 5 Such a view explains the genealogies of Venetian society that list only the male lines, with women appearing, when they are included, as wives and daughters and with no additional information beyond their names.6 Yet women, when they passed into other families, brought dowries with them, and information about these dowries and the regulations concerning them have begun to provide us with a new sense of a woman's position in her society. The dowry of a Venetian bride might represent a fortune. Since the fifteenth century, the amounts of dowries had steadily escalated, in spite of governmental prohibitions that attempted to restrict their increases.7 The Senate considered this trend gravely detrimental to the economy. "Our youth," it stated in 1535, "no longer devotes itself to business affairs in the city, nor to navigation, nor to other praiseworthy industry, placing all its hopes in these excessive dowries." 8 Marriage had become a business in itself. James Davis has found for one Venetian family a log in which dowry income was balanced against dowry expense over a period of two centuries. In that case, the books showed a handsome profit.9 It was, in a sense, a shopper's market, since a larger number of welldowered ladies were available than there were worthy candidates for their hands. This was because in most noble families, eager to preserve the patrimony from subdivision among too many heirs, only one male married and carried on the line, while the others concentrated on politics and business, sharing the same palazzo and contributing their funds and efforts to the power and position of the clan. Competition for a highly eligible male pushed up the price, because a suitable marriage was essential to social status. The burden grew for families with daughters, and the reward grew for the men who married them. It was, however, a qualified reward, for the dowry never became

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the husband's; it remained the property of the woman. It was her share in the patrimony, to the extent that if she was unwed and undowried she would have to receive a proper share of the inheritance. If married, her dowry was her own: either the dowry itself or something of equal value had to remain intact in order to support the wife after the death of the husband.10 Since it was assumed, moreover, that the husband would use or invest part of the dowry, dowry restitution took priority over all other creditors of a husband's estate, even over the claims of his children, so that both his ascendants and descendants were financially liable if the husband's estate was not sufficient to repay the entire dowry of his widow. Whereas the wife could not invest her dowry without the husband's consent, the husband could invest it only when he paid his wife interest. If the marriage proved childless, the dowry reverted to the wife's original family. If there were children, the wife left her dowry to them, sometimes in equal shares, sometimes to the daughters only, in order that they too might enjoy substantial dowries.11 These dowries, then, and the many laws that regulated their use, tell us something of the private respect a wealthy married woman could command. Subordinate to her husband in every way, she still retained a certain economic power within the home, although that power was used at her husband's discretion. Ultimately, her wealth remained hers, as much hers as her family connections: both were vitally important to the clan into which she married. It should be remembered that the Venetian nobility exclusively controlled every aspect of this vast, long-lived, much admired republic. Politics, as practiced by this ruling patrician class, depended on a network of family alliances, just as commerce and industry presupposed the combination of economic wealth from several families. When women passed into other families, they brought with them a nexus of aristocratic connections, essential to the political and economic success of their husbands. It was not an insignificant role. As one seventeenth-century Venetian nobleman put it, "a woman is a kind of merchandise which must be carefully protected because it is easily damaged." 12 She could be a very valuable merchandise. As dowry regulations tell us something of the role of women within the family, so do the sumptuary laws reveal public attitudes toward, and public activities of, Venetian patrician women. A

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woman's costume and style of life was meant to reflect that sobriety and thrift which patrician moralists held forth as ideal and traditional virtues, exemplified, so they claimed, in the simplest lives of the earliest aristocracy.13 But Venice from the Middle Ages on was an opulent city, where goods and luxuries of every sort were readily available. Pomp and wealth, whether public or private, whether exhibited in the many religio-civic ceremonies of the city, or displayed in private homes and personal costume, were demonstrations of power. That is why the Venetian sumptuary laws that closely regulated a woman's dress, cuisine, and household furnishings were so continuously defied, and defied with impunity. The purpose of the sumptuary laws, like that of the dowry laws, was to conserve patrician wealth and to preserve patrician equality, ugualianza. Such laws exist from the thirteenth century on and deal with a wide range of luxuries: trimmings of fur, buttons of amber or gold, linings of taffeta, silver belts, embroidery of pearls, dresses with trains, false hair, tapestries and hangings, stuccoed ceilings, silken sheets, the size of betrothal and wedding feasts, silver damascened plates, marzipan and sugared fruits—there were proscriptions and prescriptions for every aspect of a lady's life.14 Yet the continued repetition and reinforcement of these laws show how much difficulty there was in their application. The government said: only a single strand of pearls was permissible; women promptly hung their single strands to their waists. The government prohibited the use of certain expensive fabrics: women faced their sleeves and skirts with these fabrics and then slashed them so their luxury might show. So many men as well as women chose to violate the restrictions and pay the fines that pagar le pompe—to pay for the sumptuary violations—became a proverbial expression for accepting the consequences of illegality.15 Those who were meant to supervise these laws found their task well-nigh impossible, and their office was considered, according to a sixteenth-century observer, "officio odioso," an odious office.16 The women would have their way, and that way was paved with the complicity of the male patricians for whom luxury represented the power of the purse. Parte veneziana dura una septimana: Venetian law lasts but a week. How could personal sumptuary restrictions be maintained in a city which prided itself on lavish festivals, the splendid andate of

IV 134 the year, when civic ceremonies brought forth the signoria, the senators, the guilds, in great costumed processions winding across the fairy-tale Piazza of San Marco? A city that advertised its own beauty and wealth could not but take pride in its beautiful women. Marino Sanudo, the conservative chronicler of the early sixteenth century, in his Laus Venetiae, a panegyric of his city, describes the palaces, the gondolas, and the nobility, and he boasts of the Venetian women as most beautiful, magnificently dressed, wearing rings of rubies, sapphires, and emeralds. Even poor ladies, he said, display expensive rings and pearl necklaces.17 Much of this jewelry was hired, and for prices so high that the rental fees had to be controlled by law.18 On certain occasions the government waived its own regulations so that Venetian women could appear in impressive elegance. The most famous of these occasions was the visit of Henry III of France in 1574, when two hundred young women, dressed in white, covered with pearls and diamonds, danced before the French king in the great hall of the ducal palace.19 There is no doubt that such types of civic exhibition and such tolerance of women's extravagance ultimately fortified Venetian patriarchal pride and political panache. Yet already in the fifteenth century, some women claimed their costume as their right. When the patriarch of Venice had prohibited a variety of necklaces, bracelets, rings, and embroidered garments, a Venetian lady wrote a letter to the pope, claiming that her noble birth and her acknowledged wealth entitled her to wear her jewels ad honor dei parenti e per propria bellezza, for the honor of her family and for her own beauty. At the same time, a committee of like-minded ladies also wrote to the pope claiming that in Venice, a city noted among the others of Italy for its riches and reputation, women had always covered themselves a capite usque ad pedes, from head to feet with jewels and finery of every sort. To all these enterprising women who had so cleverly identified their personal beauty and reputation with that of the city and its nobility, the pope granted a three-year release from the patriarchal decree.20 Costume and jewelry, then, define the Venetian woman's role in several ways. Partly feminine magnificence served patriarchal pride; partly it served a feminine mystique. From the sixteenth century on, there may well have been an emphatic insistence on

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the part of women that they be more visible, more socially prominent. Stanley Chojnacki has put forward this hypothesis, suggesting even that there was a female campaign to be noticed, an attempt to compensate in the social sphere for what was denied them in politics and business. For traces of this, he looks not only to their sumptuary assertiveness but to the sensuality of contemporary art, to the emotive realities of literature dealing with human relationships, to the expression of family sentiments.21 By the seventeenth century, the defense of women's costume is associated with a claim for her superior qualities and forms part of the "querelle des femmes." Lucrezia Marinella, whose book on The Nobility and Excellence of Women together with the Defects and Deficiences of Men, published in Venice in 1600, points out that women have always proved their superiority by the use of ornaments, allowed to only those men who were rulers and princes. She wrote: It is an amazing thing to see in our city the wife of a shoemaker, or a butcher, or a porter dressed in silk with chains of gold at the throat, with pearls and a ring of good value on her finger, accompanied by a pair of women sustaining her on both sides . . . and then in contrast to see her husband cutting the meat, all smeared with cow's blood, poorly dressed, or burdened, like an ass, clothed with the stuff from which sacks are made. . . . It might seem an incongruity [una deformita], to see the wife dressed as a gentlewoman and the husband as the basest of men, more like her slave or household servant; but whoever considers this carefully will find it reasonable, because it is necessary that the lady, even if low-born and humble, be draped with such clothes for her natural excellence and dignity, and that the man be less adorned as if a slave, or a little ass, born to her service.22 And in 1644 Arcangela Tarabotti, a literary nun, wrote a defence of female luxury insisting that beautification was the proprieta, the right of a woman. A woman is sacred and godly; she should embellish her feminine beauty with the most luminous, lovely, and precious accessories, so that her divine splendor might shine forth. As for those men who lamented that the purchase of grain or cattle

IV 136 was sacrificed to the cost of a bejeweled ribbon, she gave a shrewd answer: jewelry does not lose its value. It is a far better investment than the dissolution and debauchery for which men make such continual expense.23 It appears that women controlled their costumes, whether men approved or disapproved. Take, for example, the use of the zoccoli, those very high-platformed shoes that were originally devised to keep the feet free of mud but that grew to such remarkable heights that a woman wearing them would have to be supported on each side to make safe progress. Often criticized as extravagant and outlandish—one wit said that Venetian women were mezzo came, mezzo legno, half flesh and half wood and he would have none of them24—these shoes also served to impede the mobility of the female sex. It was an impediment which some Venetian men apparently found desirable. According to St. Didier, a chatty French visitor to the city in the 1670s, when the doge's wife and daughters introduced the style of more practical shoes and another foreign observer commented how much more convenient these would prove, a Venetian nobleman gravely replied, purtroppo commodo, purtroppo commodo, all too convenient, all too convenient.25 For Venetian patrician women were not encouraged to convenience of movement. Brought up in the strictest privacy to protect that valuable merchandise, even after marriage a woman's life was relatively restricted. St. Didier considered their existence almost savage. Some husbands were so jealous, he wrote, that without scruple they confined their wives for entire years to their homes.26 That is probably a sophisticated Frenchman's exaggeration. We know that ladies sampled the many pleasures of Venice. The literary nun mentioned above compares, in one passage, her bleak fate with that of the young bride, enjoying her cosmetics and jewels; her lessons with a dancing master that would render her body attractive in society; her perfumes, gardens, gondolas, liveries, the masks and comedies of her new life.27 A group of Florentine noblewomen, Strozzi ladies living in exile in Venice, were much aggrieved when, because their husbands had dabbled in Venetian political secrets, they were required to leave their adopted city, so pleasing to them for its quiet, its delights, its security.28 But these were foreign ladies

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whose lives were undoubtedly freer than those of their Venetian counterparts.29 The world of proper Venetian women was closely circumscribed, their main function being the maintenance of their homes, at least for those who achieved marriage and homes of their own. Just as many Venetian men did not marry, in order that the substance of a family might not be overly divided, so many Venetian women were placed in convents for the same reason. Few families could afford to marry more than one or two daughters. Convents had provided a protected education for girls when they were young, and many returned to these convents as novices later on, some willingly, with a genuine vocation. Many, however, had no real choice. The decision might well depend on a family's finances or father's determination. A monastic dowry was a fraction of a marital dowry, and with it, the young woman signed a waiver for any other claim to the paternal estate.30For this reason, the numbers of patrician women who entered Venetian convents was large, so large that Venetian women's alternative role of the cloistered nun must now be considered. It should be said that our evidence here is not extensive. We have the reports of a few patriarchs; the records of reforms discussed in the Senate; some letters of papal nuncios; some private diaries; the remarks of a number of foreign visitors; and the tirades of Arcangela Tarabotti, the literary nun referred to earlier who was an unwilling and ill-humored witness. But what is clear is that in some monasteries life was hardly cloistered at all.31 St. Didier remarked that Venetian nuns preferred their convents to the paternal home because they could enjoy more liberty and see whomever they pleased.32 Occasionally, that liberty became scandalous. Priuli, the Venetian diarist, remarked in 1509 that some nuns were no better than "public prostitutes" for whom no other remedy would serve "but to burn down the aforesaid convents together with the nuns for the salvation of the Venetian State."33 Such dereliction was probably infrequent. More common were uncanonical comings and goings, frequent visitors, parties held in the convent parlor, illicit books in the cells, bleached curls instead of shaven heads, and an immodest decolletage.34 St. Didier almost purred as he reported:

IV 138 "The most attractive are never without flowers which they attach to their garments or place in their bosom. . . . No sight could be more agreeable." 35 Such monastic freedom was often criticized but rarely reformed. One sympathetic patriarch in 1629 even softened the monastic regulations, explaining that these women were noble, brought up and nourished with delicacy and respect. "If they had been of the other sex," he wrote, "they would have commanded and governed the world." Instead, he commented, they made a gift of their liberty, a gift to God and to their country and to the families who could never have otherwise supported them.36 Less indulgent was Pope Gregory XIII, who proposed an apostolic visit to churches and religious houses in 1580, a proposal strenuously resisted by the Venetian government, at least as far as the convents went. It was already hard enough to get young noblewomen to agree to the monastic alternative. After a stringent reform, none would agree, and even the rumor of the visitation had led some to refuse to take the veil. That would be, thought the Senate, the ruin of many families.37 Freedom of access to the convents, in addition to making that life more appealing to young patrician women, produced another benefit, a particularly interesting one. The papal nuncio residing in Venice described it in a letter to the papal secretary of state: "I see that in the acquisition of political office in this Republic, relatives and friends are important; everyone capitalizes on the nuns who can send for their fathers and brothers and other relations and by favoring that one or this one can significantly help or hinder [political careers]. And for this reason even the most powerful Senators strive to gratify the convents." 38 Broglio, as the continuous Venetian political maneuvering was called, could not do without its monastic component. Patrician women in this case, even confined, were not without considerable political influence. To some, such as Arcangela Tarabotti, this freedom, this influence, was woefully insufficient, although it was in the relative liberty of a Venetian convent that she could make the most outspoken statement of feminism in the Venetian seventeenth century. Arcangela Tarabotti had been a nun at the Convent of St. Anna since she was sixteen years old. She was not a patrician lady, yet she spoke for all Venetian women. In a book entitled Paternal Tyranny

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or Simplicity Deceived, she castigated Venetian fathers for forcing their daughters into what she described, in another work, as the "monastic inferno." 39 Their tyranny was rooted in avarice and in their own lascivious appetites for expensive illicit pleasure. It was prompted by their preference for male children, who would themselves dissipate their wealth and by an egotistical desire to marry one daughter well rather than several more modestly. It was a tyranny aided and abetted by the government whose reputation for liberty was a farce since it freed its Jews and incarcerated its daughters, burying them alive. Women were not only forced to be nuns by clever deceits—for the religious profession had to be voluntary—but they were deceitfully deprived of that education which might make them lawyers and doctors and governors, which would render them able to defend themselves against the guile of men. They were deprived of an education that would bring out their natural superiority. For women were superior to men. Eve had been superior to Adam. She came from his rib; he came from the mud. She ate the apple for love of learning; he just gobbled it down. Yet women, with all their abilities, were denied by men any role in religion, philosophy, science, the arts or letters.40 There were, in fact, few women luminaries in the seventeenth century. Whether that was due to a general "spiritual mortification," as it has been described, or to the influence of conservative Spanish custom, there were no salons over which a patroness presided, no female patronage of art or poetry, no feminine writers who compared with those of the Italian Cinquecento.41 An intellectual woman was viewed with suspicion. "It is a miracle," wrote a seventeenth-century doctor, "if a woman in wishing to overcome her sex and in giving herself to learning and the languages, does not stain her soul with vice and filthy abominations." 42 The maxim that "an eloquent woman is never chaste" was common currency from the fifteenth century on.43 What, then, could a woman do if she was drawn to the life of the mind, considered a masculine preserve, but detach herself from society, taking refuge in personal or institutional sanctuary, embracing a protective and even defiant chastity? 44 There was no independent role for her unless she wished to risk her reputation, and few did. Between marriage, with its impositions, and the con-

IV 140 vent, with its impositions, there was no middle ground unless to live at home unmarried, a choice fraught cum rubore et periculo, "with shame and danger." 45 That is what makes the achievement of Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia both remarkable and instructive. She was born in 1646 into an exceedingly rich and important Venetian noble family, the Cornaro, whose relations with the kings of Cyprus had procured them Cypriot estates known as Episkopi—thus the Italian title of Piscopia.46 Her mother was a plebeian of Brescian origin whose provenance so discredited the family that only an enormous sum of money allowed her sons to enter the nobility.47 Elena herself may well have sensed some obligation to restore the family's prestige. There had also been a political scandal some years before her birth, involving a Cornaro from another branch, and this shame rested on the entire clan.48 Elena Cornaro was cognizant of her birth and her nobility, of her obligation to her name. In that sense, she was a true Venetian lady. In another, however, she was not. From her earliest years, she denied her femininity. Barely free of her swaddling clothes, she turned with a vengeance on those tokens of womanhood which might have bound her to the limitations of her sex, as well as tempted her young spirit to sensuality, to that lusso, that love of luxury to which so many young women were thought to succumb. After her death in 1684, an orator for the Academy of the Infecondi at Rome, one of the several academies that had invited Elena to membership, gave a funeral oration in which he described the lady's childhood as if he himself had witnessed it. He assured his audience that what might seem to them a rhetorical excess was the simplest and purest truth: Come with me into the home of the child Elena, and ask those who waited upon her in her tender years. You will hear with amazement how she was no sooner dressed in feminine garb and left free than—within a short time—all her quarters would be strewn with her garments . . . so that they seemed a battlefield on which lay the remnants of the massacre of luxury. . . . Ribbons untied, hair-pieces unfastened, broken mirrors, cas-

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kets emptied, strewn pearls, torn veils, scattered ornaments, the whole arsenal of beauty sacked and destroyed! 49 To the admiring orator, it seemed that Elena had rooted from her feminine nature the very shadow of desire, knowing how easily, he remarked, a woman can pass from purity to attractiveness, from attractiveness to caprice, from caprice to ostentation, from ostentation to lusso, from lusso to libertb, from liberta to licenza.50 Even as a child, Elena Cornaro would have no truck with luxury, liberty, or license. Her contemporaries saw it as a form of sanctity. We may see it as revealingly exaggerated behavior, an effort to rid herself of a restrictive stereotype. In any event, the sumptuary temptations were not hers. This young woman would not be a woman—not in its secular sense. Nor could she be a nun, as she may have wanted. She had vowed herself to chastity at an early age, and when, later, her ambitious father pressed her to accept the marital suit of a German prince, she chose rather to formalize her vow by becoming a Benedictine oblate.51 During her remaining life she wore that monastic habit under her patrician garb. Her parents had no choice but to accept her commitment. On her part, while she had not agreed to the well-endowed marriage her parents hoped for her, as a loyal Cornaro she would not thwart her father's social ambition, and, almost as a penance, she allowed him to exploit her prodigious learning.52 That prodigality of genius was apparent from the age of seven on. It was discovered by her parish priest, and from that time forward, she was tutored (for women could not attend school) in the ancient and modern languages, in all the liberal arts and the higher disciplines of dialectic, philosophy, and theology. She demonstrated her skill in learned debates, held before distinguished audiences in her father's palazzo. On one such occasion in May 1677, the entire Collegio (one of the highest organs of the Venetian government) and most of the Senate were in attendance, rejoicing and consoled, said a contemporary description, that Venetian womanhood could boast such an example. After that same debate, her proud father requested her to sing, which she did, in six languages, with "virtue, joy, and modesty." And those who heard her were

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astounded, the description continues, and took it for certain that she would receive her doctorate, the following November, at the University of Padua.53 Indeed, on November 18, 1677, the Riformatori dello Studio di Padova, the Venetian magistrates in charge of the university wrote the rectors of Padua that the ceremony by which the noble lady Elena Lucrezia Cornaro would receive the doctorate in sacred theology should be held in a sufficiently large room, perhaps the public library, because a great crowd could be expected to attend.54 It was at that point that the ecclesiastical authorities intervened. The news had reached Gregorio Barbarigo, himself a Venetian nobleman, who was bishop of Padua, ex officio chancellor of the university, and a cardinal in Rome. When he heard that preparations for the examination and awarding of the degree in theology had gone forward, he was shocked, and he halted the proceedings. "I never understood," he wrote, "that the doctorate would be in theology." 55 The laurea, the doctor's degree, gave the right to teach. But St. Paul had stated that "a woman must be a learner, listening quietly and with due submission. I do not permit a woman to be a teacher, nor must a woman domineer over man; she should be quiet." To make Elena a doctor, wrote the cardinal, would be to produce a comedy; Padua would be the laughing stock of the learned community. Elena's father would not be deterred. He was insolent and adamant and, as a Venetian procurator, powerful politically. He threatened to seek the support of the most famous academies of Europe. "Let him write," said the cardinal, "because when these pronounce what should be done, I must do it willingly, willingly, most willingly, for I shall then have nothing to lose." 56 For months that winter the letters went back and forth between Venice and Rome, until finally a compromise was reached. Elena Cornaro would receive her degree, but the discipline of philosophy was substituted for that of theology. Some still objected and called it pazzia, folly, to give a doctorate of any sort to a woman.57 Nevertheless, the ceremony went forward, attended by the predicted crowds and amid huge excitement. So learned a woman was a miracle, one might also say a freak. No wonder she faltered before the final event. "Questo io non posso, perche in fine sono una zitella." Indeed, she was only a

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maiden. Neither married woman nor nun, she found herself in a role hitherto unknown and undefined, a role she had not herself created and one she did not develop, to any great extent. She never went on to teach, for Venetian nobility could not hold chairs in the Paduan university. Nor did she, in the six years of life remaining to her, write extensively. Her chief contribution was a collection of Venetian poems in praise of a particularly popular Jesuit preacher, to which she added her own verse in Latin, Greek, Spanish, French, and Hebrew, a virtuoso effort in what appears to be an unimportant cause. She corresponded; she received important guests who came to sample and admire her erudition; she participated in the debates of those academies who had admitted her. Several of her preserved orations are interesting for the political loyalty to Venice that they show. But altogether, her opera are negligible, her literary accomplishment small, her deeds more interesting for their charity than for their intellectuality. Her self-assessment is perhaps best summarized in her statement that "the highest ornament of woman is silence. They are made only to stay at home, not to go abroad."58 Molmenti would have concurred. Yet her life belied her limitations. In spite of her demurrals, she had played a heroic part. She had hoped, as she wrote some years earlier, to rescue the family name from "ruin and oblivion." That she had done, by aptitudes that rendered her, in the contemporary idiom, superior to her sex.59 And she had created a precedent, a lady whose endowment could not be measured in ducats, whose ornaments, although invisible, were widely admired, and whose abilities had now received a public academic sanction. (See Plate 6.) It was an impressive achievement.60 She was unusual. Yet she owed something to a society that for all the constraints imposed on women, still accorded them some privileges and some power. The discreet shadows and becoming silence that marked the earlier history of Venetian women have yielded to our new insights a lady possessing her own economic advantage, flaunting with flounce and furbelow her feminine presence or insisting on the privilege of freedom from the constraints of costume, a lady whose family connections were always significant, who would politick in her parlor or in the parlatorio of her convent, a lady who, here and there, argued her natural superiority. Elena

IV 144 Lucretia Cornaro Piscopia was an exceptional woman; she was also a thoroughly Venetian exceptional woman. Notes 1. A scholarly biography, Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia 1646-1684, has recently been written by Francesco Ludovico Maschietto and published in Padua (1978). The earlier work of Nicola Fusco, Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia 1646-1684 (Pittsburgh, 1975), is useful mainly for its bibliography, collected by Maria Tonzig. Informative but not entirely accurate are Angelo de Santfs series of articles entitled "Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia (1646-1684): Nuove Ricerche," in Civilta cattolica, ser. 17, 4 (1898): 172-86, 421-40, 678-89; vol. 5 (1899): 176-93, 433-47. 2. "Era tale in queste funtioni il suo patimento, che tutto il sangue le correva in volto, et essendo per altro Candida come la neve variava di colore in guisa, che pareva punta dalle vespe, onde alia madre, che la confortava perche superasse la verecondia, rispondeva: 'questa io non posso, perche in fine sono una zitella/ " P. Massimiliano Deza, Vita di Helena Lucretia Cornaro Piscopia (Venice, 1686), p. 42. Deza's biography is the earliest, followed by the Latin biography of Benedetto Bacchini, "Actorum Helenae Cornarae . . . Florilegium," included in his publication of her writings, Helenae Lucretiae Piscopiae opera quae quidem haberi potuerunt (Parma, 1688), and the Italian life of Antonio Lupis, L'eroina veneta ovvero la vita di Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia (Venice, 1689). See Maschietto, pp. xv-xvii, for evaluations of these earlier works. 3. "Nei paesi e nei tempi in cui Tuomo spiega tutta la sua energia, la donna non ha, per lo piu, azione efficace sui pubblici eventi. L'ombra silenziosa e discreta che avvolge la vita femminile ne accresce le attrattive; poiche la donna ci appare piu bella e piu cara quando non tenta di competere con Tuomo, quando non s'immischia nei negozi civili e passa i giorni in oscura pace, simbolo soave di virtu domestica. Cosi nell'antica eta forte e gloriosa di Venezia, non ha importanza alcuna nella vita pubblica la donna, anzi resta ignorata fra tanto ardore di lotte, tanta gloria di vittorie, tanto fervore di traffici. Quando poi succedono i tempi, nei quali lo splendore e lo sfarzo nascondono i germi della decadenza, la donna veneziana appare in tutto il fulgore della bellezza e del lusso, tra la pompa delle pubbliche feste, o nelle sale illuminate da lampadari di Murano, dalle pareti ricoperte di arazzi o adorne dei dipinti di Tiziano, di Paolo, del Tintoretto/' Pompeo Molmenti, "Galanterie e salotti veneziani," Nuovo Antologia, ser. 4, 109 (January-February 1904): 193-216. See also Mol-

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menti's introduction to his book on La Dogaressa di Venezia (Turin, 1884), pp. v-vii, for similar sentiments. Molmenti's great work, first published in 1880 and most recently issued in three volumes (Trieste, 1973), is La Storia di Venezia nella Vita Privata, hereafter cited as Vita Privata. 4. Among the important recent contributions to the study of Venetian women have been the following: Stanley Chojnacki, "Patrician Women in Early Renaissance Venice," Studies in the Renaissance 21 (1974): 176-203, "Dowries and Kinsmen in Early Renaissance Venice," Journal of Interdisciplinary History 5 (Spring 1975): 571-600 and "La posizione della Donna a Venezia nel Cinquecento," unpublished paper read in Venice, 1976; James Davis, A Venetian Family and Its Fortune, 1500-1900 (Philadelphia, 1975); Margaret L. King, "Thwarted Ambitions: Six Learned Women of the Italian Renaissance," Soundings, an Interdisciplinary Journal 59 (1976): 280-304; "The Religious Retreat of Isotta Nogarola: Sexism and Its Consequences in the 15th Century," Signs 3 (Summer 1978): 80722; and "Book-Lined Cells: Women and Humanism in the Early Italian Renaissance," the essay included earlier in this volume. Also useful is the much older work of Bartolomeo Cecchetti, "La donna nel Medio Evo a Venezia," Archivio Veneto, a. XVI (1885), t. XXXI, pt. 1, pp. 33-69; pt. 2, pp. 305^5. My concern in this essay is essentially with patrician women. 5. Davis p. 91. 6. Ibid., p. 62; Maschietto, p. 32. See, e.g., the useful and informative genealogies of Marco Barbaro, "Arbori de' Patritii Veneti," a seventeenthcentury manuscript in the Archivio di Stato of Venice, or the nineteenthcentury Pompeo Litta, Famiglie celebri italiane (Milan, 1819-98). 7. A law of 1420 had established a ceiling of 1,600 ducats for a marriage between patricians, although a plebeian wife was allowed to bring a dowry of 2,000 ducats to her marriage with a patrician husband (G. Bistort, // Magistrato alle Pompe nella Republica di Venezia [Bologna, 1912], p. 108). A century later, the permitted sum had doubled (G. Priuli, I Diarii, ed. R. Cessi, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores[CittB. di Castello, 191214] t. XXIV, pt. 3, vol. 2, p. 392) and actual dowries reached 16,000 ducats (Bistort, p. 111). By the middle of the sixteenth century, certain dowries amounted to 25,000 ducats (Brian Pullan, "The Occupations and Investments of the Venetian Nobility in the Middle and Late Sixteenth Century" in Renaissance Venice, ed. J. R. Hale [London, 1973], p. 389). By the eighteenth century, dowries might run as high as 60,000 ducats (Molmenti, Vita Privata, 3: 372). 8. "Li padri et altri che hanno cura di maritar figliuole o altre Donne . . . si danno ad accumular danari per poter dar le dote eccessive, e la gioventu nostra non si da piu al negociar in la Citta ne alia navigatione, ne ad altra

IV 146 laudevole industria, ponendo ogni loro speranza in ditte eccessive dote." Correttori delle Leggi, B. 27, Stampa Rampazetto (N. 26) as cited in Bistort, pp. 111-12. 9. Davis, pp. 107-8. Over a period of two centuries and nineteen marriages, the family netted 123,177 ducats. 10. Reinhold C. Mueller, "The Procurators of San Marco in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries: A Study of the Office as a Financial and Trust Institution," Studi Veneziani 13 (1971): 175-76; Davis, p. 89. 11. Chojnacki, "Dowries," pp. 586-87, where the relevant Venetian statutes are cited. See also Edgcumbe Staley, The Dogaressas of Venice (London, 1910), p. 98. The importance of dowries to the Bollani family in the sixteenth century has been well demonstrated by Christopher Cairns in his Domenico Bollani (Nieukoop, 1976), ch. 1 on "Origins and Family." Manlio Bellomo, in his La condizione giuridica della donna in Italia (Turin, 1970), raises some interesting questions as to fictional dowries and the uncertainties of actual payment. 12. Davis, p. 110. For marriage as a bonding of two families see the passage from Francesco Sansovino's Venetia citta nobilissima et singolare (Venice, 1581), p. 149: "poiche per 1'ordine del governo son uniti insieme perpetuamente, come se tutti fossero d'una stessa famiglia." (Cited in Jacopo Morelli, Della solennita e pompe nuziali gia usate presso li Veneziani [Venice, 1793], p. 55). 13. See Marino Sanudo's classic statement of this ideal in his Cronachetta (Venice, 1880), p. 16: "Questi habitanti attendevano a far mercadantie con loro barchette, a li liti vicini portando sal et pesse; non erano superbi, ne stimavano riccheza, benche ricchi fusseno, ma pieta et innocentia; non vestivano ornatamente, ne cercavano honore, ma, contenti et lieti, per ben dil comun intravano al governo; non era differentia alcuna." 14. On the sumptuary laws of Venice see Bistort, passim: Molmenti, Vita Privata, vol. 2, chaps. 7 and 9, or in the English translation (by Horatio F. Brown) entitled Venice: The Golden Age (Chicago, 1907), pt. 2, vol. 2, chap. 13; Margaret Newett, "The Sumptuary Laws of Venice in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries," in Historical Essays by Members of the Owens College, Manchester, ed. T. F. Tout and James Tait (London, 1902), pp. 245-78; Rita Casagrande, La cortigiane veneziana nel '500 (Milan, 1968), p. 52. Marco Ferro provides a brief survey of the sumptuary laws and their rationale in his Dizionario del diritto comune e veneto (Venice, 1778-81) (v. "Lusso" in vol. 14, p. 55). 15. Bistort, p. 26. 16. The magistracy of the "Provveditori sopra le pompe" was established on March 13,1512. For the official document, see Senate, Terra, reg.

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18, fols. 27-30 (modern numeration), May 8, 1512, in the Archivio di Stato of Venice. Sanudo, in his Cronachetta, p. 150, calls this an "officio odioso," a judgment still echoed in the seventeenth century by Gian Francesco Loredano: "Vuole V.E. ch'io vada Inquisitore in Terra ferma contro le Pompe, e non per guadagnarmi riputatione. Al ritorno tutti i rei saranno assoluti, ed io innocente condannato. La pompa e un peccato d'onore, che avendo fatta la penitenza con la borsa, ricusa ogni altro castigo. Si ricordi che questInquisitione non e stata giamai praticata da alcuno; ed uno solo eletto gia alcuni anni, voile piu tosto farsi monaco, ch'esporsi all'odio comun" (Lettere, pt. 2, pp. 170-71, as cited by Emilio Zanette, Suor Arcangela, monaca del Seicento veneziano [Venice, 1960], p. 261). 17. Sanudo, Chronachetta, p. 34. 18. Newett, pp. 251, 276. 19. Bistort, pp. 33-35. 20. Ibid., pp. 70-71; Cecchetti, "La Donna," p. 42. 21. Chojnacki, "La posizione della Donna/' I am indebted to Professor Chojnacki for sharing this interesting hypothesis with me. 22. "Sono adunque le donne honorate con 1'uso de gli ornamenti, i quali avanzano di gran lunga quelli de gli huomini, come si puo vedere, e e cosa meravigliosa il vedere nella nostra Citta la moglie di un calzolaio, o di un beccaio, overo di un fachino vestita di seta con catene d'oro al collo, con perle, e annella di buona valuta in dito, accompagnata da un paio di donne, che la sostentano da ambo i lati, lequali le danno mano; e poi alFincontro vedere il marito tagliar la carne tutto lordato di sangue di bue, e male in arnese, 6 carico, come un'Asino da soma vestito di tela, della qual si fanno i sacchi, a prima vista pare una deformita da fare stupire ogn'uno, il vedere la moglie vestita da gentildonna, e il marito da huomo vilissimo, che sovente pare il suo servo, 6 fachino di casa; ma chi poi bene cio considera, lo ritrova ragionevole; perche e necessario, che la donna, ancorche sia vile, e minima, sia di tali vestimenti ornata per le sue eccellenze, e dignita naturali, e che il Maschio come servo, e Asinello, nato per servir lei, meno adorno se ne stia." Lucretia Marinella, La Nobilta et L'Eccellenza della Donne co' Diffetti, e Mancamenti di gli Huomini (Venice, 1621), pp. 35-37. On the "Querelle des Femmes," see G. B. Marchesi, "Le polemiche sul sesso femminile nei secoli XVI e XVII," Giornale Storico della Letteratura Italiana 25 (1895): 362-69, and Zanette, Suor Arcangela, chap. 6: "La polemica femminista." 23. Zanette, Suor Arcangela, p. 23. 24. John Evelyn, The Diary of John Evelyn, ed. E. S. de Beer (Oxford, 1955), 2: 447. See also Fynes Moryson, An Itinerary Containing His Ten Years Travell (Glasgow, 1908), 4: 220, on what he calls "choppines": "For

IV 148 this attire the women of Venice are proverbially said to be, Grande di legni, Grosse di straci, rosse di bettito, bianche di calcina: that is tall with wood, fat with ragges, red with painting, and white with chalke." 25. Alexandre Toussaint de Limojon, sieur de Saint-Didier, La Ville e la republique de Venise (Paris, 1685), p. 303. 26. Ibid., p. 297. See also Thomas Coryat's description, based on a trip he made to Venice in 1608: "For the Gentlemen do even coope up their wives alwaies within the walles of their houses . . . so that you shall very seldome see a Venetian Gentleman's wife but either at the solemnization of a great marriage, or at the Christening of a Jew, or late in the evening rowing in a Gondola." Coryat's Crudities (New York, 1905), 1: 403. 27. Zanette, Suor Arcangela, pp. 141-42. 28. "Awisi notabili del mundo," Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in Venice, Ital. cl. VII, cod. 1229 ( = 8886), eighteenth century, fol. 256: "e le donne sue hebbero somo dispiacere godendo della quiete di Venetia et della delitia e sicurta sua con grandissimo gusto." 29. Cf. Marinella, pp. 40-41. 30. In 1568 Giacomo Bollani left 600 ducats in his will to any of his daughters who might enter convents after his death and a dowry of 5,000 ducats to any who might marry (Cairns, p. 10). One nun's dowry in 1620 amounted to 1,000 ducats. See Zanette, Suor Arcangela, pp. 21, 28-30, and 114 for a nun's disclaimer of any further rights to her patrimony. Pompeo Molmenti refers to the payment of an annual life pension of 60 ducats for a "donna agiata" who became a nun (La Dogaressa, p. 149). 31. Priuli speaks of fifteen convents in Venice, Torcello, and Mazorbo in which "la mondanita" had so penetrated that "se judichava fusse proceduto in grande parte la ruina del Statto Veneto" (4: 115). Cf. Giuliani Innocenzo, Genesi e primo secolo di vita del Magistrate sopra Monasteri (Padua, 1963), p. 12. 32. Saint-Didier, p. 319. 33. Priuli refers to "monasterij dele monache conventuale . . . che se chiamavanno monasterij apertti, quali herano publici bordelli et publice meretrice." The Senate's reforming legislation was ineffective, and "le monache fazevanno pegio che per avanti et uscivanno deli monasterij per bene luxuriare, et poi ritornavanno, come a loro piazevanno, et heranno nobille venete et de dignissimo parentado, tamen publice meretrice, et non hera alto remedio che bruxare li monasterij predicti insieme cum le monache per salute del Stato Veneto" (4: 115). Cf. Pio Paschini, "I monasteri femminili in Italia nel Cinquecento," Italia Sacra 2 (1960): 46-47. 34. Ibid., p. 57; Zanette, Suor Arcangela, pp. 48, 180. 35. "Les plus galantes ne sont jamais sans des fleures qu'elles attachent

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devant elles, ou qu'elles mettent dans leur sein; il faut avouer qu'on ne peut rien voir de plus agreable" (p. 325). 36. Zanette, Suor Arcangela, pp. 35-37. Patriarch Giovanni Tiepolo (1619-31) wrote to the doge and Senate of Venice, explaining his action: "riflettando in me stesso come esse siano nobili, allevate e nodrite con somma delicatezza et rispetto, che se fossero d'altro sesso ad esse toccarebbe il comandare e governare il Mondo," ("Monache della citta e diocese di Venezia," Biblioteca Museo Correr in Venice, MS Cicogna 2570, p. 303). 37. Paschini, p. 58. The papal nuncio in Venice reported the Senate's concern: "che riformandosi i Monasterij de Monache e riducendosi a maggior strettezza le figliole de' nobili che prima anco vi entravano mal voluntieri doppo la riforma non vi vorrebbono entrare in modo alcuno, et vien detto che gia se ne vede Feffetto d'alcune che ricusano arditamente di monacarsi doppo il romore di questa visita. II che dicono sarebbe causa della rovina di molte famiglie per Teccessive doti che usano dar i nobili alle figliuole che si maritano." There was another sort of ruin possible for those young women whose dowries were not sufficient to gain them worthy husbands, poignantly described by Giovanni Francesco Loredano in a letter to a girl unwilling to take the veil: "E nata nobile, di dignissimi parenti, ma non avendo dote uguale alia nascita, bisogna o che degradi dalla sua condizione o che avventuri agrincommodi della poverta. II macchiare la nobilta con soggietti inferiori, e incontrare lo sprezzo universale. L'unirsi a povere fortune e un accomunar le miserie, che vuol dir moltiplicarle. Riescono sempre infelici quei matrimoni che sono disuguali nella nascita ed uguali nella poverta. II monastero e un ricovero di tutte Tingiurie del destino." (Lettere [Bologna, 1647], pp. 201-2, as cited in Emilio Zanette, "Una monaca femminista del Seicento," Atti del Reale Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere edArti 102 [1942-43]: pt. 2, pp. 489-90.) 38. Paschini, p. 57 (letter from Bolognetti, September 10, 1580): "Vedo che nell'ottenere i gradi et le dignita di questa Republica, importando le parentele et amicitie quasi il tutto si fa grandissimo capitale delle Monache, le quali con mandarsi a chiamare patri et fratelli et altri parenti et pregargli a favore di questo et di quello possono giovare et nuocer assai. Et per questo anco i Senatori principalissimi premono molto in gratificare i monasterij di Monache; da questo se seguita che il prohibir Fadito et colloquio delle Monache a parenti e cosa difficilissima." 39. Emilio Zanette's book on Arcangela Tarabotti presents a thorough description and analysis of this literary nun. Her Tirannia paterna, written in her earlier convent years, was later revised and published in the winter of her death (1651-52) with the new title of La semplicita ingannata.

IV 150 40. Zanette, Suor Arcangela, pp. 92-93, 105, 223-24. 41. Benedetto Croce, Nuovi saggi sulla letteratura italiana del seicento (Bari, 1931), p. 154. See chap. 13, "Donne letterate nel seicento/' Cf. Maschietto, p. 79, n. 8, and p. 167. 42. "Si debba a miracolo recare s'alcuna femmina volendo superare il sesso, data alle dottrine e alle lingue, non macchia Tanima di vitij e di sporche abominationi." Eureta Misoscolo [Francesco Pona], La Lucerna (Venice, 1628), p. 18. 43. King, "The Religious Retreat of Isotta Nogarola," p. 809. The maxim "nullam eloquentem esse castam" appears in an anonymous invective against Isotta Nogarola and her family. 44. Margaret King discusses this detachment in her essay, "Book-Lined Cells: Women and Humanism in the Early Italian Renaissance," in this collection. 45. Bistort, p. 107. 46. George F. Hill, A History of Cyprus (Cambridge, 1948), 1: 269; 2: 328, n. 1; 3: passim. On the Cornaro family, see Maschietto, pp. 3-16. Giambattista Cornaro, Elena's father, was a man of considerable learning himself and achieved political distinction, eventually purchasing a procuratorship in 1645. He was described as "uomo di gran spirito, e testa, et abilita singolare, e come tale da tutti considerate," Biblioteca Museo Correr in Venice, MS Cicogna 1213 ( = 86), "Origine delle famiglie aggregate alia nobilta veneta per offerte assieme con le suppliche." See also the contemporary description of him as "il piii verboso huomo. . . . Ha una facondia . . . di censura," in "La Copella Politica, overo esame fatto dal Zecchiere statisra etc." (1675), Biblioteca Museo Correr, MS Gradenigo 15. 47. See Maschietto, pp. 23-32 and 37 for the story of the liaison between Zanetta Bonis and Giambattista Cornaro. Five illegitimate children were born of this union, including Elena, before her parents married in 1654. The two sons were admitted to the nobility (which was also extended to the daughters) in 1665, after four supplications and the final offer of 105,000 ducats. These are all recorded in the eighteenth-century MS Cicogna 1213 ( = 86), fols. 196v-205v. The charge in this manuscript that Zanetta was originally "dele piu infime Cortiggiane" (fol. 23 v) is, according to Maschietto, unwarranted. 48. Andrea Da Mosto, in his work on / Dogi di Venezia (Milan, n.d.), offers the following information in connection with Doge Giovanni Corner 1 (1625-29): "Per lavare 1'onta derivante a tutta la famiglia in seguito alia condanna a morte per intelligenza con la Spagna di un Girolamo di Giacomo appartenente ad un ramo meno provveduto, awentuta nel 1659,

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le casate principal! arrivarono ad offrire ben cento mila ducati, senza pero riuscire nel loro intento" (p. 441). Elena Cornaro is apparently referring to this in a letter written to her father from Padua in 1680: "Ego studii laetitia aeris salubritate, atque diligenti cura medicorum satis viribus utor, quare in spem sum in posterum posse me navare operam studiis et Domus nostrae nomen ab interitu vindicare" (Bacchini, p. 156). 49. This funeral oration was given by "Signor Michele Brugueres, detto il Ribattuto" and printed in Le pompe funebri celebrate da' signori accademici infecondi di Roma per la morte dell' illustrissima Signora Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia, accademica detta I'inalterabile (Padua, 1686), pp. 13-24: "Entrate meco nel domestico tectto d'Elena ancor fanciulla, interrogate chi la serviva in quei piu teneri anni, e sentirete non senza vostro stupore che appena adornata de gli arredi feminili se mai la lasciavano in liberta era tale lo sdegno, che concepiva in vederseli attorno, che ne ritrovavano poco dopo tutte seminate le Camere, e vi parra di vedere senza che io ve lo rappresenti coi colori dell' arte un Campo di battaglia, dove siano rimaste le reliquie di una sanguinosa strage del Lusso. . . . Nastri disciolti, chiome svelte, Specchi infranti, qui scrigni vuoti, perle sparse, laceri veli, e disipati Ornamenti, e tutti a terra saccheggiati, e sconvolti gli arsenali della Bellezza. Sembrera questa a qualcuno di voi un' Iperbole di rettorico ingrandimento, e pure e nudo racconto di schiettissima verita." 50. Ibid.: "si che sembrava in lei estinta, non regolata, quella naturale inclinazione del Sesso, di comparire con ornamenti dicevoli alia dignita de' Natali, essendo che con troppa facilita si passi sovente a poco a poco della nettezza all'awenenza, dall'avvenenza alia bizzaria, dalla bizzaria alia pompa, dalla pompa al lusso, dal lusso alia liberta, dalla liberta alia licenza." 51. Bacchini, pp. 247, 249, 251. See Maschietto, pp. 171-93, on Elena's spirituality. An oblate was a layman living in close connection with a monastery or convent but who did not take full religious vows. 52. Deza, pp. 40-41; Bacchini, p. 250. 53. On Elena's teachers and studies, see Maschietto, pp. 75-101. 54. De Santi, 5: 176. 55. Ibid., pp. 176-78: "Quando il Signor Procuratore Cornaro mi scrisse per il Dottoramento di sua figlia, mai intesi che fosse di Teologia. Lo credevo di Filosophia. . . . Adesso non siamo piu nel caso supposto: non potendomi imaginare che una Donna volesse insegnar Teologia" (January 22, 1678). St. Paul's statement is in 1 Tim. 2: 11-13. 56. "Ma il Signor Procuratore dice di voler scrivere alle Accademie piu famose di Europa contro di me. Scriva: perche, quando queste dicono che

IV 152 si deva fare, io lo faro volontieri, volontieri, volontierissimo, perche io rion ci perdo niente" (Sebastiano Serena, S. Gregorio Barbarigo e la vita spirituale e culturale nel suo Seminario di Padova [Padua, 1963], 1: 215-16). 57. De Santi, 5:181. On Elena's doctorate, see Maschietto pp. 105-30. 58. "L'ornamento, che rende gratiose le Donne, e famosissime da per tutto, e il silenzio; ne sono fatte, che per istar' in casa, non per andar vagando" (Bacchini, p. 184). See de Santi, 4: 435-38, on her book in praise of the Jesuit preacher. An earlier work, a translation of a devotional text from the Spanish version, went through five editions. It is possible that the value of her writings would be greater had so many not been destroyed by her command (Maschietto, pp. 153-54). 59. A contemporary writer and designer of engravings had this to say about her: "Recasi [ed: resasi] dunque superiore al sesso sino da principii della sua gioventu." La virtu in giocco, overo dame patritie di Venetia famose per nascita, per lettere, per armi, per costumi, stampato da Giovanni Pare libraro all'insegna della Fortuna (Venice, 1682), p. 186. The words of her cenotaph contain a similar rejection of her femininity: "In ea praeter sexum, nihil muliebre / Sub delicatis Puellae membris robustum animum servans" (Pompe funebri, p. 187). One biographer, Bacchini, wrote that she had an "ingenium supra sexum ad maxima natum" (p. 244) and another, Lupis, that it was entirely fitting that Venice, which had built an empire upon the fragile waters, should give birth to a soul who had overcome the weakness of her sex (p. 4). 60. There was considerable concern at Padua that Elena's precedent not be too easily invoked, as the following directive from the Riformatori to the rectors of Padua bears witness: "VV.EE si compiacerrano far intendere alii Presidenti de Colleggi et altri Professori, che occorresse, che non debbano admetere alia Laurea dottorale Femine di qual si sia conditione, ne meno far passi che attendino a questo fine, senza previa nottitia et assenso del Magistrate nostro." February 7, 1679, in Busta 75 of the "Lettere de' Riformatori dello studio di Padova," Archivio di Stato of Venice. A French professor of medicine at Padua had sought a similar honor for his own daughter, an endeavor vigorously and successfully opposed by Giambattista Cornaro. Indeed, Elena Cornaro's precedent was not followed at the University of Padua for at least seventy years thereafter.

V

VENETIAN WOMEN ON WOMEN: THREE EARLY MODERN FEMINISTS (*)

The earliest feminists of European history were not women. Almost without exception, those writers who spoke out on behalf of the moral and intellectual equality of the female sex were, until the late sixteenth century, men (*). Then, in 1600, two works were published in Venice by Venetian women, to be followed a few decades later, by the writings of a third. These three women echoed and expanded feminist themes developed by men in the previous centuries and belonging to that literary debate known as the « querelle des femmes». But in each case, original notions and passionate arguments were added, and this, together with the sex of these three Venetians, their backgrounds and their concerns, lends distinction to their writings. It is the purpose of this essay to sketch out the lives and feminist works of these three Venetian women and then to speculate on what the particular Venetian ambiance contributed to this early modern manifestation of female feminism (2). (*) My thanks go to Professors Margaret L. King and Elizabeth A. R. Brown for their valuable criticism of this essay. (1) In this paper, I am concerned with feminism only as it pertains to a claim to moral and intellectual equality between men and women. Social, economic, and political considerations are indeed suggested by these three feminists, but the stigma of moral inferiority and the absense of access to an education such as men enjoyed were the principal targets of their criticism. So important were these concerns that competition for political and judicial parity was not seriously proposed, and only obliquely contemplated. Until women's human capacities could be equated with men's, there could be no claim to equal activities. (2) This essay is paralleled in several respects by the work of GINEVRA CONTI ODORISIO, Donna e societa nel Seicento (Rome: Bulzoni, 1979), which however, deals with these three Venetian writers more in the general context

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Moral and intellectual equality had long been denied the female sex. Aristotle, whose influence was still powerful in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, had put forth the notion of a woman as a deviation of nature, an accident, albeit a necessary accident (3). To this classical notion, the Christian messages of St. Paul had been added: ambiguous messages. Paul wrote that male and female were equal in Christ, but they were not equal on earth. A woman must be a learner, listening quietly and with due submission. I do not permit a woman to be a teacher, nor must a woman domineer over man; she should be quiet. For Adam was created first, and Eve afterwards; and it was not Adam who was deceived; it was the woman who, yielding to deception, fell into sin. Yet she will be saved through motherhood — if only women continue in faith, love, and holiness, with a sober mind (4).

of feminism and seventeenth-century literature concerning women than in their specific Venetian ambiance. The only other early female feminists whom I find significant are Christine de Pisan, Laura Cereta, and a few sixteenthcentury French women. Christine was a Venetian-born French woman whose late fourteenth-century writings bear assertive witness to the potentialities of women, but she never urged women to fulfill these potentialities or to develop a radical feminism. See LULA MC!>OWELL RICHARDSON, The Forerunners of Feminism in French Literature of the Renaissance from Christine of Pisan to Marie de Gournay (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1929), pp. 26-34; ENID McCLEOD, The Order of the Rose: The Life and Ideas of Christine de Pizan (London: Chatto and Windus, 1976), pp. 127-35; CHARITY CANNON WILLARD, "Christine de Pizan's Livre des Trots Vertus"9 in The Role of Women in the Middle Ages, ed. Ro'smarie Thee Morewedge (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1975), especially p. 116. Laura Cereta was a Brescian humanist of the fifteenth century, a Venetian subject, and both an example and proponent of women's capacity to be learned. See Laura Cereta, Quattrocento Humanist by Albert Rabil, Jr., published (1980) by the State University of New York Press at Binghamton as part of the series of Medieval and Early Renaissance Texts. Of Louise Labe and Marguerite de Navarre, too little feminist writing remains to warrant extended discussion, while Marie de Gournay was a compiler, rather than an original mind. See RICHARDSON, pp. 107-108, 112. (3) For a good summary of Aristotle's statements on women, see KATHERINE M. ROGERS, The Troublesome Helpmate (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1966), pp. 35-36. Aristotle's most significant statements are in his Generation of Animals (Loeb Library edition, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1943), transl. A. Peck, especially pp. 401-403. See also CONTI ODORISIO, p. 63 fi. (4) I Tim. 2.11-15. See also Gal, 3.28 and. I Cor. 11.3-7.

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St. Thomas had summarized these two traditions, declaring a woman to be a misbegotten male, subject to man, having reproduction as her purpose, and always marked with the sin of Eve(5). Legally and medically, women were judged inferior to men, their minds too mutable to give sound testimony, their bodies too cold and damp for intellectual activity (6). Given these assumptions, a woman's education rarely went beyond domestic training. Chastity was the chief concern, and literacy was no requirement for chastity. On the contrary, it opened too many doors to be encouraged. It was feared that a woman's imagination might be inflamed by romantic tales, her presumed natural lust increased by lascivious description, her own bodily purity threatened by male instructors. Even after the expansive humanistic learning of the Renaissance and the evangelical movements of the Reformation with their concern for biblical texts, a sixteenth-century pedagogue could counsel that only noblewomen be taught to read and number, and that «mediocremente»( 7 ). Those women educated beyond mediocrity, who became scholars and authors, were exceptional. Among their limited number were the three women described in this essay, who not only acquired considerable education but used their developed literary skills to defend their own sex and affirm its potentialities (8). (5) ELEANOR COMMO MCLAUGHLIN, "Equality of Souls, Inequality of Sexes: Women in Medieval Theology", Religion and Sexism, ed. Rosemary R. Ruether (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1974), pp. 217-19; JOAN M. FERRANTE, Woman as Image in Medieval Literature (New York: Columbia University Press, 1975), pp. 101-104; CONTI Oixmisio, pp. 102-105. (6) The theological, legal, and medical attitudes toward women have been admirably summarized by IAN MACLEAN in his Women Triumphant: Feminism in French Literature 1610-1652 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977), and in his The Renaissance "Notion of Woman (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980). See also VERN L. BULLOUGH, "Medieval medical and scientific views of women", Viator 4 (1973): 485-501. (7) Silvio Antoniano (1540-1603): « Quanto a quelle di umile stato non fa bisogno che sappiano neanche leggere; a quelle di mezzana condizione non disdice di saper leggere; alle nobili che devono poi essere madri di famiglia di case maggiori, in ogni modo loderei che apprendessero a leggere e numerare mediocremente ». Cited in F. L. MASCHIETTO, Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia 1646-1684 (Padua: Antenore, 1978), p. 78. See also GIAN LUDOVICO MASETTI ZANNINI, Motivi storici della educazione jemminile, 7500-7650 (Bari: Editorialebari, 1980), p. 83. (8) For discussion of the extensive sixteenth-century literature on the

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Modesta da Pozzo, the first of these three Venetian feminists, was born in 1555 into a citizen family in Venice, part of the professional elite. Her father, a lawyer at the Ducal Palace, and her mother both died shortly after her birth, leaving Modesta and her older brother with a respectable income and an uncertain future. The children became the wards of their maternal grandparents, and Modesta was placed in a convent to be educated. There her rare intelligence and her remarkable memory attracted sufficient attention to make of her a prodigy in reputation. At the age of nine she returned home where the company of an older girl, interested in literary studies and especially poetry, inspired her to such imitation and competition that her grandfather undertook her intellectual and literary development with books and suggestions for her verse. Meanwhile, from her brother's lessons which he brought home from grammar school, she learned to read and compose in Latin. She grew clever at drawing, mastered the harpsichord and lute, knew some arithmetic, and acquired the domestic skills of cooking and embroidery. When the older girl was married to a Venetian of considerable literary reputation, she followed her friend into this new household where the husband, Nicolo Doglioni, himself a no-

« querelle des femxnes », see the following: G. BATTISTA MARCHESI, '"Le polemiche sul sesso femminile ne' sec. XVI e XVII", Giornale Storico delta Letter atura Italiana 25 (1895): 362-69; Warwick R. Bond's introduction to WILLIAM BARKER'S The Nobility of Women 7559 (London: privately printed for the Roxburghe Club, 1904); Giuseppe Zonta's edition of Trattati del Cinquecento sulla donna (Bari: G. Laterza, 1913); FRANCIS L. UTLEY, The Croo\ed Rib (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1944); RUTH KELSO, Doctrine for the Lady of the Renaissance (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1956); CONOR FAHY, "Three Early Renaissance Treatises on Women", Italian Studies n (1956): 30-55; M. A. SCREECH, The Rabelaisian Marriage (London: Arnold, 1958), pp. 5-13. Italian sixteenth-century examples of this genre include such works as LODOVICO DOLCE, Dialogo... delta institution delle donne (Venice: Giolitto, 1545); LODOVICO DOMENICHI, La nobilta delle donne (Venice: Giolitto di Ferrarii, 1549); LUIGI DARDANO, La bella e dotta difesa delle donne in verso e prosa (Venice: L'Imperatore, 1554): FEDERIOO LUIGINI, Ubro delta bella donna (Venice: Pietrasanta, 1554); MICHELANGELO BIONDO, Angoscia, la prima juria del mondo (Venice: Nicolini de Sabio, 1542); GIUSEPPE PASSI, / donneschi difetti (Venice: Somascho, 1599); PIETRO PAULO RIBERA, Le glorie di ottocento quarantacinque donne illustri antiche, e modernef dotate di conditioni, e segnalate per scienze (Venice: Deuchino, 1609). Much, but not all, of this literature was published in Venice.

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table author, encouraged and publicized her work( 9 ). So, in this favorable setting, Modesta continued to write poetry: an epic romance, a "Resurrection of Christ", innumerable sonnets, canzoni and madrigals, and a masque which was performed before the Doge of Venice. It was Doglioni who eventually arranged for Modesta's marriage - because he wanted it, « volendo io maritarla » - to Filippo de Zorzi, « avvocato fiscale alle acque », a financial lawyer for the Magistrate alle Acque, an important governmental office in Venice. The marriage produced four children, three of whom Modesta educated admirably in the intellectual and musical skills which she herself had acquired. The fourth child she never knew, for she died in childbirth in her thirty-seventh year (10). In spite of her maternal activities, Modesta did not abandon her literary efforts, but these, Doglioni tells us, never interfered with perfect attention to her household duties; she would not encourage by negligence in her home the opinion current in Venice that women should not excel in anything but the domestic arts(11). In her double (9) This biographical information is supplied by Nicolo Doglioni who wrote a brief life of Modesta da Pozzo in 1593 which was later published as a preface to her work // Merita delle Donne (Venice: Imberti, 1600), pp. 1-7. Doglioni's own writings include a book on the marvels of Venice which had eight printings in the seventeenth century and other works of local and universal history. His patronage and encouragement were crucial to Modesta's work. His own terms for describing his protection of her were « difesa » and « guarentata » (p. 5). The exact relation of his wife, the older companion of Modesta's, to Modesta's family is never made clear. (I|D) Ibid., pp. 4-5. Modesta's masque is included in a miscellaneous collection of masques entitled Le Feste, Rappresentazione avanti il Serenissimo Prencipc di Venetia Nicolo da Ponte, il giorno di San Stefano, 1581 (Venice: Domenico e Giovanni Battista Guerra). It is a lively poetic dispute between an Epicurean and a Stoic, resolved by the Sybil who reconciles them in praise of Christ and Venice. La Resurrettione di Giesu Christo is a long narrative poem (153 stanzas) preceded by a sonnet by Modesta's husband, an indication that he shared her literary interests (Venice: Imberti, 1592). She participated in a collection of verse dedicated to the king of Poland, Del Giardini de' Poeti (Venice: Guerra, 1583), and wrote a canzone on the death of the Doge in 1585 (Venice: Bordogna), further indications that her talents allowed her to share in the public literature of the city. For bibliography on Modesta, see the Enciclopedia Biografica e Bibliografica Italiana, Ser. VI, Vol. I (Rome: Tosi, 1941), p. 196. (11) II Merito, p. 6: «Comme Donna attendeva ad offitii donneschi del cucire, et non voleva lassar quelli per 1'abuso, che corre hoggidi in qucsta Citta, che non si vol veder Donna virtuosa in altro, che nel governo di casa ».

V 86 enterprise she was well served by her rapid understanding of what she read, her facility at composition, her capacity for instantaneous and total recall. She could propose a fantasy to herself in the evening, lie down to sleep, and in the morning rise and write down thirty-six finished stanzas of verse (12). Her pen-name, Moderata Fonte, the « moderate fountain », an alternate version of her given name, Modesta da Pozzo, « the modest well », hardly describes the abundant flow of her poetic talent. She evidently knew first-hand about the potentialities of women and the obstacles to their self-realization. Her early poetic work, the Trcdici canti del Floridoro, published shortly before her marriage, was dedicated to the Grand Duke Francesco de' Medici of Tuscany and his Venetian wife, Bianca Cappello (13). Bianca Cappello, a legend in herself, had run away to Florence from her Venetian patrician home with an employee of the Salviati firm, but after bearing an illegitimate child she had left her lover and found her way, first to the bed of Francesco de' Medici and then to a legitimate position as his Grand Duchess. For these accomplishments, she had been adopted as a daughter of the Venetian Republic, an honor reserved for exceptional women and bestowed only once before, a hundred years earlier, on Caterina Cornaro, Queen of Cyprus. In her Floridoro, Modesta refers to Bianca's deep and subtle mind, a significant change from the usual praise of physical beauty, and openly imitates Ariosto's glorification of the Este family in his Orlando Furioso by similar predictions of

12 (13 ) Ibid.

( ) MODERATA FONTE, T re did canti del Floridoro (Venice: Rampazetti, 1581). This was a longer version of the epic romance begun when Moderata was younger. On Bianca Cappello, see EMILIO ZANETTE, "Bianca Capello e la sua poetessa", Nuova Antologia 458 (1953): 455-68 and the corrections supplied by ROBERTO CANTAGALLI, * Bianca Cappello e una leggenda da sfatare: la questione del figlio supposto", Nuova Rivista Storica 49 (1965): 636-52. The astonishing reversal of the Venetian government which occurred only two years before Modesta's poem was published is recorded in this fashion in an eighteenth-century manuscript: « Bianca di Bartolomeo Capello processata, e sentenziata dal Consiglio di Xci, per essere fuggita da Venezia con Pietro Bonaventuri Fiorentino; ma dopo divenuta essa Gran Duchessa di Toscana per decreto 1579 23 giugno di esso Consiglio con Zonta, fu depennata dalla pergamena de gli Awogadori di Comun ogni condanna, e chiuzo qualunque Processo, in modo, che non si potesse piu leggere » (Venice: Biblioteca Museo Correr, MS Gradenigo-Dolfin 72, fol. 33V).

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wealth and glory for the Medici line and similar acclaim for the Cappello heritage (14). Modesta's feminist purposes, however, are revealed in the verses found at the beginning of the Fourth Canto where she extols all women. Endowed by Nature with great judgment and spirit, women are qualified for every enterprise, military or intellectual, although their abilities have been hidden like gold in the earth. All they lack is an education equal to men's: Se quando nasce una figliuola al Padre, La ponesse col figlio a un'opra eguale Non saria ne le imprese alte, e leggiadre Al frate inferior, ne disuguale; O la ponesse fra Farmate squadre Seco, b a imparar qualche arte liberale; Ma perche in altri affar viene allevata, Per Teducation poco e stimata(15). Modesta was to expand this educational theme in her prose work on the merit of her sex. // Mcrito delle Donne was not published until 1600, although it was composed and completed the day before Modesta's death in 1592. In this dialogue, seven women meet for two days in a Venetian garden. The women were all friends of long-standing, accustomed to gather in this way, and they were accomplished conversationalists. In a verdant and enclosed setting typical of Renaissance dialogue, the women share in a godly feast reminiscent of Erasmus' more famous colloquy. Female loquacity, so often a topos for misogyny, is here honored as a delightful and instructive pastime. These women talk; they do not embroider or make lace. They make speeches to one another and also to the male species in whose

(14) « Di questa altera e gloriosa Donna prevedendo Pingegno alto, e sottile », Canto 12, fol. 53V; for her praise of the Medici and Cappello families, see Cantos 3, 12, and 13. (15) Canto 4, fol. 17. Cfr. Christine de Pisan in 'Le Uvre dc la Cite des Dames: «. Si la coustume estoit de mettre les petites filles a Tescole, et que communement on les fist apprendre les sciences comme on fait aux filz qu'elles apprendroient aussi parfaitement et entenderoient les subtilite's de toutes les arz et sciences comme ils font» (RICHARDSON, p. 28).

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physical absence they rejoice. Their self-contained society was full of pleasure, charm, wit, and self-congratulation (16). The seven women of the dialogue represent the whole spectrum of female experience. There are a young widow, an older widow, two matrons, a young bride, and two maidens. Their leader was Corinna, an unmarried polymath who may speak for Modesta herself, and whose name recalls the woman who, according to legend, had surpassed Pindar in eloquence (17). Early in the work, Corinna recites a poem proclaiming her independence from men and her dedication to divine virtue: Libero cor nel mio petto soggiorna Non servo alcun, ne d'altri son che mia, Pascomi di modestia, e cortesia, Virtu m'esalta, e castita rrTadorna. Quest'alma a Dio sol cede, e a lui ritorna, Benche nel velo human s'avolga, e stia; E sprezza il mondo, e sua perfidia ria, Che le semplici menti inganna, e scorna. Bellezza, gioventu, piaceri, e pompe, Nulla stimo, se non, ch'a i pensier puri, Son trofeo, per mia voglia, e non per sorte. Cosi ne gli anni verdi, e ne i maturi, Poiche fallacia d'huom non m'interrompe Fama e gloria n'attendo in vita, e in morte (18). Corinna embodies the work's major theme: women's independent worth. She would rather die, she says, than submit to the power of men, and the other women admired her for her sublime intel(16) // Merito, pp. 10-11: Fra le piti chiare e reputate famiglie si trovarono... alcune nobili e valorose Donne di eta, e stato diferenti, ma di sangue, e costumi conformi, gentili, virtuose, e di elevato ingegno, lequali, percioche molto si confacevano insieme, havendo tra loro contratto una cara, e discreta amicitia, spesse volte si pigliavano il tempo, e 1'occasione di trovarsi insieme in una domestica conversatione: e senza haver rispetto di huomini, che le notassero, 6 Pimpedissero, tra esse ragionavano di quelle cose, che phi loro a gusto venivano ». Cfr. p. 17: « . . . senza esser da alcuno vedute, ne udite; cosa, che era a tutte le Donne di phi gusto, e satisfattione di tutte le altre ». (17) Ibid., p. 53. Corinna may also be related to the subject of Ovid's A mores (I, 5), although that Corinna was not notably eloquent. (18) // Merito, p. 14.

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ligence, her cerebral pursuits, her determination to avoid the vain bondage of male society (19). Learned, dedicated, and outspoken, Corinna does most of the talking and manages to educate her less informed companions not only on the perfidies of men, but on cosmology, ornithology, icthyology, zoology, botany, with additional disquisitions on the medicinal use of herbs, the relative merits of painting and sculpture, the application of cosmetics, and the cities and rivers of the Veneto. Indeed, the praise of Venice and certain Venetians forms a predictable but curious aspect of this didactic work, for whole sections are devoted to lists of the best lawyers, the best doctors, the best writers, the best painters of the city, every one of them male. Among those mentioned were Doglioni, her patron, and Filippo de Zorzi, her husband (20). Interwoven in this broad tapestry were criticisms of the opposite sex, gracefully and continously introduced, amidst laughter and applause. Take, for example, Corinna's discussion of the symbiotic relationship between a type of conch shell and a particular shrimp which inhabits the blind shell and attracts fish into it, signals the shell to close, and shares a good feast with its companion. « A h » , says Leonora, the young and wealthy widow who owns the beautiful garden, « would that we might have a similar support from men, but they would take all the catch for themselves and then eat us as well if they could » (21). Or again, after Corinna has explained the mysterious rising of water to the mountains to form rivers, Leonora interrupts, deploring the difference between humble water and lowly men; the latter also rise up like clouds against every reason, against every justice, but unlike water which once more descends, men stay firm in their lofty pride and obstinacy (23). Or again, when the various magistracies of Venice have been enumerated and eulogized,

(19) Ibid., p. 13: « Piu tosto morrei, che sottopormi ad huomo alcuno; troppo beata vita e quclla, che io passo con voi senza temer di barba d'huomo, che possa commandarmi ». Matrimony would be such a submission. ( 20 ) Ibid., pp. 72, 107-108, 118-19. Praise of Venice formed a traditional part of Venetian literature. (21) Ibid., p. 82: « Si fatto aiuto non haveressimo noi gia da gli huomini, che vorrebbono in tal caso haver per se tutta la preda, e poi mangiar ancor noi se potessero ». ( 22 ) Ibid., pp. 88-89.

V 9° Leonora remonstrates that these are the very tools with which men subjugate women, treating them not as citizens but as strangers. And she asks if women are not wrongfully manipulated by these magistracies? (23). The question is not pursued. The talk flows on, and there is no consistent indictment of men. Early in the dialogue, a formal debate had been proposed, a queen chosen to judge between three ladies forced to act as defenders of the male sex and three natural critics (24). No real debate takes place; no victory is awarded. For the main purpose of the work is not the condemnation of the male sex with old and new arguments. The dialogue is a vehicle for the display of Modesta's and Corinna's encyclopedic, if superficial, learning. It cleverly seasons exposition with sufficient spice and enough repartee to present itself in the guise of that literary genre, the « querelle des femmes ». But fundamentally it goes beyond the banalities of that quarrel to an educated woman's independent display of her talents, which was calculated to be the most convincing argument of all. In the end, Corinna reaffirms the essential importance of education and claims that women would surpass men in every science and art if they were properly trained from childhood (25). But also in the end, in spite of the dialogue's often expressed antipathy to marriage, the social bond of matrimony is invoked. Virginia, the wealthy young maiden, must marry, because her wealth must stay in circulation. It is a better fate, her mother reminds her, than to remain forever cooped up in the family house, deprived of pretty clothes and agreeable entertainment, and most of all of that company of other women which will be her chief sustenance (2G). The dia-

(23) Ibid., p. 123: « Che hevemo a far vi prego con Magistrati, Corti di palazzo, e tali disviamenti ? Hor non fanno tutti gli huomini quest! officii contra di noi? non ci comandano se ben non gli siamo obligate? non procurano per loro in nostro danno? non ci trattano da forestieri? ». (24) Ibid., pp. 18-19. (25) ibid., p. 145: « Se ci fusse insegnato da fanciulle ... gli eccederessimo in qual si voglia scienza, e arte, che si venisse proposta ». (2'6) Ibid., p. 146: «Se non ti marito, medesimamente ti converra star sempre in case, e vestir sobria senza tanti strisci, ne pratiche, come fai hora, poiche n n e lecito a una donzella, che non voglia accasarsi, far altrimente; e sarai priva di quella compagnia, che nel rimanente potrebbe esser tutto il tuo bene ».

V VENETIAN WOMEN ON WOMEN

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logue ends as evening falls, with a madrigal. The two maidens, Corinna who has vowed herself to independence, purity, and higher thoughts, and Virginia who must marry one of the creatures so disparaged by this discourse, join together in singing the merits of women who are for men what souls, hearts, and spirits are for bodies, what stars are for the sky (27). Was this a feminist statement? It appears so, for these reasons. The work insisted on the pleasure these women derived from their own company, on their ability, like men, to engage in learned and witty conversation and not merely in minor roles such as those assigned them in Castiglione's Courtier. Their acumen, their fund of knowledge, their claim that equality of education would lead to equality - even superiority - of accomplishment, their recognition that Venetian social custom and the Venetian political structure were prejudicial to women, and above all, the heroic stand of Corinna make this a feminist work(28). For Corinna is neither humiliated nor defeated. Unlike Shakespeare's shrew, she concedes nothing in the end; unlike so many « liberated heroines » of nineteenth and twentieth-century fiction, she suffers no tragedy (29). She is not punished for her presumption, and that her creator died in childbirth adds only poignancy to her proposed program of independent intellectual pursuits. Three years after the composition of this work and the death of its author, the smoldering fires of the « querelle des femmes » (which traditionally gave off heat rather than light) were refueled by the work of one Giuseppe Passi who rearranged the old kindling and ignited it in a book on I donneschi difetti(30). In the same year, 1595, a more original and anonymous Latin treatise appeared in Frankfurt, soon translated into Italian and published in Venice,

( 2 7 ) Ibid., p. 158. ( 28 ) See, for example, Modesta's discussion of the dowry system on pp. 5960. It would be more appropriate, she writes, if men paid the dowry to purchase women. Cfr. LODOVIGO DOMENICHI, La nobilita delle donne, fol. 2 (on dowries): « et dove gli antichi piu giusti misuratori de lor meriti usavano dt darla, si come di Giacob manifesta la sacra scrittura, essi la ricevettero ». ( 29 ) DIANA TRILLING, "The Liberated Heroine", Times Literary Supplement, October 13, 1978. ( 30 ) GIUSEPPE PASSI, 1 donneschi difetti (Venice: 1595).

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which sought to prove that women did not belong to the human race, because they lacked souls (31). In the controversy following upon these publications, Modesta da Pozza's work was posthumously published in 1600. It followed by a few months the publication of Lucrezia Marinella's La Nobilta et L'Eccellenza delle Donne co' Diffetti, e Mancamenti de gli Huomini. Lucrezia Marinella, the second of these three feminists, was born in 1571 and lived to the advanced age of eighty-two. Her father was a doctor, originally from Modena, who practiced in Venice and wrote a book on cosmetics and one on medicines for female infirmities (32). In this latter work, he provided remedies for the sexual ills which can dissolve a marriage, cures for sterility, and recommendations for pregnant women. His book on cosmetics is a compendium of recipes for the female body, including twenty-six ways to bleach hair, and advice on such matters as how to remove foot odors, whiten skin, firm up breasts and soften hands. He also edited Hippocrates and wrote works on the plague and on copiousness of speech (33). He was, then, a man of considerable learning, who took considerable interest in women. The society which frequented his (31) Disputatio nova contra mulieres, qua probatur eas homines non esse (Frankfurt: Valente Acidalio, 1595). The Italian translation was published by Gaspara Ventura in Lyons in 1643 (Che le danne non siano della spetie degli huomini: «discorso piacevole, tradotto da Horatio Plata Roman»). See MARCHESI, pp. 364-65. MACLEAN, pp. 2-3, writes that this was an anti-Anabaptist satire, mocking the bibliolatry of that group by arguing its thesis from strict interpretations of certain biblical texts such as Gen. 1.26-27, Gen. 2.21-23, Gen. 3.16, Eph. 4.12, I Tim. 2.15. ( 32 ) GIOVANNI MARINELLI, Gli ornamenti delle donne tratti dalle scritture d'una reina greca (Venice: Francesco de' Franceschi Senese, 1562) and Le medicine pcrtinenti die injermita delle donne (Venice: Giovanni Valgrisio, 1574). See also EMILIO ZANETTE, Suor Arcangela, monaca del Seicento veneziano (Florence: L'Impronta, 1960), pp. 214-16. Once again, as in Modesta's case, there is the significant presence of a learned male relative and possible sponsor. There was also a son, Curtio, who practiced medicine and himself wrote a learned work on medicine and a summary of Livy's Decades for an Italian translation (Le Deche, Venice: Camillo Franceschini, 1581). It is interesting that Lucretia Marinella feminized her name, although the form Marinelli was used by the numerous writers who referred to her, as well as by Arcangela Tarabotti (see below). (33) HIPPOCRATES, Opera (Venice, G. Valgrisio, 1575); GIOVANNI MARINELLI, Delia copia delle parole (Venice: Vincenzo Valgrisi, 1562); De peste, ac de pestilenti contagio liber (Venice: Prochacino, 1577).

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home may well have provided some stimulus for his daughter's development. Lucrezia's writings eventually earned her a reputation of her own, although they fell into other categories: books of devotion, an epic poem of a thirteenth-century Doge's conquest of Constantinople, and a work in defense of the female sex(34). The Nobility and Excellence of Women, together with the Defects and Deficiencies of Men had two further printings after that of 1600, one in 1601 and another in 1621, all published in Venice. A treatise, not a dialogue, it is a far less entertaining work than that of Modesta da Pozzo. Its tone is polemical and its arguments seek to overwhelm with numerous citations of classical, medieval and contemporary writers. For all that it may appear thorough, tendentious, even tiresome to a modern reader, its familiar format and its serious critical approach commended it to readers of the day. Its infrequent humor is biting and consists mainly in sallies against Aristotle, charging that Master-misogynist with envy and vengefulness for his own unhappy love affair. Even that was not a new accusation (35). Marinella's purpose, as she sets it forth, is to argue not the equality but the superiority of women so cogently that every man, no matter how stubborn, will be forced to admit that truth. A secondary purpose is to wake women « from their long sleep of oppression » so that they may tame and humble « the proud and ungrateful

(34) Her works include La vita di Maria vergine imperatricc dell'universo (Venice: Barezi, 1602), Vita del serafico et glorioso S.Francesco (Venice: Barezi, 1605), and L'Enrico ovvero Bisanzio acquistato (Venice: Jmberti, 1635). Her epic poem on Enrico Dandolo is an example of her determination to take on the traditionally male role of heroic poet. According to one critic, Luca Pastrovinchi, it was also possible for a woman « cantar 1'arme e i gloriosi eroi », because « alto e lo spirito, se imbecile il sesso ». A. BELLONI, // Seicento (Milan: Vallardi, 1929), pp. 198-99. For a full bibliography on Lucrezia Marinella, see the article in the Enciclopedia Biografica e Bibliografica Italiana, Ser. VI, Vol. II (Rome: Tosi, 1942), pp. 9-10. For her life, see GIROLAMO TIRABOSCHI, Biblioteca Modenese, III (Modena: Societa Tipografica, 1783), (35) On the medieval story of Aristotle's humilation by the mistress of Alexander, see A. HERON, "'La L^gende d'Alexandre et d'Aristote", Precis Analytique des Travaux de UAcademie des Sciences, Belles-Lettres et Arts de Rouen (1890-91), pp. 323-84.

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male sex » (3G). To accomplish these ends, she discusses the derivation of women's names (i. e. donna is from domina, a sign of imperial and royal position). She treats the causes on which women depend, female nature, female operations, all this in a pseudo-scientific fashion (37). She tells us that women's physical beauty argues a more beautiful prior Idea; it reveals the greater nobility of their souls; it leads men toward the divine essence of which it is a manifestation (38). Nature produces more women than men, ergo women are better (39). She points out that men pay women - whatever their class — continuous honor and cites their privilege of ornament and luxurious dress (40). Most of these arguments are standard and trite, but this last argument about costume was amplified and deserves consideration. Why does every one of these three Venetian feminists deal with the matter of costume? There are two principal reasons. First, women's appetite for luxury, their extravagance and cosmetic vanity were traditional accusations levied from the pulpit and in misogynist literature. To defend women meant to defend their privilege of dress and their freedom from or for extravagant tastes. Second, Venice was famous for its gorgeous stuffs, its watered silk, taffetas, flowered brocades, velvets, laces, ivory and tortoise-shell fans, jewelled hairpieces, not to mention precious rings, necklaces or earrings, so popular that they were even rented by those who could not afford to buy them(41). Corinna, who spoke for Modesta da Pozzo, forswore all concern for beauty and pomp, to devote herself to intellectual

( 36 ) La Nobilta et UEccellenza delle Donne co' Diffetti, e Mancamenti de gli Huomini (Venice: Gio. Battista Combi, 1621), pp. 160-61: «ma se le Donne, come io spero, si sveglieranno dal lungo sonno, dal qual sono oppresse, diverranno mansueti, e humili questi ingrati, et superbi ». ( 37 ) Ibid., pp. 4-12. See MACLEAN, Women Triumphant, p. 26, for a listing of these traditional arguments: e nomine, ex ordine, e materia, e loco, e conceptione. (38) La Nobilta, p. 13. (39) Ibid,, p. 165. (55\ American Historical Review, 73: 1 (Oct. 1975), p. 5. 4 Gene Brucker, The Society of Renaissance Florence (New York 1971), p. 203; Richard C. Trexler, Public Ufe in Renaissance Florence (New York 1980), pp. 379—82. See also David Herlihy, Veillir a Florence au Quattrocento', Annales: economies, societes, civilisations, 24 (1969), 1348, for the fifteenth century, and Sanudo, I Diarii, 52: 327 (December, 1529), for the sixteenth century and the following for some fourteenth -century cases: U. Dorini, II dirittopenale e la delinquen^a in Firen^e ml secolo XIV (Lucca 1916), pp. 71—76; J. Kohler, Das Florentiner Strafrecht des XIV]ahrhunderts (Mannheim 1909), pp. 109-12. 5 M. Benvenuti, 'Come facevasi giustizia nell stato di Milano dall'anno 1471 al 1763', Archivio Storico Lombardo, 9 (1882), fasc. 3, pp. 442-82.

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Sodomy and Venetian Justice in the Renaissance

another in a Roman church.6 The archives of other cities will undoubtedly yield additional information.7

6

Del Vita, Galanteria, pp. 167-68. The Venetians were aware that other nations and city-states treated sodomites with equal abhorrence and similar severity. See Misti, Reg. 13, fol. 13v, Sept. 15, 1445 and Reg. 15, fol. 170, Feb. 14, 1459. 7

VIII

NO MAN BUT AN ANGEL. EARLY EFFORTS TO CANONIZE LORENZO GIUSTINIANI (1381-1456)

On June 26, 1473, the Venetian Senate sent a letter to Pope Sixtus IV requesting him to initiate the canonization of Lorenzo Giustiniani by appointing a worthy commission to examine the life, character, words and miraculous deeds of this holy man. «We cannot tell you», the letter said, «how passionately our city desires to see this man who was so great a priest and patriarch and patrician established, during your pontificate, one of the renowned and illustrious among God's saints and beati». For surely, the Senators argued, if Pope Eugenius IV had made him bishop, if Pope Nicholas V had made him patriarch, why should they not hope that Sixtus IV would complete this divine work? In truth, we humbly request that Your Holiness mercifully deign to accept our pious prayers and those of the whole clergy and kindly to hear [our] messengers, and especially our ambassador, as our agents and suppliants on behalf of this most saintly man, and that you will decide and determine what needs to be done for so worthy, pious and sacred a work which our entire state will forever consider an immortal favor1.

With such words of praise, importunity and political innuendo, the first step in the canonization of Lorenzo Giustiniani was taken. 1. There were several reasons for fifteenth-century Venice to be interested in the canonization of its native son, Lorenzo Giustiniani. A city which declared itself to be among God's most remarkable miracles, asserting at every stage of its growth a special relationship with divinity, would surely welcome the additional assurance of God's special favor that a local saint would betoken. Past Venetian saints were scarce, popularly counted as two in number, but only one was officially canonized and buried in Venice itself2. Such scarcity was somewhat compensated for by 1 Archivio di Stato di Venezia, hereafter ASV, Senate, Secreta, reg. 26, fol. 3 If (numero moderno, hereafter n.m.). This document is transcribed in Appendix I. 2 The «two» are cited by MARIN SANUDO, I Diarii, ed. R. Fulin et al., Venice 1879-1902, 40:622, as San Pietro Orseolo (962-997), although he was buried in France and not canonized until 1731, and San Gerardo Sagredo (993-1046), martyred in Hungary and canonized by Gregory VII in 1083. His

VIII 16 a goodly number of Venetian «beati», that is, holy persons locally (but unofficially) considered as saints, and even more by an impressive collection of relics of non-Venetian saints. Relics were, after all, a kind of naturalization post mortem of those holy men and women who had started elsewhere but had ended up, partially at least, in the city of the lagoons. But the advantage of one's own latter-day saint was that one had the whole body, the whole story, the whole glory. The fifteenth century, moreover, was a time when Venice might well need all the divine patronage she could get. As the Ottoman Turks rolled westward, capturing Constantinople in 1453 and sabotaging Venice's maritime control of the Eastern Mediterranean, the Venetian Republic was also pressing westward, taking over so much of the northeast Italian territory that her land empire reached to Bergamo, almost the gates of Milan. The Turkish victories deeply concerned not just Venice but all the other Italian city-states who talked intermittently about a joint crusade while leaving Venice to fight most of the battles on her own. But the Venetian terraferma invasions, being closer to home, were even more alarming to the Italian powers, so that suspicion and hostility marked the relations between Venice and Milan, Venice and Florence, Venice and Rome, Venice and Naples. Challenged along both her eastern and western frontiers, Venice had all the more reason to assert her special position. She was, she claimed, a city whose greatness was foretold by God's angel to the Apostle Mark; she was founded on the day of the Incarnation; she was raised, by God's grace, from waters ceremonially blessed each year on Ascension Day; and

remains were removed to Murano in 1384. See Santi e beati veneziani. Quaranta prof Hi, ed. G. MuSOLINO, A. NIERO, S. TRAMONTIN, Venice 1963, pp. 105-113 on Orseolo and pp. 117-122 on Sagredo. I wish to acknowledge here the great debt I owe to the writings and advice of Monsignor Antonio Niero, Don Silvio Tramontin and Professor Giorgio Cracco whose many articles and personal communications have facilitated my research. In particular, I will cite A. NIERO, Pietd popolare e interessi politici nel culto di S. Lorenzo Giustiniani, in «Archivio Veneto», Vs., CXVII (1981), pp. 197-224; I Patriarchi di Venezia, Venice 1961; and San Lorenzo Giustiniani primo patriarca di Venezia. Cenni biografici, Venice 1955; S. TRAMONTIN, La cultura monastica del Quattrocento dal primo patriarca Lorenzo Giustiniani ai Camaldolesi Paolo Giustiniani e Pietro Quirini, in Storia della cultura veneta, vol. 3, Vicenza 1980, pp. 43-57; Chronotassi di S. Lorenzo Giustiniani in Urbis et Orbis: Concessionis Tituli Doctoris [...] in honorem S. Laurentii lustiniani, Rome 1966, pp. XXXIII-XL; G. CRACCO, La fondazione dei canonici secolari di S. Giorgio in Alga, in «Rivista di Storia della Chiesa in Italia», XIII (1959), pp. 70-88; Lorenzo Giustiniani: La cittd un deserto in Venezia e Lorenzo Giustiniani, Venice 1982, pp. 115-132, and Patriziato e oligarchia a Venezia nel Tre-Quattrocento in Florence and Venice: Comparisons and Relations, Florence 1979, vol. I, pp. 71-98. I wish also to thank Carroll Brentano, Elizabeth A.R. Brown, Linda Carroll, Robert Davis, Richard Jackson, John O'Malley, and Roberto Rusconi for their helpful advice, suggestions and communications during the completion of this article.

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now she was God's chosen bulwark of Christianity against the Turkish foe. Even more, Venice was also a depository for countless relics, indeed, a city of saints, f atria dei santi'. this was the Venice into which Lorenzo Giustiniani was born and in which he was destined to play a significant role, in life, and after his death in 14563. That role was first defined by Lorenzo's nephew, Bernardo Giustiniani, himself a well-known diplomat, politician, and humanist historian. It is Bernardo's Vita Beati Laurentii which provides most of what information is available about Lorenzo's life, and its opening chapters present a particular civic and religious profile within a hagiographical frame 4 . «Lorenzo was born in Venice to his father, Bernardo Giustiniani [the elder], and mother, Quirina [Querini]. Of the nobility of both families it would be wrong to say too much, or too little»5. So begins the nephew's story of his holy uncle. Bernardo traces the patrilineal line back to the Justinians of Constantinople, and moves rapidly forward to an exemplary twelfth-century tale, when this great Venetian clan was almost obliterated. It was the time of a Venetian expedition against the Eastern empire of Byzantium. The Venetian fleet was revictualing itself on an Aegean island when due to plague and the enemies' having poisoned the wells, the entire fleet was ravaged by pestilence. Whatever Giustinianis had been old enough to bear arms had embarked on that expedition. Now all were dead. At home, except for some old men unable to produce offspring, only one virile young man remained, Nicolo, and he was a monk. The Doge of Venice, charged with ultimate responsibility for this disaster, 3 The phrase, patria dei santi, was used of Venice by the sixteenth-century writer, Bartolomeo Spadafora. See Silvio Tramontin's introduction to Santi e beati veneziani (p. 13) and his Problemi agiografid e profili di santi, in La chiesa di Venezia nei secoli XI-XII, Venice 1986, esp. pp. 153-154. Venice was proud of her relics and M. Sanudo listed them in his De origine, situ et magistratibus urbis Venetae (see the critical edition by Angela Caracciolo Arico, Milan 1980, pp. 46-49). Lorenzo Giustiniani had himself been involved in promoting the worship of three of Venice's more important saints: Mark, Theodore, and Nicholas. See P.H. LABALME, Holy Patronage, Holy Promotion: The Cult of Saints in Fifteenth-Century Venice, to be published in 1993 by the Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, State University of New York, Binghamton, as part of its volume entitled Sancta, Sanctus: Studies in Hagiography. 4 BERNARDO GIUSTINIANI, Vita Beati Laurentii Justiniani Patriarchae Venetiarum, Venice 1475. The Vita Beati Laurentii has been published in an elegant edition by I. TASSI, Vita beati Laurentii lustiniani Venetiarum Proto Patriarchae, Rome 1962, and as part of the facsimile edition of Lorenzo's 1751 Opera Omnia (Sancti Laurentii lustiniani proto-patriarchae Veneti, opera omnia,. in duos tomos distinta, Venice 1751, ed. anast. Florence 1982. It may also be found in AA.SS, 3rd. ed., lanuarii I, pp. 549-564. See below for the role this work may have played as a «libellus postulatorius» in the first trial for canonization. 5 Vita, ch. I: «Natus est igitur Laurentius Venetiis, a Bernardo Justiniano patre, matre vero Quirina. De utriusque familiae nobilitate neque multa dicere, neque omnino silere licet sine illius injuria».

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took steps to remedy the loss. He obtained from the Pope a release of the young Giustiniani from his religious vows and married him to his daughter Anna. To this couple a progeny of six sons and three daughters was born. Nicolo, having performed his patriotic duty, returned to his monastery and his wife Anna and her three daughters also took religious vows6. From this twelfth-century holy stock (and indeed both Nicolo and Anna became two of the Venetian beati), Lorenzo was born. Moreover, so the Vita continues, Lorenzo was born in 1381 on that very day when the whole city rejoiced in a recent victory over Genoa. His mother, giving thanks for his birth in the midst of such dangers overcome, also prayed God that her newborn son should prove a terror to Venetian enemies and a salvation for the city. And so it would turn out, wrote Bernardo, in the Venetian wars with Milan, when on many occasions, according to the revelations of a holy hermit, Lorenzo's prayers saved the city7. Here, then, in the first few chapters, was the appropriate setting for the life of this Venetian saint-to-be: the aristocratic family, the patriotic commitment, the spiritual devotion in a civic cause. Having struck the correct political posture, Bernardo describes the conversion of the graceful youth by a vision of a beautiful young woman, Sapienza, Holy Wisdom, who called him away from the things of this world. Seeking his spiritual salvation, Lorenzo joined a religious community of like-minded aristocrats, gathered together on a remote island in the lagoons, S. Giorgio in Alga, St. George of the Seaweed8. Bernardo then passes over the other important members of that reforming Alghense community, so important in their ecclesiastical reform and management of the newly acquired lands of the terraferma that the Senate referred to them as issuing forth as from a «Trojan Horse»9. He also omits Lorenzo's own administrative rise within that network, but he does relate Lorenzo's appointment first as Bishop of Venice in 1433 and then as the city's first patriarch in 1451 in order to show how reluctantly Lorenzo took on administrative duties and his saintliness in performing them. For Bernardo's emphasis is not on Lorenzo's ecclesiastical career; the emphasis is on his virtues, his 6

Vita, ch I. Vita, ch. I and ch. IX. The island, in the fifteenth century, was two kilometers from the western edge of the city and two kilometers from Fusina on the mainland. For background on this order see G. CRACCO, La fondazione dei canonici secolari di S. Giorgio in Alga, and P. CENCI, L'archivio della cancelleria delta Nunziatura Veneta in Miscellanea Francesco Ehrle, 5, Rome 1924 («Studi e Testi», 41), pp. 282-301. 9 ASV, Senato, Secreta, reg. 26, fol. 3 If: «ex quo sicut ex equo troiano multi clari et in ecclesiam dei et magni viri prodierunt». See Appendix I. 7

8

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sayings, his miracles (the usual topoi), in order that this biography might serve as a «libellus postulatorius» - a kind of brief - in the processo, the process for Lorenzo's canonization which opened in 1474, eighteen months after the Senate's petition and just short of two decades after Lorenzo's death in 1456. That is why many elements in Bernardo's account of Lorenzo's spiritual conversion, his holy austerities and devotions, his pronouncements and prophecies, are so clearly hagiographical. Yet this is not just the story of a holy man: the Vita was also written for the political edification of Venetian citizens. It proposed to show how in one man spiritual and civic obedience could be combined. For this, the date of Lorenzo's birth may have been skewed to accord with the great Venetian victory over the Genoese10. For this, Lorenzo's reluctant acceptance of an administrative rather than a contemplative life was portrayed as a sacrifice on behalf of his city, for whose honor, he said, he could refuse no labor11. For this, every potential conflict between ecclesiastical and secular authorities (and they were frequent in this period) was dissolved by the force of Lorenzo's spiritual authority as the following anecdote will show. It was during Lorenzo's episcopate and concerned an edict which he had issued, common enough in those days, against the excessive luxury of the patrician women's clothes. Mostly these edicts were ignored, but the administration of Lorenzo was one to insist upon their application. The Venetian women were offended, and they pressed their fathers, husbands and brothers to protest to the doge. The doge, «fearful for the secular freedom», called Lorenzo to account and «being quite vehement by nature» spoke sharp words to him. Bernardo continues: Then Father Lorenzo answered gently and at the same time seriously, and he so softened the doge's heart that the doge, turning to those present, could not contain his tears. «No man, but an angel, has spoken» he said. «Go, Father, and fulfill your office». Thenceforth he honored him as an apostle12.

10 See, for arguments placing his birth in 1382, P. SARTORELLI, La controversial cronologica su San Lorenzo Giustiniani, in «L'Osservatore Romano», 3 February 1982, and P. SARTORELLI, Gabriele Condulmer, lume e ornamento della Cht'esa, Citta del Vaticano 1988, pp. 46-47. 11 «Pro cuius honore, quoniam ita de se merita civitas esset, nullum laborem recusare deberet», Vita, ch. VIII. 12 Vita, ch. VI: «Initio quidem Pontificatus, quum de mulierum ornatu decretum edidisset, uxoriis quibusdam maritis ingratum. Dux noster illorum querelis deceptus, quasi libertati seculari metuens, accersiri eum jubet. Queritur ea de re verbis acrioribus, ut fuit natura vehementior. Turn Laurentius Pater mansuete simul graviterque respondens, sic illius animum demollivit, ut Dux conversus ad adstantes, neque lacrymas continens, Angelus, inquit, non homo, locutus est. Vade Pater, et fungere officio tuo. Ilium deinceps velut Apostolum veneratus est».

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This incident serves as a useful illustration of Bernardo Giustiniani's double purpose: his Vita was a brief in the cause of canonization; it also set forth an ideal of harmonious church-state relationships, as the city set out to chronicle and claim its own native saint. Lorenzo, honored by the city's political leader as an apostle, is thereby joined to the apostolic tradition of St. Mark, spiritual founder of the great city. All the more important that the universal church should acknowledge him as such. The Vita Beati Laurentii seems to have been begun by Bernardo in the 1460s or early 1470s, published in both Latin and Italian in 1475, one of the earliest works printed by the new printing presses of Venice. It was an essential contribution to making his uncle's life better known13. But it was not the first such effort. There were non-literary ways to extend Lorenzo's influence and promote his reputation, and these were utilized immediately following his death. On the first anniversary of Lorenzo's death, his successor in the patriarchate commissioned Jacopo Bellini, perhaps Venice's most prominent artist, to sculpt (or design) a marble half-bust which in its realism, dimensions and gesture of benediction sought to perpetuate the presence of this holy man in the patriarchal church by serving as an object of veneration. The Alghense community itself ordered from Gentile Bellini, Jacopo's son, a processional panel showing the «beatus» nimbed with rays of light, a fine and impressive full-length profile portrait. A marble tomb was ordered by the family to be erected in the patriarchal church14. Tomb, sculptured bust and painted processional panel, 13 See G. ZARRI, Le sante vive. Per una tipologia delta santitd femminile nel primo Cinquecento, in Annali dell'lstituto storico italo-germanico in Trento, VI (1980), p. 379, for the role of the printing press in the canonization process. Another important contemporary publication was Niccolo Malermi's translation of Jacopo de Voragine's Legenda Aurea, also published in Venice in 1475, in which the translator, a Camaldolese monk on Murano, had added to Voragine's list of saints two «beati» especially venerated in Venice: one was Lorenzo Giustiniani. For this and other documents about Lorenzo Giustiniani, see D. ROSA, Testimonia deB. Laurentii lustiniani [...] vita sanctitate acmiraculis, Venice 1614, containing 100 testimonials, and an expanded version, Summorum Sanctissimorumque Pontificum illustrium virorum piorumque de Beati Laurentii lustiniani Venetiarum Patriarchae vita sanctitate ac miraculis testimoniorum centuria, Venice 1630, containing 163 testimonials. Daniel Rosa was rector-general of the Alghense order who was charged, in 1602, with systematizing their records. See T.M. PICCARI, Note marginali al libello del dottorato di San Lorenzo Giustiniani, protopatriarca di Venezia, Rome 1962, p. 7, n. 20. The reference to Malermi may be found on pp. 126-141 of Rosa's 1630 edition which will be cited henceforward. Cf. TRAMONTIN, La cultura monastica del Quattrocento, cit., p. 447. Bernardo might well hope for an early decision on his uncle, having himself witnessed Bernardino of Siena's rapid promotion to sainthood in 1450, only six years after his demise. The Giustiniani were personally acquainted with Bernardino (P.H. LABALME, Bernardo Giustiniani: a Venetian of the Quattrocento, Rome 1969, pp. 86-88). 14 On the statue, see J. MEYER ZUR CAPELLEN, La "Figura" del San Lorenzo Giustinian di Jacopo Bellini, Venice 1981, and the documents cited in C. EISLER, The Genius of Jacopo Bellini, New York 1989, pp. 59-60, 521. Eisler, however, considers the extant bust currently in San Pietro di Castello to

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all were icons for the devout. All were also patently promotional15. But it was not in Venetian churches and processions nor through the Venetian printing press that Lorenzo's holy status would be decided. By the late fifteenth century, the key to sanctification lay firmly among the keys of St. Peter. Without papal approval there could be no universal recognition, no transition from the popularly and locally determined «beatus» to the higher «sanctus», to a place in the canon, to a feast day allotted in the calendar and an office inscribed in the liturgy16. And the securing of papal approval might require considerable diplomatic manoeuvering. That was the problem. In the years following Lorenzo's death, the be more likely the work of Gentile Bellini and the «figura» mentioned in the commission a possible «grisaille» which may have been on linen and painted for a sculptor's guidance. Marin Sanudo comments on both tomb and statue in his «Cronica Veneta», fol. 337, quoted in Rosa (1630 edition, p. 145): «et poi detto corpo fu tratto del deposito, et per li suoi parenti fu posto in una area marmorea, et fatto una capella con la sua imagine de marmoro in piedi». The Castello statue, however, is not «in piedi» but only a half-bust. The Gentile Bellini panel, the execution of which has been dated 1465, is now in the Accademia delle Belle Arti (MEYER ZUR CAPELLEN, La "Figura", cit, p. 8). On Lorenzo's tomb and the family's later efforts to complete and embellish it, see P.H. LABALME, The Last Will of a Venetian Patrician (1489), in Philosophy and Humanism: Renaissance Essays in Honor of Paul Oskar Kristeller, Leiden 1976, pp. 486 and 495. In the archive of the Church of S. Croce alia Giudecca there are notes from Bernardo's son, Lorenzo, to the abbess which deal with payments for the tomb, «per conto dela fabricha» (ASV, Santa Croce alia Giudecca, b. 6). These bear the dates 1490 and 1493. By 1493, the tomb was visible enough for Marin Sanudo to comment on it in his List of Notable Things in Diverse Venetian Churches («Queste sono cosse notabile in diverse chiesie», Museo Civico Correr, Venice, Ms. Cicogna 969). His first item refers to the Castello tomb: «A San Piero di Castello 1'arca di Filippo Corer, del Beata [sic] Lorenzo, et Bernardo Justinian, et e assa perdonanza la quarisima». See W.S. SHEARD, Sanudo's List of Notable Things in Venetian Churches and the Date of the Vendramin Tomb, in «Yale Italian Studies», I, 3 (Summer 1977), p. 255. The importance of the venerated tomb is later argued by ROSA who writes that the Church would never have permitted the worship of Lorenzo's body as a holy relic, prior to his beatification in 1524, were it not that sanctity was already attributed to him by «publico grido» and «fama universale» (1630 edition, pp. 143-144). 15 The role of artistic portrayal as contributing to sanctification is an interesting one. For Jacopo Bellini's statue, Meyer zur Capellen points out that the gesture of benediction was a prerogative of saints (p. 30). Simple representation was also taken as evidence. Bernardo Giustiniani in his Vita (ch. I) writes of the Giustiniani forbears, Nicolo and Anna, the following: «Multis miraculis ambo claruerunt, atque eorum imagines apud aedem S. Nicolai in testimonium sanctitatis ad nostram usque aetatem perstitere», an assertion repeated by Rosa (1630 edition), p. 35. Cf. A. VAUCHEZ, La Saintete en Occident aux Derniers Siecles du Moyen Age, Rome 1988, pp. 528-529. 16 Papal approval for canonization was first formally claimed by Pope Alexander III in 1170, and reasserted by Gregory IX in the Decretals of 1234. For useful summaries, see L. HERTLING, Materialiper la storia delprocesso di canonizzazione, in «Gregorianum», XVI (1935), pp. 170-195, and K.L. WOODWARD, Making Saints, New York 1990, pp. 65-66. The matter was made more sensitive in the fifteenth century by the attitude of some conciliarists who, at the Council of Constance, were ready to proceed with canonization on their own authority (E.W. KEMP, Canonization and Authority in the Western Church, London 1948, pp. 130-131). On fifteenth-century perceptions of difference between «beatus» and «sanctus», see KEMP, Canonization, cit., pp. 136-137 and HERTLING, Materials, cit., p. 186. The distinction between the two terms was not juridically clear before the seventeenth century (cf. VAUCHEZ, La Saintete, cit., p. 114).

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papal throne was occupied by a series of popes, including even one Venetian pope, who were often at loggerheads with the Venetian republic. It was not until Sixtus IV was elected pope in 1471 that progress in Lorenzo's cause was made. This may have been because the Venetian embassy of obedience was led by Bernardo Giustiniani who was acquainted with Sixtus from their student days in Padua17. Bernardo gave, upon his arrival in Rome, a famous and much-copied oration in which he spoke eloquently of the grave Turkish threat, expressing Venice's hopes that Sixtus, as God's chosen leader, would coordinate and direct the Christian forces against the infidel enemy. In a resounding conclusion, Bernardo declared that to this divinely chosen leader, that is, Sixtus, the Venetians, who already for more than eight years had alone protected Christianity from this savage fury would offer once again «their cities and towns, their islands, navies, armies and their wealth, for whatever they are worth in riches, for whatever power they may bring over earth and sea». Sixtus IV was sufficiently impressed with Bernardo's rhetoric to issue a formal decree, commending Bernardo as «worthy of comparison with the ancient more celebrated Greek and Latin orators»18. Bernardo needed the pope's good will as he tried, during the ensuing five months, to negotiate not only a renewed effort against «el signor Turco», but a host of other tricky arrangements. These included the collection of ecclesiastical tithes for the Turkish wars, the justification of Venice's secular control of ecclesiastical appointments, and the state's secular judgement of hastily tonsured criminals19. Surely it is likely that during these delicate negotiations Bernardo may well, before he left Rome in February or March of 1472, have introduced the matter of Lorenzo's sanctification20. 17 A. STELLA, Bernardo lustiniani Patritii Veneti Senatoris, Equestris, Procuratoriique ordinis viri ampliss[imi] Vita, Venice 1553, fol. 8v, speaks of the «familiaritatem» between Bernardo Giustiniani and Francesco della Rovere, the future Sixtus IV. 18 For Bernardo Giustiniani's mission to Sixtus IV in 1471-1472 and this speech, extensively quoted, see LABALME, Bernardo Giustiniani, cit., 194-203. 19 For examples of the problems raised by the nepotistic appointments to Venetian episcopal sees made by Paul II and maintained by Sixtus IV but roundly rejected by the Venetian government, see G. SORANZO, Giovanni Battista Zeno, nipote di Paolo II, Cardinale di S. Maria in Portico (14681501), in «Rivista di Storia della Chiesa in Italia», XVI (1962), pp. 249-274. This particular struggle was not resolved until 1476, but Bernardo was successful in securing, on February 9, 1472, two decime to be levied on ecclesiastical property and dedicated to the defense against the Turks (SORANZO, Giovanni Battista Zeno, cit., p. 252, n. 10). On the background for Venice's collection of the decima, see G. BENZONI, Una controversia tra Roma e Venecia all'inizio del '600: la conferma del patriarca, in «Bollettino dell'Istituto di Storia della Societa e dello Stato Veneziano», III (1961), p. 127, n. 4. 20 I base this conjecture on a seventeenth-century summary of the earlier canonization proceedings: Acta de miraculis et de canonizatione B. Laurentii Justiniani protopatriarchae Venetiarum, Rome

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Most certainly, Bernardo was involved, upon his return, in the formulation of the Senate's petition to the pope in June 1473. As one of the ducal counsellors, Bernardo's name appears frequently in the months before and after this petition next to the recorded letters and decisions of the Senate, although no sponsoring name appears in the margins of this petition which came on behalf of the entire Venetian government21. Et pater et patriarcha et patricius: the description of Lorenzo's several roles in the 1473 petition could have been Bernardo's own. We know also from a seventeenth-century list of documents pertaining to the canonization that there were letters sent to the cardinals in 1473 and these together with the petition to the pope were successful in securing the processo that opened a year and a half later, in 147422. The ceremonial opening of the processo on December 21, 1474, was described by the Milanese ambassador to Venice in a letter to the Duke of Milan. He told of the opening Mass, of the presence of Bernardo and other high officials from the Venetian government, of the two papal commissioners appointed by Sixtus IV, of representatives sent by the religious

1690. There it is stated (p. 27) that the Venetian government requested the Pope to take up this matter as early as 1472 which brings the date well within Bernardo Giustiniani's Roman sojourn. Cf. NIERO, Pietd popolare e interessi politici, cit., p. 200. 21 For Bernardo's governmental presence, see ASV, Senato, Secreta, reg. 26, passim. The marginal identification of the sponsors of the 1473 petition simply lists sapientes consilii and sapientes terrae fermae. These two, also known as savii grandi and savii di terraferma, were among the few groups in the Venetian government who could initiate legislation in the Senate. Cf. H.F. BROWN, The Constitution of the Venetian Republic and the State Archives, in Venetian Studies, London 1887, p. 300. 22 This useful seventeenth-century list may be found in a manuscript volume in the archive of the S. Congregatione delle Cause dei Santi (hereafter SCCS) Fondo Z in a big red folder marked Busta 335 (interior number 141), «S. Laurentii Justiniani», on fol. 379. It is interesting to note that the pressures on Rome which Bernardo Giustiniani had diplomatically asserted in 1471 were still there three years later. An inconclusive expedition against the Turks, launched by Rome, Venice and Naples, had issued in little gain and eventual dissension among the allies. See K.M. SETTON, The Papacy and the Levant (1204-1571), vol. II, Philadelphia 1978, pp. 318-320. As shown by the deliberations in the Senate, Venice was, in 1474, seriously discussing peace with the Turks (ASV, Senato, Secreta, reg. 26, fols. 164-165 n.m., Nov. 23, 1474, at the same time that she was pursuing a renewal of the 1454 Italian League which could then be marshalled against the Moslem foe (reg. 26, fols. 158158^ n.m., Oct. 26, 1474; fol. 160 n.m., Nov. 2, 1474). Cf. Venice's plea for the «conglutinande totius Italic ut substinere rem Christianam» (reg. 26, fol. 17Iv n.m., Dec. 23, 1474) and to persuade the Pope «ut fedus [foedus] hoc nostrum benedicere dignetur et se illius facere caput principem et conservatorem» (reg. 26, fol. I12v n.m., Dec. 23, 1474). On Nov. 2, 1474, an alliance between Florence, Venice and Milan was signed, ostensibly to preserve the peace in Italy but actually to defend the status quo against Sixtus' nepotistic schemes. The Pope did not adhere, negotiating his own counteragreement with Naples, all the while seeking aid against the Turks. Is it possible that his allowing the processo to be initiated was part of an effort to conciliate the Venetians whose help he had to have for any expedition against the Turks? For further background on the political negotiations between the Papacy and Venice in the later fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries see L. VON PASTOR, The History of the Popes, St. Louis 1894-1953, vols. IV-IX.

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community of S. Giorgio in Alga who were the petitioners in the cause and who «produced the names of infinite witnesses to be examined, some on the life and miracles of this holy man and some on the public reputation and fame of his good life and holiness». The Duke of Milan was himself a potential witness, having been sent, as a young boy, to visit the holy Venetian prelate. His ambassador now informs him that he might be called to testify and closes his letter by suggesting that should the Duke be called upon to testify, and should his conscience permit him to do so, he then might also share in Lorenzo's beatitude23. But apart from this one letter, we know little more about the processo except that it did not reach a successful conclusion. What happened? The immediate deterrents seem to have been the costs involved and the unsettled nature of Italian politics-according to the comments of near-contemporaries24. Even that moment of amity between 23 Archivio di Stato di Milano, Autografi, b. 6 (Santi e beati), fasc. 16: «Dovi heri el prefato Messer Bernardo et li procuratori de Sancto Marcho me fecero invitare ad certe testimonie nelle quali doppo una messa solemne de spiritu sancto comparve doi procuratori della religione delli frati Celestini. Et domandano ad questi vescovo et prothonotario Comissarij apostolici che dovesseno procedere ad ulteriora. Et qui produsseno el nome de infiniti testimonii examinandi parte sopra la vita et miraculi de questo sancto homo et parte sopra la publica voce et fama della bona sua vita et Sta. Et [...] fu dicto potria essere che recercharano la V. Ill.ma S. debia reddere testimonio della bona fama de questo sancto homo perche dicono che altre volte mandando lo Illmo Sre vostro patre de bono memoria la V. Extia qua ad visitare questo Srmo dominio tratto da[lla] fama et Sanctimonia de questo homo [...]. Siche ne adviso quella acio che essendo richiesta essa mediante la verita et la conscientia possa participare della Beatitudine de questo Sancto homo della vita costumi et sanctimonia del quale, qui indubitamente [...] credesse veramente sia fra li altri beati». On Galeazzo Sforza's visit to Venice in November-December, 1455, when he met Lorenzo Giustiniani, see I Libri Commemoriali della Repubblica di Venezia - Regesti, Venice 1876-1914, V, in «Monumenti Storici dalla R. Deputazione Veneta di Storia Patria,» p. Ill, #340-341, Nov. 18, 1455, and Dec. 11, 1455. 24 A number of sources comment on the processo. Niccolo Malermi (cf. n. 13) in his version of the Golden Legend published in 1475 indicated, at the end of his account of Lorenzo's life, that the Venetian part of the processo had been completed and that he believed canonization would follow soon after: «Di che nel mille quattrocento settanta cinque el Summo Pontifice Sixto Quarto mandati li legati soi alia patria Veneta a essaminare, inquirere, et a essere comprobata la vita di esso Beato Laurentio, et havute le fedelissime testimonianze, et prove si ritornorono detti Legati alia Sedia Apostolica, sperasse in breve essere canonizato a honore deH'altissimo Dio». I cite this passage from Rosa (1630 edition), p. 138. However, others imply that the trial was not completed. See D. MALIPIERO, Annali Veneti, in «Archivio Storico Italiano», VII (1843-1844), p. 664: «Papa Sisto ha manda do Vescovi in questa Terra a formar processo su la vita del Beato Lorenzo Zustignan, primo Patriarca de Veniesia, per canonizarlo: et e sta da principio; ma no se ha proseguido la cosa, per respetto della spesa». SANUDO, Cronica Veneta (cited in ROSA, 1630 edition, pp. 145-146) also writes that the cause was not continued «6 fosse per le spese, 6 per le guerre, che soprazonse in Italia». See PICCARI, Note marginali, cit., pp. 17-18, n. 51. It is worth noting that the newly elected Doge, Pietro Mocenigo (14 Dec. 1474-23 Feb. 1476), was not mentioned as a promoter and that both he and his successor Andrea Vendramin (5 Mar. 1476-6 May 1478) had undoubtedly felt the competition of Bernardo Giustiniani for the dogeship. See the Mantuan ambassador's letter of 15 December 1474 (Archivio di Stato di Mantova, Arch. Gonzaga, b. 1432, fol. 932, published in Venice: A Documentary History, ed.

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Venice and the Papacy was fleeting. Sixtus IV and Venice, allies in 1474, became enemies within a few years and quarrels, interdict and excommunication then marked Venetian-papal relations for the next few decades. The records of Lorenzo's processo with whatever witnesses had come forward were removed to the Roman archives where they were unfortunately destroyed in a fire. A second copy of the records, prudently made by the canons of S. Giorgio in Alga, was later consigned to a papal legate who, guilty of some malfeasance in Venice, absconded, taking the dossier with him into oblivion25. But none of Lorenzo's supporters gave up. Lorenzo was too important a symbol: chosen by God, he embodied God's special regard for Venice. His Alghense order, while not one of the powerful orders such as the Franciscans or Dominicans and therefore not in such a strong position to promote one of its own, was still a tenacious and cohesive community which in serving the Venetian ecclesiastical system was also serving the Venetian empire. Its leaders continued to press for canonization, publishing Lorenzo's Opera in 1506 and even later, in the earlier decades of the seventeenth century, compiling collections of supportive documents 26. The patriarchate - and Lorenzo was the protopatriarca, the first D. CHAMBERS and B. PULLAN, Oxford 1992, p. 49). The next doge, Giovanni Mocenigo (18 May 14784 November 1485) may also have been indifferent or hostile and the Barbarigo brothers who followed (Marco: 19 November 1485-14 August 1486 and Agostino: 30 August 1486-20 Sept. 1501) were part of a concerted and successful effort to keep the old families such as the Giustiniani from the dogeship (from 1382 to 1612), and perhaps from other honors as well. See MARIN SANUDO, Vite dei Dogi, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana (hereafter BNM), Ms. ltd. cl. VII, 531 (= 7152), fols. 271-273, publ. in Venice: a Documentary History, pp. 72-73. With the dogeship of Leonardo Loredan (2 October 1501-22 June 1521) who was eager to see Lorenzo canonized, the cause takes on a new life. See below, n. 31. 25 The fire was first referred to in the Venetian Signoria's letter to Leo X of Dec. 9, 1518 as recorded in SANUDO, Diarii, 26:255, and acknowledged in Leo X's Apostolic Letter of April 11, 1519, explaining the loss of records: «eiusmodi inquisitio Romam missa, quae quoniam incendio quodam, quo quamplurima scripta periere, ut dicuntur, combusta est» (see ROSA, 1630 edition, p. 9; PICCARI, Note marginal!, cit., p. 3; and the 1690 Acta de miraculis, p. 91). For the legate who absconded with the only other copy, see SANUDO, Diarii, 40:621: «et havendo li frati la copia fo dato a uno Legato dil Papa che da poi vene in questa terra nominato il Carazolo; el qual hessendo sta accusato per maran, fuzite e porto via el ditto processor I have not yet identified this legate. 26 The 1506 edition was published in Brescia under the supervision of Girolamo Cavallo, rectorgeneral of the congregation of the canons of San Giorgio in Alga: Opera divi Laurentii lustiniani Venetiarii protopatriarcha, Brescia 1506. Preceding publication there was an interesting exchange of letters between Cavallo and a theologian whom he asked to verify Lorenzo Giustiniani's orthodoxy on the matter of Mary's immaculate conception, an exchange included in the 1506 volume along with several poetic testimonials and Bernardo's Vita. R. GOFFEN, Piety and Patronage in Renaissance Venice, New Haven 1986, pp. 78-79, discusses this controversy and Lorenzo Giustiniani's position in regard to the immaculate conception. For seventeenth-century efforts on behalf of the canonization, see the two editions of Daniel Rosa's collection of documents supporting Lorenzo's sanctity cited in n. 13. SCCS, b. 335, fol. 379 lists Rosa himself as author of a 1612 petition addressed to the doge.

VIII 26 of the new Venetian series - was a prestigious title for Venice to have acquired and Lorenzo's patriarchal successors were at work on his behalf through the succeeding centuries27. The Giustiniani family also continued their campaign. Bernardo died in 1489, but his son and then two of his grandsons pursued the cause through the governmental and diplomatic offices in which they remained active, as the following records show28. 2. For the next phase in these early efforts to canonize Lorenzo Giustiniani, there are two sources which provide a syncopated narrative. From Rome, we have the dispatches - a few in the original but most from a copybook - of Marco Minio, the Venetian ambassador to the court of Rome from 1516 to 1519. On the Venetian side, there are the Diaries of Marin Sanudo which not only summarize the ambassador's dispatches (occasionally adding an editorial comment) but recount the government's actions and record the government's letters to the Pope about this matter 29 . It is Sanudo who introduces the next phase in his Diaries on December 9, 1518, and, with a view to the future history of the cause, fills in the background: 27 See SCCS, b. 335, fol. 379 which lists a petition from the patriarch, Antonio Contarini, in 1518 (or possibly 1519, if the date given is «more veneto» which begins the new year on March 1). The tradition of support even includes Pope John XXIII (1953-63) who came to the papal throne from the Venetian patriarchate and during both his patriarchate and papacy encouraged scholars to study and celebrate his saintly predecessor. 28 It was Bernardo's son, Lorenzo Giustiniani, who had been much concerned with the embellishment of his great uncle Beato Lorenzo's tomb (cf. n. 14) and had served as podesta in Brescia in 1500-1501 (P. LITTA, Famiglie celebri d'Italia, Milan 1819-1883, vol. 6, t. X) only a few years before Beato Lorenzo's works were published there in 1506 by Girolamo Cavallo. Of Bernardo's grandsons, there were two important for this story: Leonardo Giustiniani, son of Lorenzo, who initiated further governmental efforts in 1518 which led to a papal order for a new trial on April 11,1519 (see SANUDO, Diarii, 26:248), and Marco Dandolo, son of Bernardo's daughter Orsa and Andrea Dandolo, whose embassies to Adrian VI and Clement VII contributed to the incompleted effort of Adrian VI and the Clementine indultum of July 9, 1524 (see SANUDO, Diarii, 40:621, and below, n. 58). Later descendants are mentioned in the 1614 edition of Daniel Rosa's compilation which was dedicated to Giorgio Giustiniani, «pronipote» of Bernardo Giustiniani, and in the second edition of 1630 which was dedicated to Giovanni da Pesaro, who was at the time of the dedication ambassador to the papal court. Pesaro was related to the Giustiniani through Bernardo's granddaughter who had married a Soranzo. Her great granddaughter married a Pesaro and Giovanni da Pesaro was this woman's son. In 1655, Basilio Zancaroli published a collection of history, praise and prayers concerning Lorenzo Giustiniani under the title Infulata zodiaci mystici Virgo, sive B. Laurentii lustiniani protopatriarchae Venetarum elogium and dedicated it to Girolamo Giustiniani, Venetian ambassador to Pope Alexander VII (1655-66). That the cause was finally and successfully concluded in 1690 was partially due to Daniele Giustiniani, bishop of Bergamo (PICCARI, Note marginal!, cit., p. 13). 29 On Marco Minio, see the Cenni biografici intorno a Marco Minio in E.A. ALBERI, Relazioni degli Ambasciatori Veneti alSenato, s. II, vol. 3, Florence 1846, p. 62. The copybook of his dispatches to the Signoria is to be found in ASV, Archivio Proprio Roma, b. 4. This copybook was once in the possession of RAWDON BROWN who excerpted many of its letters in his Calendar of State Papers and

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To the [Venetian] Collegia in the morning came Leonardo Giustiniani, son of Ser Lorenzo who was the son of Ser Bernardo, procurator, a close relative of the Beato Lorenzo Giustiniani, our first patriarch, [...] and he was most holy. His Vita was written by the aforementioned Ser Bernardo, and a tomb was made for him in San Pietro di Castello where his body lies and also that of Bernardo, in the ground, and he [Lorenzo] is called Beato; in life and in death he performed many miracles. He was a brother of the order of canons of Santa Maria dell'Orto30. This Leonardo explained that he was seeking the canonization of Lorenzo, and he offered to contribute to the expense. Also, our most reverend patriarch would contribute, for he has a great desire to see Lorenzo canonized, and also the brothers of his order, and even the government would be willing to contribute. He [Leonardo] requested that the Venetian ambassador to the papacy be written, and also the pope about this matter. And the whole Collegia, especially the doge, praised this request, and ordered [...] the secretary to write in appropriate form, which letters I will append below31.

Manuscripts, relating to English Affairs, Existing in the Archives and Collections of Venice and in other libraries of Northern Italy, 2 (1509-1519), London 1867. A few original letters from Marco Minio may be found in ASV, Consiglio deiDieci (hereafter CX), Capi, Lettere ambasciatori, Roma 1515-1538, b. 22, but none concern Lorenzo Giustiniani. Similarly, some Venetian governmental letters directed to Marco Minio may be found in ASV, CX, Capi, Lettere, Filza 18 and 19, but none of those preserved here mention Lorenzo Giustiniani. For the government's side we have Sanudo's transcriptions of certain governmental letters as well as his summaries of Marco Minio's letters and the government's responsive actions in vols. 26, 27, 34, 40, and 43 of his Diarii. Sanudo's particular interest in the Giustiniani processo is worth noting. Certainly this was an important domestic issue, but Sanudo may have harbored a more personal curiosity. Among the many books of his library (a famous collection of 2800 volumes) was Bernardo Giustiniani's Vita Beati Laurentii. Sanudo's paternal uncle, Francesco, who had served the Venetian government in a number of important positions in Venice and the Veneto, had, in 1474, been elected by the Canons of San Giorgio in Alga as one of the conservatori of the congregation. See G.A. CAPELLARI VIVARO, Campidoglio veneto, vol. IV, fol. 52t> (BNM, Ms. Ital. cl. VII, 18 (= 8307). Moreover, Marin's father, Leonardo Sanudo, who died on his embassy to Rome in October 1474, must have had the processo as part of his diplomatic agenda since it opened in Venice two months later. Marin was only eight years old at the time of his father's death and twelve at the time of his uncle's election by the Alghense canons, but since he interested himself in both his father's and uncle's careers, is it possible that he inherited papers or instructions dealing with the canonization? 30 Santa Maria dell'Orto was the principal Alghense church within the city of Venice at this time, with an altar dedicated to Beato Lorenzo (MUSATTI in Santitd in Venezia). On the development of its relationship to S. Giorgio in Alga, see CENCI, L'archivio delta Cancelleria delta Nunziatura Veneta, cit., pp. 284-286. It was occupied by the canons secular of S. Giorgio in Alga in 1462. 31 SANUDO, Diarii, 26:248: «Et la matina vene in Colegio sier Lunardo Justinian qu. sier Lorenzo qu. sier Bernardo procurator, parente stretissimo dil bia' Lorenzo Justiniani primo patriarca nostro, qual ne 1'anno dil... morite et era sanctissimo, la cui vita fo scripta per sier Bernardo preditto, et fatoli 1'archa a San Piero di Castello dove jace il suo corpo e in terra quello dil prefato sier Bernardo, e chiamato beato, et in vita e in morte fece mold miracoli. Fu frate a Santa Maria di 1'Orto di I'hordine di canonici presenti di quella religione. Hor dito sier Lunardo expose che'l desiderava che'l ditto bia' Lorenzo fusse canonizato, offerendosi contribuir a la spexa. Etiam il reverendissimo Patriarca nostro contribuira, qual ha gran desiderio che'l sia canonizato, et etiam li frati dil suo hordine, et la Signoria nostra sara contenta contribuir etiam lei, suplicando fosse scrito a 1'Orator nostro in corte et al Summo Pontifice in questa materia. Et cussi tutto il Colegio, maxime il Principe, laudo questa cossa, et ordino a Bortolameo Comin secretario scrivesse in bona forma; le qual letere scrite per Colegio e qui avanti notade». The Collegio, made up of the six savii grandi, five savii di terraferma, and five savii agli ordini, was the steering committee of the Senate and set its agenda. The doge was Leonardo

VIII 28

A few columns later, Sanudo records the ducal letters to the Venetian ambassador and the pope, written that very day. The ambassador was told of the government's great eagerness in this matter and encouraged to seek the favor and cooperation of the cardinals. The pope, now the Medici Leo X (1513-1521), was reminded of his predecessor's actions, that is, of Sixtus IVs appointment of two papal commissioners whose careful collection of evidence and testimony had been deposited in the papal archives and then destroyed by a fire. The events and upheavals of subsequent years had caused a delay, but now the time had come to reopen the case, an action which would be of incredible gratification to the Republic. Therefore, the letter went on, we beg Your Grace, Most Holy Father, again and again, that in keeping with your pastoral office you graciously grant what we so greatly desire and hope for and designate two of your most worthy prelates as apostolic judges to investigate this matter diligently [...]. Nor can we hide our desire that the two we wish for - both highly upright and honest men are Altobello Averoldi, Your Holiness' legate in Venice, and Don Antonio Contarini, Patriarch of Venice..., who with their innate godly piety and out of reverence for your mandate, would both, we are confident, willingly undertake and wisely fulfill the papal commission32.

Loredan (1501-1521), an acquaintance and admirer of Beato Lorenzo, «qual desiderava fusse nel suo tempo canonizato; il qual conobbe e di lui avea gran devution» (SANUDO, Dtarii, 40:621). Loredan belonged to one of the case nuove but was connected to the Giustiniani family through the second marriage of Marco Dandolo, a great great nephew of Holy Lorenzo's (see note 58 below). 32 SANUDO, Diarii, 26:255-256: «Igitur Sanctitatem Vestram, Beatissime Pater, etiam atque etiam oratum volumus, pro pastorali officio suo dignetur, hoc, nobis summopere optantibus et sperantibus benigne concedere, ut ipsa duobus de integro honestissimis praelatis tanquam judicibus apostolicis negotium hoc committat diligentissima perquisitione cognoscendum: ut suis postmodum, ducente Deo, numeribus atque gradibus providenter illud ipsum perficere possint, quemadmodum in coeteris quoque actibus suis divina dictante inspiratione consuevit. Judices autem ad rem hanc, ne desiderii nostri quicquam celemus, delegi exoptamus duos reverendissimos patres innocentissimos pariter atque integerrimos, dominos Altobellum Averoldum Sanctitatis Vestrae legatum apud nos agentem, et dominum Antonium Contarenum patriarcham Venetiarum, quibus ambobus par alterum vix optari meliores inveniri posse haudquamquam arbitramur, ut igitur ex omni parte nunc fiat nobis quod vehementer optamus Beatitude Vestra huic ni mirum obeundo muneri honestissimoque labori subeundo nominatorum utrumque destinabit, quod et illos pro innata in Deum pietate mandatorumque Vestrae Sanctitatis reverentia cum libentissime suscepturos confidimus, turn optime etiam atque sapientissime curaturos». On Altobello Averoldi, papal nunzio in Venice from September 1517 to January 1523 and 1526-1531, see F. GAETA in the Dizionario Biografico Italiano (hereafter DJ3I), vol. IV, Rome 1962, pp. 667-668; ID., Un inedito vergeriano, in «Rivista di Storia della Chiesa in Italia», XIII (1959), pp. 399-400, where Gaeta lists Sanudo's many references to this colorful Brescian prelate who made many friends in Venice; ID., Origine e sviluppo della rapprestanza stabile pontifice in Venezia 1485-1533, in «Annuario dell'Istituto Storico Italiano per 1'Eta Moderna», IX-X (19571958), pp. 40-44 and 175-178 for Altobello Averoldi's instructions drawn up by Giulio de' Medici. On Leo X's previous concessions for beatification, see F. VERAJA, La Beatificazione: Storia, Problemi, Prospetfive, Rome 1983, pp. 30-37.

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Two weeks later, on December 24, 1518, the Venetian ambassador reported back to the government: he had presented the Signoria's letter to the pope and the pope had stressed the need for repeated and ardent requests. Recognizing, however, that this had probably all transpired on the previous occasion, the pope had agreed to raise the matter in the next consistory. The pope also said that the cause should be entrusted to three prelates, but two could proceed, and he then interrogated the ambassador on his opinion of Beato Lorenzo. Marco Minio replied that, in truth, he had heard much about his holy name and holy life, and so it was maintained by everyone in Venice33. On January 10, 1519, in consistory, the Venetian Signoria's letter to the pope was read by Cardinal Giulio dei Medici, cousin to Pope Leo X and a powerful figure at the papal court. No vote was taken in that session, the cardinals requiring time for reflection34. On January 15, 1519, the Venetian ambassador reported that these reflections had led the cardinals to request further petitions, as was usual in such procedures, to which the ambassador replied that that had all been done, first time around, but the dossier had been lost in the fire «here in Rome, in the archives». But the cardinals insisted: it was essential that some evidence of the earlier processo be sent, and additional statements about Beato Lorenzo's exemplary life. The current patriarch should also write with similar requests. All this would cost nothing. The pope was well disposed and eager that the cardinals be satisfied because the cardinals considered that one of their principal functions lay in such determinations. The Venetian ambassador went on to name the several cardinals who were favorably inclined and should be cultivated as sponsors35. 33 «E cosi da tutti in Venetia mantenuto»: ASV, Arch. Proprio Roma, b. 4, fol. 149, #261, despatch of Dec. 24, 1518. Cf. SANUDO, Diarii, 26:312-313 for the diarist's summary. On the need for repeated requests, see VAUCHEZ, La Saintete en Occident, cit., p. 47 and p. 79, n. 22. Marco Minio's letter ends with a plea to be repatriated (he had been away from Venice two and a half years by then) and/or more funds, a plea to be repeated during the next months and repeatedly ignored. Sanudo, in reporting this, embellishes it as follows: «Scrive ben dito Orator se li provedi di danari per expedir li corieri, et etiam per el suo viver, volendo tenir oratori de li; ma non provedendo, e certo la Signoria non vora piu oratori in corte». 34 ASV, Arch. Proprio Roma, b. 4, fol. 151t>, #265, Jan. 11, 1519; SANUDO, Diarii, 26:379. 35 ASV, Arch. Proprio Roma, b. 4, fols. 152-153, #266, Jan. 15, 1519: «che quella causa altre volte fu commessa, e fu formato il processo, il quale si bruso qui in Roma nelTarchivio» (fol. 152*;). Cf. SANUDO, Diarii, 26:380. See also ASV, Arch. Proprio Roma, b. 4, #267, fols. 153-153*;, for Marco Minio's letter of Jan. 22, 1519 and SANUDO, Diarii, 26:419. The three cardinals who seem to have played the most important sponsoring parts in the cause were Antonio Maria del Monte, cardinal of Santa Prassede, Marco Corner, cardinal of Santa Maria in Via Lata, and Raffaele Riario, cardinal of Sangiorgio. Antonio Maria del Monte was a Tuscan cardinal (since 1511), a clever and powerful figure who held at this time the bishoprics of Pavia and Novara and was ultimately successful in promoting his nephew Ciocco del Monte towards the papal throne (Julius III, 1550-1555). Del Monte

VIII 30 By February 4, the Venetian ambassador had received instructions to express his government's «infinite thanks» for the pope's favorable response to their request concerning the canonization and having done so, he reported back that the pope averred that these matters were more «divine than human» ; nevertheless, it was good to proceed in the appropriate way in order to achieve the desired results36. A pattern begins to emerge from this diplomatic correspondence. The

had visited Venice in the fall of 1518, a visit described by Pietro DOLFIN in a letter of Oct. 29, 1518 in Epistolarum Volumen, Venice 1524, Bk. XI, #82, as well as by SANUDO, Diarii, 26:313. See also L. ZECCHIN, Vetri di Murano net Diarii diSanudo, in «Giornale economico», XLII (1957), p. 203 for del Monte's October 1518 visit to the Murano glassworks. Marco Minio reports, on Dec. 24, 1518, the cardinal's satisfaction with his visit and his willingness to perform «tutto quel buono officio per quella li sara possibile» for the Signoria (ASV, Arch. Proprio Roma, b. 4, fol. 149, #261). Marco Corner of the powerful Venetian Corner family was a cardinal-deacon holding the bishopric of Verona, whose support of Leo X's candidacy (and pro-French policy) was rewarded by his also receiving the bishopric of Padua. His aunt, Lucia Corner, had married Marco Dandolo, Bernardo Giustiniani's grandson, in 1485. However, Corner's role in the canonization process appears ambivalent. Marco Minio's letter of Jan. 15, 1519, reports that Corner had initially (in the first consistory) opposed the cause, and then later Corner had explained that this was only in order to encourage the Venetian government to write again and that then he could be supportive with greater effect (ASV, Arch. Proprio Roma, b. 4, fol. \52v, #266; SANUDO, Diarii, 26:380). But his furthering of Venetian interests was also compromised by his rivalry with the cardinal-bishop Domenico Grimani whom the Venetian Republic had unsuccessfully promoted towards the papal throne in 1513 (see P. PASCHINI, Domenico Grimani, Cardinale di San Marco, Rome 1943, pp. 71-74, and on this rivalry and that of their fathers for the dogeship in 1521 see SANUDO, Diarii, 32:207-208, 215,433 and R. FINLAY, Politics in Renaissance Venice, New Brunswick 1980, pp. 152-155). Grimani, the son of Doge Antonio Grimani, was to die in August, 1523, having enjoyed a reputation for eloquence, erudition, generosity and moral intransigence. His death was followed within a year by that of Marco Corner, and so two important Venetian presences were removed from the papal court. Raffaele Riario, a nephew of Sixtus IV, had been the «camerario apostolico» since 1483 and had a close relationship with the papal legate to Venice, Altobello Averoldi (see SANUDO, Diarii, 24:611: «qual seguitava il cardinal San Zorzi» and GAETA, Un inedito vergeriano, cit., pp. 404-405). But in June of 1517 he had been charged with and incarcerated for participating in a plot against Leo X's life. He was pardoned on July 24 but did not rejoin the consistory until January of 1519 (SANUDO, 26:379 and PARIS DE GRASSIS, llDiario di Leone X, Rome 1884, p. 57), two years before his death in 1521. For information on these cardinals, see the following: SANUDO, Diarii, XXIV, cols. 84-95 (Marino Zorzi's relazione of 1517, describing Riario, Grimani, and Corner, also to be found in ALBERI, RelazioniDegliAmbasciatori Veneti al Senato, cit., pp. 55-58); C. EUBEL, Hierarchia Catholica Medii et Recentioris Aevi, vol. Ill, Regensburg 1923 and Padua 1960; DBI, s.v.; B. HALLMAN, Italian Cardinals, Reform, and the Church as Property 1492-1563, Berkeley 1985. There were other cardinals favorably inclined towards the cause, and Marco Minio identifies them as San Vidal, Fieschi, Cavalsense, Grassis and Como «perche alcuni di loro hanno lette dell'opere fatte per il detto Beato Laurentio, certamente dicono tanto bene di lui, quanto dir si potrebbe» (ASV, Arch. Proprio Roma, b. 4, fol. I52v, #266, Jan. 15, 1519; SANUDO, Diarii, 26:380). On the twelfth-century development of the cardinals' role in canonizations, see Paolo Prodi's preface in A. TURCHINI, La fabbrica di un santo. II processo di canonizzazione di Carlo Borromeo e la Controriforma, Casale Monferrato 1984, p. ix. 36 ASV, Arch. Proprio Roma, b. 4, fols. 155-155^, #270, Feb. 4, 1519: «Mi respose che queste erano cose piu presto divine che humane. E pero era buono procedere colli modi convenienti accio le cose possono conseguire il desiderate fine»; SANUDO, Diarii, 26:469.

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papal court insists on a protocol involving repeated and urgent requests from the petitioners, «grandissima istantia», as part of a system of procedure that must be respected. The Venetians were reminded that there were many other candidates for canonization, so that their competition had to be continuous. And in order that such competition proceed effectively, the Venetian ambassador in Rome informs himself of how these things are best done, describing whenever he can the process as it is taking place for another candidate and seeking advice from the friendlier cardinals37. In response to the ambassador's recommendations, on February 5, 1519, the Venetian Collegia commissioned its secretary to draft new letters from the doge to the pope, to the college of cardinals, and to three cardinals in particular, Cardinals del Monte, Corner, and Riario, urging them to pursue the sanctification molto caldamente, ardently, because, as Sanudo editorialized, that's what is necessary to canonize a saint. And he included copies of the secretary's letters which he found to be molto docte, very learned. The pope was assured in his letter that the patriarch would write; the college of cardinals and the individual cardinals were all warmly encouraged38. By February 13, 1519, eight days later, the Venetian ambassador had received the copies of this correspondence which he was to take to the pope, the college of cardinals, and the individual cardinals, together with a declaratione, a statement concerning Lorenzo's life. He wrote that he would take these to the pope39. But two days later, the Venetian ambassador had second thoughts. He had read the material assembled on the life of Lorenzo Giustiniani, and he was worried that should he present this material to the pope, it would seem as if the Venetian government had already partially proceeded with a processo and that would not be pleasing to the pope nor to the cardinals. The ambassador suggested a new letter stating that once the process had been authorized (commessa la causa), records of Lorenzo's various miracles and his holy life would be

37 ASV, Arch. Proprio Roma, b. 4, fol. 1520, #266, Jan. 15, 1519 and fol. 1530, #267, Jan. 22, 1519. For Marco Minio's description of the canonization procedures for Franceso di Paola, see ASV, Arch. Proprio Roma, b. 4, fol. 149, #261, Dec. 24, 1518, and fols. 168-1690, #295, April 5, 1519, reported in SANUDO, Diarii, 26:312-313, and 27:169. Francesco di Paola (1416-1507) founded the Order of the Minimi and spent 21 years at the French court. His canonization in 1519 was supported by the King of France. 38 SANUDO, Diarii, 26:437 and, for copies of the Venetian government's letters, 439-445. That the patriarch also wrote is indicated by a reference in SCCS, b. 335, fol. 379 which lists, for 1518 (m.v.?) a «Supplicatio Smo Antonii Contareno Patriarchae Venetiarum. 39 ASV, Arch. Proprio Roma, b. 4, # 272, fols. 1560-157, Feb. 13, 1519; SANUDO, Diarii, 26:479.

VIII 32 forthcoming. Lorenzo's prophetic powers should also be mentioned and this second letter could then be inserted in the first. Having somewhat apologetically offered his opinion, the ambassador affirmed his willingness to act in whatever way the Signoria preferred40. Then, for several weeks, the processo disappears from the ambassador's correspondence as from Sanudo's Diaries. And no wonder. That winter, 1518-1519, was a time of compelling news. The Turks continued to threaten Christian lands, taking Valona in November 1518. The imperial crown was in play, even before the Emperor Maximilian's death on January 12, 1519, with Francis I of France and Charles I of Spain seeking allies in their competition. This contest was not to be decided until June 28, 1519, when Charles was elected emperor as Charles V, an issue against which Venice had protected herself by an agreement, a year earlier, with the Habsburg prince41. There were religious rumblings in Germany where Luther's revolt was gaining momentum. Between Venice and the Papacy, there were the usual sensitive issues to settle: the reform of monasteries, the appointment to bishoprics, the awarding of other benefices, the jurisdiction over criminous clerks, and witches at Val Camonica. The Venetian jewels of the Church of San Marco, given years earlier to the pope's banker, Agostini Chigi, as security for a loan which was now repaid, had not yet been returned42. All these concerns filled the diplomatic mails between Rome and Venice, and swelled Sanudo's Diaries. Against this backdrop, the efforts to canonize Lorenzo Giustiniani went forward. On February 26, the Signoria wrote their ambassador to

40 ASV, Arch. Proprio Roma, b. 4, fols. 157-158, #273, Feb. 15, 1519: «Dopo ho etiam letto tutte dette scritture e penso che se s'apresentassino alia S. del Pont, saria giudicato che V. Ser. 1'havesse fatto formar parte del processo che potria esser cosa non molto grata alia S. del Pont, come al collegio delli Rmi Cardinali se inanti la comession della causa fussino state formate simil scritture» (fol. 151 v); SANUDO, Diarii, 26:480: «quella scrittura non sta ben; pareria fusse fato processo avanti fusse comessa». Sanudo's summary conflates the Venetian ambassador's letters of Feb. 13 and Feb. 15, 1519. On the interest in prophetic powers, see VAUCHEZ, La Saintete en Occident, cit, p. 592. 41 See R. CESSI, Storia della Repubblica di Venezia, Florence 1981, p. 512, for a discussion of the Truce of July 31, 1518, between the Venetian and imperial forces, under the terms of which the Venetians agreed to pay the Empire 20,000 ducats per year for five years. Marco Minio's letter of Feb. 15, 1519 refers to the «grande benevolenza et amicitia con il Cattolico Re ma con il Christianissimo 1'e confederata e collegiata d'indessolubel vincolo» (ASV, Arch. Proprio Roma, b. 4, fol. 157, #273). 42 See F. GILBERT, The Pope, His Banker, and Venice (Cambridge, Mass., and London 1980) for the background to this negotiation and ASV, CX, Capi, Lettere, b. 22, for the Venetian government's discussions of events and their concerns during the winter of 1518-1519 and ASV, Arch. Proprio Roma, b. 4, passim for Marco Minio's letters. On at least one occasion, Marco Minio used the cause of Lorenzo Giustiniani to seek out the Pope and then sound him out on Franco-Spanish negotiations concerning the kingdom of Navarre (see fol. 152, #266, Jan. 15, 1519). See also Libri Commemoriali, VI, p. 155, #105, May 10, 1519 and p. 159, #120, Oct. 22, 1519 for references to the Chigi loan.

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proceed with the letters and materials previously sent whose form and content they had judged appropriate for the petitioning of a processo43. But because of carnival, it was not until March 21 that the ambassador found it opportune to do so. On that date, he reported that he had given the pope his letter and the scritture about Lorenzo which His Holiness read, pronouncing himself satisfied: these are fine matters, he said. The Venetian ambassador pressed Leo X to introduce the cause in the next consistory, and finding his response so satisfactory he added that what was in these materials was nothing compared to what would be made evident in the processo. Furthermore, the ambassador pointed out to the pope that Matteo Palmieri, the Tuscan humanist, in his addition to Eusebius' «De Temporibus» had referred to Lorenzo as beato, so providing a good external witness. The pope willingly agreed to raise the subject in the next consistory where the letter to the college of cardinals would be presented as was customary. Meanwhile, the ambassador delivered the three individual letters to the three particular cardinals, eliciting from them their promises to help44. The smoothness of these negotiations surely indicates a time of concord between Venice and the papacy. On the larger scale, both were concerned that the imperial election not lead to an aggrandized and aggressive Spanish preponderance and both tended toward the candidacy of the French king, Francis I, whose chances of winning appeared increasingly slim. On the smaller scale, there were exchanges of favors deeply appreciated by the pope. In this same letter of March 21, 1519, the ambassador conveyed to his government the pope's gratitude for the Signoria's granting certain requests of the papal legate. The reference may have been to the tax-free wine solicited a few months earlier by the legate for himself and for his master, Leo X45. The ambassador replied to the pope that his government would not miss any opportunity to please the pope, having always been fully obedient, «ossequentissimo». To which the pope responded that he was mindful of the benefits Venice had conferred on his

43

ASV, Arch. Proprio Roma, b. 4, #282, fols. 161-161i>, Mar. 10, 1519. ASV, Arch. Proprio Roma, b. 4, fols. 163-164, #285, March 21, 1519; SANUDO, Diarii, 27:103. The phrase, «Quelle e belle cose», is found in Sanudo who often turns the material from indirect discourse into direct, although the ambassador had simply reported of the Pope, «e poi mi disse che erano belle cose» (fol. 163). ROSA (1630 edition), p. 89, has published Matteo Palmieri's testimony about Lorenzo Giustiniani: «qui profecto sanctitate vitae, prophetiae spiritu, plurimisque miraculis claruit». For the three cardinals, Antonio Maria del Monte (Santa Prassede), Marco Corner (Santa Maria in Via Lata), and Raffaele Riario (Sangiorgio), see n. 35. 45 See SANUDO, Diarii, 25 499; 26:271; 27:547, 562; 28:437; ASV, Senate, Secreta, reg. 47, fol. 159*;, Dec. 11 1518. 44

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family (referring perhaps to the city's shelter in former eras of Medicean exiles) and that his wish was for Venice to achieve its desired ends46. In such an atmosphere of cooperation, the cause went forward. Two days after this conversation, on March 23, the Venetian ambassador wrote his government that on the morning of the next consistory, he had reminded the pope of his agreement to propose the cause of Beato Lorenzo Giustiniani and that the pope had agreed to do so. The ambassador, who was evidently admitted to this part of the consistory, presented the cardinals' letter to the chamberlain, as was prescribed. The chamberlain would not open the letter until it was circulated, still sealed, among the cardinals there present, after which it would be opened. Another cardinal brought the pope's letter for its reading. The ambassador talked to many of the cardinals, seeking their votes, until the consistory was closed to him. Later he got a report from an unidentified cardinal from whom he heard that the pope had proposed the cause so warmly and with such affection toward Venice that he surpassed the ambassador's expectation and his own promise. (The pope spoke, opined Sanudo, as if he were himself a Venetian!) 47 . The cardinals had agreed to entrust the processo to the papal legate in Venice and to the bishop-elect of Cremona living in Venice, one Girolamo Trevisan, but not to the patriarch because he was a petitioner in the cause. Moreover, to expedite matters and to further satisfy Venice, two procedures were simultaneously approved: a general inquest was mandated which, with satisfactory results, could lead directly to the initiation of a specific process. Two cardinals were appointed to supervise the expedition of the brief48.

46 ASV, Arch. Proprio Roma, b. 4, fols. 162-163t>, #285, Mar. 21, 1519: «mi rispose, che 1'era memore delli benefitii conferiti alia sua famiglia e che Dio sa, che'l suo desiderio sempre e state, che le cose di V. Sub. prendessino il fine hanno fatto». There is an incident cited in this same letter worth mentioning for its indication of the informal and humanistic overtones of the relationship between the Venetian ambassador and Leo X: the pope told the ambassador that he had received a letter from Cardinal Egidio, the legate in Spain, so ardently in favuor of the election of the Catholic king that the pope jested about it, calling it a Ciceronian oration and saying to the ambassador: «it would very much amuse you; Cardinal Cibo has it. It is an oration pro Pompejo» (as translated in BROWN, Calendar of State Papers, cit., 2, p. 506). 47 SANUDO, Diarii, 26:117: «il Papa aversi portato benissimo, dimostrando grande afection a questa cossa come si '1 fusse sta Venetian proprio». 48 ASV, Arch. Proprio Roma, b. 4, fols. 164-165, #286, Mar. 23, 1519; SANUDO, Diarii, 27:116117, 145. On the general and specific inquiries, see VAUCHEZ, La Saintete en Occident, cit., p. 50, n. 1, who explains that the preliminary (general) inquest ascertains the «fama et devotione populi, de miraculis et aliis [...] in genere non in specie et quo ad famam, non quo ad veritatem». The expression for the first was «commettere la causa» and for the second «formare il processor See TURCHINI, La fabbrica di un santo, cit., p. 128, for the various stages in Carlo Borromeo's canonization in the early seventeenth century.

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It was a complete victory, and three days later the ambassador expressed profuse thanks to the pope who reiterated his good will toward Venice: he had mandated the two procedures at once in order to please the Venetians more49. There was a minor delay while the two cardinals in charge of preparing and expediting the brief were sought out and importuned by the ambassador who, on April 2, declared, somewhat testily, that he was having more trouble in getting the brief expedited to Venice than he had had in getting the cause mandated. But that very evening, the papal secretary, Pietro Bembo, sent the ambassador the brief which he forthwith despatched to his government so that «in the name of God it could begin the process, con il nome del N. S.e Iddio la potrd dar principle a formare il processed. By April 7, 1519, the stage was set in Venice: the papal brief had arrived, mandating a new investigation, «tam generaliter quam specialiter» . In Rome, Cardinal del Monte, one of the cardinals friendly to Venice, had even shown the Venetian ambassador a previous processo which could serve as a model for Lorenzo Giustiniani's: the cardinal had pointed out the advisability of correct procedure. The ambassador was having a copy made which he would send on to Venice. This letter of April 12, 1519, was Marco Minio's last reference to the matter. His role in the affair was complete51. On May 4, the patriarch, who evidently did not consider himself entirely disqualified and continued to promote the cause, appeared before the Signoria and said that together with the legate he wished to launch the processo, formar processo, and for that reason he gave orders that in every 49

ASV, Arch. Proprio Roma, b. 4, fols. 165-165*;, #287, Mar. 26, 1519; SANUDO, Diarii, 26:124. ASV, Arch. Proprio Roma, b. 4, fols. 166-166*, #290, Mar. 28, 1519; fols. 167-168, #292, Apr. 2, 1519; fol. 168, #294, Apr. 2, 1519. Cf. SANUDO, Diarii, 27:145, 147. The papal Apostolic Letter, dated April 11, 1519, addressed to the papal legate and the bishop of Cremona may be found in ROSA (1630 edition), pp. 9-10. HERTLING, Materiali per la storia del processo di canonizzazione, cit., p. 194, points out that this Apostolic Letter of April 11, 1519, contains the first documented use of the term, «Promotor Fidei», as part of the canonization procedure. It occurs in proceding from the general inquest to the specific processo, and it is not clear whether an additional person should be added. The passage reads: «Et si per generalem huiusmodi inquisitionem vobis videbitur, et constiterit, super quo utriusque vestrum conscientias oneramus, probationes esse tales, ut per eas possit ad spetialem inquisitionem procedi et deveniri, Nobis aliter non consultis, cum de doctrina, fide, et religione vestra, plurimam in Domino fidutiam habeamus, et in aliis arduis experti simus, ad specialem super praemissis inqusitionem deveniatis, articulisque et interrogatoriis datis, promotoreque fidei adhibito, citatione legitima praecedente, testium productorum iuramenta recipiatis, et iuxta interrogatoriorum et articulorum formam examinare diligenter curetis, ac eorum dicta in scriptis fideliter redigi mandetis [...]». 51 ASV, Arch. Proprio Roma, b. 4, fols. 169-170, #297, April 12, 1519; SANUDO, Diarii, XXVII, cols. 139, 145, 147, 184. See also PICCARI, Note marginali, cit., p. 4. It is possible that the «model» processo was that of Franceso di Paola. VERAJA, La Beatificazione, cit., notes some similarities (see pp. 30-31 and 3 8-3 9). 50

VIII 36 church throughout the Venetian territories this event be celebrated... Shops were to be shut and offices closed for two hours while the prayers and processions took place. An indulgence was issued. And so it happened: on May 10, amidst great ceremony, solemn masses and corteges (especially in the church of San Pietro di Castello where Lorenzo's body lay), the opening of the processo (that is, the second processo) was celebrated, except that there had to be a substitute for the papal legate who could not attend, having broken his leg during his meanderings in the Padovano52. The doge, on his part, appointed two patrician commissioners to represent the people of Venice, do comessi come delpopulo di Venetia. These were Giorgio Pisani and Marino Zorzi, both distinguished men, learned and diplomatically experienced, both known in Rome from earlier embassies to the papal court, and their appointment was solemnized by the ducal notary53. Everything seemed in place, with all of Venice behind this effort: the family, patriarch, doge and other members of the government, and the people represented by these two patricians, so that even though, as Sanudo pointed out, «many of the old witnesses were dead», these two people's representatives could vouch for their testimony to the papal commissioners54. With that entry and the celebration of May 10, the processo disappears from the Sanudo's record of this year, 1519, and the next few years. But an interesting document surfaces from another source. This is a letter of July 16, 1519, written by the Venetian general of the Camaldulensian order, Pietro Dolfin, to the patriarch, enclosing a composition entitled «Miracles of the Holy Lorenzo Giustiniani». This was the work, so the letter states, of Domenico Morosini, an important political and cultural contemporary of Bernardo Giustiniani, indeed a relative and close associate of Bernardo's55. Bernardo had even appointed him as one of his liter52 SANUDO, Dtarti, 27:239,264. Altobello Averoldi seems to have acquired and enjoyed property in the Padovano, as Sanudo frequently mentions. See Diarii 25:324, 336, 338, 344; 27:181, 192, 264; 28:32; 30:168; 33:335. On Sanudo's many references to Averoldi's life in Venice and the Veneto, see GAETA, Un inedito vergeriano, cit., p. 400. 53 SANUDO, Diarii, 27:269-270, May 10,1518: Their charge was «in nomine praefatorum Serenissimi et Excellentissimi Ducis et illustrissimi Dominii Venetorum canonizationem praedicti reverendissimi Protopatriarchae petendam et obtinendam, scripturas et jura quaelibet necessaria producendum, testes examinari, et superinde processum formari petendum et faciendum secundum juris formam et dispositionem sacrorum canonum». On the people's representatives, see also the Libri Commemoriali, VI, pp. 154-155, #103, May 10, 1519 and ALBERI, Relazioni degli Ambasciatori Veneti al Senato, cit., p. 40. 54 SANUDO, Diarii, 40:621: «licet molti vechi testemoni fosseno morti». 55 The letter may be found in PIETRO DOLFIN, Epistolarum Volumen, Bk. XI, #92, fol. 58^. It has been reprinted in C. Finzi's edition of DOMENICO MOROSINI, De Bene Instituta Re Publica, Milan

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ary executors. It seems that Domenico Morosini had composed this work, now lost, sometime between 1472 - the date of his renewed political activity after a possible sojourn in the East - and 1509, the date of his death. In all likelihood, the work may have been prepared for the 1474 processo but was now revived, so to speak, and sent to the patriarch of Venice to use in the new investigation. Coming from so eminent and wellknown a witness, it would surely command, so said the letter, respect and credence56. Credibility was an important issue in these matters, and Bernardo's Vita, while appreciated, was hardly an disinterested view. Evidently the cause was still alive during the summer of 1519. But not long thereafter. The intense diplomatic efforts of the previous winter seem to have gone for naught. A more urgent matter, the corruption existing in certain Venetian convents, begins to occupy the diplomatic correspondence. A simmering quarrel during this period between the papal legate and the patriarch over who would address this problem was hardly conducive to a collaborative effort on behalf of Lorenzo's canonization. Sanudo remarked later that the papal brief of April 11, 1519, was not even opened, but he may have been exaggerating57. 3. Leo X passes from the scene in December of 1521, and the Dutch pope, Adrian VI, rules briefly from his election on January 9, 1522 to his death on 14 September 1523. Not too briefly however, for the persistent family: one of the ambassadors sent to congratulate Adrian was Marco Dandolo, son of Bernardo's daughter, that is, another grandson and another great great nephew of Holy Lorenzo's58. So, as Sanudo reports, in 1969, p. 7. Finzi writes that Pietro Dolfin was «legato da amicizia e parentela» with Morosini. See E.A. CICOGNA, Delle inscrizioni veneziane, vol. II, Venice 1827, p. 96. 56 The list of materials in SCCS, b. 335, fol. 379 indicates that there were several collections of Lorenzo's miracles and Dolfin's letter of July to the patriarch suggests that this was previously unknown evidence of Lorenzo's sanctity: «Mitto dignationi tuae miracula Beati Laurentii lustiniani [...]. Erit tibi opusculum (ut spero) haud iniucundum, turn materiae ipsius novitate, turn scribentis gravitate et elegantia». But if Morosini's work was available at least since 1509, and he was so closely connected to the Giustiniani family, is it likely that the patriarch would not have known of it, would not have seen a copy, would not have made sure it formed part of the materials sent to Rome earlier? 57 SANUDO, Diarii, 40:621: «ne mai pur fu aperto il brieve dil Papa sopra questo a loro mandates On the controversy about which clerical authority had jurisdiction over the correction of these convents, see SANUDO, Diarii, 25:390 (May 10, 1518); 27:409 tfune 28, 1519), 28:258 (Feb. 14, 1520), 429 (April 18, 1520), and Marco Minio's letters in ASV, Arch. Proprio Roma, b. 4, which during and after the spring of 1519 deal with this issue. 58 Marco Dandolo's efforts with Adrian VI and Clement VII are alluded to in the Clementine indultum of 1524. See the 1690 Acta de miraculis, pp. 92-93 and RosA(1630 edition), pp 12-13. Marco Dandolo was an important humanist and diplomat in his own right. See the DBI, vol. XXXII, Rome

VIII 38 June, 1523, the pope, now Adrian VI, sent yet one more papal brief to the patriarch (still Antonio Contarini) urging a processo of the life of Holy Lorenzo Giustiniani, «perche lo vol canonizar». By this date there was a new papal legate, Tommaso Campeggi, who was ordered, together with a new episcopal colleague (Girolamo Trevisan having died in February, 1523), to reopen the processo. But, wrote Sanudo once again, «they did nothing»59. Three months later this pope himself was dead. On November 18, 1523, the former Cardinal de' Medici, Giulio, was elected to the papal throne as Clement VII. With Clement VII the story of these early efforts to canonize Lorenzo Giustiniani draws to an end. Clement VII had been well-disposed toward Venice in earlier days, but the recent papal election had been hardfought. Most of the cardinals favorable to Venice had not supported the Medici contender, probably because the Venetian Cardinal Corner had nursed his own ambitions and cultivated his own coterie towards that honor60. Moreover, none of the earlier difficulties which Clement's cousin, Leo X, had faced had improved - neither the enmity between French and imperial rulers, nor the Lutheran revolt, nor the Turkish threat. Yet Clement needed Venetian support for his Francophile policy, or at least, Venetian neutrality, and in response to renewed Venetian requests, he was evidently willing to do what he could61. 1986, pp. 487-492, and A. MEDIN, Gli scritti umanistici di Marco Dandolo, in «Atti del R. Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti», LXXVI (1916-17), pt. II, pp. 335-414. Marco Dandolo's connections were important. His first wife was Lucia Corner whose nephew was Cardinal Marco Corner, and his second wife belonged to the Loredan family. See also G. DEGLI AGOSTINI, Notizie Istorico-critiche intorno la vita e le opere degli serif tori veneziani, Venice 1754, vol. II, pp. 281-293; Libri Commemoriali, VI, pp. 132-133, #14 and #15, and p. 207, #92; MALIPIERO, Annali veneti, cit., pp. 407, 436. 59 Adrian's brief is listed in SCCS b. 335, fol. 379. On Tommaso Campeggi and his legation in Venice (1523-1526), see GAETA, Origine e sviluppo delta rapprestanza stabile pontifice in Venezia, cit., pp. 44-47; E. TOLOMEI, La Nunziatura di Venezia nel Pontificato di Clemente VII, in «Rivista Storica Italiana,» IX (1892), pp. 577-628, and DBI, vol. 17, Rome 1974, pp. 472-474. SANUDO, Diarii, 34:285; 40:621: «nulla feno». The bishop newly delegated to serve with Campeggi was Paolo Borgasio, an able canonist who had been favoured by both Cardinal Domenico Grimani and Cardinal Marco Corner who ceded him, in 1516, the bishopric of Limassol in Cyprus (where the Borgasio family originated). By 1521 he had returned to Venice whose government he served loyally in the next several years. From September to December of 1523 Borgasio was active and successful in collecting decime conceded by Adrian VI in a brief of 5 September 1523, an endeavor which could not have endeared him to the Venetian clergy (see DEI, vol. XII, Rome 1970, pp. 568-569). 60 See in the ASV, the CX, Capi, Lettere, Roma, b. 22 (6 maggio 1523-29 dicembre 1523), fol. 109 (Oct. 1, 1523) for a list of cardinals «che hanno sottoscripto quod obstare al reverendissimo Medici». Included in this list were Cardinals del Monte, Corner, and Pisani, all three among the Venetian and pro-Venetian prelates. 61 See SANUDO, Diarii, 36, passim for a survey of the problems facing Clement VII and Diarii, 41:282-289 for the report of Marco Foscari, delivered on May 2, 1526, about his embassy to Rome from 1522 to 1526. For Clement VIFs political manoeuvering, see K.M. SETTON, The Papacy and the

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Fortunately, the patriarch, Antonio Contarini, was now able to show Clement just what he could do. It so happened that recently the neighboring Marquis of Mantua had obtained a papal brief allowing Beata Osanna of Mantua, although not canonized, «to be considered enough of a saint to have offices celebrated in her name»62. The Venetian patriarch suggested to the pope a similar arrangement for Lorenzo Giustiniani, and Marco Dandolo, who was again in Rome as ambassador to the new pope, added his own persuasions. So on July 9, 1524, the pope finessed the requirements of a formal processo and issued an indultum. The indultum stated that it could truly be believed that all that was necessary for the canonization of Beato Lorenzo had been fully and sufficiently approved in the processo ordered by Sixtus IV and destroyed by fire. Therefore, Clement ordered that from this time forward, Lorenzo Giustiniani was to have the office and mass of a Holy Confessor, to be celebrated in all the churches of the Venetian dominions on the anniversary of his death, January 8. And his painted image should be adorned, not with a halo but with rays representing holy light. Beato Lorenzo, not to be a saint for Levant, vol. 3, pp. 219ff. and F. GILBERT, Venetian Diplomacy before Pavia: from Reality to Myth, in History: Choice or Commitment?, Cambridge, Mass. 1977, pp. 295-321. Venice had signed a treaty with Emperor Charles V on 29 July 1523, a treaty which included the Pope, at that time Adrian VI. But in September of 1523 the French had invaded Italy, and in November Clement VII had replaced Adrian VI. Clement was a Medici, eager to protect through French support his family's power in Florence. The French had retreated north of the Alps in April 1524, but the Italian powers were fully aware of their plans to return in the fall. Is it possible that Clement's willingness to accommodate Venice was part of his effort, during the spring and summer of 1524, to get Venice to abandon her alliance with Charles and join France and the Papacy in a new alliance - an effort which achieved its goal on December 12, 1524? Another quid pro quo may have been the Venetian government's acquiescence in Gian Matteo Giberti's acquisition of the bishopric of Verona (1524) and the appointment of Clement's nephew, Cardinal Ridolfi, to the bishopric of Vicenza, a concession agreed to by the Senate «come obsequentissimi et devotissimi fioli che siamo della S£a sua, et desiderosi de farli cosa grata» (ASV, Senato, Secreta, reg. 50, fol. 97 n.m., July 23, 1524). Meanwhile, the Venetians had kept up the flow of requests concerning Lorenzo Giustiniani: SCCS, b. 335, fol. 379, lists for 1524 the «commissio» for the Venetian ambassadors to Rome, a «supplicatio» from the patriarch, and an «Examen monialum super miracula», none of which I have yet found. 62 SANUDO, Diarii, 40:621-622: «Et havendo inteso il Patriarca anteditto che a Mantoa il Marchexe havia obtenuto uno breve dal Papa che la beata Osanna di Mantoa, licet non fusse canonizata si potesse haver per santa, et farli officii etc. unde per ditto Patriarca fo manda la suplicha a questo Pontifice, el qual fu contento far la expedir mediante le fatiche de sier Marco Dandolo». On Osanna, see ZARRI, Le sante vive, cit., pp. 418-419 and passim, and AA.SS, Junii IV, pp. 601-664. The timing of various events concerning the cult of Osanna may be important: Leo X granted a local cult on January 8, 1515, and the instruction for the processo in May-June of 1515, while a 1507 life, Libretto della vita et transito della beata Osanna by Girolamo Scolar, was reprinted in 1524 (ZARRI, Le sante vive, cit., pp. 382-384). Zarri makes the interesting comment, in connection with Osanna, that the reformation debate over saints in the 1520s had the effect of imposing «maggior prudenza nell'autorizzare culti locali facendo avvertire la necessita di sottoporre le procedure della canonizzazione a norme piu rigide e centralizzate» (p. 382).

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another 166 years, had finally become the object of an official cult63. The first celebration of Lorenzo's new position took place on January 8, 152664. Sanudo's description of the events conveys his own pride and personal involvement, as well as his disappointment that the Doge and Signoria did not attend: It was the day of the Blessed Lorenzo Giustiniani, first patriarch of Venice, who died in 1453 [1456] on the 8 of January and whom, according to a papal brief from the present pope, we may venerate on this day, honoring his sanctity in the office and the mass. And so at Castello [San Pietro di Castello], at vespers, in the presence of the brothers of Santa Maria dell'Orto and San Giorgio Maggiore, the marble tomb wherein his body lay was opened [...]. His body had decayed, except for his head, which still had its beard and tonsured fringe [...] and placed over the bones was a panel of cloth of gold with a wooden grating above that, and his remains were shown to everyone with great devotion yesterday and all today. And this morning in this chapel a solemn mass was sung, attended by Ser Jacomo Soranzo, the procurator, Ser Marco Dandolo, doctor and knight, ser Antonio Sanudo and myself, Marin Sanudo, and many other gentlemen and many people of the Castello district. And after [the mass] was finished, I saw the aforesaid Beato Lorenzo, and the Church benches were draped with embroidered cloths of the Giustiniani family [...]. Then our patriarch in pontifical vestments [...] celebrated solemn mass at the high altar and in the afternoon there was a sermon and vespers with a great crowd of attendants [...]. And because I, Marin Sanudo, had reminded the doge, the shops of the city were ordered closed; the government offices and banks were not in session, except for the Quarantie and Savii sopra li extimi. But it would have been better if the Serenissimo [the doge, Andrea Gritti] had gone to Castello with the Signoria and others to honor one of its own most holy gentlemen, who was the first patriarch, a most learned theologian and true servant of God, who wrote eighteen works in Latin, for whom the Senate had written so many letters on behalf of his canonization to Pope Leo in Rome65.

63 ROSA (1630 edition), pp. 12-13: «[...] cum ad pfesens aliis gravibus praepediamur impedimentis et negotiis, canonizationisque huiusmodi negotio intendere non valeamus». Cf. Acta de miraculis (1690), pp. 92-93; AA.SS. Januarii I, p. 564. That Clement's indultum of July 9, 1524, was anticipated in the preceding months is indicated by a request in May of 1524 to add the figures of Lorenzo Giustiniani and Pope Eugenius IV to Jacopo Palma il Vecchio's picture of St. Vincent Martyr, St. Dominic, and St. Helen which he was painting in the Madonna dell'Orto — where they may still be seen today. See A. NIERO, in L'immagine di San Lorenzo Giustiniani nell'arte. Documents di cultura e di vita religiosa del suo tempo, Venice 1981, p. 16. For all that a partial victory had been achieved, the Venetian advocates of canonization did not abandon their efforts. SCCS, b. 335, fol. 379, lists for 1525, the year after the Clementine indultum, both a «miraculi expositio» and a «miraculi informatio» among the papers for the canonization of Lorenzo Giustiniani. 64 SANUDO, Diarii, 37:17-18 relates that the death of the old patriarch, Antonio Contarini, in the fall of 1524, and preparation for his obsequies interrupted and usurped the plans to celebrate Lorenzo's official beatification in January 1525. ROSA (1630 edition), p. 96, gives the order of the new patriarch, Girolamo Quirini, issued on Dec. 22, 1525, for the celebration of Lorenzo's beatification on Jan. 8, 1526. 65 SANUDO, Diarii, 40:620-621 (Jan. 8,1526): «A di 8. Fo il zorno dil bia Lorenzo Justinian primo patriarca di Veniexia, qual morite dil 1453 [1456] a di 8 Zener; el qual per breve hauto dal Pontifice presente si pol in tal zorno festivizar, e dir officio e messa come santo. Et cussi a Castelo il suo corpo

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Once again, there was a sense of victory; once again, it was muted. For all the religious pomp of the occasion in 1526, the heads of the government were absent, and already in the next year the anniversary was not duly observed: shops, banks and offices remained open which, according to Sanudo, was poorly done66. Sanudo offers us no explanation for this disregard. Perhaps there was some political hostility towards the family. Perhaps there was less popular veneration than the proponents of canonization claimed. There may even have been disappointment in the indultum which, while certifying Lorenzo's beatification, was only a partial achievement. It would require another century and a half, during which the cause was alternately pursued and ignored, for the last important step to be taken. And it would require a Venetian pope: in 1690, Alexander heri a vespero fo aperto 1'archa marmorea, et erano li frati di Santa Maria di 1'Orto et San Zorzi Mazor, et dito uno vespero solenne, conzata la chiesia e la sua capella e 1'archa dove e il corpo suo, qual fu trovato disfato excepto la testa, la qual avia la barba et capelli picoli tosi in testa, et posto sopra le osse uno panno de restagno d'oro, fato una gradella di legno di sopra, a tutti fu mostrato con grande devutione heri, et tutto hozi. Et cussi questa matina a la ditta capela fu cantato una solenne messa, dove li era sier Jacomo Soranzo procurator, sier Marco Dandolo dotor et cavalier, sier Antonio Sanudo et io Marin Sanudo a ditto messa, et altri zentilhomini assa et gran popolo di Castelo; et compita, vidi il ditto beato Laurentio, et la chiesia era conzata con li banchali da cha Justinian [...]. Et poi il Patriarca nostro in pontifical [...] disse una messa solenne a Tartar grando; et poi disnar fo predicate e ditto vespero con gran concorso di zente [...]. Et per aricordo de mi Marin Sanudo, che 10 dissi al Serenissimo, fu ordinato le botege per la terra fosseno serate; li officii e banchi non sentorono, solum le Quarantie et Savii sopra li extimi si reduseno; ma la dreta era che'l Serenissimo fusse andato a Castelo con la Signoria et altri per honorar uno suo santissimo zentilhomo, uno primo Patriarcha, uno doctissimo theologo e bon servo di Dio, qual ha composto 18 opere latine; uno per 11 qual e sta scritto per il Senato tante letere a Roma per la sua canonizatione a papa Lion». The absence at this celebration of the Doge, Andrea Gritti (1523-1538), a ruler who lost no opportunity to promote Venetian glory, is remarkable, and may foreshadow the government's apparent indifference to the occasion in 1527. There may have been difficulties at this time between the Giustiniani and the Gritti families, although a number of Giustiniani had supported and celebrated his election (SANUDO, Diam, 34:150-151, 162), and there were marital connections as well (see LITTA, Famiglie celebri d'ltalia, cit., vol. VI, tav. X). LINDA CARROL in her book on Angela Beolco (IlRuzante), Boston 1990, p. 26, indicates that one Andrea Giustiniani was opposed - along with several other patricians - to Gritti's francophile policy. This Giustiniani participated, on February 7, 1526, a month after the beatification ceremonies, in a festive mockery of the King of France represented at a banquet by a plucked and crestless rooster, betokening the French king who was taken prisoner by Spain in the battle of Pavia (February 25, 1525) and remained captive in Madrid until peace was signed there in January 1526. Andrea Giustiniani was to absent himself in May of 1526 from the third anniversary celebrations of Gritti's dogeship. Andrea Giustiniani was a fifth cousin of Marco Dandolo and it is possible that Gritti's absence in January of 1526 was an anticipated reciprocal snub of the entire clan many of whom may have participated in the beatification ceremonies. It should be noted that Gritti was also absent the day before the beatification celebrations, for the meeting of the Maggior Consiglio (SANUDO, Diarii, 40:620, Jan. 7, 1526), and he could have been simply indisposed. Even the Doge's illness, however, would not explain the absence of the Signoria, the political body which represented the Republic. 66 SANUDO, Diarii, 43:599, Jan. 8, 1527: «Fo il zorno del bia Lorenzo Justinian, ma non si vardo come 1'altro anno; et li officii et banchi sentono, et le botteghe aperte per la terra; ch'e sta mal fatto».

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VIII (Pietro Ottoboni, 1689-1691), the first Venetian pope to rule since the fifteenth century, at last canonized this Venetian saint67. Those early efforts had been arduous. Although Lorenzo was considered a saint by so many in Venice in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, and although his canonization was supported by many groups, the process still proved slow and uncertain, often hindered or helped by purely political factors68. Its eventual success was one the saint himself would have deplored. He wanted nothing more than the silence of his seaweed island where he had hoped to be buried and forgotten69. But his life, his death, his memory were too important to his family, to his religious community, to his patriarchal successors and to his city's secular rulers, and finally to a Venetian pope. Together, these were ultimately successful in promoting Lorenzo to the official angelic status they felt that he, and they, deserved.

67 On possible political hostility, see n. 24: the determination to keep the case vecchie out of the dogeship during this period may also have dampened aristocratic support for this religious and old family celebration. On the old and new houses and other incidents involving the Giustiniani family, see LABALME, Bernardo Giustiniani, cit., pp. 225-230. For the later story of Lorenzo's cause, see PICCARI, Note marginali, cit., pp. 5-16 and NIERO, Pieta popolare e interessi politici, cit., pp. 197-224. Part of Lorenzo's growing reputation for sanctity was his perceived efficacy as a protector against the plague in 1478-1480, in 1630 and again in 1690 (A. NIERO, Pieta ufficiale e pietd popolare in tempo di peste, in Venezia e la peste 1348-1797, Venice 1980, pp. 287-288 and 291). Lorenzo's help was also invoked during the Turkish invasion of Candia in 1646, when a new altar was voted for him in the Senate (ASV, San Pietro di Castello, b. 10). On the 1690 canonization procedures and correspondence, see BNM, Dispacci di Roma, Ms. Ital., cl. VII, 1711 (= 8373); Acta de miraculis et de canonizatione B. Laurentii Justiniani protopatriarchae Venetiarum, Rome 1690; Vat. Lat. 12075, fols. 1-7^, «Narratio de canonizatione Laurentii Iustiniani». It should also be noted that from the end of the sixteenth century through the final process, an Alghense branch in Portugal, the congregation of St. John the Evangelist, played an important part and contributed a significant sum towards the final canonization in 1690. 68 See the Council of Ten's letter to the Pope in December 14, 1454, a year prior to Lorenzo's death, asking that they be consulted in the choice of Lorenzo's successor (ASV, CX, Misti, reg. 15, fol. 13 n.m.), published in G. CAPPELLETTI, Storia della chiesa di Venezia dalla sua fondazione ai nostri giorni, vol. I, Venice 1849, pp. 166-167: «Habemus in civitate nostra Patriarcham virum vita et moribus integerrimum et omni sanctimonia ornatissimum, adeo gratum, dilectum et veneratum nostro Dominio, omnibusque generaliter civibus et abitatoribus Venetiarum, ut nihil ultra dici possit». Sanudo appears fully convinced of Lorenzo's sanctity as his several references to Lorenzo Giustiniani indicate. See, for a summary, ROSA (1630 edition), pp. 142-146. See also Pietro Dolfin's 1519 letter to the Patriarch Antonio Contarini (in which he sent him Domenico Morosini's account of Lorenzo's miracles) where he refers to Lorenzo «qui sanctus existimatur ab omnibus» (Epistolarum volumen, Bk. XI, #92, fol. 58z;. 69 Vita, ch. X.

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43 43

APPENDIX I Senato, Secreta Reg. 26, fol. 31t> (n.m.) June 26, 1473 die xxvj. Junij non data in tempore [In margin] Sapientes consilii Sapientes terre Firme

Summo Pontifici

Credimus, beatissime pater, divinitus usu evenisse ut, quod iam fieri par erat et ab universa Civitate nostra desiderabatur, maxime reservaretur ad hanc diem felicissimi pontificatus vestri, scilicet ut dominus Laurentius Justinianus, olim patriarcha noster venetorum, tanta sanctitate vir, non in obscuro jaceret, sed inter sanctos et electos Dei, quales etas nostra rarissimos vidit, relatus splendesceret et eluceret. Quare, miro omnium consensu, universus clerus Venetiarum et imprimis venerabiles religiosi congregationis Sancti Georgii de Alga decreverunt hoc tempore mittere qui supplicent sanctitati vestre, ut pontificio decreto suo decernat et deputet viros graves et integros, qui audiant, cognoscant et examinent atque perpendant quecumque pertineant ad sanctissimam vitam, mores continentissimos, dictaque et facta miraculis et signis plena tarn viventis quam in domino obdormientis prefati domini Laurentii Justiniani, qui fuit, ut novit sanctitas vestra, ordinis cetus illius Sancti Georgii, ex quo, sicut ex equo troiano, ut aiunt, multi clari et in ecclesia Dei magni viri prodierunt. Res est nimirum convenientissima ex omni parte sua et dignissima, que non tam ab clero et religiosis illis et a nobis ipsis desyderetur, quam a sanctitate vestra pie et benigne concedatur, cum de honore dei, de religionis nostre amplitudine deque pontificatus vestri gloria, nostreque rei publice ornamento agatur. Dici non potest oppido quam vehementer teneatur civitas nostra hoc desyderio videndi illius diei, quo tantus et pater et patriarcha et patricius noster tempore sanctitatis vestre inter sanctos et beatos Dei clarus et illustris existat. Quod, si Eugenius pontifex maximus sponte et ultro traxit e claustro et sancta pace sua patrem hunc, invitum et repugnantem tractumque, dedit in episcopum Venetiarum, demumque Nicolaus summus pontifex motus viri meritis et sanctitate, quoque nobis gratificaretur, eum simul cum patria ad dignitatem patriarchalem provexit, cur sperare non debemus sanctitatem vestram in isto suo pontificatu felicissimo animum pie et clementer inducere, ut tam pium et preclarum opus cum immortali sua gloria fiat. Est, igitur, pater beatissime, pietatis et summe religionis vestre incumbere in curam et cogitationem tam preclari et divini operis conficiundi et felicitatem hanc pontificatus vestri sic excolere, ut perpetuo non tam in terris quam in celis sanctitati vestre premia digna ferant. Nos vero petimus suppliciter, ut sanctitas vestra dignetur pias preces universi huius cleri nostrasque clementer admittere et, auditis benigne dictis nuntiis atque imprimis oratore nostro, agentibus et supplicantibus pro sanctissimo viro, decernat et deliberet id quod ad tam preclarum pium et sanctum opus cumficiundum necessarium esse duxerit, quod universa civitas nostra loco immortalis muneris continue existimabit. de parte 143 de non 5 Non synceri 2

IX

RELIGIOUS DEVOTION AND CIVIC DIVISION IN RENAISSANCE VENICE : THE CASE OF LORENZO GIUSTINIANI

When Lorenzo Giustiniani, bishop and first patriarch of Venice, died in 1456, his Venetian compatriots were fully convinced of his sanctity. His family, among the most ancient and powerful aristocrats in the city, his religious order, the Canons of S. Giorgio in Alga, his successors as patriarchs of Venice, and the Venetian government itself launched a campaign with the Papacy to secure Lorenzo's promotion "to the altars" so that he might more effectively lend his spiritual protection to his native city.1 Through their efforts in Rome, three processi were mandated to take place in Venice. The first, in 1474, although never completed, appears to have resulted in a dossier which was then lost in an archival fire in Rome. The second and third, in 1519 and 1523, never took place. Finally, in 1524, Clement VII finessed the requirements of a formal processo and issued an indult which officially declared Lorenzo a beatus (but not a sanctus). The first celebration for this recognition took place on January 8 (the day of Lorenzo's death), 1526, in the patriarchal church of S. Pietro di Castello. Marin Sanudo, the Venetian diarist, describes the event : It was the day of the Blessed Lorenzo Giustiniani, first patriarch of Venice, who died in ... [1456] on the 8 of January and whom, according to a papal brief from the present pope, we may venerate on this day, honoring his sanctity in the office and the mass. And so at Castello [San Pietro di Castello], at vespers, in the presence of the brothers of Sta Maria di 1'Orto..., the marble tomb wherein his body lay was opened.... His body had decayed, except for his head, which still had its beard and tonsured fringe.... Placed over the bones was a panel of cloth of gold with a wooden grating above that, and his remains were shown to everyone with great devotion yesterday and all today. And this morning a solemn mass was sung in this chapel, 1 For a fuller account of this campaign to canonize Lorenzo Giustiniani, with bibliography, see Patricia H. LABALME, No Man But an Angel: Early Efforts to Canonize Lorenzo Giustiniani (1381-1456), in Continuitd e discontinuita nella storia politica, economica e religiosa, Vicenza, 1993, p. 15-43.

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attended by Ser Jacomo Soranzo, the procurator, Ser Marco Dandolo, doctor and knight, Ser Antonio Sanudo and myself, Marin Sanudo, and many other gentlemen and many people of the Castello district. And after [the mass] was finished, I saw the aforesaid Beato Lorenzo, and the Church benches were draped with embroidered cloths of the Giustiniani family.... Then our patriarch in pontifical vestments...celebrated solemn mass at the high altar and in the afternoon there was a sermon and vespers with a great crowd of attendants.... And because I, Marin Sanudo, had reminded the doge, the shops of the city were ordered closed; the government offices and banks were not in session, except for the Quarantie and Savii sopra li extimi. But it would have been better if the Serenissimo had gone to Castello with the Signoria and others to honor one of its own most holy gentlemen, who was the first patriarch, a most learned theologian and true servant of God, who wrote eighteen works in Latin, for whom the Senate had written so many letters on behalf of his canonization to Pope Leo in Rome.2

There, in this last sentence, lies the question at the heart of this essay : why, after decades of effort to secure the recognition of this holy Venetian, were the Serenissimo and Signoria, that is, the doge and his highest governmental advisors, absent from this important ceremony? Was it that the traditional saints of Venice, especially Mary, Mark, Theodore, Nicholas, and George - to name a few - already provided sufficient protection and days of celebration?3 Was it that canonization proper had eluded the Venetians? Lorenzo had been considered and called "beato" since his death, and while official papal sanction now permitted an office and mass in his name to be celebrated throughout the Venetian dominions, this was only a half-way step, not competitive with S. Antonino, Lorenzo's Florentine contemporary, who had been fully canonized in 1523.4 Was it because the current patriarch, Girolamo Querini, was so intransigent in his rejection of traditional Venetian lay incursions into

2 Marin SANUDO, / Diarii, ed. R. Fulin et al., Venice, 1879-1902, 40, p. 620-622. The text of this passage may be found in the Appendix. 3 The Signoria consisted of the doge, the six ducal councillors, and the three heads of the Forty (Quarantia, the highest criminal court). For the importance of certain saints in Venice, see Patricia H. LABALME, Holy Patronage, Holy Promotion : the Cult of Saints in Renaissance Venice, to be published by the Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies at the State University of New York, Binghamton, as part of its volume : Sancta, Sanctus : Studies in Hagiography. 4 For an interesting comparison of Lorenzo's journey toward canonization with that of Antoninus, see Lorenzo POLIZZOTTO, The making of a saint: the canonization of St. Antonino, 1516-1523, in Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 22:3, Fall 1992, p. 353-381, especially p. 369-378.

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ecclesiastical matters, that the doge and Signoria boycotted a ceremony in which this patriarch played so major a role? Or were there old antagonisms among the Venetian patriciate, tensions between "old" and "new" families which militated against the participation of families other than the Giustiniani and those clans closely related to them? It is this last possibility which I wish to explore. This problem between i longhi and i curti, as the old and new families were called, surfaces throughout this period, especially in 1471, in 1486, in 1521. In each of these cases, the Giustiniani family is involved. Moreover, this tension had echoes in Rome among the Venetian patrician cardinals who might otherwise have worked together to further the cause of Lorenzo Giustiniani's canonization. It is an elusive subject, for Venice guarded its internal jealousies carefully, and there are few records. But its very presence suggests that, in the Venetian case, "la religion civique" - in a sense no more fully exemplified than in Venice - was also conditioned there by rivalries among the Venetian cives which might frustrate and delay this campaign to canonize a native saint and which might compromise even its partial victory. Let us begin with that 1526 celebration of Lorenzo's beatification to see who was there. The Giustiniani family was there in force - Sanudo writes that the church benches of S. Pietro di Castello were covered with Giustiniani cloths. Among those present were descendants of Bernardo Giustiniani who was Holy Lorenzo's nephew. It was Bernardo Giustiniani who wrote the Vita of Lorenzo in the 1460s and 1470s, publishing it in 1475, and who, together with his own son Lorenzo, had set about building a proper tomb for the remains of his holy uncle.5 It was undoubtedly Bernardo Giustiniani who had urged the government in 1473 to request the first processo for Lorenzo's canonization which opened in December of 1474 - but was never concluded. It was Leonardo, Bernardo Giustiniani's grandson, who initiated the next phase of the campaign in 1518 which resulted in Leo X's mandate for a processo in 1519. It was Marco Dandolo, also Bernardo's grandson, who apparently negotiated the third brief for a processo in 1523 and was instrumental in securing Clement VQ's indultum in 1524 which officially declared Lorenzo a "beatus". Marco Dandolo appears to be the leading member of the clan present at the celebration of this event in 1526. 5 Bernardo GIUSTINIANI, Vita beati Laurentii Justiniani patriarchae Venetiarum, Venice, 1475. For the embellishment of Lorenzo's tomb, see Patricia H. LABALME, The Last Will of a Venetian Patrician (1489), in Philosophy and Humanism : Renaissance Essays in Honor of Paul Oskar Kristeller, Leiden, 1976, p. 486, 495.

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Jacopo Soranzo, procurator, is also mentioned as present. He was the only procurator there, out of a possible score.6 Soranzo had to be there; he was married to a great, great niece of Holy Lorenzo's. Present also were the brothers of Lorenzo's order of S. Giorgio in Alga, identified as frati of the Church of Sta Maria deirOrto, the order's most important Venetian church at that time. The mass on that ceremonial occasion of 1526 was said by the current patriarch of Venice, Girolamo Querini. Querini was a Dominican friar who had been elected patriarch - to everyone's considerable surprise - over thirty-five other candidates in 1524, and he proved a crusty character in his dealings with the Signoria. Himself chosen by the Venetian Senate, he then challenged lay control of parochial elections, interfered in no less than seven churches' longestablished rights to administer confirmation on the Feast of the Ascension, and rejected secular jurisdiction for priestly offenders. It was observed that he often refused to put aside his Dominican habit for patriarchal vestments, a clue to his primary allegiance.7 But it was abundantly appropriate that in 1526 he celebrate this honor paid to Venice's protopatriarca. Indeed, most of the patriarchs after Lorenzo's death had been active on his behalf. Also present in 1526 was Marin Sanudo, and his half-brother Antonio. Marin Sanudo was intensely interested in the story of Lorenzo's steps towards canonization. Francesco Sanudo, Marin's paternal uncle and guardian had been chosen in 1474 - the very year of Holy Lorenzo's first processo - as one of the conservatori of the canons of S. Giorgio in Alga.8 And one term of Marin Sanudo's own presence in the Senate coincided with the effort of 1518-19 to get the papacy to reopen the case. Sanudo's interest in Venetian hagiography is evident in a list of santi zentilhomeni nostri, "our patrician saints," appended to his description of Lorenzo's beatification ceremony.9 There were only three others beside Lorenzo (only one of which was really a saint at this time). "San" Pietro Orseola, a doge of the 10th century buried in France and not formally canonized until the 18th century, was from a family no longer extant. San Gerardo Sagredo was an 11th-century bishop martyred in Hungary in 1046 and canonized in 1083. His remains were transferred to 6

SANUDO, Diarii, 37:471-473, mentions that there were 22 in January, 1525. For Querini's interference with parochial elections, see SANUDO, Diarii, 37:517; 39:333, 336, 355, 358-359, 376-377, 413, 485; 40:51, 338. For his challenge to the confirmation rights of the seven churches on the Feast of the Ascension, ibid., 38:313-314. For his rejection of secular jurisdiction for priestly offenders, ibid., 38:320. For his use of the Dominican garb, ibid., 39:271. 8 G. A. Capellari-Vivaro, Campidoglio veneto, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Ms. Ital. cl. VII, 18 (=8307), IV, fol. 52v. 9 See Appendix. 7

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Murano in the late 14th century, and it is worth noting that his noble surname, Sagredo, was not consistently attached to his name.10 Beato Francesco Querini, 14th-century patriarch of Grado - this was before the patriarchate had been transferred to Venice in 1451 - was never officially beatified; his body was buried and lost somewhere in the Frari.11 Venice could well use a recent, certifiable, visible, and patrician saint of her own. But it was not to be this one, at least for another century and a half.12 Lorenzo beatified was all the Venetians had, and - for all their earlier efforts - they apparently paid him little heed. As Sanudo remarked, it would have been better, and might well have been expected, for the doge and Signoria to go to the church at Castello "to honor one of its own most holy gentlemen". Some reasons for the doge's and Signoria s absence have been suggested : an already crowded canonical calendar, a querelous patriarch, and perhaps disappointment that this was only a beatification, not a canonization, although Sanudo says in this document that Lorenzo could now be venerated come santo. But the possibility that there were political and family divisions has also to be considered by examining briefly three incidents which involve Bernardo Giustiniani in two cases and Marco Dandolo, his grandson, in the third. The first incident occurs in 1471. It concerns a tragic indiscretion on the part of a hot-blooded youth from one of the old families, Bartolomeo Memmo, who was angered by the election of a member of a new family as podesta of Padua. The anger was generated by the fact that i curti, the new families, had conspired to keep the dogeship and many other important governmental position from i longhi candidates. No doges had been chosen from the old houses

10

Sanudo, predictably supportive of a patrician connection, described a "solennita" of Gerardo's remains in S. Donato in Murano, stating that he was : "da cha' Sagredo, zentilomo nostro" (Diarii, 3:1477, Feb. 28, 1501). But as late as the 17th century, caution was still being expressed about the saint's connection to the Sagredo family. See the breve from Pope Paul V (Sept. 30, 1616) giving an indulgence for veneration connected with a bone of S. Gerardo's (taken from his remains in Sts Maria e Donato in Murano to be put in Sta Ternita) which refers to "pars sacrarum reliquiarum ut asseritur S. Gerardi ut etiam asseritur de eadem familia nobilium Venetorum de Sagredis" (E. A. CICOGNA, Delle inscrizioni veneziane, V [1842], p. 182-183). Cf. F. BANFI, Vita di S. Gerardo da Venezia nel codice 1622 della Biblioteca Universitaria di Padova, in Benedictina, II, 1948, p. 263, n. 4. 11 Francesco Quirini was a Franciscan observant friar who died in 1372. An effort had been launched by the Venetian government for his canonization, but it seems not to have been pursued (Senato, Misti, Reg. 34, fol. 48v, Aug. 19, 1372). 12 Lorenzo Giustiniani was finally canonized in 1690 by Alexander VIII, a Venetian pope.

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since 1382, and none would be chosen until 1612. So this young member of the Memmo family proposed to some of his companions that they come on the following Sunday armed with daggers beneath their cloaks and kill those responsible for the election "beginning with this boor, Cristoforo Moro, the doge". The Council of Ten, informed of this ill-spoken threat, condemned Memmo to be hanged by the neck between the red columns of the ducal palace. "And Bernardo Giustiniani alone defended him, saying that he did not deserve death, because the words that he had spoken had no foundation, and because he was young, and because no result had followed". Bernardo spoke to no avail. On the day following the judgement, the sentence was carried out.13 Could the tension over this incident have been totally forgotten when, three years later in 1474, the first processo opened, a few days after the election of Doge Pietro Mocenigo, an election in which Bernardo Giustiniani may have been a candidate?14 The second incident takes place fifteen years later in 1486 and concerns another ducal election in which Bernardo Giustiniani was one of the two final candidates. On August 14, 1486, Doge Marco Barbarigo died, having served as doge for only eight months and twenty-six days. The Maggior Consiglio thereupon began its complex choosing of committees - some by election and some by sortition to elect a new doge. The important committees were the last two, the Eleven who would choose the Forty-one who chose the doge. The chief candidates in 1486 were Bernardo Giustiniani and Agostino Barbarigo, brother to the late doge. For two days the Forty-one electors were confined, unable to give either candidate the necessary majority. The supporters of Bernardo, confident that he would win, advised him to stand firm. But on the fifth ballot, Bernardo, old and unwell - he would die three years later - gave his rival his vote and 13 For this incident, see Patricia H. LABALME, Bernardo Giustiniani: a Venetian of the Quattrocento, Rome, 1969, p. 227-228. The quotations is from D. MALIPIERO, Annali veneti, in Archivio storico italiano, VII, 1843-44, p. 664. 14 For Bernardo Giustiniani's active role in ducal electoral politics in 1473-74, see Marin Sanudo, "Vite dei dogi," Museo Civico Correr, cod. Correr 1106 (= ms. Cicogna 3767), fols. 715v-716v and the edition of part of this same chronicle, Marin SANUDO, Le Vite dei dogi (1474-1494), ed. Angela Caracciolo Arico, Padua, 1989, p. 1-4. Also Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Ms. Ital. cl. VII, 260 (=8582), autograph manuscript of Marin Sanudo, "Cronica delle creazioni di alcuni Dogi". The Mantuan ambassador to Venice reported that immediately after his election, Pietro Mocenigo made a special point of greeting the most prominent patricians - who may also have been his rivals - Andrea Vendramin, Andrea Leone, and Bernardo Giustiniani. A translation of this document (Archivio di Stato di Mantova, Arch. Gonzaga, b. 1432, fol. 932) is published in Venice : A Documentary History, ed. David Chambers and Brian Pullan, Oxford, 1992, p. 49.

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those of his followers. Agostino Barbarigo was elected with the resulting twenty-eight votes. This gracious gesture of Bernardo's did not prevent trouble from breaking out in the city. The new houses accused the old houses of having tried to capture the election by packing the Committee of Forty-one with enough members of the longhi to delay the curti from electing Barbarigo but not enough to elect Bernardo. The revenge of the curti came in the subsequent elections for a new Senate and new Council of Ten : many important men of the old houses were excluded. The city was in an uproar. Only a long and passionate exhortation from the new doge to the assembled patriciate served to quiet the situation, but resentment continued to simmer during his entire dogeship.15 Although there is no direct evidence that these tensions interfered with the promotion of Lorenzo's causa, it seems likely that they played some role. Nothing more for Lorenzo's causa happened as long as Bernardo's rival remained doge, and that was for fifteen years.16 But when Agostino Barbarigo died in 1501, he was succeeded by Leonardo Loredan who ruled as doge for the next twenty years, and under Loredan's dogeship, Lorenzo Giustiniani's cause takes on new life. Loredan - who was 65 when he became doge had, as a younger man, known Lorenzo, and he was eager for his canonization, as Sanudo points out. Moreover, Marco Dandolo, one of Bernardo's grandsons and therefore Lorenzo's great, great nephew, had - in his second marriage in 1491 - married a Loredan. The doge himself had married a Giustiniani, so there were family connections. The patriarch during most of Loredan's dogeship was Antonio Contarini (1508-1524), and the Contarini were an old house and also linked to the Giustiniani by several marriages.17 Antonio Contarini was dedicated to Lorenzo's cause. Between a favorable doge, an enthusiastic patriarch, and the family, the cause returns to center stage for the winter of 1518-1519, when government, patriarchate, family, and brothers of Lorenzo's order all combine to urge the cause forward, all promising funds in its support. Then, after many letters to Rome, after the Venetian ambassador's success in 15 LABALME, Bernardo Giustiniani, p. 228-229; R. FINLAY, Politics in Renaissance Venice, New Brunswick, 1980, p. 134, 145-146. 16 There were also problems with the papacy during this period which would have militated against any promotion of a Venetian saint. 17 For the Dandolo-Loredan marriage in 1491, see Dizionario biografico degli Italiani, 32, Rome, 1986, p. 488. Marco Dandolo's son by this Loredan marriage, Matteo, married Paola Contarini, Gasparo Contarini's sister, in 1521. See P. LITTA, Famiglie celebri d'ltalia, Milan, 1819-1883, 6, tav. X, and Elisabeth C. GLEASON, Gasparo Contarini, Berkeley, 1993, Appendix 1.

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getting Leo X to mandate a newprocesso, the cause fades again into the background. Doge Leonardo Loredan died in June of 1521, to be succeeded by Antonio Grimani after another hard-fought ducal election. It was an election in which the tensions between old and new houses surfaced again, for the chief rival to Grimani (new family) was the powerful and immensely wealthy Giorgio Corner (old family). This time the deadlock was in the Committee of Eleven. So divided was this Committee that, unable to proceed in electing the Forty-One (who would choose the doge) they sent out for cards and dice. Eventually the election was resolved with the choice of Grimani, but resentment over the earlier manceuvering fell upon Marco Dandolo whose first wife had been Giorgio Corner's sister and who was blamed for having put four representatives of the old houses in the Committee of Forty-Five (the committee before the Eleven), three of whom by sortition happened to have landed in the Eleven. And so in the following elections to the major governmental bodies, the curti families kept Marco Dandolo and other longhi patricians once again from being elected.18 Moreover, the rivalry between the Grimani and Corner families continued on in Rome in the next papal election, six months later. That was the occasion for Giorgio Corner's revenge, because his son, Cardinal Corner, saw to it that Cardinal Grimani, son of the Grimani who won out over his father for the dogeship, was not successful in his bid for the papacy.19 Such rivalry could not have been helpful to the canonization of a Venetian saint. The successful compromise candidate, Adrian VI, the Dutch pope, ruled briefly from his election on January 9, 1522, to his death on September 14, 1523. Not too briefly, however, for the persistent Giustiniani family : one of the ambassadors sent to congratulate Adrian was Marco Dandolo. Nor did Marco Dandolo lose the opportunity to press the cause of Lorenzo's canonization when the embassy, delayed for six months by the plague, finally went to Rome in the spring of 1523. Dandolo used his presence there to good advantage and secured yet one more papal brief to reopen Lorenzo's cause in 1523. And he also seems to have formed valuable connections in Rome, for when this pope was succeeded by Clement VII, Marco Dandolo was successful in securing the indultum which made possible Lorenzo's formal beatification.20 And this brings us back to 1526 and the absence of the doge and Signoria. 18

SANUDO, Diarii, 30:457-458, 474; FINLAY, p. 152-155. LABALME, No Man But an Angel, p. 29, n. 35. 20 Ibid., p. 37-38. Note Sanudo's reference to Dandolo's role in 1523 : "mediante le fatiche de sier Marco Dandolo" (Diarii, 40:622). See the Appendix. 19

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The doge's absence is particularly puzzling. Andrea Gritti, doge from 1523-1538, was eager to promote Venetian power and reputation. Moreover, Gritti was related to the Giustiniani clan, as to many other powerful clans in Venice. Members of the Giustiniani family Marco Dandolo included - had certainly voted for him in his election.21 Gritti had originally ordered the beatification ceremonies for January 8, 1525, but Patriarch Contarini's death had interfered and the celebration was postponed until the next anniversary of Lorenzo Giustiniani's death. By then, church-state tensions had been aggravated by the new patriarch's intransigence, and Gritti's popularity never solid - was at further risk for his francophile policy. At a patrician feast in February, 1526, a month after the beatification ceremony, a live, plucked, and crestless rooster was made to emerge from a pastry, a clear reference to the capture of the French king at the battle of Pavia on February 24, 1525. This was a serious insult to the French ambassadors present and a mockery of Gritti's policy.22 Three months later, at Gritti's celebration of the third anniversary of his dogeship, six procurators were absent, including Andrea Giustiniani and Jacopo Soranzo.23 Political alliances in Venice were fluid, and in January, 1526, even four months before Gritti's third anniversary and one month before the rooster popped out of the pastry, it may have seemed wisest to the doge to absent himself, along with his chief council, from an event which, contrary to the traditional anonymity and proclaimed parity of Venetian politics, promoted, albeit for devotional purposes, the name of a single powerful family. Certainly, the impression of a studied indifference emerges from Sanudo's account. Sanudo himself had to remind the government to shut down most of the governmental offices in honor of the quasi-saint. Even this deference was not repeated at the next anniversary. On January 8, 1527, the occasion was hardly noticed; all the offices and shops remained open. E sta mal fatto, wrote Marin Sanudo.24 It is always hazardous in history to try to explain why something did not happen. The absence of notables at the beatification ceremony of 1526 has a number of possible explanations 21 For Andrea Gritti's marital connections, see FINLAY, p. 100. For Gritti's supporters in his election, see SANUDO, Diarii, 34:150-151, 162. 22 The battle of Pavia at which the French allies of Venice were defeated had taken place on Feb. 24, 1525. Nevertheless, Venice adhered to the League of Cognac (May 22, 1526) allying herself with Francis I, King of France, and Pope Clement VII. See SANUDO, Diarii, 40:789-790 and Linda CARROLL, Angela Beolco (II Ruzante), Boston 1990, p. 26 on the banquet of Feb. 7, 1526 and the interpretation of the rooster. 23 SANUDO, Diarii, 41:366. 24 SANUDO, Diarii, 43:599.

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which I have tried to suggest, among them the family rivalries of Venice. Surely these played some role in the fact that the earlier processi on behalf of Lorenzo Giustiniani's canonization were either stalled or still-born, and that so many important people stayed away from a beatification ceremony which redounded to Venice's glory, but also to the glory of the Giustiniani name. In Venice, "la religion civique" could be no more monolithic than the society which promoted it and which betrayed, on occasion, its own deep divisions and divergences.

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APPENDIX SANUDO, Diarii, 40:620-622 (January 8, 1526)

A di 8. Fo il zorno dil bia Lorenzo Justinian primo patriarca di Veniexia, qual morite dil 1453 [1456] a di 8 Zener1; el qual per breve hauto dal Pontifice presente si pol in tal zorno festivizar, e dir officio e messa come santo. Et cussi a Castelo il suo corpo heri a vespero fo aperto 1'archa marmorea, et erano li frati di Santa Maria di 1'Orto et San Zorzi Mazor, et dito uno vespero solenne, conzata la chiesia e la sua capella e 1'archa dove e il corpo suo, qual fu trovato disfato excepto la testa, la qual avia la barba et capelli picoli tosi in testa, et posto sopra le osse uno panno di restagno d'oro, fato una gradella di legno di sopra, a tutti fu mostrato con grande devutione heri, et tutto hozi. Et cussi questa matina a la ditta capela fu cantato una solenne messa, dove li era sier Jacomo Soranzo procurator, sier Marco Dandolo dotor et cavalier, sier Antonio Sanudo et io Marin Sanudo a ditta messa, et altri zentilhomini assa et gran popolo di Castelo; et compita, vidi il ditto beato Laurentio, et la chiesia era conzata con li banchali da cha Justinian, oltra queli fe far a la chiesa il patriarcha Contarini defunto. Et poi il Patriarca nostro in pontifical, per esser il suo anniversario, disse una messa solenne a 1'altar grando; et poi disnar fo predicate e ditto vespero con gran concorso di zente. Etiam a Santa Maria di 1'Orto fu fato al suo altar una solenne messa ditta, et poi disnar predicate et ditto un belissimo vespero; et per aricordo de mi Marin Sanudo, che Io dissi al Serenissimo, fu ordinato le botege per la terra fosseno serate; li officii e banchi non sentorono, solum le Quarantie et Savii sopra li extimi si reduseno; ma la dreta era che'l Serenissimo fusse andato a Castelo con la Signoria et altri per honorar uno suo santissimo zentilhomo, uno primo Patriarcha, uno doctissimo theologo e bon servo di Dio, qual ha composto 18 opere latine; uno per il qual e sta scritto per il Senato tante letere a Roma per la sua canonizatione a papa Lion; et non si pote perche il processo, che fu fatto dil 1470 [1474] di ordine di papa Sisto IV,2 qual mando do prelati in questa terra a farlo e Io portorono a Roma e si brusoe li a Roma; et havendo li frati la copia fo dato a uno Legato dil Papa che da poi vene in questa terra nominato il Carazolo; el qual hessendo sta accusato per maran, fuzite e porto via el ditto processo. Fo poi per papa Leon X comesso al Legato episcopo di Puola e 1'abate di Borgognoni di novo a formar il processo, licet molti vechi testemoni fosseno morti. Hor sono

1 2

Sanudo gives the wrong date for Lorenzo's death, which occurred in 1456. The correct date of the first processo was 1474.

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elect! per Colegio sier Zorzi Pixani dotor et cavalier, et sier Marin Zorzi dotor a far questa expedition mediante la gran solicitudine di domino Antonio Contarini patriarca et dil Serenissimo missier Lunardo Loredan doxe, qual desiderava fusse nel suo tempo canonizato; il qual cognobbe e di lui havea gran deviation. Hor non fu fato et 1'abate Trivixan di Borgognoni morite, ne mai pur fu aperto il brieve dil Papa sopra questo a loro mandato. Da poi, per papa Hadriano fu comesso a lo episcopo di Feltre Legato presente et al Borgasio episcopo di quali nulla feno3; et havendo inteso il Patriarca anteditto che a Mantoa il Marchexe havia obtenuto uno breve dal Papa che la beata Osanna di Mantoa, licet non fusse canonizata si potesse haver per santa, e farli officii etc. unde per ditto Patriarca fo manda la suplicha a questo Pontifice, el qual fu contento farla expedir mediante le fatiche de sier Marco Dandolo dotor et cavalier, diseso da una neza Justiniana dil prefato beato Laurentio, qual vive ancora; et cussi li mando uno breve dil 152 a di la copia dil qual sara scripto qui avanti, et e nota etiam al tempo zonse in questa terra;4 et fo ordinato per questo Principe andar a Castelo a far tal cerimonie a di Septembrio; poi fo perlongata; morite il Patriarca preditto quando si dovea far la festa a Castelo, siche non fu aperto licet li frati di Santa Maria di TOrto facesseno la festivita; hozi mo e stata fata in tal zornata. Et e da saper. Truovo questi santi zentilhomeni nostri : San Piero Ursiol, fo Doxe, poi ando monaco et e sepulto in Aquitania in una abazia a e la sua festa si solenizza de li molto, vien San Girardo Sagredo episcopo; il suo corpo e a San Donado di Muran, vien a di Questo beato Laurentio Justiniano episcopo di Castelo et primo patriarca di Veniexia; il suo corpo e a Castelo et vien a di 8 Zener. Etiam trovo che dil 1372, a di per Pregadi fo dato commission a li nostri Oratori andavano a Roma, che volesseno far canonizar il beato Francesco Querini patriarca di Grado; tamen non so dove sia il suo corpo, ne

3

Sanudo's omissions are marked here with five dots. He left many of these blanks, intending to fill them in later. 4 SANUDO, Diarii, 36:509-511. For further information on Clement VII's indultum of July 9, 1524, see LABALME, No Man But an Angel, p. 40, n. 63.

X

Holy Patronage, Holy Promotion: The Cult of Saints in Fifteenth-Century Venice

h happy Venice! Oh blessed Venice! You have St. Mark the Evangelist to defend you in battle like a lion, and Nicholas, father of the Greeks, to guide your ships Therefore we pray to you, glorious protectors of Venice ... and to you also . . . Theodore.... With your grace preceding and your intercession following, may we who venerate your holy remains deserve to share with you in the celebration of the angels.1 In the beginning of the fifteenth century, Venice was, and considered herself, a most miraculous city. Perched like the sea-birds of her 1 "O felix Venetia! et o beata Venetia! quae beatum Marcum evangelistam, utpote leonem in bellis habes defensorem, et Nicolaum, patrem Graecorum, in navibus gubernatorem... . Rogamus ergo vos, gloriosissimi Venetiae protectores! . . . et ... martyr Theodore .. . quatenus, divina gratia praecedente, vestroque suffragio subsequente, qui festa vestra temporalia veneramur, festis angelorum vobiscum interesse mereamur." For the Venetian text of the translatio of St. Nicholas from which this excerpt is taken, see Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana Cod. Lat. IX, 28 (2798), fols. 20820, published in Flaminio Corner, Ecclesiae Venetae Antiquis Monumentis . . . Illustratae (Venice: Typis Jo. Baptistae Pasquali, 1749), 9:6-39; and Receuil des Historiens des Croisades: Historiens Ocddentaux (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1895; facsimile repr. Farnborough, Hants: Gregg Press Ltd., 1967), 5:281 for the Latin text cited above. The author was a twelfth-century monk at the monastery of St. Nicholas on the Lido.

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skies upon her several islands, she regarded her very existence, as well as her extensive empire to the East, as the fruit of God's special favor,2 mediated through the active presence of his saints. Three of these saints had especially important roles in the city: Mark, Theodore, and Nicholas of Myra, especially the first. When, from 1404 on, the Venetians turned their commercial and political ambitions toward a new empire of the terraferma, acquiring large parts of northeastern Italy, their hired armies conquered these lands to the battle cry of "Marco, Marco," their merchants traded in coins which bore Mark's image, Mark's symbolic lion was emblazoned on governmental buildings and marketplace wells throughout Venetian domains, and subject territories pledged their allegiance to the patronage of St. Mark.3 But by the middle of the fifteenth century, the holy patronage of these saints apparently required further certification. In 1449, there was an investigation and validation of the relics of St. Nicholas in his church on the Lido. In the same year, the bishop of Venice, together with the doge, proposed a formal recognition of St. Mark in his resting place. In the next year, 1450, the feast of St. Theodore was elevated to a holy day of obligation. What was the relation of these saints to Venice? Why, at this mid-century moment, was their holy protection pro-

2

The proemium of a 1464 law reads: "Nos qui in huiusmodi salsis paludibus reducti tarn amplam civitatem tantumque dominium adepti non nostrorum predecessorum neque nostra industriam vel potentiam sed solum Dei bonitate et gratia ..." (Archivio di Stato di Venezia [hereafter ASV], Council of Ten, Misti, reg. 16, fol. 165v n.m. [for numero moderno], August 25, 1464). 3 Paduan statutes spoke of that city as fill us of St. Mark. The Trevisan College of Nobles, in its statutes of 1419-41, invoked the Trinity, St. Mark, and the local St. Liberale (Bianca Betto, II collegia dei notai, deigiudici, dei media e del nobili in Treviso (sea. XIII-XIV) [Venice: Deputazione Veneta di Storia Patria Miscellanea di Studi e Memorie, 1981], 388). Bassano invoked St. Mark as patron in June 1404 in the articles of its submission to Venice (Giovanni Battista Verci, Storia della Marca Trevigiana [Venice: G. Storti, 1786-89], XVIII, appendix, doc. 2031) and the ambassadors of Cologna on a particular embassy to Venice recalled the moment "cum .. . Deus omnipotens .. . comunia et singulares personas villarum infrascriptarum ad umbram illius serenissimi ac beatissimi Marci evangeliste patroni et gubernationis alme dominationis Venetorum . . . reduxerit" (Vicenza, Biblioteca Civica Bertoliana, Arch. Torre 778, fol. 8v). I owe all these references to the kindness of James Grubb. Earlier examples of Mark's imposition on subject peoples are discussed by Ernst Kantorowicz in connection with Venice's control of Crete in the thirteenth century in Laudes Regiae (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1958), 154. See also Edward Muir, Civic Ritual in Renaissance Venice (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1981), 88.

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mo ted and reaffirmed? Why was the officiating bishop, by name Lorenzo Giustiniani, elevated in 1451 to a patriarchate, venerated himself as a holy presence, and soon after his death in 1456 promoted by his city as a candidate for sanctification? Answers to these questions may delineate some interconnected aspects of Venetian religious and political history. Mark was, of course, the patron saint of Venice and had been since the ninth century. The story of his translation from Alexandria (827828) was a favorite theme in Venetian legends and iconography.4 Two Venetian merchants, driven by a storm into the port of Alexandria, heard that the Caliph was dismantling the church in which the remains of Mark were kept.5 By an elaborate scheme and the connivance of two Alexandrine monks, they were able to smuggle the body out, covering it with pork meat so as to forestall investigation by the Moslems for whom that meat was repellent. Their justification lay in the legend that Mark had earlier preached in Aquileia and, in so doing, had founded the north Adriatic church.6 There, it was also averred, he had written his Gospel. And there he had been visited by an angel in a dream who foretold his martyrdom, his passio, and the eventual return

4

Geary, Furta Sacra: Thefts of Relics in the Central Middle Ages, (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univ. Press, 1978), for a general discussion of the translation of relics; and Muir, Civic Ritual, 78-92, for a good summary of the Marcian bibliographies. 5 The Moslem danger, evidenced in their conquest of Sicily in 827, their occupation of Taranto and Bari in 839, and their sack of Rome in 846, made the Venetian rescue of St. Mark and his subsequent protection more urgent. Local ecclesiastical politics were a further impetus: Carolingian bishops were asserting ecclesiastical control over Venice by supporting Aquileia's primacy (as against Grade) at the Council of Mantua in 827. By having Mark's body, Venice-Grado would 'neutralize' Aquileia's importance. See Geary, Furta sacra, 108-10; and Silvio Tramontin, "San Marco," in Culto dei Santi a Venezia, ed. S. Tramontin et al. (Venice: Studium Cattolico Veneziano, 1965), 50-51. Shortly before, in 810, Pepin had made his unsuccessful bid to conquer the lagoons by attacking Malamocco (at that time the capital), and the government had been moved thereafter to the Rialto. St. Mark's presence would affirm the importance of the new site. 6 Otto Demus, The Church of San Marco in Venice (Washington: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1960), 37. Mark's visit to Aquileia is first described in Paul the Deacon's chronicle (783-86). See Tramontin, "San Marco," 48; and Muir, Civic Ritual, 80. See also Andrea Dandolo's Chronica (fourteenth century), ed. Esther Pastorello in Rerum Italicarum Scriptores2, vol. 12, pt. 1:1 (Bologna: Nicola Zanichelli, n.d.), which begins with Mark's mission to Aquileia (p. 9).

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of his body to these north Adriatic shores, populated by Christians remarkable for their piety.7 The translation of Mark's remains fulfilled this prophecy. The Venetians placed his body—now rescued from the infidels—in a chapel attached to the Doge's palace, rather than in the cathedral church of Venice which was S. Pietro di Castello, located in the eastern section of the city. The great Basilica of St. Mark, the Doge's private chapel, arose around Mark's remains and came to represent the city's holy status. To this church was brought the booty of subsequent campaigns: mosaics, jewels, precious icons, and statuary such as the giant bronze horses taken from Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade in 1204. Mark, as Peter's disciple, guaranteed the apostolicity of the Venetian Church and made it second only to Rome in antiquity.8 Mark's presence, as signified by his remains, served as an assertion of Venice's religious independence from Rome as well as its political importance visa-vis Byzantium and its imperial pretensions vis-a-vis the other Italian city-states. But Mark had not always been the principal saint of the city. Theodore, a Greek warrior saint, had been (or by the fifteenth century was considered to have been) the original tutelary saint of the Dogate.9 The dux, later doge, of Venice was, in his earliest phase, the

7

Bernardo Giustiniani, De divi Mam evangelista vita, translatione, et sepulturae loco, vol. 5 of Thesaurus antiquitatum et historiarum Italiae, ed. J. G. Graevius (Leyden: Petrus Vander Aa, 1722), pt. 1, bk. 1, col. 175A: "Caeterum ut tibi gratio iste sit locus, quern tarn humilem tenuemque nunc vides, nosse te velim, tempus adhuc fore, quum ossa tua e barbarorum manibus erepta, hie perpetua quiescant. Evadet in gentem magnam ope tua precibusque, tantum virtu tern pietatemque colant." 8 Because St. Peter had allegedly invested Mark with an episcopal office, the Venetian St. Mark was often portrayed in episcopal robes, an insistence upon St. Mark's sacerdotal office and an enhancement of the prestige of the Venetian bishops as heirs of St. Peter himself See Staale Sinding-Larsen, Christ in the Council Hall: Studies in the Religious Iconography of the Venetian Republic (Rome: "L'erma" di Bretschneider, 1974), 192. 9 Theodore's early role remains uncertain. Marin Sanudo in his Lz Vite dei Dogi writes of "Thodaro, qual si dice fu primo protector di Venitiani, tamen di questo io non 1'ho trovato scripto in alcun cronicha" (Rerum Italicarum Scriptores2, vol. 22 [Citta di Castello, 1900], 283-84). See Antonio Niero, "I santi patroni," in Culto dei santi in Venezia, ed. S. Tramontin et al. (Venice: Studium Cattolico Venetiano, 1965), 91-92, 232; and Silvio Tramontin, "Realta e leggenda nei racconti marciani veneti," Studi Veneziani 12 (1970): 52-53, n. 44. See Muir, Civic Ritual 93-94, on "the chronicle of confusions" between two saint Theodores. One was Theodore of Amasea in Pontus whose remains were buried with Nicholas and Nicholas's holy uncle (also St. Nicholas)

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military commander of a Byzantine province, and therefore the Greek soldier Theodore was an appropriate symbol of militant Byzantine sovereignty. It seems that the first ducal chapel of Venice was dedicated to Theodore and built on the site later occupied by the Basilica of St. Mark.10 Even after Mark had displaced Theodore in the ninth century—his great church swallowing up the smaller chapel of St. Theodore—Theodore remained important, and his continuing presence was traced in mosaic and stone. In the mid-thirteenth century (1257), his reputed remains were secured by the Venetians (the most active among bodysnatchers in the Middle Ages), and some time later a statue of Theodore was raised upon a pillar in the piazzetta, the waterside ceremonial entrance to the great Piazza of St. Mark (1329). This first statue was replaced in the second half of the fifteenth century with a strange composite: an antique head, placed on a Roman armored torso, to which were added assorted arms and legs, the assembled figure standing triumphant over a fantastic crocodile-dragon with the muzzle of a dog.11 It was an apt image of the fragmentary, composite, and collective quality of many of the saints dear to Venice, considered none the less efficacious in destroying the demonic, dragonic enemy and in defending the composite and collective Venetian empire. That is the statue we in St. Nicholas on the Lido. This is the Theodore referred to in the twelfth-century invocation at the beginning of the essay. The other was Theodore of Heraclea, whose body was brought to Venice in 1267 and placed in the Church of St. Salvador. Muir indicates that the Venetian St. Theodore of the later fifteenth century may have become a fusion of these two, although in 1448 the two were still distinct. 10 Demus, Church of San Marco, 21-22. See also Wladimiro Dorigo, Venezia origini. Fondamenti, ipotesi, metodi (Milan: Electa Editrice, 1983), 2:545—56. Dorigo dates the foundation of this early ducal chapel in 554. Muir, Civic Ritual, 94, dates the edifice about 819. Niero, "I santi patroni," 92—93, considers the existence of the church dubious. 11 See Gaetano Cozzi and Michael Knapton, La Repubblica di Venezia nell'eta moderna (Turin: UTET, 1986), illustration facing p. 16; Luisa Sartorio, "San Teodoro, statua composita," Arte veneta I (1947): 132-34. For an explanation of why this statue's spear was held in the left hand and the shield in his right hand, see Francesco Sansovino, Venezia citta nobilissima e singolare (Venice: S. Curti, 1663; facsimile repr. Farnborough, Hants: Gregg Press Ltd., 1968), 317: "L'animo della Repubblica non fu di offendere alcuno ma si ben di difendersi dalle altrui I'offese, poi che ella tiene armata di difesa quella mano con la quale si fa per ordinario 1'offesa." The militant aspect of saints such as Theodore is discussed by John R. Hale in Renaissance War Studies (London: Hambledon, 1983), 366-67.

X 238 see today, the famous "Todaro" (in Venetian dialect), set alongside another pillar which supports the lion of St. Mark. And it is interesting to note that between the two columns of the Piazzetta, between "Todaro e Marco," one with Theodore, the other supporting Mark's winged lion, justice was done. Here was the traditional place for the execution of criminals, of those who had harmed the Venetian state: in the judgmental presence of two of the city's holiest patrons.12 The third in this trio of saints, Nicholas, physically arrived in Venice at the beginning of the twelfth century, between the advent of Mark in the ninth century and Theodore in the thirteenth. Long associated with the sea, sailors, and commerce, Nicholas was venerated prior to the arrival of his remains; we know that the church on the Lido existed some decades before Nicholas' relics were taken from Myra in 1100 to be placed in his Venetian church.13 The account of his translation from Myra to Venice provided the opening peroration of this essay: "Oh happy Venice! O blessed Venice!" Happy and blessed in her protectors, among which surely the saint of the sea had a predictably prominent role. The church of St. Nicholas on the Lido came to play a special part in the annual ceremony of the doge's marriage of the city 12

Marin Sanudo, De origine, situ et magistratibus urbis Venetae, ovvero la citta di Venetia (1493-1530), ed. Angela Caracciolo Arico (Milan: Cisaltino-La Goliardica, 1980), 25: "Ha un altra piazza—dil Palazzo—dove si tien, et da rason a tutti et senta li officij, et va verso il Canal Grande dove, alia riva, sono due colonne altissime, et erette sopra alcuni gradi; sora di una e San Thodaro et sora di I'altra e San Marco. Qui in mezo si fa giustitia di tutti li ladri, traditori, o altri, si brusar, impichar, come far altro maleficio." Sanudo discusses these two columns also in his Le vite del dogi (in Rerum Italicamm Scriptores2, 430). Mark's lion may have arrived on his column a century sooner (mid-thirteenth) than Theodore's first statue was put on his (mid-fourteenth century). See J. B. Ward Perkins, "The Bronze Lion of St. Mark at Venice," Antiquity, vol. 21, no. 81 (March, 1947): 23-41. 13 Wells of sweet water, used to provision ships, may have accounted for the church's location on this island at the mouth of the lagoon. Marin Sanudo describes these in his 1493 "List of Notable Things in Diverse Venetian Churches," ("Queste sono cosse notabile in diverse chiesie"), Museo Civico Correr, Venice, MS Cicogna 969, fols. 24v-26r, published by Wendy Stedman Sheard, "Sanudo's List of Notable Things in Venetian Churches and the Date of the Vendramin Tomb," Yale Italian Studies, vol. 1, 3 (Summer 1977): 255-57. The Church's date is given as 1043 by G. Musolino, "Feste religiose popolari," Culto del santi a Venezia (Venice: Studium Cattolico Veneziano, 1965), 218. It was built by Domenico Contarini (1042-71) and it is with this doge that the formula Dei gratia dux replaces others suggestive of subservience to Byzantium. The acquisition of her own holy patrons went hand in hand with Venetian insistence on a sovereignty dependent on God alone.

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to the sea. Each year, on the day of the Ascension, the doge cast a ring into the Adriatic in token of the sposalizio, the marriage in which Venice celebrated her dominion over the sea. The doge then returned from the open waters to the Church of St. Nicholas for a solemn act of worship in honor of the saint who was, in effect, patron of the Venetian fleet.14 Mark, Theodore, and Nicholas: these three, along with Mary, were among the most important saints of Venice. It was her saints who supplied what Venice had originally lacked: walls, gates, fortifications, and a heroic founder. It was their patronage and protection which rendered Venice invulnerable and unassailable, and by the middle of the fifteenth century, Venice's need for holy protection was especially pressing.15 The years 1447—1450 were years of intense diplomatic and military activity in the Italian peninsula. The death of the Milanese Duke Filippo Maria Visconti, on August 13, 1447, without male heirs, plunged Italy into a three-year war for the Milanese succession. The Milanese populace declared itself the "Ambrosian Republic," at times allied with the Venetian Republic, although not without suspicion and anxiety. For Venice had, over the past decades, acquired large parts of what was formerly Milanese territory. Francesco Sforza, a condottiere married to the last Milanese duke's illegitimate daughter, was determined to capture Milan for himself. Formerly employed by Venice, he spent these

14 On the sposalizio, see Muir, Civic Ritual, 119-34 and 97-98, where he suggests that an earlier propitiation ceremony invoking Nicholas's protection of Venetian sailors evolved into the more elaborate sposalizio. See also the catalogue of an exhibit, Monasteri Benedettini nella Laguna Veneta, ed. Gabriele Mazzucco (Venice: Arsenale, 1983), 52; B. Tamassia Mazzarotto, Lefeste veneziane (Florence: Sansoni, 1961), 181fF. Sometime in the centuries which followed, another festival developed in connection with the church of S. Nicolo dei Mendicoli, located in the poorer section of the city populated by fishermen and pauper nobility. This was the annual election of a popular doge, the doge dei Nicolotti, who was crowned and feted and even received by the proper doge of the city. So important was St. Nicholas to the maritime city of Venice that his worship has been seen as competitive with that of St. Mark (Roberto Cessi, Storia di Venezia, [Venice: C. Ferrari, 1958], 2:346-48). There was also a church, dedicated to St. Nicholas, in the ducal palace, important enough to be decorated with a fresco cycle. See Patricia Fortini Brown, Narrative Painting in the Age ofCarpaccio (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1988), 259-60. 15 Bernardo Giustiniani, De divi marci, col. 171C: ".. . ut is ad urbem novam, vel muniendam, vel ornandam quasi conditor, sane protector nobilissimus accesserit, cuius munitione et patrocinio invicta tandem et inexpugnabilis redderetur."

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three years warring sometimes with Venice against Milan, or with Milan against Venice, or against both, according to alliances so kaleidoscopic that even contemporary credulity was strained.16 It was Sforza who inflicted on Venice a major setback to her terraferma ambitions, first destroying a large part of the Venetian inland fleet at Casalmaggiore on the Po on July 16-17, 1448, and then, two months later on September 15, inflicting an unanticipated and totally humiliating defeat on the Venetian military forces at the battle of Caravaggio (a battle at which Venice was said to have lost all but 1500 of her original 12,500 cavalry and saved not a single foot soldier of her 5000 infantry). This, in spite of her troops being led by ten condottieri (including Bartolomeo Colleoni) under the general captaincy of the experienced Michele Attendolo.17 A treaty between Sforza and Venice followed a month later, but relations with Sforza deteriorated so that eventually Sforza and his envoys began to issue forth a stream of anti-Venetian propaganda charging Venice with the ambition of dominating first the north and then all of Italy: "They remain obstinate and hardened and always with their 16 See, for example, Bernardo Giustiniani's comment in his 1457 "Oratio funebris habita in obitu Francisci Fuscari Ducis," in Orazioni, elogi e vite scritte da letterati veneti patrizi in lode di dogi, ed altri illustri soggetti (Venice: A. Curti, 1798), 58: "Quis has fortunae vices credat? Tantas rerum temporumque tarn brevi mutationes, ultra progredi fas non est." 17 On June 13, 1448, the Venetian Senate wrote Pasquale Malipiero, their procurator with the army, that Venice's political honor and reputation rested upon its army's protection of Lodi (in the vicinity of Caravaggio) and the presence of its river fleet on the Po (ASV, Secreta, Reg. 18, fol. 6 n.m.). After these two stunning defeats of Casalmaggiore and Caravaggio, the Senate wrote Nicolo Canale, Venetian ambassador in Florence: "Denotamus vobis damnum et cladem dicti exercitus fuisse adhuc valde maiorem et graviorem quod credideremus. Nam omnes gentes nostrae confracte sunt et in maxima parte capte Res nostrae maxime et evidenti periculo constitutae sint" (ASV, Secreta, Reg. 18, fol. 38 n.m., Sept. 18, 1448). Giorgio Dolfm in his "Cronica di Venezia" (Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, MS. Ital VII, 794 [8503], refers to the "gran melicanie e affanni" these defeats caused in Venice [fol. 412 n.m.]). On the battles of Casalmaggiore and Caravaggio, see Ercole Ricotti, Storia delle Compagnie di Ventura in Italia (Turin: G. Pomba, 1844-45), 3:126-35; and Bortolo Belotti, La vita di Bartolomeo Colleoni (Bergamo: Istituto d'Arti Grafiche, 1923), 176-81. Even two attending Venetian Procuratori were taken prisoner. Well might the Florentine government refer to the battle of Caravaggio in a letter (September 26, 1448) to its ambassador in Venice as a grim event for the Venetians, "il caso sinistro . . . la qualcosa e stata molestissima a tucto questo popolo" (in Luigi Rossi, "Firenze e Venezia dopo la battaglia di Caravaggio," Archivio Storico Italiano, ser. 5, vol. 34 [1904], 158-79).

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mouth open to acquire states and usurp the territories of their neighbors, to satisfy their appetite for dominating Italy."18 In this war of words, Sforza came to be joined by the Florentine Republic, increasingly controlled by Cosimo de' Medici, under whose guidance Florence abandoned its traditional alliance with her sister republic of Venice. Together with Sforza, Florence inveighed against what was now labelled the threat of Venetian dominion, attempting to convince the remaining powers—Rome, Naples, and Genoa—that this label was indeed appropriate. Pope Nicholas V, however, who succeeded the Venetian Eugenius IV in February of 1447, was chiefly concerned with establishing peace in the Italian peninsula and attempted to preserve a mediator's role. At the same time, he also sought to maintain the papacy against the claims of the Council of Basel, to encourage Rene of Anjou's claim to the kingdom of Naples as a counterpoise to Alfonso of Aragon's aggressive power there, and to establish the prestige and power of the Roman Catholic Church through a religious and cultural program. 1450 was to be celebrated as a Holy Year in Rome, and the remarkable collections of the Vatican Library were launched. Further to the south, Alfonso of Aragon was proclaiming a testamentary right to the Milanese ducal throne and waging military campaigns in Tuscany against Florence. Eventually, however, he stated that his real enemy was Venice and declared war against her in July of 1449.19 To the west there was the Republic of Genoa, to which the 18

"E Veneziani . . . come quelli che stanno obstinati e induriti e semper con la bocha aperta per acquistar Signoria e usurpare quello de tucti soi vicini per adimpire 1'apetito de li animi soi de dominar Italia," Francesco Sforza writing from Milan to his ambassador Nicodemo in Rome on February 21, 1451, in Luigi Rossi, "Venezia e il re di Napoli, Firenze, e Francesco Sforza dal novembre del 1450 al giugno del 1451," Nuovo Archivio Veneto, fasc. 3 (anno 1905), 281. Even the Venetian chronicler, Giorgio Dolfm, confirmed Venetian cupidity—"cognosciuta la cupidita venetiana appetir al dominio di tutta Lombardia" ("Cronica di Venezia," fol. 408 n.m.). 19 Alfonso's declaration of war against Venice was a threat to the important Venetian commerce in the southern region of Apulia where the city of Bari also claimed to have the body of St. Nicholas since 1087, a decade prior to the Venetian acquisition. There, as part of a fervent local cult, an elaborate church was built to accommodate the vast throngs of pilgrims. See Silvio Tramontin, "Influssi orientale nel culto de' santi a Venezia fino al secolo XV," in Venezia e il Levantefmo al secolo XV (Florence: L. S. Olschki, 1973-74), 805-6; and Geary, Furta sacra, 124, on the rivalry between Bari and Venice in the grain trade from Apulia.

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Venetians sent one of their most skilled ambassadors in order to gain Genoese adherence to a Venetian alliance. But Genoa opted to send aid to Francesco Sforza and echo the anti-Venetian propaganda which Sforza continued to sound. In February of 1450, the Milanese, constrained by siege and famine, murdered the Venetian ambassador—an intolerable insult and shock to the Venetians—and shortly thereafter Francesco Sforza gained control of the Milan.20 Given Venice's severe diplomatic and military failings, the swelling rancor and bitterness among the Italian city-states against Venice, the growing risk to the bulwarks of her eastern empire where the Ottoman power would, within a few years, overrun Constantinople, and the fact that within the city there had been, in 1447, a devastating recurrence of the plague, it is no wonder that at this mid-century point Venice should secure her spiritual alliances and supernatural connections.21 It was the relics of St. Nicholas, in their tomb on the Lido, which started the series of'holy recognitions' in the mid-fifteenth century.22 In 1449, St. Nicholas' tomb, his area, began to ooze a sacred unguent 20 Giorgio Dolfin, "Cronica di Venezia," fol. 417 n.m. Luigi Rossi assessed this as "un'umiliazione pe' Veneziani che essi per 1'orgoglio e prestigio presso gli altri Signori e Signorie della Penisola in niun modo potevano tollerare" in "Niccolo V e le potenze d'ltalia dal maggio del 1447 al dicembre del 1451," Rivista di Scienze Storiche, anno 3, vol. 1 (1906): 246. 21 For a general review of the politics of this period, see Samuele Romanin, Storia documentata di Venezia (Venice: P. Naratovich, 1855), 4:207-30; and Nicolai Rubinstein, "Italian reaction to Terraferma expansion in the fifteenth century," in Renaissance Venice, ed. John R. Hale (London: Faber and Faber, 1973), 197-217. See also Gianni Zippel, "Ludovico Foscarini ambasciatore a Genova, nella crisi dell'espansione veneziana sulla terraferma (1449-50)," Bolletino dell'Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medio Evo 71 (1959): 181-255. Other complicating factors in this situation were Frederick Ill's claims to Milan as having devolved to the empire upon the death of the last male Visconti and Charles d'Orleans' claim through his mother Valentina Visconti, Filippo Maria's sister. For the plague of 1447, see Antonio Niero, "Pieta ufficiale e pieta popolare in tempo di peste," in Venezia e la Peste (catalogue of an exhibition in Venice, 1979), 287. Of some importance also for the religious activity of the next few years was the example of relics and hagiographical texts now arriving from the threatened Eastern Empire. Witness the transference to Venice from Constantinople in 1454 of the body of St. Athanasius of Alexandria. 22 "Recognition" was most often formally practised as part of the beatification process. See "Reconnaissance des restes mortels d'un serviteur de Dieu" in Dictionnaire de Droit Canonique, vol. 7 (Paris: Librairie Letouzey et Ane, 1965), cols. 479—80. Here, it served rather to validate the presence and potency of the holy remains.

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which apparently engendered marvelous cures and led to an investigation.23 So on March 30, 1449, the doge went together with the bishop, Lorenzo Giustiniani, the higher clergy, and the chief governmental leaders, joining together in the kind of politico-ecclesiastical ceremony so familiar in Venice. The tomb was opened, and body of St. Nicholas was officially seen and verified in what an eyewitness described as a deeply religious event. Then the tomb was sealed with cramp-irons, so that it could not be opened again, and the city was filled with rejoicing and devotion.24 For St. Mark, shortly thereafter, similar ceremonies were planned— 23 From an early period, Nicholas was a "myroblyte," a saint whose relics oozed a myrrh, or meliorative unguent. See Charles W. Jones, Saint Nicholas of Myra, Bari, and Manhattan: Biography of a Legend (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1978), 66 and 206 for an extensive description of this miracle and the nineteenth-century procedures of priests in Bari for extracting "the manna" which was then given to pilgrims who bought vials for this purpose from the local merchants. 24 The eyewitness account is in Giorgio Dolfin, "Cronica Di Venezia," fols. 413r— 413v n.m. Dolfin's description may be found in Fernanda Sorelli, "Predicatori a Venezia (fine secolo XIV—meta secolo XV)," Le venezie francescane, n.s., anno 6, fasc. 1 (1989): 158. Marin Sanudo based his description on Dolfin's account (Cronica Veneta, pt. 5, carta 254). See Daniele Rosa, Summorum Sanctissimorumque Pontiftcum . . . de Beati Laurentii Justiniani Venetiarum Patn'archae . . . vita sanctitate ac miraculis Testimoniorum centuria (Venice: Pinelli, 1630), 144: "II Dose ando con li piatti a San Nicolo de Lio con il Vescovo de Castello Domino Lorenzo Giustinan, et con il Clero, e zonto li, doppo ditta una solenne Messa cantata per il prefatto Vescovo, e fatta processione, ando esso Dose con il predetto Vescovo, 1'Abbate, la Signoria, e altri Prelati sotto Confessione dove e 1'arca marmorea, nella quale si diceva che erano li Corpi de San Nicolo barba, de San Nicolo nipote, e de San Theodore Martire, e apersero la detta area, e cosi vedendo li detti corpi tre con gran devotione, e serrono la detta area con arpesi, che piu non si potesse aprir, li quali Corpi Santi se trova etiam furono visti in tempo de M. Antonio Venier Dose del 1399 li quali erano involtadi in panni de seda, si come appareva per una notade lettere scritte in marmoro, poste li sotto confession come se vide." The fact that there was an eyewitness account indicates the public and publicized aspect of the ceremony. See also Sanudo's shorter description in Citta di Venetia (1980), 164. Further details are provided by Flaminio Corner, Notizie storiche delle chiese e monasteri de Venezia e di Torcello (Padua: Manfre, 1758), 58-59. G. Cracco, "Dai santi ai santuari: un'ipotesi di evoluzione in ambito veneto," in Studi sul medioevo veneto (Turin: Giappichelli, 1981), 42, characterizes this epoch as the "triumph of visuality." Was this Renaissance emphasis on visual piety, with its specific and local celebration of the saints and communion with Christ through the visible elevation of the host and the Corpus Christi processions, a consequence of the more than half-century of schism and conciliar conflict which weakened the claims and character of the abstract Church universal? On the presentation and visibility of imported relics in the later Middle Ages, see Hans Belting, The Image and its Public in the Middle Ages (New Rochelle: Aristide D. Caratzas, 1990), 203-21.

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or so we are told by Lorenzo Giustiniani's biographer and nephew, Bernardo Giustiniani. This same nephew tells us that he had seen, in the episcopal apartments of his uncle, a secret document indicating where all the holy relics of the city were hidden and preserved.25 This was especially important for St. Mark, whose body had already been lost once in the tenth century, during the reconstruction of the Basilica, after a fire in 972 made that rebuilding necessary. A century later, in 1094, after a three-day fast and much communal prayer, a pillar had miraculously opened and the saint revealed his hiding place.26 He was then reburied in a location known only to the doge, the primicerio, and the procurator of the Basilica.27 Now, once again in the mid-fifteenth century, it seemed appropriate to re-view, to see again, Mark's sacred relics. Accordingly, the bishop, together with the doge, planned such an event, but because of the pressure of politics and war—so we are told—and the demise of the two leaders, the ceremony never took place.28 25

Giustiniani, De divi Mam, col. 191-92, 193A. On this inventio or apparitio, see Giustiniani, De divi Marci, col. 188B: "Lapides callopreciae cujusdam (ea est columna pluribus ex lapidibus compacta) loco sensim moveri caepti. Cadentibusque et admirantibus omnibus, area ubi corpus latebat mira cum odoris fragrantia, omnium oculis sese videndam offert." Cf. Sanudo, Citta di Venetia, 56. Tramontin, "Realta e leggenda,'" 56—57, offers a plausible explanation for this miracle, suggesting that in the process of rebuilding the church, the body was exposed, venerated, seen to perform miracles and then hidden again; popular fantasy turned this event into a mysterious and miraculous "inventio." Geary, Furta Sacra, 126-27, points out the coincidence of this inventio with the building in Bari of the elaborate tomb for St. Nicholas and suggests that rivalry—commercial and hagiographical—may have played a significant role. See also Roberto Cessi, "L'apparitio Sancti Marci del 1094," Archivio Veneto, anno 110, ser. 5, vol. 85 (1964): 113-15, where Cessi argues that the arrival of St. Nicholas in Venice, and the competition Nicholas posed for Mark, may have prompted the rediscovery and reaffirmation of Mark's presence in his basilica. Muir, Civic Ritual, 87-88, suggests that the defeat of the Byzantine emperor by the Seljuk Turks in 1071 may have intensified the Venetian determination to distinguish themselves from the Byzantine heritage by this insistence on Mark's presence. Muir also points out that the same set of circumstances led to another Christian assertion, Pope Urban II's call for a crusade in 1095, the year after the "inventio." 27 Giustiniani, De divi Marci, col. 186E: "Corpus Evangelistae sublatum ex ea columna, ubi per tot annos delituerat, novo alio delecto loco, est collocatum. Antiqua tamen lege ne quis locum cognoscat, nisi dux, primicerius, et Ecclesiae procurator." The primicerio was the dogal chaplain. 28 Giustiniani, De divi Marci, col. 192F. The fact that the body was not verified at this time may have prompted Bernardo Giustiniani's long arguments as to the certainty of its presence in Venice, among which was the following: if the body were else26

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As for Theodore, he was rediscovered—so to speak—in this same period. Prior to 1450, no written sources indicate that Theodore was the original protector of the city. But in 1450, the Venetian Senate itself declared that "in bygone times and ever thereafter St. Theodore was the protector of this our city, together with St. Mark the Evangelist." It appears from this decree that at some earlier time, Theodore's ensign had been removed from the armies of the Venetian Republic. Now, to compensate for this displacement and to make sure that from this time forth Theodore would receive due attention, his feast was made into zfestum solemne, a holy day of obligation.29 Finally, as integral to the holy patronage and holy promotion of these years, there was Lorenzo Giustiniani, the officiating bishop at these viewings, recognitions, and saintly promotions, of which three were planned and two executed. Lorenzo Giustiniani was a member of one of the oldest and most distinguished families of the city, so old they were called apostolic and so distinguished they claimed descent from the imperial Justinians of Constantinople. The period of Giustiniani's episcopacy (1433—1456) is marked by renewal and reform which emanated from the piety associated with the small island of San Giorgio in Alga; here, as a young devotee, Lorenzo had gone to join other devout and later influential patricians.30 His reputation for sanctity grew where, why was there no great building elsewhere to house it? Giustiniani then fortifies his argument from architecture with a lengthy description of the extravagant dimensions and accoutrements of the Basilica (cols. 184-86). 29 "Quia, ut notum est, per superiora et continua tempora Sanctus Theodorus fuit protector istius urbis nostrae una cum B. Marco Evangelista, ex quorum quidem Sanctorum intercessionibus res nostrae mediante divina dementia feliciter processerunt. Et sic res digna, et conveniens est, quod, postquam vexillum ipsius Sancti Theodori a nobis, sive ab ista Republica non defertur, saltern, et devotione, et veneratione hujus Beatissimi Sancti dies suae commemorationis, quae est die nono mensis Novembris, debeat celebrari" (September 21, 1450) in Corner, Ecclesiae Venetae, 13:399-400. The Senate's action was prompted by Bishop Lorenzo Giustiniani who, on October 12, 1450, in a supporting episcopal decree, mandated that on this holy day "a cunctis in nostra Diocesi abstineatur mecanicis artibus exercendis. Quibus XL dies de Indulgentia observantibus misericorditer concedimus, ut pius et misericors Deus ejus intercessionis auxilio civitatem istam ejus gratia cum pace, et sospitato conservet" (Corner, Ecclesiae Venetae, 13:399-400). Niero suggests that the removal of Theodore's vexillum, his standard, from the Republic's armies occurred during the war of Chioggia with the Genoese (1378-81) to avoid confusion with Genoese standards bearing the emblem of St. George, Theodore's military brother saint ("I santi patroni," 94). 30 Among the members of that early group were Ludovico Barbo, the great

X 246 even as his spiritual administrative influence was enlarged. In 1451, Lorenzo was promoted, against his deepest ascetic inclinations, to be the first Patriarch of Venice—an office now combined with the episcopacy. And upon his death, five years later, Lorenzo came to serve the same religious purpose of civic protection which he had, in his lifetime, pursued. Called "beatus" even before he died, Lorenzo was, following his death, sculpted (perhaps by Jacopo Bellini) in a half-bust style after the manner of popes and saints, a bust the faithful could touch for its reputedly magical powers. A few months later, Lorenzo was represented in a Gentile Bellini painting on a processional panel, nimbed with rays and attended by celebratory angels.31 In the following decades, there were active efforts by his family and city to have his sanctity proclaimed by the Church.32 A hagiographical Vita was written by his

reformer of Santa Giustina in Padua, Angelo Correr, later Gregory XII (1406—14), and Gabriele Condulmer, later Eugenius IV (1431-47). Lorenzo Giustiniani shared with these men a belief in restoring religious discipline by implementing the ancient ecclesiastical canons through synods, apostolic visitations, and episcopal decrees. For a summary of Lorenzo's reforming activities, see A. Niero, / Patriarchi di Venezia da Lorenzo Giustiniani ai nostrigiomi (Venice: Studium Cattolico Veneziano, 1961), 21-31. At the beginning of the fifteenth century, the Venetian authorities had firmly rejected the mystical popular movements represented by Domenico Dominici. Lorenzo Giustiniani's emphasis on the monastic ideal and austere canonical tradition, combined with carefully orchestrated public ceremonials such as these "recognitions," was entirely compatible with the oligarchic polity of the Venetian state and consonant with the spiritual intensification of the Alghense reform. Cf. G. Zarri, "Aspetti dello sviluppo degli Ordini religiosi in Italia tra Quattro e Cinquecento. Studi e problemi" in Strutture ecdesiastiche in Italia e in Germania prima della Riforma (Bologna: II Mulino, 1984), 221. 31 On the statue, see Jiirg Meyer zur Capellen, "La 'Figura' del San Lorenzo Giustiniani di Jacopo Bellini," Centre tedesco di studi veneziani, Quaderni 19 (Venice, 1981): 5-33; and the documents cited in Colin Eisler, The Genius of Jacopo Bellini (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1989), 59-60, 521. Cf. Antonio Niero, "Pieta popolare e interessi politici nel culto di S. Lorenzo Giustiniani," Archivio Veneto, ser. 5, vol. 117 (1981): 199. Marilyn Lavin has pointed out to me the presence of festive swags over the angels. The panel is now in the Gallerie dell' Accademia in Venice. 32 See my essay "No Man But an Angel: Early Efforts to Canonize Lorenzo Giustiniani (1381-1456)" in Continuity e discontinuity nella storia politica, economica e religiosa (Vicenza: Neri Pozza Editore, 1993), 15-43. There was some previous association of the Giustiniani family with sanctity and the particular saints under discussion. An ancestor, Beato Nicolo Giustiniani, had prevented the extinction of his clan in the twelfth century by gaining permission to take a temporary leave from his monastery of St. Nicholas on the Lido, marry, and propagate a quantity of heirs before he

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nephew and a processo for sanctification was initiated. Numerous miracles were recounted, among them that Lorenzo's body had lain uncorrupted for forty days, a felicitous symbol for his supposedly incorrupt and unassailable city. According to a holy hermit, it was Lorenzo's prayers and intercession which saved the city during her wars with Milan.33 But it was not until 1524 that the papacy permitted his cult as "beatus" throughout the Venetian dominions.34 Canonization proper had to wait until the next Venetian pope finally granted it in 1690. What emerges from these accounts is the contemporary concept of sanctity as a living, active, and unifying force: Mark, Theodore, and Nicholas were understood to be still present among the living Venetians who venerated them and never more so than in a time of tribulation. Lorenzo, a chief participant in the events of 1449—1451, was, upon his death in 1456, immediately considered to have joined the company of Venetian patron saints. The Venetian liturgical calendar reminded Venetians throughout the year of these personalities: January 2, the dedication of the first Basilica of St. Mark; January 8, the death and later the feast of Lorenzo Giustiniani; January 31, the translation of Mark's body; April 25, Mark's feast day (his day of martyrdom); May 25, Nicholas's translation; June 25, Mark's reappearance in the pillar, his inventio; September 5, Lorenzo's birth date; October 8, the consecration of the rebuilt Basilica of St. Mark; November 9, Theodore's feast day; December 6, Nicholas's feast day.35 returned to that monastery, in which he was eventually buried. Lorenzo's own brother, Leonardo, had translated, in the early 1430s, the "Life of St. Nicholas" from Greek texts into Latin. He, too, was also buried in the Church of St. Nicholas. Lorenzo's other brother was called Mark; Bernardo's children included a Lorenzo and a Nicholas. The prevalence of saints' names such as Marco and Nicolo among the Venetian patricians is worth some attention. 33 See Bernardo Giustiniani's Vita Beati Laurentii lustiniani Venetiarum Proto Patriarchae (Rome: Officina Poligrafica Laziale, 1962), chap. 65, p. 131, and chap. 52, p. 104. This Vita is the primary source for San Lorenzo's life and was first published in Venice by Jacques Le Rouge in 1475. 34 See Claudio Finzi's introduction to Domenico Morosini, De bene istituta re publica (Milan: Giuffre, 1969), 7-8. Finzi suggests that papal recognition of Lorenzo Giustiniani's cult may have been in exchange for Venetian support of the papal project of a crusade. 35 For a more complete list of Venetian holy days, see S. Tramontin, "II 'Kalendarium' veneziano," in Culto del Santi a Venezia (Venice: Studium Cattolico Veneziano, 1965), 287-324. Other lists, however, indicate considerable variety in the dates

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Only a century earlier, in 1341, it was believed—at least by the credulous—that St. Mark and St. Nicholas (this time together with St. George, the military brother saint of Theodore) had rescued the city from an aqua alia of threatening dimensions caused by hostile demons. The three saints on that occasion had given a ring to a poor fisherman in proof of their protection—another favorite subject for Venetian Renaissance painters.36 Such continuing efficacy was reinforced when, in 1420, the very Gospel of St. Mark, purported to have been written by the saint's own hand, was brought to Venice from its newlyacquired territory of Friuli. With tremendous pomp and circumstance, it became another "relic" which the capital city insisted on removing from its dominions to its own safekeeping.37 So great was the faith vested in holy patronage, so interwoven were sacred and secular history, and so available were these protectors in moments of acute political stress and civic danger, that sanctity was viewed as a continuum, a part and parcel of daily life. Heavenly citi-

of some of the feast-days. See also idem, "Realta e leggenda," 35-58; and idem, "San Marco," 41-73. Bernardo Giustiniani, at the end of his funeral oration for the defunct Francesco Foscari, called upon Christ, Mary, St. Mark, and the relics of seventy saints now collected from barbarous nations to preserve and protect the Venetian state: "Vosque septuaginta sanctorum felicissimae reliquiae, qui per varias orbis plagas dispersi, perque barbaras et infestas vestrae fidei nationes jactati, demum non minori veneratione quam labore collecti hie sedem, hie domicilium reperistis: vos item, sancti et sanctae omnes imploro atque obtestor" ("Oratio funebris," p. 58). 36 Paintings depicting this legend by Palma il Vecchio and Paris Bordone are now both in Venice's Gallerie dell' Accademia. On St. George, see Muir, Civic Ritual, 9597. 37 This "Gospel" and a ring—possibly that purportedly given to the poor fisherman, or the one which was considered as received from the hand which St. Mark extended from the pillar at the time of his inventio—were paraded on Mark's ceremonial days, contained in an elaborate tabernacle and carried by the members of the Scuola Grande di San Marco (Muir, Civic Ritual, 88). The "Gospel," actually a sixth-century codex, is now partly in the library of Cividale and partly in Prague (Tramontin, "San Marco," 69-70). See also Marin Sanudo, Le vite dei Dogi, col. 933 (and Monticolo's notes 3 and 4 on p. 96 in the 1900 edition). A year earlier in 1419, the Senate had debated whether special measures should be taken to secure a relic from Egypt which was reported to be the head of St. Mark and which the Genoese were reputedly seeking to acquire. The proposal for such measures failed to pass by a wide margin, suggesting that the Venetian senators harbored some doubts as to the authenticity of this relic (Antonio Niero, "Questioni agiografiche su San Marco," Studi Veneziani 12 [1970]: 3-27). For Marin Sanudo's list of relics in Venice see Le Vite dei Dogi, 76-85.

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zens of the patria,3S the saints were there to be rediscovered, to be made tangible and visible, to have their potency promoted and confirmed, so that they, in turn, might validate the conquests, claims, and invulnerability of this most "miraculous city."

38

"... ut coelestis patriae civibus ante Divinae majestatis thronum continue assistentibus." The expression is from Lorenzo Giustiniani's decree of October 12, 1450, as described in note 29.

XI

SECULAR AND SACRED HEROES: ERMOLAO BARBARO ON WORLDLY HONOR

On March 15, 1489, Ermolao Barbaro the Younger, who was at that time Venetian ambassador to the court of Milan, wrote a letter of consolation to his friend Marco Dandolo in Venice. A week earlier, Marco Dandolo's maternal grandfather, Bernardo Giustiniani, had died in Venice, and the news of his death had reached Milan along with the report that there would be no funeral oration for this distinguished Venetian patrician. Ermolao wrote to protest this omission and to outline the virtues and deeds such a funeral oration might have addressed. In doing so, he gives us a portrait of a secular hero in the particular Venetian mode, a model to Ermolao himself and one which, at that moment in his life, he might well have hoped to emulate1. It is because this letter has as much to say about Ermolao as about the deceased Bernardo Giustiniani that it is worth quoting extensively for its portrait of a Venetian hero in all his worldly honor. After an introduction deploring the loss of Bernardo Giustiniani to his country, to literature, to Ermolao himself, and to his family and grandson, Ermolao confesses his displeasure that the Giustiniani family failed to fulfill its obligation to have so great a man eulogized at his funeral. Bernardo's distinction was not just in his lineage, in his eloquent father Leonardo and holy uncle Lorenzo. There were his own glories to praise, and Ermolao does so, relating 1)

ERMOLAO BARBARO, Epistolae, Orationes et Carmina, ed. V. Branca, Florence, Bibliopolis Libreria Editrice, 1943, II, 48-49, #131. The Latin text may be found in the Appendix. For the funeral oration in the Renaissance, see J. M. MCMANAMON, Funeral Oratory and the Cultural Ideal of Italian Humanism, Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 1989.

XI 332 ... that for nearly [Bernardo's] whole life he held the first place in his city, that he pursued literary studies, in which from his childhood on he always excelled, not in order to lead a sheltered existence, nor for himself, nor [to enjoy] within the walls of his home, but on behalf of [his] writing the History of the City of Venice from its Foundation, on behalf of his major and very difficult embassies to the princes of Europe and, once these were accomplished, on behalf of urban and foreign magistracies all administered with such wisdom and probity that no one more prudent, temperate or just could have represented the laws of the city. In addition, for twenty-five years, almost no one had more authority in the Senate, no one had greater moral effect, gravitas, in expressing his opinions, so that in whatever way he acted, it was right away clear that many would imitate him. Who could more easily incline the people in some direction? Who could immediately restore the Senate, weary from its arguments, to silence? His speeches were deliberate and well-laid out, elegantly delivered and illustrated with proverbs, ordered, solid and virile in the [their] balance of words and sentences. The dignity of his pace and voice corresponded to that of his speech; his mien was venerable and kind; and he met brilliantly all those requirements which are desirable in a great orator.... At will, he aroused and calmed the passions of others, and that which is even more remarkable, in controlling the two most powerful emotions, fear and audacity, he did so far more often with sympathetic persuasion [ethikos] than violent emotional appeal \pathetikos]. And this was especially true of him: in gaining the favor of the audience, in his advice and in his leadership, which are of major importance in an orator, no one could teach more of his art than he himself did by his performance. I confess that I learned more in this respect from him in the Senate than I did from six hundred books of rhetoric in school... Now I have said all this in passing, not by design nor in an act of praise but rather one of protest so that you may understand that he who would have set forth the abundant virtues of this man in a funeral oration doubtless would have been at a loss neither for speech nor words. I know how you will answer me in this matter: [you will say] he prohibited in his will that he be praised; he forbade, rejected and banished any pomp of funeral oration almost as if he should not be praised because he did not allow himself to be praised. I have heard that in his last will he ordered that his remains be placed in a simple and ordinary tomb near the holy remains of his uncle. But how, for that reason, can you allow the bones of such a great man to lie without the honor of a marble [monument], without the witness of any eulogy? I implore you, Marco, do not act so that in observing the modesty of the deceased, you appear ungrateful or crude. Such [commemorations] are not for the dead, especially those for whom not stones or columns consecrate the memory but monuments of deed and character; they are prepared for the living, they are directed towards posterity. I realize that your grandfather was concerned for a higher kind of sepulture, not this fragile material one, but a perpetual and spiritual tomb for whose construction he left 3000 golden ducats to be distributed to the poor2. 2)

The religious bequests actually totalled 1532 ducats. See P. H. LABALME, The Last Will of a Venetian Patrician (1489), in Philosophy and Humanism: Renaissance Essays in Honor of Paul Oskar Kristeller, Leiden, Brill, 1976, p. 489, n. 16. For Ermolao Bar-

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So the letter itself becomes a kind of mini-funeral oration: it sets forth the distinction of Bernardo's family and birth (while denying their relevance); it dwells on Bernardo's cardinal virtues, his temperance, his justice, above all his prudence which demonstrated itself in his leadership in the Senate. It recalls the quality of Bernardo's rhetorical style, his gravitas, his powers of persuasion in swaying the opinions of his listeners, arousing the faint-hearted, calming the agitated. He did this by force of character, ethikos, rather than by force of emotion, pathetikos. And he combined, and surely this was of highest significance for Ermolao himself, his literary studies - in which he excelled - with a vita activa, the vita negotiativa or vita administrativa as Ermolao calls it in other contexts. Indeed, the very purpose of these literary studies was the service of the Venetian Republic, through embassies and magistracies, and through writing his History of Venice which is significantly listed as part of his active political life3. Even though Bernardo himself, according to Ermolao, had forbidden such pomp, and had opted for the more modest memorials of a simple tomb near his holy uncle, the Beato Lorenzo Giustiniani, and a generous charitable bequest, so heroic and successful a life ought to be celebrated not for Bernardo's sake but for those left behind to follow in his footsteps4. There is more poignancy to this letter than Ermolao could have dreamed of when he wrote it. We grieve not for the dead Bernardo whose years were ripe and whose posthumous honors were paid over centuries by those admiring and imitating his History of Venice. We grieve for Ermolao himself, caught in this letter at perhaps his most golden and confident moment, when it seemed that his own ambitions to combine the vita activa with the vita contemplativa could be realized. This was the young man who, having

3)

4)

baro's complex and occasionally overly-subtle style, see E. Bigi's essay on Ermolao Barbaro in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, 6 1964, pp. 96-99, esp. p 98: "[...] un ardito eclettismo di moduli e di costrutti, che non rifugge da espressioni rare e da neologismi." The history was published posthumously: De origine urbis Venetiarum rebusque eius ab ipsa ad quadringentesimum usque annum gestis Historia, ed. B. BROGNOLI, Venice 1493 and may be found in J. G. Graevius, ed., Thesaurus antiquitatum et historiarum Italiae, V, Part I, Leiden, Petrus Vander, 1722, cols. 1-172, under the title De origine urbis venetiarum rebusque gestis a Venetis libri quindecim. On Bernardo Giustiniani, see P. H. LABALME, Bernardo Giustiniani: a Venetian of the Quattrocento, Rome, Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 1969.

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spurned marriage and magistracies to pursue a scholarly life at all costs, had then bent himself to the expectations of his family and society and accepted appointment to an embassy which was nevertheless proving compatible with his highest hopes for a fruitful scholarly career. A year earlier in 1488, shortly after he arrived in Milan, he had written to his close friend Girolamo Donato that he had found in Milan sufficient leisure to continue his studies of interpretation, so that he believed that the shades of Aristotle and Dioscorides had secured him this legation in order that he might find time to edit them properly. And on the same day he wrote Marco Dandolo in a similar vein, rejoicing in his opportunity to give himself over to his studies so completely. Perhaps it was this very conviction that his literary and political endeavors could be combined which was to betray him a few years later in Rome, when he accepted, without the Venetian government's permission, the papal appointment to the Patriarchate of Aquileia5. For there seems much that Ermolao did not understand, or choose to understand, about a life such as Bernardo Giustiniani's. He was wrong, first of all, about Bernardo's will, in which there was no injunction against a funeral oration. That issue had undoubtedly been settled viva voce with Bernardo's family before his death: Bernardo was not in office when he died, old and ill, so there was no question of a state funeral, nor was it a politically apt moment for the Giustiniani family to have proposed and arranged for an elaborate public celebration of their family's prominence. Only three years before his death, Bernardo had been the leading competitor in the ducal election, ceding the votes of his followers to Agostino Barbarigo on the fifth ballot. The election had led to troubles in the city between the old and new families, with Bernardo's supporters angry at the continued monopoly of the new families' control of the dogeship6. The victor in that 1486 election, 5)

6)

See BARBARO, Epistolae, II, pp. 14-15, #90 and #91, and M. L. KING, Caldiera and the Barbaras on Marriage and the Family: Humanist Reflections of Venetian Realities, "Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies", 6, 1976, 19-50, esp. p. # 42 and p. 37, n. 67. It was in this same positive mood that Ermolao Barbaro wrote, sometime between 1489 and 1490, his De officio legati, whose strictures against disobedience to one's government he himself would so shortly violate. See De officio legati, ed. V. Branca, Florence, Olschki, 1959, p. 19. See LABALME, Bernardo Giustiniani, pp. 228-30. Funeral orations funded by the Venetian government were rare and almost always for those who had died in the service of the state, such as doges or condottieri, making of the funeral oration a political event. See J. R. HALE and M. E. MALLETT, The Military Organization of a Renais-

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Agostino Barbarigo, was still doge in 1489. There is no reason that the exact terms of Bernardo's will should have been known to Ermolao, one week after Bernardo's death, but the tensions of the past ducal election could hardly escape the young Barbaro, a member of the Senate in 1483 and while himself from neither a traditional old family such as the Giustiniani nor even a new dogabile family such as the Barbarigo was still the son of a doge's daughter7. And then there were more personal tensions in the lives of the Giustiniani which I think Ermolao might have surmised but chose to ignore, tensions which issued in a different kind of heroism which Ermolao could not, at peril to his own balance, afford to imitate. Bernardo's father, Leonardo - whom Ermolao mentions with admiration earlier in the letter - occasionally suffered despair in finding time for his studies. Too often, because of his endless governmental obligations, he was unable to do so and anguished by that inability8. Then there was Lorenzo Giustiniani, that holy uncle of Bernardo's, remembered, according to Ermolao, among the saints, and popularly considered a Beato, whose spiritual commitment had led him to flee the secular world at an early age and seek a life of prayer and contemplation on the island of San Giorgio in Alga. He, too, was drawn from his deepest internal needs to serve the city - whose merits, he once said, were such that he could not refuse its demands upon him9. So he became Venice's bishop and then first patriarch, still managing, in the midst of these heavy burdens, to compose his spiritual writings for the edification of his followers. And finally there was Bernardo himself, whose talents were transferred at a young age from translations of Greek texts to eloquent interventions on behalf of his government at home and abroad. Only towards the end of his

7) 8) 9)

sance State: Venice c. 1400 to 1617, Cambridge, New York, and Melbourne, Cambridge University Press, 1984, pp. 192-193. For Florentine practices, see L. MARTINES, The Social World of the Florentine Humanists (1390-1460), Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1963, pp. 239-245. Ermolao's mother was the daughter of Andrea Vendramin, doge from 5 March 1476 to 6 May 1478. See LABALME, Bernardo Giustiniani, pp. 23-24. "Pro cuius honore, quoniam ita de se merita civitas esset, nullum laborem recusare deberet." The quotation is taken from the Vita of Lorenzo, written by Bernardo. See P. H. LABALME, No Man but an Angel: Early Efforts to Canonize Lorenzo Giustiniani (1388-1456), Continuitd e discontinuitd nella storia politica, economica e religiosa. Studi in onore di Aldo Stella, ed. P. Pecorari and G. Silvano, Vicenza, Neri Pozza, 1993, pp. 15-44.

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life did Bernardo manage to complete and begin revisions on his History of Venice. And he combined such endeavors with the responsibilities of a large family and domestic devotions which Ermolao had with such determination rejected10. Moreover, since the early 1470s, the Giustiniani family had been engaged in an effort to promote Lorenzo Giustiniani, the holy bishop and patriarch, to the altars, that is, to launch and shepherd to a final determination the canonization process. They had been partially successful in 1474 when a processo opened in Venice in late December of that year, just after the death of Doge Niccolo Marcello (whose funeral oration Ermolao Barbaro himself pronounced) and after the election of a successor, Pietro Mocenigo, to the ducal throne. That particular processo did not go forward, and renewed efforts were to preoccupy the family for many decades, involving not just Bernardo but his son and grandsons, Marco Dandolo included. For a deep piety marks this family during this entire period. Touched in an earlier time by the visits of San Bernardino of Siena, with whom they were personally acquainted, and then profoundly affected by the ardent spiritual leadership of Lorenzo, the several generations of the Giustiniani clan seem more focussed on the spiritual heroism of their family's Beato than on a secular recognition of their own many political achievements. The contrast with Ermolao's preoccupations - as voiced in this letter of 1489 is marked11. Yet there was much in Bernardo's life from which Ermolao could draw sustenance. The acknowledgement of family tradition, the literary studies in the service of the state, the uses of an ethi10) P. LITTA, Famiglie celebri italiane, Milan 1819-1902, "Giustiniani", Tavola X, records seven children. For Bernardo's domestic devotion, see LABALME, Bernardo Giustiniani, pp. 60-65. Orsa, the first child of Bernardo's marriage to Elisabetta Priuli and the mother of Marco Dandolo, was born in 1434. For the dating of Bernardo's History of Venice see A. PERTUSI, Gli inizi della storiografia umanistica nel Quattrocento, in La storiografia veneziana fino al secolo XVI, ed. A. Pertusi, Florence, Olschki 1970, pp. 306-309. 11) For the family's connection with S. Bernardino, see LABALME, Bernardo Giustiniani, pp. 86-88. Bernardo's epitaph, as ordered in his will, identified him not only as the son of Leonardo but also the nephew of the Beato Lorenzo: "Bernardus lustinianus Leonardi procuratoris filius Beati Laurentii patriarche nepos miles orator et procurator". He chose a simple grave near his uncle's and left funds for the construction of a more fitting tomb for Lorenzo (LABALME, The Last Will of a Venetian Patrician, pp. 486 and 495). His personal religious commitment also colored his History where a sense of divine providence behind the Venetian destiny is palpable (see PERTUSI, Gli inizi della storiografia umanistica, pp. 317-318).

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cized rhetoric, all deserve mention. The enormous pride which Ermolao took in continuing his father's and grandfather's role as ambassador to Milan is spelled out in a letter to Giorgio Merula, his former teacher, written soon after he arrived in Milan: "what other clan, what other household in all of Italy, beyond our own, exists from which three men, in a continuous series, grandfather [Francesco], father [Zaccaria], and son [Ermolao himself], were sent by the same Senate to the same princes with this title [of ambassador]?"12 Just as Ermolao's earlier work De Coelibatu referred back to his grandfather's De Re Uxoria, and his undertaking a life of diplomacy and politics had begun to mirror the endeavors of his forebears, so now, in this Milanese legation, he sought to combine his studies which he found time to pursue in Milan with cheerful letters to his friends and an able representation of his Republic at the court of the Sforza dukes13. As for the dedication of literary studies towards the public weal, Ermolao had made clear in his earliest writings that the purest life of the celibate scholar which he aspired to be was of high service to the public good: there is no greater servant of the utilitas publica, he wrote, than he who is a true celibate and sage14. His professed mission to restore the connection between bonae litterae, good literature, and the study of natural philosophy, carried with it implicitly the conviction that the purification of corrupt texts played some moral part in the social regeneration of society. For there were no studia humanitatis without this social purpose, and Ermolao was a dedicated humanist. This dedication was no more apparent than in his portrayal of Bernardo's style of rhetoric, one which Ermolao, by his own ad12) "Ecquid alia gens, alia domus est Italia tota praeter nostram, ex qua tres, continua serie, avus, pater, filius ab eodem senatu ad eosdem principes hoc nomine profecti fuerint?" See Epistolae, II, pp. 11-12, #87, letter to Giorgio Merula, from Milan, January 21, 1488. 13) For the careers of Francesco, Zaccaria, and Ermolao (the younger) Barbaro, see the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, 6 (1964), pp. 95-103; M. L. KING, Venetian Humanism in an Age of Patrician Dominance, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1986, pp. 320-327; and the summaries provided by Vittore Branca in his introductions to De coelibatu and De officio legati (Florence, Olschki, 1959). Branca points out that the Senate often complimented Ermolao during his Milanese legation on his astuteness and diligence (pp. 17-18, n. 2). 14) "Quamobrem proferamus audacter sententiam nostram asseramusque utilitatis publicae neminem esse tantum servatorem quam eum qui ita coelebs est et contemplator" De coelibatu, p. 145, 11. 47-49.

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mission, chose to adopt. That style was not only balanced and graceful, forceful and persuasive, lively and sober: it was ethikos. It breathed prudentia. It had gravitas. Here was a fitting paradigm for Ermolao, as he drew conviction from such a role model that all things were possible: a life of political service, a life of philological endeavor, both bound together by rhetorical skills such as Bernardo had used to compose the discords of the Senate. It is no wonder he would have liked the worldly honor of a funeral oration for his hero, that such a model might be better known to others. For virtue increases with praise: the funeral oration impels its listeners toward the humanistic bene beateque vivendum15. That his letter was appreciated by its recipient is certain. Marco Dandolo, a few years younger than Ermolao, was himself a humanist, though less driven toward philology than his friend, and already, in 1489, engaged in the socio-political network of a patrician marriage and fatherhood16. He shared in the profound piety of his Giustiniani mother, grandfather, and great great uncle, and what we have chiefly remaining from his pen are religious writings: a translation of patristic Greek commentaries on the psalms, and a deeply spiritual work, Praeconium sanctissimae Crucis, written much later when he was captive in France17. 15) McMANAMON, Funeral Oratory, pp. 32, 34. For a good review of Venetian humanism and Ermolao Barbaro's place within it, see V. BRANCA, Ermolao Barbara and late quattrocento Venetian humanism, in Renaissance Venice, ed. J. R. Hale, London, Faber & Faber, 1973, pp. 218-243. 16) For bibliography on Marco Dandolo (1458-1535), see the article in the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, 32 (1986), 487-492, and M. L. KING, Venetian Humanism, pp. 359-61. In 1485, Marco Dandolo was married to Lucia di Marco Cornaro, daughter of the powerful Giorgio Cornaro and niece of Caterina Cornaro, Queen of Cyprus (14541510). An earlier letter of Ermolao Barbaro's to Marco Dandolo (Epistolae, II, 24-25, #105, August 20, 1488) refers to a baby boy and jocularly urges Dandolo to absent himself from the importunities of his wife by joining Ermolao in his Milanese literary pursuits: "Nullam studiorum iacturam facies. Primum legemus aliquid, deinde valitudini vacabimus: piscatores hyeme, studiosi aestate feriantur. Quid, quod ab uxore digredi nullo magis tempore conceditur, quom sit mas, ut cecinit Hesiodus, a solsticio languidior, foemina salacior? Appellat frequentius, exigit acerbius, imminet avarius, quadruplatrix et centesimaria quoque redditur: cedendum est foro; melius est decoquere quam decoqui." This first marriage of Marco Dandolo's, ended by Lucia Cornaro's death, was followed by one to Nicolosa di Pietro di Lorenzo Loredan. Another son of Marco's, Matteo Dandolo, was to marry Gaspare Contarini's sister and himself lead a brilliant diplomatic career. 17) See the "Catena seu Expositio graecorum patrum in Psalmos interprete: In Psalterium expositionum collectio e graeco in latinum versa," Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Ms Lat. I, 33 (= 2133), sec. XVI. The Praeconium sanctissimae Crucis was published by

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Like Ermolao, Marco Dandolo had studied with Giorgio Merula. He had pursued philosophical and legal studies in Padua and would follow, for many decades after Ermolao's untimely death in 1493, a distinguished career as diplomat and magistrate for the Venetian Republic. His eloquence was noted early in this career, with a widely disseminated speech to Ferdinand of Naples in 150718. The continuing quality of his diplomatic reports and relazioni was remarkable, as was his loyalty to his humanist teachers and friends such as Battista Guarino. Marco Dandolo wrote one letter to Battista notable for its condemnation of the printing press, a conservative's diatribe against the accumulation of books without knowledge and the multiplication of texts without any real appropriation of their contents. Ermolao, using the press for his great purging of the medieval errors which obscured the texts of Pliny, might not have agreed19. It is perhaps telling that Marco Dandolo's last governmental position in 1532 was as one of the Corretori delle Leggi e degli Statuti, purifying the Venetian laws as, four decades earlier, Barbaro had exercised his skills on the Plinian texts20. Furthermore, there was in Dandolo this strain of profound filial pietas and family religiosity noted earlier, illustrated by two incidents of his career which convey the depth of his spiritual commitment. One took place in 1523, shortly after his appointment as one of the ambassadors of obedience to Pope Adrian VI. The death of Dandolo's mother Orsa Giustiniani at the age of 89 led him to Lefevre d'Etaples (Paris: 1514). For a discussion of this work, see M. L. KING, Umanesimo cristiano nella Venezia del Quattrocento in La chiesa di Venezia tra medioevo ed eta moderna, Venice, Edizioni Studium Cattolica Veneziano, 1989, pp. 42-45. 18) There are numerous early copies of this oration to Ferdinand, including five in the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana. See MARCI DANDULI ... oratoris veneti apud ... Ferdinandum Hispaniae ... oratio (published not before 1507). Raffaele Regio praised Marco Dandolo in a panegyric on eloquence which he dedicated to Bernardo Giustiniani: Panegyricus in laudem eloquentiae, Padua, 1483. Marcantonio Sabellico linked Dandolo with Ermolao Barbaro and other prominent humanists in his De latinae linguae reparatione (see V. Branca's note in Barbaro's Epistolae, II, 43). 19) For Marco Dandolo's diatribe, see A. MEDIN, Gli scritti umanistici di Marco Dandolo, in Atti del Reale Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, 76 (1916-1917), pt. 2, pp. 344-46 and 375-76; for Ermolao's commitment to the Aldine printing enterprise, see BRANCA, Ermolao Barbaro and late quattrocento Venetian humanism, p. 234. 20) What appears shared by the two humanist families, the Barbaro and the Giustiniani, was the conviction, widespread at this time, that the original virtues of a polity or a text (classical, legal, biblical or patristic) were what gave it strength and would preserve its power and that these virtues, contaminated by neglect and corrupted by misinterpretation, must be recovered.

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seek to be excused from the embassy since his mourning apparel would be inappropriate for that celebratory mission. The ducal counsellors proposed his excuse be accepted. Then a senator opposed to this exemption suggested that Dandolo should better rejoice in the longevity of his mother's life than grieve over her passing and recommended that he not be excused, that he postpone his mourning for the period of his embassy, reassuming it upon his return for a year should the Senate give him permission to do so, and with these and similar words he made the other senators laugh, and Dandolo was denied the exemption21. The second incident dates from this same embassy and occurs two months later as the ambassadors left from Rome for Venice by the shortest route, mindful of the illness of the doge whose death happened a few days after their journey had begun. Except for Marco Dandolo, who had wanted to see Assisi and its "bellissima devotione" in the immense and beautiful church wherein lay the body of the "Seraphico San Francesco." So Dandolo made that pious detour, and then, as the news of Doge Antonio Grimani's death reached him, hastened back to arrive in Venice in time to support the election of a new doge, Andrea Gritti22. This seems a significant and symbolic detour. Now I do not mean to suggest that Ermolao lacked religious commitment, but it was of a different order. That such commitment was not particularly evident in the 1489 letter of consolation to Marco Dandolo is not surprising, no more than its absence in Ermolao's funeral oration for Doge Niccolo Marcello fifteen years earlier. Funeral speeches, letters of consolation, were more based on imagined Roman models than on Christian homilies23. But there are other clues 21) Archivio di Stato di Venezia, Senate, Secreta, reg. 50, fol. 14v (numero moderno), March 10, 1523; MARIN SANUDO, / Diarii, ed. R. Fulin et al., Venice 1879-1903, 34:23 (March 10, 1523). 22) SANUDO, Diarii, 34:227-228. The description of the embassy and Dandolo's detour is from the relatione of Pietro Pesaro, the youngest of the ambassadors, chosen to report to the Senate. See SANUDO, Diarii, 34:150-151 for the election of Andrea Gritti. 23) See J. M. MCMANAMON, The Ideal Renaissance Pope: Funeral Oratory from the Papal Court, "Archivum Historiae Pontificiae" 14 (1976): 9-70, and his Funeral Oratory and the Cultural Ideal of Italian Humanism for a full discussion of the relative influence of ancient orations and Christian homilies on Renaissance practices. Ermolao's funeral oration for Doge Niccolo Marcello may be found in Orationes funebres in morte pontificum, imperatorum, regum, principum, etc., Hanover, 1613, pp. 77-82. It contains this sole reference to the religious concerns of the deceased: "Sub eo patre ita institui coepit, ut nihil haberet ante oculos, praeterquam cultum religionis: nulli rei studeret, praeterquam bonis moribus: nihil peteret, praeterquam decus et honestarem" (p. 78).

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to Ermolao's priorities: a library far richer in classical as opposed to Christian writings, an absence of any references to the present problems of the Church, and, after the debacle of March 6, 1491, with Ermolao's sudden elevation to the Patriarchate of Aquileia and subsequent exile from Venice, a style more Stoic than Catholic: "My spirit is strong and upright; I have learned to endure such events"24. It was as if his personal piety (which was warmly attested to by friends during his stay in Milan) was subsumed into his literary devotions, as if the dedication to "Christ and letters" which he declared in his 1486 letter to Arnold Bost was less a devotion to "two gods" as he puts it, duos dominos, but to one divine principle25. This was Ermolao's tragedy: that he believed too fervently in the integration, in the ultimate harmony of his dedications to literature, to natural philosophy, to Christ, to the authority of the Church as represented by the Pope, to the Venetian Republic and to his own family's long tradition of service to the state. He did not tolerate the tensions of contrary commitments, as had the Giustiniani he so admired. He did not acknowledge that heroes must make choices between competing goods. He was too pure, too much the celibate, the perfectionist. Castigatissimus - "perfectly pure" this was the quality he exacted from his own revisions; it could have been his epitaph26. 24) For the Barbaro library, see A. DILLER, The Library of Francesco and Ermolao Barbaro, "Italia Medioevale e Umanistica", VI, 1963, 253-262. For Ermolao's attitude toward the contemporary church, see R. L. GUIDI, La visione religiosa di Ermolao Barbaro, "Rivista Lasalliana" 39, 1972, 1-32. Ermolao's self-description, after his assumption of the Patriarchate of Aquileia and consequent debacle with the Venetian government, a year and two months before his own untimely death from the plague, is in his letter of May 24, 1492, to Giorgio Merula: "Magno et erecto sumus animo: pati fortia didicimus." See V. Branca, "Fermezza cristiana e impegno filologico del Patriarca Ermolao Barbaro in una epistola inedita a Giorgio Merula", in Miscellanea G. G. Meerseman (Padua, 1969), p. 692, and in his editions of De coelibatu; De officio legati, pp. 173-174. 25) The letter to Arnold Bost is in Epistolae, I, 96, #76: "Duos agnosco dominos: Christum ed litteras." Ermolao's personal piety is described in a letter from Ludovico il Moro's secretary, Giacomo Antiquario, to Poliziano, written from Milan on December 18, 1489: "L'ho incontrato spesso alia Pace, spesso alle Grazie, nei quali andavano ambedue per pregare. Mirabili in lui 1'affabilita, la piacevolezza; tutto referisce all'ispirazione divina, simile ad un nume terrestre; cioe ad un santo." See P. Paschini, "Tre illustri prelati del Rinascimento: Ermolao Barbaro, Adriano Castellesi, Giovanni Grimani", Rome: Tiberino, 1957, p. 17. Paschini cites A. POLITIANI, Operum, I, ed. Seb. Gryphii, Lyons 1528, p. 89. 26) Epistolae, I, 96, #76, Letter to Arnold Bost: "Orationum et epistolarum mearum libros exire, nisi castigatissimos, volo."

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But from another point of view, he did make a heroic choice in retaining the patriarchal title after he knew the consequences of doing so, and this acceptance of his failure to reconcile his several commitments, this willingness to give up that forensic, rhetorical, political role he so admired in Bernardo and live a "sheltered existence" such as Bernardo had shunned, should not go unsung27. So he appears, isolated but not without stature, in the posthumous portrait included in the Carpaccio canvas of St. Ursula receiving the blessing of Pope Ciriaco, a fitting backdrop for Ermolao's accepting the unchosen bestowal of the patriarchate from Pope Innocent VIII. There Ermolao stands forever in the senatorial robes from which he was forever banned, almost completely detached from the religious events being enacted behind him, his face averted toward some private vision of his own, perhaps a perfect resolution of those conflicting allegiances whose incompatibility had sundered his life and in whose harmonious service lay all the worldly and spiritual honor he had at one time so urgently sought28.

27) See Guidi, p. 19 and p.#31, n. 16, for a discussion of Ermolao's acceptance of the consequence of his choice after the events of March, 1491, and his comments in a letter to Maffeo Lucio Fosfaro on humility, Epistolae, II, 80-81, #157. G. Dalla Santa cites a contemporary description of the events in Rome and Venice from March 1491 to December 1492 in Una vicenda delta dimora di Ermolao Barbara a Roma nel 1492, Venice, Ferrari, 1915, extracted from Scritti storici in memoria di Giovanni Monticolo, Venice 1922, pp. 221-28. See also L. BANFI, Ermolao Barbara, Venezia e il Patriarcato di Aquileia, "Nuova Antologia", fasc. 1863, March, 1956, 421-28. 28) See, for a discussion of this portrait, V. BRANCA and R. WEISS, Carpaccio e Vlconografia del piu grande umanista veneziano (Ermolao Barbaro), "Arte Veneta", 17, 1963, 35-40.

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APPENDIX The following text is taken from ERMOLAO BARBARO, Epistolae, Orationes et Carmina, ed. V. Branca, Florence, Bibliopolis Libreria Editrice, 1943, vol. II, 48-49, #131.

Hermolaus Barbarus Marco Dandulo. Bernardi lustiniani avi materni tui ea fuit praestantia ut mors eius, quamquam octogenarii fere ac decrepiti senis, perniciosa litteris, acerba patriae, immatura omnibus fuisse videatur. Mihi sane tanto dolori fuit quantum extimare quisquam aegre possit, ut hoc me alioquin delectet quod graviter et impense doleo. Videor enim mihi esse aliquid hoc ipso, quod me tanti viri casu vehementer angi et commoveri sentio. Vos autem, quos ille arctissima sanguinis affinitate contingebat, non aliter solari possum, quam quod eum amisistis quern nemo non queritur defunctum, nemo non desiderat, nemo non quantalibet mercede redimat. An parum solacii est talem ac tantum fuisse, qui decessit, ut locus desit solatio? Caeterum dissimulare nequeo stomachum meum: iniquo animo tuli quod liberi eius laudari hominem in funere noluerint, quodque ipsi ea quasi iusta defuisse videantur, quae Leonardus pater Carolo Zeno, quae ipsemet Francisco Phoscharo cumulatissime persolverat; quibus usqueadeo minor non fuit, ut si eum Quinto Fabio, P. Aemilio, M. Catoni comparem, multo intra assentationem fecerim. Praetereo natalium splendorem Leonardi patris facundissimi senatoris, immortalem gloriam Laurentii patrui, relatam inter divos memoriam. Sunt haec domestica omnino sed aliena. Ilia sua et propria quod fere quamdiu vixit principem in urbe sua locum tenuit, qui studia litterarum, in quibus a puero semper eminuit, non ad vitam umbratilem aut sibi nee intra domesticos parietes exercuit, sed reipublicae commentariis ab urbe condita perscriptis, legationibus ad principes Europae maximis et difficillimis quibusque gestis, magistratibus urbanis et peregrinis omnibus sapienter et innocenter administratis, ut nemo iura populis prudentius aut castius aut aequabilius praebuerit. Per quinque porro et viginti annos fere nulli maior auctoritas in curia, nullius maior in sententia dicenda gravitas, ut quoius ipse auctor fuisset, iam turn constaret multorum in earn pedibus itum iri. Quis propensa civitatis consilia facilius aliorsum vertebat? Quoius orationi, fatigato disputationibus senatu, recentius silentium accommodabatur? Erat ei sermo consideratus et interpunctus, elegans translatus, proverbiorum luce nitidus, sententiarum et verborum pondere quadratus, solidus ac virilis. Respondebat sermoni gravitas incessus atque vocis, os reverendum et amabile, ac omnes quidem partes egregie obibat, quaecumque in oratore magno desiderantur, sed duas prope divinitus, si aut metum civibus excutere aut contra deterrere

XI 344 libuisset. Arbitratu suo alienas excitabat et ponebat iras, quodque multo mirius est, duobus potentissimis affectibus regendis, metu et audacia, raro JtafhjTixcoc;, multo saepius fjdixcbc; agebat. Praecipuum et illud habuit, quod de insinuatione, consilio atque ductu, quae sunt in oratore capitalia, nemo fere tarn I multa in artibus suis praecepit quam ipse in actionibus suis re praestitit. Fateor me plura in eo genere ab illo in senatu didicisse quam ex sexcentis rhetorum voluminibus in scholis. Praedicabat sapientissimus et nobilissimus senator nihil esse magis expetendum in omni quidem vitae functione, sed potissimum in dicendo scribendoque, prudentia, quam Cicero fere diligentiam appellat: hanc natura proficisci, usu coalescere et aetate confirmari, nee aliter cumulatam absolutamque contingere. Infinita alia sapienter ab eo dicta et fact a commemorarem, si hue non doloris vi sed ex composito venissem. Nunc ea per transitum, non proposito, nee in laudationis sed in conquestionis modum attigi, simul ut intelligeres ei, qui virtutes hominis amplissimi persecutus fuisset in funere, nihil minus dubitandum fuisse quam ne oratio sibi atque verba defuisse viderentur. Scio quid mihi hac parte respondeas: testamento eum cavisse ne laudaretur, omnem funeris indictivi pompam summovisse, interdixisse, prohibuisse; quasi non hoc ipso laudandus esset quod laudari se non est passus. Audio et extremis tabulis iussisse ossa sua triviali ac simplici tumulo componi prope sanctas patrui reliquias. Nunquid propterea laturi estis ut ossa tanti viri sine marmoris honore, sine ulla eulogii testatione iaceant? Obsecro, mi Marce, noli committere ut dum verecundiae morientis obsequeris, ingratus aut crudelis fuisse videaris. Nihil haec ad defunctos, praesertim eos quorum memoriam non saxa nee columnae sed rerum gestarum et ingenii monumenta consecrant, sed quaeruntur ad vivos, pertinent ad posteros. Scio avum tuum alterius sepulturae solicitum fuisse, non huius fragilis et corporeae, sed spiritalis ac perpetuae; ad quoius substructionem tria millia aureorum nummum eroganda pauperibus legasse. Vale. Mediolani, idibus martii MCCCCLXXXIX.

XII

How to (and How Not to) Get Married in Sixteenth-Century Venice (Selections from the Diaries ofMarin Sanudo)* by PATRICIA H. LABALME and LAURA SANGUINETI WHITE

with translations by LINDA CARROLL Marriage between Venetian patricians in the early decades of the sixteenth century was a matter of considerable moment. The process of joining two families — as narrated by a contemporary diarist— involved a choreography of events and a level of display in rituals more public than private in import: the lavish style of entertainment paralleled civic rituals in arguing the power of the Venetian city-state, and the strengthening of familial political and economic ties betokened the effectiveness of the city's urban polity and economic status. When private ceremonies went awry, the subsequent opprobrium underscored the community's interest in more proper procedures.

I

n a Venetian governmental debate at the end of the fifteenth century, it was reported that a highly placed official hurled at a contentious colleague this disparaging description: "'You eat alone at the table,' as if to say, stingy and miserable man."1 For no condition seemed more abnormal than such isolation in a patrician society whose essential form was the family and familial life. And in preserving the family, nothing was more carefully structured than its marriages. This serves to explain why patrician marriage in sixteenth-century Venice was such a complex event, a many-staged procedure which took place over time, required several months, and involved, beyond the par*This article is extracted from a volume in preparation whose working title is The World of Renaissance Venice: Excerpts from the Diaries ofMarin Sanudo, 1496-1533, and it is dedicated to the memory of Felix Gilbert with whom the idea for the volume originated. Early support for the preparation of this volume was provided by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities through the sponsorship of the Renaissance Society of America. 'Sanudo, Diariiy 2 August 1499; 2:1000. In references to the Diarii, the date of his entry (which is not necessarily the date of the events he describes) is cited, along with the volume and column number of the printed edition. This edition, published in fifty-eight volumes over 24 years (1879-1903), represents a work of immense and generally reliable scholarship and is the main source for the materials quoted in this paper. Any doubtful passages from this edition have been checked against the manuscript copy in the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Ms. Ital. cl. VII, 228-86 (= 9215-273). Fulin and his collaborators Tuscanized the spelling of Sanudo's name which we have preferred to leave in its Venetian form.

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ticular families, the entire community. Of the informal agreement we have no traces. But the formal procedure began with a contract of engagement which in Venetian terms seems to have been called le nozze.2 This not only established the relationship but, and most importantly, included dowry arrangements, that is, the total sum and what parts would be paid in cash, in goods, in jewelry, in real estate, in shares of the states funded debt, etc. Then it progressed through several stages: the announcement of the engagement in the presence of the two families and officials (fare orfermare il parentado), the ritual showing forth of the bride led round by a dancing master, visits to the houses of bride and groom, and the publicly declared consent of bride and groom through the declaration of matrimonial vows (fattesi parole ceremoniali dello sponsalitio). After this ceremony, there was a feast during which gifts of candy and comestibles were made to the couple by the sponsor or sponsors (compart). The final acts were the grooms taking his bride to live with him in his family's house (menare a casa) and the consummation. At various points in this process, other rituals occurred. There was the ringing of the bride (Vanellamento). There was the mutual giving of the hand (dar la man), usually in the later stages of the wedding procedure. There were the visits by the bride in an open gondola to relatives in convents which a later sixteenth-century writer, Francesco Sansovino, was to pair with the showing forth of the bride in the house: "For since she must increase through childbirth the generation of this family onto which she is grafted, she shows herself in the household and throughout 2 In the following outline of the Venetian wedding process, it must be stated that Sanudo's Venetian vocabulary is not always consistent, and it is often unclear. The standard Dizionario deldialetto veneziano by Giuseppe Boerio, based on Venetian dialect of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, is only partially useful for this period. The authors are indebted to Angela Caracciolo Aric6, Phyllis Pray Bober, and Doretta Davanzo Poli for their helpful advice on Venetian terminology, and to Patricia Fortini Brown and James S. Grubb, consultants for the entire Sanudo translation project, who have contributed their insights to this essay as well. Stanley Chojnacki s comments and suggestions at several stages of this work have refined our understanding of the vocabulary and widened our Venetian perspectives. Our special thanks go also to Christiane Klapisch-Zuber for her consultation and articles, especially "Zacharias, or the Ousted Father: Nuptial Rites in Tuscany between Giotto and the Council of Trent." The Tuscan marital terminology, however, is at some variance with the Venetian, with the same terms being used for different parts of the wedding process. A contemporary commentary on Roman customs may be found in Marco Antonio Altieri, Li nuptiali (see Narducci's edition of 1873), summarized by Brandileone, 294ff., and discussed by Klapisch-Zuber, "An ethnology of marriage in the age of humanism," 247-60. Anthony Molho provides a valuable survey of contemporary practices and attitudes in Florence.

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the city almost as if to so many witnesses to the contracted marriage."3 At the same time, this author remarks, those who shared in this ceremony rejoice in it as if it were their own: "For by order of the government they are united together forever, as if they were all of a single family"* So public was the event that up to the sixteenth century, the bride (if an important dowry went with her) was also presented to the doge "as a public testimonial."5 The interweaving here between the particular relationship of the conjoined patrician families and the public interest of the city is the underlying theme of the essay that follows. Venetian patrician marriages in this period exemplified the blending of familial and civic concerns, the case and the terra as the family clans and the city-state were called. "Public" and "private" did not find their way into Venetian contemporary vocabulary except that the first qualified the res of the state as a "public thing," a respublica. The second signified an absence and deprivation of the civic sphere, rather than a tangible property or intangible negotiation outside it. Venetian patrician marriages took place within, not without, the community. The bonding of two patrician families strengthened political and economic alliances through their matrimonial arrangements. A politically ambitious patrician could count on increased votes in the Great Council, which was the main elective body. His banking and commercial investments might be enlarged. The marriage itself involved a commercial transaction with the exchange of a significant sum of money in the form of a dowry. The amount of a large dowry was generally known throughout the community and reckoned as indicative of the city's economic strength. In spite of legal efforts to restrict the amounts, dowries 3 "Percioche' dovendo ella accrescer con la generatione quella famiglia nella quale s'innesta, ella si mostra in casa, et fuori alia citta, quasi come a tanti testimoni del matrimonio contratto." Sansovino, 401 (accents conformed to modern usage). 4

"Et le persone all'incontro vanno alia ceremonia, quasi che si allegrino di cosa propria, poiche' per I'ordine del governo, sono incorporati insieme perpetuamente, come se tuttifossero d'una stessa famiglia" (401), italics added. The use of the term "family" in this essay indicates the extended family, including its immediate marital associations. 5

Sansovino, 402. After 1501, this custom gave way to the registration with the Avogador (or State Attorney) of any dowry over 1000 ducats. Here the physical public testimonial cedes to bureaucratic (but more certifiable) records, and the doge's personal role was, as in so many Venetian laws, downgraded. Brandileone, 118, attributes the contraction of the doge's role in patrician weddings to the increased press of governmental business, while Ambrosini views it as removing an opportunity for patricians seeking special favors from the doge (518, n. 93). The previous doge, Agostino Barbarigo (14861501), was charged after his death with having abused his ducal powers (Diarii, 4:181 -83).

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escalated during this period just as they had during the preceding century, arriving at sums representing considerable fortunes and demonstrating at the same time the economic power of this merchant republic. For the young patrician woman, marriage was entered into normally between the ages of fourteen and twenty and initiated her into adulthood. Yet the fact that the bride s personal name is rarely mentioned but only her patronymic emphasizes the societal aspect of this event. For the groom, usually at least a decade older than the bride, marriage represented the conclusion of a long maturing process and his assumption of a fully responsible role in the continuity of the joined families and the perpetuation of the patrician society.7 If the family was of sufficient stature and economic importance, the final ceremonies and festivities might be spread over a good week and include several banquets, large numbers of guests, processions on land and water, and performances by one of the Compagnie della Calza. These were societies mostly of young patricians who were identified by their colorful stockings (as may be seen in some of Carpaccio's paintings) whose primary purpose was to entertain themselves and whose official purpose was lafesta? They were frequently invited by the government to add brilliance and festivity to diplomatic and ceremonial occasions but also participated in private gatherings such as these weddings, especially when the groom was a member of one of such Companies. There had been about thirty-four such societies by the end of the period Sanudo describes (1533), but they were ephemeral groups having incorporation for limited periods, and they seem to have come and gone as their membership fluctuated.9

6 For the background and development of the state's concern for dowry limitation, see Chojnacki 1998, 132f£, especially 144-45. 7

See the many articles by Stanley Chojnacki on gender relations and patrician marriages in Venice. A recent survey of the literature about marriage in the Veneto, including references to marital customs in Venice, may be found in Grubb, 1-33. Particularly relevant for this essay are also Ambrosini 498-500, Finlay, 81-96, King, 33, 47-50, and Muir 1981, 124-25, 140ff., 174. 8

Povoledo, 623.

9

Sanudo wrote in the last volume of his Diaries that he had known of 34 Companies (58:184-85). On the Companies, see Venturi, Muir 1981, I67ff., and Muraro. Muraro (320-22) found in various sources a total 43 different companies which existed from 1441 to 1564. Sixteen was the maximum number of years recorded for a company, and many lasted only from one to eight years.

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The splendor of extravagant weddings also had a diplomatic value: the great dowries, the quantity of beautiful and beautifully dressed women, the quality of the wedding feasts contributed to Venice's reputation, and foreign ambassadors were sometimes invited to witness the pomp at what often became a public event. Even during the difficult years of the War of the League of Cambrai (1509-1517), a long and costly struggle which Venice fought against a combination of Italian and foreign powers, elaborate wedding feasts might be held, in spite of the rules forbidding excessive expenditure. In Venetian law, exceptions were the rule — "una parte Veneziana dura una septimana" (a Venetian law lasts but a week).10 In such a ritualized and significant process in which the private lives of the Venetian patricians and the public reputation of the city-state were so inextricably combined, there were expectations to be fulfilled and patterns to be followed. For nearly four decades, from 1496 to 1533, these patterns were chronicled by a Venetian diarist as part of the daily life of a city whose every aspect he saw fit to record. Marin Sanudo came from a patrician family too internally divided to command a voting block, while his personal situation was too limited economically to allow him the purchasing of influence and high office. He never realized the successful political career he craved. But his noble birth and abilities afforded him entry into a number of governmental circles from which he observed and recorded, with remarkable stamina and curiosity, the quotidian civic scene, including patrician marriages. A few of these weddings have been selected here to illustrate what was expected and enacted on these occasions in which public and private interests were intricately interwoven. It was not by chance that, having begun his Diaries in 1496 to chronicle what he perceived as the great events engendered by the French invasion of Italy in 1494, Sanudo ended his long first volume, really two volumes in one, with this proud statement: I would like to conclude the writing of this volume on a happy note; it has covered the news of two years, to wit 1496 and 1497 to the last day of February, and I have completed it only with a good deal of labor and the help of God. Thus I do not wish to omit the many marriages celebrated of late and the many large dowries bestowed in this glorious city of Venice. Although they were very costly for us, they nevertheless took place because of the great wealth found here. The dowries bestowed during these years were very large, nearly all of them more than 3000 ducats, and some amounted to 10,000 ducats and more. 10

The saying may be found in Priuli, 4:115.

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Sanudo goes on to talk about the carnival season which was also so splendid in Venice that year, comparable to those held in Germany by the emperor elect (Maximilian), in France by Charles VIII, King of France, and in Naples. Wealth, and the ability to exchange it and spend it, was power.11 So dowries were more than private exchanges of wealth. They were meant for public display and were actually publicly displayed in a demonstration of wealth which served the self-satisfaction of the city and its propaganda. Indeed, so important was the dowry in a proper marriage that its material presentation often formed part of the entertainment, as happened on 14 October 1507. On this day the Compagnia degli Eterni [Eternals] gave a party on a raised platform in Campo San Polo to celebrate the wedding of ser Luca da Leze to the daughter of the late ser Zuan Batista Foscarini. It lasted until four hours after sunset [about 10:00 p.m.]. There was a splendid momaria about Jasons quest for the golden fleece. It should be noted that at the dinner hour, when I was present, about 4000 ducats, part of the bride's dowry, was brought in six basins. The first one contained gold [coins], the rest [silver] coins. Well done, for those who can afford it!12 In addition to the display of wealth, the display of elegantly dressed women was part of the show. On one October evening in 1506 in the San Trovaso home of the Nani family, a simple feast was held to celebrate a Nani-Badoer betrothal, and the Turkish ambassador was "invited to see the women, of whom there were 50, dining there. And he brought with him ten of his Moorish retinue."13 So important were weddings as a barometer of the public mood that in 1511, two years into the War of the League of Cambrai and two years after Venice's disastrous defeat at Agnadello at the hands of a French army, Sanudo reported on two weddings U

26 February 1498; 1:885-86. It should be noted that Sanudo's volumes usually ended on the last day of February, the end of the Venetian year. All dates have been normalized to our calendar. The size of the dowries which Sanudo cites can be appreciated by comparison with the doge's annual salary, estimated by one historian as 3000 ducats. See Sardella, 52-53. 12 14 October 1507; 7:161. Momarie such as this one about Jason and the golden fleece were masked allegorical performances, for the most part in pantomime, which may have originated with wedding celebrations and were frequently presented by one of the Compagnie della Calza. See Muraro, 328ff. Sanudo always notes the hour with reference to the hour of sunset, at this season about 6:00 p.m. That he could do so was due to an elaborate system of different bells rung from the campanile of San Marco. See the note, signed B[artolomeo] Qecchetti], 379-80. 13

4 October 1506; 6:437, where the feast is described as "meza festa."

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with "enough women and momarie at one and the other . . . so that although the city has expenses and is in mourning it still rejoices a little" (3 March 1511; 12:16). Clearly, part of the proper way to get married was to include the kind of momarie and festivities mentioned earlier. Sometimes mythological tales were presented, sometimes mere buffoonery. On 2 May 1513 (16:206-07), in the very midst of that same war, an elaborate recreation of Venetian diplomatic receptions was staged, as if the reenactment of a public ceremony were being domesticated for this private alliance of two families. But one of these families was related to the reigning doge, which may explain why this type of entertainment was chosen. Among the audience were three real ambassadors, so there was a theatrical imitation of diplomatic ceremony in the presence of real diplomats, at a time when it was important to show Venice's political position in a favorable light. After dinner not much happened, just a meeting of the Collegio de' Savi.14 The reason was that the engagement of ser Ferigo Foscari to the daughter of ser Zuan Venier, Head of the Ten, was held at Ca Foscari. She is the granddaughter of our most serene Prince.15 Upon her arrival, a superb dinner was given, first of all to the ambassadors of the Pope, Spain, and Hungary, and other high-ranking senior patricians. Three of the doges sons attended . . . . Also present were the prior of San Zuane dil Tempio and a knight of Rhodes; they dined in a room apart on a silver service. Permission [to use silver] was given because of the ambassadors whom I mentioned. About 96 women were seated at table in the portico and between these and others in

14 The Collegio had three branches of savi (or wise men): five for the terra or terraferma, five for matters da mar or at ordini, generally concerning the overseas dominion and its control, and six savi grandi who had the most prestige and power. The Collegio prepared business for the Senate and that is probably why its convening on this otherwise festive day was necessary. For a concise summary of Venetian governmental bodies, see Grendler, 37ff. Sanudo himself provides a description of the Collegio in his De origine, 93-95. 15 The most serene prince was the doge. The use of this title, Serenissimo Principe, set the doge above other dukes such as those of Milan or Ferrara. The bride is described as neza which can be either a niece (the meaning chosen by some historians in this case) or granddaughter. For the identification of this young woman as the daughter of Doge Loredan's daughter who married Zuan Venier, and therefore the doge's granddaughter, see Finlay, 82, and Sanudo, Diarit, 4:143. Patronymics, which Sanudo always gives, have generally been omitted in these translations, and Sanudo's somewhat variable spelling of patrician family names is normalized to the spelling used in the indices of the published edition.

XII 50 the rooms, there were 420 people seated at the head tables. Everything was carried out in splendid order, and it was a fine meal.16

After the feast came the entertainment, an elaborate series of scenes, genetically called commedie> separated by dances in which the women usually participated, and sometimes by musical interludes. Then preparations were made for presenting a commedia or some other performance. A platform was set up for the women to sit on; a second one was constructed in the middle of the room for the recitation. The three ambassadors and other high-ranking men were to sit there, although the Spanish ambassador left early to write, he said, to the viceroy.17 One of the 'kings' of the Compagnia degli Eterni [Eternals], ser Francesco Zeno, came onto the platform dressed in a silver robe with a gold, Greek-style tunic over it and a hat on his head, [together with] his 'councillors' ser Francesco Barbaro and ser Luca da Leze and his 'interpreter' or 'chancellor' ser Stefano Tiepolo, all of whom were well-costumed.18 After the members of the company had danced for a while on the platform with the women, the first performance was put on. This was [presented by] ser Marco Antonio Memo dressed in rose-colored vestments as a bishop and legate of Pope Calixtus.19 He presented the king [of the Eterni] with a brief from the pope declaring that he had sent this bishop de nulla tenentis [without a see] to congratulate him. He also presented him with a letter of credentials and, after delivering his oration, gave him a kingly crown, placing it on his head and blessing him. 16

The permission to use silver refers to sumptuary laws which, among other strictures, sought to control the expense of wedding celebrations. See below for specific examples. 17 The Spanish ambassador may have been displeased with the Venetian government for their diverting France from forming an alliance with Spain and the Empire by making its own treaty with France at Blois on 23 March, less than six weeks earlier (see below, note 24). Thirteen days later, this same Spanish ambassador would excuse himself from the ceremonial investiture of Venice's Captain General, Bartolomeo d'Alviano, although he had previously — as on the earlier occasion — accepted the invitation to attend (15 May 1513; 16:251). See Romanin, 282-83. 18 Honorific titles and offices such as "king" and "councillor" were bestowed by the companies upon their members, often just for specific occasions. The tunic, caxacha, was a long garment which, unlike the Venetian official robe, was open in front. For this and other Venetian costumes in this period, see Newton and Vitali. 19 The color of the vestments was described as "ruosa secha," a newly fashionable oldrose color which, a decade later, Andrea Gritti would adopt for some of his ducal vestments (Newton, 30). It was also used by his granddaughter for her wedding gown in 1525 (see below). Pope Calixtus II had, in 1122, given the Venetians a papal banner, vexillum beati Petri, to carry in a crusade, so this was a well-chosen reference to convey Venice's desire for an optimal relationship with the new pope, Leo X, who had only two months earlier, on 19 March, been elected to the papal throne.

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The king thanked him and invited him to watch a dance, which was performed on the platform by two women and two members of the company. When it was finished, the legate invited the king to listen to a member of his retinue, Galeazzo da Valle from Vicenza, who improvised a song, accompanying himself on the lyre. After he left, ser Zuan di Cavalli arrived, dressed in the German manner as the ambassador of the emperor. He carried a letter of credentials from the emperor Otto.20 He delivered his oration in German and presented a scepter to this King Pancrazio of the Compagnia degli Eterni.21 Then the women performed a dance and the ambassador asked his musicians to play a piece on flute and bagpipe. After he had left, ser Santo Contarini came on stage dressed as a Mamluk.22 Taking the role of the Sultans ambassador, he presented a letter and a lynx.23 After the women had danced, the ambassadors retinue performed a moorish dance. Next to arrive was the French ambassador, ser Zuan Contarini, very fashionably dressed in the French style. He brought a letter from King Louis; having read it in French, he presented the king with a dog.24 20

It is worth commenting on this portion of the commedia. Otto was the son of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and, according to the Venetian legend, had persuaded his father to accept the doge's offer to make his peace with Pope Alexander III, a Venetian ally, in 1177. This was the famous pax veneta and the reference to Otto here would remind the Venetian audience of that most glorious occasion and the acquisition, from a grateful pope, of their most prized regalia: an umbrella to be carried over the doge as a sign of regal authority; a lit candle to carry in processions as a sign of devotion and nobility; the use of a lead seal with images of St. Mark and the doge (as the papal seal carries the image of St. Peter); a sword for the doges faithful defense of the Church against the Emperor; and most importantly for the ritual life of the city, the privilege of wedding the Adriatic Sea in the annual ceremony of the Sensa, the "sposalizio del mare." See Padoan Urban, 291-353. That symbolic wedding now joins the associations provoked by this sixteenth-century nuptial feast. 21 The presentation of a scepter (which implies imperium) to the Venetian "king" by the German "ambassador" must have been understood by the audience as guaranteeing Venetian jurisdiction over the imperial lands which, in 1513, included imperial territories in northern Italy which had been conquered by Venice in the fifteenth century, then lost in the earlier years of the War of the League of Cambrai, and which now, by 1513, were being regained. Venice had recently been negotiating with Maximilian for the investiture of these lands. See Romanin, 280. 22

Mamluk here refers to a member of a politically powerful military class in Egypt.

23

This was a lynx fur piece, much prized as an accessory. See Bistort, 386, and Boerio, s.v.. Newton (167) describes sable fur pieces with jewelled collars which could be hung from the waist and were like toys (cf. n. 49). The lynx was traditionally considered a sharp-sighted animal, far-seeing and percipient, an apt metaphor for Venetian diplomatic acumen in dealing with their Turkish neighbor to the east, sometimes as an enemy and sometimes as an ally. 24 The dog was a symbol of fidelity, a reference to the renewed alliance of Venice and France represented by the Treaty of Blois, signed on 23 March 1513, only 40 days before

XII 52 Once the women had performed their dance, he had cornets and trumpets play. The Spanish ambassador then appeared, played by Zuan Falier, who spoke in Spanish. He presented the letter of credentials written in Spanish, made a gift of two men from Africa who engaged in swordplay, after which the women performed their dance.25 Lastly, the bridegroom, ser Ferigo Foscari, came as the Hungarian ambassador with a letter from King Ladislaus. He presented the king with a gilded cup and, after the dance, he had some of his Hungarian retinue play the viola and other instruments.26 It should be noted also that the interpreter, ser Stefano Tiepolo, cleverly translated into our tongue the speeches of the ambassadors and the replies of the king. A little hobby-horse ridden by a pygmy courier came on next, [along with] the ambassador of the pygmies, ser Jacomo Dandolo . . . . Once he had read and presented the letter from his king, he gave our king a crane.27 When the women's dance was over, he instructed his four pygmies to perform their dance, which they did well, waving hatchets and dancing to a four-meter beat.28 Then came three Venetian ambassadors: ser Beneto Zorzi dressed in gold brocade, and ser Daniel Barbarigo and ser Baptista Contarini wearing silk mantles. The letter of credentials from Doge Michele Steno was presented and the ambassadors were introduced: the first as a member of the Storlado family, a doctor [university graduate] and knight; the second as a Partecipazo, and the third as a Bonzi, all families that are now extinct.29 Zorzi delivered his oration, made a gift of a silver ship,

this occasion. Allegiance to France was dominant in much of Venetian diplomacy during this period, as were French modes of fashion. 25 For the "two men from Africa" the text reads "do di Ginea", and in an entry of 14 August this same year (16:622), Sanudo records a letter from Pope Leo X to Manuel of Portugal which addresses him as "rex Portugalliae et Algarbiorum citra et ultraque mare in Africa, dominus Guineae et conquistae navigationis ac commertii Ethiopiae, Arabiae, Persiae atque Indiae." The vocabulary of these exotic lands was well known to the Venetians. 26 The Spanish ambassador had left early, but the papal envoy and Hungarian ambassador were still there to witness their counterparts enacting these ceremonial courtesies to a Venetian "king" for the evening. Venice's alliance with Hungary formed a key part of her defensive policy toward the Turks. 27 The pygmy courier rode "uno cavalo marian picolo" which was a prop horse probably made of wood and moved by the actor (Muraro, 331, n. 64). The gift of a crane could have symbolized the vigilance and loyalty of the Venetians. See Ferguson, s.v. 28

"A tempo in 4." Our thanks to Ellen Rosand for her suggested translation of this phrase. 29 Sanudo was keenly aware, as were his contemporaries, of the casade morte, the "dead houses" of certain patrician families. See his De origine, pp. 68-70, 178-79, 206, and Diarii, 6:117-18. The "Libro d'Oro" which contained the names of the

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and presented a buffoon, Zuan Polo.30 After the women's dance was over, two servants cut capers and four peasants from the countryside sang songs. Then, to complete the party, Zuan Polo told a few jokes and played sleight-of-hand games on top of a stand. It was three hours after sunset and very warm because of the crush of the crowd.31

What is remarkable about the momarie and commedie of these years is that they took place in spite of stringent decrees against such representations, first formulated in December, 1508, and reaffirmed in May, 1512, only a year prior to the diplomatic reenactments of the Foscari-Venier celebrations. But those strictures were against "bad language" and "lascivious action," and the marital festivities of those who were wellborn and well-connected went on uninterrupted.32 These elaborate entertainments involved the sponsoring companies in considerable costs, as did another wedding party in 1514, when two competing companies each rented a large barge decorated as a Bucintoro, the doge's ceremonial barge, and then competed in their revelries up and down the Grand Canal "so that day and night there was feasting on the Grand Canal" for the whole city to appreciate. Such extravagance drew current patricians old enough to take their place in the Maggior Consiglio and occupy governmental positions had come into existence in August of 1506, only seven years before this wedding celebration and after a century of gradually increasing awareness of those families that were extant and those that had become extinct. See Chojnacki 1996, 341-58. The "reincarnation" of three extinct families here from a century earlier is suggestive, as is the fact that these "ambassadors" came from Doge Michele Steno whose reign from 1400-1413 occurred just at the beginning of the increasing focus on family lineage. 30 The "silver ship" could have been a little silver model such as a sixteenth-century thurible of hammered and engraved silver, partially gilded, which may be seen in the Treasury of the Basilica of St. Anthony in Padua. Pendant earrings in the form of a ship were also popular in fifteenth-century Venice, according to Pazzi, 104. We owe both these references to Doretta Davanzo Poli. Phyllis Pray Bober has suggested the silver ship might be a "nef," a container (usually of silver or gold) in the form of a ship for salt or spices. See, for example, the January miniature in the Tres Riches Heures of the Due de Berry. Zuan Polo Liompardi was a well-known actor-producer who appears in many of the performances of this period. See Ambrosini, 494. 31 2 May 1513: 16:206-07. Povoledo (628) entitles this "commedia" the Demonstration del Re Pancrazio and describes it as a long, fragmentary itinerant action during which the earthly powers send, through their ambassadors, gifts not to the young couple but to the Eterni and every gift corresponded to a symbolic act concerning the accoutrements, or the vestizione, of the "king." Ambrosini (493) suggests that this momaria was a subtle form of self-praise by the Compagnia della Calza for their role in consolidating the good relations between the Venetian government and foreign dignitaries visiting the city. 32

Muraro, 328.

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some criticism which Sanudo reported only to contradict: "I will not hesitate to write that this feast which took place publicly today led many to say that it would have been better to spend the money on the war; nevertheless it was to the city's honor, given that the enemy was camped 30 miles away, and yet no one paid any heed, and here there was rejoicing, as if we were not at war, and more money spent than ever."33 Three years later, as the war came to an end, two weddings were reported whose large dowries signalled the return of normalcy and legitimate rejoicing: "the city begins to recover; with a little period of peace, it will be quite content."34 The proper wedding was a reassurance to the diarist that economic activity and style were restored to the city, along with its reputation. So his satisfaction abounded in his lengthy description of another ducalsponsored wedding in 1525, where every detail of costume, custom, and comestible was reported. For the bride on this occasion was the granddaughter of doge Andrea Gritti, who lost no opportunity to promote his grandeur and that of his city, funding these nuptial ceremonies himself. Sanudo begins his account with the actual engagement (the nozze) on Saturday, 14 January 1525, and the announcement of the engagement in the presence of the families (parenta) on the following Monday.33 After dinner, the betrothal of the granddaughter of the Most Serene Prince with ser Polo Contarini was announced. His Serenity was seated in the new Audience Chamber of the Ducal Palace with the Signoria around him and ser Francesco Contarini, brother of the groom, standing, dressed in deep purple with ducal sleeves; the Prince was dressed in crimson-violet velvet. The groom [stood] at the door of the palace dressed in black, and his [other] brothers were also in black.36 There was a large number of patricians, and all 33

26 June 1514; 18:299-300: "Tamen fu di honor al Stado." Italics added.

34

20 January 1517; 23:499, and 29 January 1517; 23:540. The requirements of a proper wedding were surely good for a number of Venetian trades, from cobblers to cooks, from drapers to costume designers. It was entirely logical that Sanudo should identify a splendid wedding with a recovering economy. 35

The descriptions of this wedding run from entries made from 14 January through 25 January 1525; 37:440, 445, 447, 470-75. Doge Andrea Gritti s program to renew the city through an intensification of its rituals of self-glorification, part of his "renovatio urbis," included the pomp of this family wedding. 36 The Signoria consisted of the doge plus his six ducal councillors plus the sixteen members of the three branches of the Savi. It represented the government of Venice. The details of costume are significant here. The purple, crimson, and violet colors (paonazo, cremexin, violato) were all varieties of the aristocratic porpora worn by particular magis-

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took the doge's hand so that he became very weary. And the bride was led around by the dancing master who is instructing her, but she did not dance. Nothing more was done today37 Affairs of state were suspended on the following day as well for the next phase of the series of entertainments, some of which took place in the governmental chambers of the ducal palace, and which Sanudo describes along with a meteorological omen for the city as for the ceremony. No meetings were held after dinner because the Ducal Palace was the site of a party for the betrothal celebrations. In the room where the Senate usually meets, women were being received and people were dancing. A very large number of women attended; in the evening the supper tables were prepared and the dividing partitions were removed to create more space . . . . It was a most elegant dinner with pine-nut cakes, partridges, pheasants, baby pigeons, and other dishes. And although more guests appeared than were expected, each one had enough to eat. The company responsible was that of the Ortolani [Farmers]; ser Dolfln Dolfln was in charge, nor was there any activity beside the dancing. The party concluded at eight hours past sunset [about 1:00 a.m.], and not without a rain that ended days and months of drought: a good sign that this ceremony is taking place in a time of abundance. Eight days later, after a procession through the Piazza San Marco to the music of trumpets and the sound of bells, the actual wedding ceremony took place in the Basilica, an unusual venue and one only for a distinguished bride.38 trates on special occasions, and their mention here is an acknowledgment of the importance of the occasion and the status of the participants. The bridegroom and his brother wore black because they were still in mourning for their relative, Antonio Contarini, Patriarch of Venice from 1508 to 1524, who had died a few months earlier (7 October 1524; 37:17). The "ducal sleeves" of the bridegroom's brother were wide and open, and his wearing them indicated social privilege. This young man had become engaged shortly before to a young woman of the Pesaro family, but the engagement was kept secret so as not to upstage the ducal event (37:441). See below where the fiancee is included in the bridal procession. 37

See Bistort, 100, where the role of the dancing master as master of the nuptial ceremonies is cited, and Molmenti, 2:332. 38 Weddings did not require the clergy's participation until after the Council of Trent in the middle of the sixteenth century. But the Church did assert its influence on the time of the year in which weddings were allowed through its penitential calendar. That is why so many weddings occurred during the long Carnival season (St. Stephen's day through Mardi Gras) when the feasts and sexual unions were permitted. See Grubb, 13-15.

XII 56 Today [January 25] was the feast of St. Paul, when the stars make a special aspect.39 This day has been designated for the wedding of the doges granddaughter. About 100 women guests arrived at the ducal palace; some were relatives of the bride and groom and some were guests of the members of the Ortolani. They followed the bride into church, all well dressed, except for one who was the wife of ser Vincenzo Gritti. All told, I counted 95 women. Preceding the bridal procession came the captains and officials, clearing a way as they passed through the Piazza, with four large wax torches and the trumpets and fifes of the doge.40 Next came the bride wearing the latest fashion, a rose-colored velvet dress; following her was her [future] sister-in-law, the betrothed [cugnada noviza] of ser Filipo Contarini and daughter of ser Antonio Pesaro; then came the other women, all of whom were wearing heavy gold chains and lots of pearls. And the wife of ser Fantin Corner wore a collar with splendid, rich, and large jewels that had belonged to the king of Cyprus.41 The last woman in the procession was the wife of ser Domenego Zorzi; she is a Tiepolo. The next to enter the church were the six ducal councillors and all the Procurators; they numbered seventeen, but five were missing . . . . They accompanied ser Francesco Contarini, the brother of the groom, and ser Michiel Malipiero [representing] the doge on the bride s side. They sat in the choir. A High Mass was celebrated with vocal and instrumental accompaniment. The church was full of people, as was the Piazza. When Mass was over and the councillors and procurators, etc., had exited the church followed by the women, the bells rang None [about 3:00 p.m.]. The bride was married in church; the sponsor was ser Bernardo Capello. The company members as well as the groom wore black, which in my opinion was not the thing to do. On a day like today they should have worn [red] silk, or at least scarlet [cloth]. The lord of todays festivities, chosen from among the Ortolani members, was ser Antonio Zane.

39 The day is described as punto di Stella. According to Veneto tradition, St. Paul's Day (celebrating his conversion) closes the calends of the new year, and the weather that prevails on that day will prevail for the rest of the year (Coltro, 65). It is significant that this same day began a festival which had been celebrated between the mid-twelfth century and 1379, the "Festival of the Twelve Marys," and was still alluded to in contemporary rituals. A large part of this festival had involved charitable donations to the dowries of worthy but poor young girls, and the feast as a whole in its Marian focus celebrated the purity of Venetian women (Muir 1981, 149). 40

The term torzi is used to indicate either several candles bundled together or a single large candle torch. 41

Fantin Corner belonged to the Piscopia branch of the family, which had extensive business dealings in Cyprus and to which the last king of Cyprus had been heavily indebted (Campolieti, 47).

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Interrupting his account of the wedding to record a list of grave criminal charges made in the Senate against a captain in Cyprus accused of sodomy, Sanudo then continues with a list of the political officials who left the ceremony early to dine with the doge. Politics clearly went on alongside the wedding observances. The following groups dined at midday with the doge: Councillors, Procurators, Savi of the Council [Savi grandi\, and Savi a terraferma. However, the Heads of the Forty and the Savi ai ordeni were not included.42 Before Mass was over, the dinner guests left the church and went to the ducal palace, where they met the doge, who was dressed in gold brocade with a ducal bonnet of the same material. Tables had been set up in the audience room; when everyone had been seated in a courtly fashion, they commenced to enjoy an excellent meal of duck, pheasant, partridge and many other dishes. For dessert there was whipped cream, marzipan, and sweetmeats followed by performances by the buffoon Zuan Polo and other virtuosi.43 Meanwhile, back at the church, the marriage procedure continued and the diarist counted the women for the second time, aware of their contribution to the splendor of the occasion. After Mass was over, the women followed the newly-wed bride out of the church. One by one they processed across the Piazza. According to my count there were 95 of them. I note that among them were six women of the people, whom the doge specially invited, and one foreigner.44 And there were many people in the Piazza. It was a fine sight to see these women walking by. The account continues with a description of the participating company to which the groom belonged: The members of the Ortolani were dressed first in black robes with full sleeves, as were the groom and his brothers. Then they stripped down to short tunics that were also black, except for the lord of the feast, ser Antonio 42

These latter officials, while important, were not at the level of the others. See Grendler, 39. 43

The translations for these Venetian foods are not always easily found. Cat di late here translated as a whipped cream dessert is elsewhere in Sanudo called capi di late (6:173) and in Veneroni translated as crime tpaisse, thick cream. The sweetmeats, confeti, were all sorts of preserved goodies to complete digestion and sweeten the breath, spices to nibble such as anise seeds, cardamon, candied ginger, thin slices of fennel moistened with bitter-orange juice. This definition was kindly supplied by Phyllis Pray Sober. 44

This forestier or foreigner was probably a pilgrim en route to or from the Holy Land, for which Venice was the major port, invited, as were the six "popular" guests, for symbolic reasons of including the larger community of Venice in the fata.

XII 58 Zane, who wore a ... [garment] of crimson velvet. When the women and the Ortolani had been seated, they were served the usual nice luncheon with partridges and two servings of roast meats. After the meal, the doge came out of his chambers, as did the others seated around the hall of the ducal palace and the women. A single dance was danced, and since by then it was only an hour and a half before sunset, they decided to board the Bucintoro.

Because the bride was the doge s granddaughter, the actual Bucintoro was available. But before the party boarded, a family scene takes place which interrupts the formal proceedings and adds a human touch not lost on the observant diarist, who uncharacteristically names the bride as she enacts her farewell to her natal family in the midst of the ritual and formal splendors. Thereupon the bride, whose name is Vienna, threw herself at the feet of His Serenity and the others seated around the hall. Weeping, she took her leave; the doge, too, got a lump in his throat and began to weep. Accompanied by the Ortolani, they processed to the Bucintoro and boarded it. The only other guests allowed aboard were the women guests of the Ortolani, who numbered 113, the majority of whom, as I mentioned, were dressed in black velvet and adorned with pearls, heavy chains, and very long chain belts.45 Many others were not wearing necklaces, but all were formally dressed. Once everyone was on board, the Bucintoro, carrying the standard and emblem of the doge, was loosed from its moorings. As usual, it was accompanied by the boats from the parish of San Nicol6.46 The entire expense was borne by the doge himself. The Bucintoro sailed down the Grand Canal as the members of the Ortolani danced with their women guests to the sound of trumpets and fifes. When they drew even with the groom's house, about halfway down the canal, they were greeted by the booming of artillery as blank shells were fired from the opposite house. This was a gift from the Duke of Milan, in celebration of the marriage. Thus the Bucintoro was brought as far as Ca Foscari at the bend in the Canal, where it turned around and stopped in front of the groom s home, the dancing continuing all the while. Once the sun had set, 30 wax torches . . . were brought; fifteen were placed on one side of the boat and fifteen on the other. Paper lanterns festooned the top of 45

The colari in sbara are described in Vitali, s.v., and Bistort, 186, n. 1. These were ornate chains starting at a diagonal waistline and reaching nearly to the floor. The rich attire and jewels of the women attending this quasi-public ceremony were, as in all officially public ceremonies, identified with the republic's prosperity. See Brown 1990, 145. 46

The parish of S. Nicol6 dei Mendicoli had a particular relationship with the doge. Populated by fishermen, the parish annually elected a doge of the Nicolotti who was honored by the patrician doge in a formal ceremony. See Muir 1981, 99-101.

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the house, the balconies, window sills, and roof tiles in great numbers. When lit, they cast a brilliance over the festivities.

After the sunset in late January, the evening grew cold and the party moved indoors. A chill wind blew up, which the women felt, even though the Bucintoro was covered, as is customary. At four hours after sunset [about 9:00 p.m.] all the women came indoors; the house and courtyard were decorated with tapestries from top to bottom, a lovely sight. Tables had been set up in the hall and the rooms all around it, and everyone sat down to dinner with the company members. It was the usual wedding feast, but in addition there was potted pheasant and baby pigeon. Many of the women and company members were young and married, so that there was a large number of people at the wedding. Once it was over, there was a little dancing, then everyone went home . . . . The bride and groom went to give themselves pleasure; not only had they not yet slept together, the doge had not even allowed them to be without a chaperone. This is contrary to what is done in other cases, in which, as soon as the young people give their hands to each other, they are allowed to sleep together, which is not proper. Early the next morning, the Bucintoro was taken back to the Arsenal.

The diarist concludes his description with some important details he had neglected to mention: Another newsworthy item: early this morning, ser Bernardo Capello, the ring-sponsor, sent the bride a present.47 It was a large silver basket.... In it was a lovely sable wrap with a beautiful head and a little chain about its neck . .. ,48 In the Ducal Palace, a Latin oration and a rhymed epithalamium in praise of the marriage were recited to the doge and the rest of the guests . . . . This was done on my advice.49 4:1

Compari are sometimes referred to as compari delVanello or ring-sponsors, the term used here. Sansovino (402) describes the role of the compari'. "Et nella festa si toglie uno o piii compari chiamati dell'anello. I quali in questo caso, rappresentano quasi un Maestro delle cerimonie, perch^ a lui tocca la cura de i Musici, e di moke altre cose appartenenti alia festa. Et la mattina susseguente al banchetto, presenta a gli sposi, donativi di zuccheri, di confettioni, e d'altri simili restorativi, et esso alPincontro b presentato da loro." 48

These fur pieces usually had an embalmed head with a jewelled collar or the head was reproduced in gold and gems to complement ornaments hung from the belt. See, for examples, Titian's Portrait of Isabella d'Este (Vienna, Kunsthistorischer Museum) and his Portrait of Eleonora Gonzaga (Florence, Palazzo Pitti). 49

This was a tradition in which the orator did not so much praise the newlyweds as the virtues and illustrious actions of their ancestors, as a further reminder to his audience of exemplary dedication to their patria, situating the marriage in historical space as a com-

XII 60 Another newsworthy item: after all of the women had boarded the Bucintoro, the wife of ser Vetor Grimani, procurator, arrived late. Since the gangway had already been raised, she had to be hoisted on deck by her arms: this was how badly she wanted to attend the festivities. On the Bucintoro, the guests were offered a eolation of biscuits, doughnut-shaped cookies, focacce, and baskets of sweetmeats.50

So much for the weddings that Sanudo described as bellissimi (his choice of words was not wide, but it was emphatic): an impressive dowry, sufficient and appropriate foods, well-served in an orderly fashion, luxurious costumes of celebratory hue, the presence of elegantly clothed and bejewelled women, music, song, and entertainment formed the canon of the proper wedding. The display of wealth and the observance of ritual in the bonding of two patrician families reflected in microcosm the wealth and civic rituals of the city, as well as reciprocal arrangements between potential allies which formed the bedrock of the Venetian political system. For this reason, every aspect of the process was viewed critically for its larger political and propagandistic implications.51 That is why what might appear a minor change in the process was cause for Sanudos remarking upon it as he did in 1517 when two ring-sponsors replaced the traditional one: "It was a new thing . . . never before seen in this city" (26 August 1517; 24:608). Or again, there was Sanudos evident satisfaction in 1526, when the groom and his fellow members of a company followed the tradition of wearing crimson velvet and scarlet robes to the parentado in the ancient fashion, "a 1'antica," and the bride made her family visits seated upon the trasto, the cross-bench, of the gondola, "the way it used to happen years ago" (12 April 1526; 41:167). Ritual is best served by repetition; its variation was cause for comment. Conversely, derogation from the established norms, whether through inadequate hospitality, transgression of legal or societal barriers, or uncivil behavior, might result in a wedding process that did not come up to snuff, that was ill-performed, malfato, challenging the social ritual and public self-image of the Venetian Republic. Such events were de-

plement to its situation in civic space. See Morelli, 15. The use of a classical rhetorical genre here should be seen in the general context of Venetian classicizing themes. 50 25 January 1525; 37:470-75. The foods are listed as "storti, buzolai, fugacine, cestelle de confetti." 51

It has recently been suggested that dowry figures were set as much by conventions of honor and status as by a competitive market for eligible grooms (Queller and Madden, 704; cf. Davis, 106).

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scribed by Sanudo as so many cautionary tales about how not to get married in sixteenth-century Venice.52 THE STINGY HOST After dinner there was a meeting of the Collegio de' Savi. It happened that a company of young men named the Eterni, held a dinner at the house of ser Lunardo Grimani for the wedding of his daughter to ser Alvise Morosini, one of the members of the company. But he [Morosini] gave the company members a meager dinner, and they sentenced him to appear before the consuls. Today he is in their custody.53 It was said that they were ill treated; that is why all the company members, at one hour before sunset [about 4:00 p.m.] came to Rialto in ceremonial garb.54 After they had done great damage to the Grimani house, they took two silver basins, which Father Stefano and [the buffoon] Domenego Taiacalze carried at the head of the procession 55 .... The buffoons made a proclamation at the Rialto that since they [the company members] had been ill used today and no women [had been invited to the supper], they had therefore taken the basins to have 52

The following "cautionary tale" tides have been supplied by Labalme and White. The companies had their own statues and fines for their infringement. Some of their rules concerned the obligation to entertain in style. Morelli, 30-31, cites this rule from the 1541 statutes of the Sempiterni: "che ogni Compagno maritandosi sia obbligato fare due pasti a trombe e piffari, una in casa della sposa, Paltro nella di lui casa: e dopo il secondo lo sposo deva fare una Festa, Commedia, ower Momaria, nella quale spenda da ducati trenta in su, oltre al pasto; sotto pena di ducati cinquanta per ciascuna volta ch'ei contraflfacesse." 54 The Eterni are described as wearing "vesta da contor." Bistort, 355, cites the use of this phrase in a sumptuary law of 17 November 1476 and Molmenti (2:478-79) lists among an "Estratto dalTinventario di Francesco Bon (15 ottobre 1520) . . . una vesta de contor de pano negro fodra volpe grossa trista." A variant spelling appears in Sanudo's Diarii, 12:15, in a reference to an important Friulan noble: "Vidi, in chiesia di San Marco, domino Jacomo da Castello, dotor, uno di primi di la Patria, solito venir qui per orator di Udene, in vesta di cantor . . . fuzito de 11." On Giacomo da Castello, see Muir 1993, 17778. The form "cantor" here appears to be a linguistic slip for "contor." Colussi s Glossarto, 3.3 s.v. "conte," lists "contor" as a medieval variant of "conte," influenced by the French. See also the meaning of "governatore veneziano delle citta dalmate" given by Alberto Limentani for "conte" in the "Glossario" of Martino da Canal, s.v. cuens' (382). 55 Domenico Taiacalze was another well-known buffoon, whom Molmenti (2:384) pairs with Stefano Taiacalze. But the manuscript has "pre* Stefano" and is possibly a reference to Frate Giovanni Armonio Marso from the monastery of the Crosechieri which was at that time a venue for a number of commedie. Armonio was the author of a Latin commedia called Stephanium which had been recited, probably in 1502, at the convent of the Eremiti at San Stefano. See Mancini, 34, and Padoan Urban, 387-88. 53

XII 62 a fitting supper . . . . And they pawned them, one for wax torches and one at the tavern of the Campana where they had a nice supper at his expense.56 That wedding had taken place just before the War of the League of Cambrai (1509-1517) when living was easier and luxurious feasts were to be expected. During the darker days of the war, such expenditures were expressly forbidden, and even years after the war there remained strictures on wedding practices. Whether such prohibitions were effective may be gleaned from the types of controls mentioned in this sumptuary legislation of 1526.57

FORBIDDEN LUXURIES It is stipulated that between the time that the nuptial contract is concluded and the wedding ceremony takes place, the ring-sponsors may not give the groom more than six small suppers, of no more than twenty guests apiece, and two large meals, one of which may not exceed five hundred guests and the other eighty, including men and women and close relatives, with the exception of dinners given by the Companies. The groom may give two meals, one with fifty guests and one with eighty, including men and women and close relatives. At these meals it is prohibited to serve partridge, pheasant, peacock, francolins, baby doves, and no more than three non-gilded dishes may be served. The serving may only be done by the steward of the sideboard and carpets may not be placed on the tables.58

56 January 1508; 7:256. The Campana was an inn in which Sanudo held shares and from which he derived a tidy income (Sanudo, De origine, 29). Although the silver bowls were taken from the bride's father's house, the dinner had been the groom's responsibility, so the cost of redeeming the bowls would have been his. Klapisch-Zuber has pointed out some similarities to a variety of the Italian mattinata (Itself a version of the charivari), where friends of a widower at his remarriage exacted a "ransom" from him and then celebrated his marriage with joyful music if he had been generous or rambunctious noise if he had not. See her essay on "The Medieval Italian Mattinata," especially 265-66. 57

31 January 1526; 40:751-52. Venetian sumptuary laws went back to the fourteenth century and their enforcement was entrusted to various magistracies until 8 February 1514, when the Magistrate alle Pompe was established. See Killerby, 109. 58

40:752. Francolins were a mountain bird similar to a partridge; in Venezia e le sue lagune, 2:215, they are described as "galo salvadego rarissimo . . . . Sono uccelli riservati per le tavole signorili." Gilded foods, that is, actually decorated with gold, were not uncommon at very important feasts. Molmenti reports that they were considered not only ornamental but beneficial to the heart (2:390). See also Bistort (209) where the description of a wedding banquet in Ferrara included 27,629 pieces of gold used to gild various confections. The term dorade might also be applied to those foods (usually fowl as above) with a "golden" battered crust, made from a mixture of egg yolk, flour, and fat or liquid such as wine. According to Phyllis Pray Bober, the credenzieri or stewards of the sideboard

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Also prohibited are large confections of pine-nut cakes, pistachios, round filled pastries, sweets of sugar and rose-water, confections, and sweet gums, formless confections, moulded meringues, sugared fruit, and every other type of large confection that one may make or imagine. The penalty for the lawbreakers will be fifty ducats and for the pastry cook it will be twenty-five ducats . . . ,59 The stewards and cooks that serve such meals are obligated under penalty of a ten-ducat fine per person and a prison term of four months to come to our office and record when and to whom and where such meals will be held so that employees of this office may be sent to determine if the law has been broken. And the stewards are obligated to take them through the rooms so that they may do their job, and if they are impeded by members of the household or others and not allowed to do their job, the stewards are obligated to leave and no longer serve their employers who must nonetheless give [them their] wages. Similarly, if more than the allowed number of guests attends a dinner or prohibited dishes are served, the servants must come to our office after the dinner is served to report what has taken place, on pain of the above penalties. And truly, those who would act so dishonestly as to throw bread or oranges at our employees, or push them or kick them out, will fall subject to a penalty of fifty ducats. The value of gifts as well as the quality of entertainment was also to be monitored. The ring-sponsors may not send the bride or anyone else associated with the wedding a present of anything other than six forks and six spoons, whose served courses which were cold from imposing credenzas which might display the rich table-ware of the household, alternating these courses with hot (and perhaps "gilded") courses served from the kitchen. The use of luxurious Turkish carpets as table coverings is documented in contemporary paintings such as Lorenzo Lottos Family Group and The Protonotary Apostolic Giovanni Giulino, both in the National Gallery in London, and his Portrait of a Married Couple in The State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. Turkish rugs appear in somewhat later canvases such as Veronese's Wedding at Cana (Paris, Louvre) and the Last Supper, now Feast in the House of Levi (Venice, Accademia). We are grateful to Patricia Fortini Brown and David Rosand for these references. 59

These prohibited food stuffs are listed as "grosse pignocade, pistachi, calisoni, fongi de Savonia, trazie, oldani et confecti senza corpo, spongade figure, fructe de zucaro, et ogni altra sorte confection grossa che far et imaginar si possa" (40:752). Pignocade were a popular pre-prandial snack, made of sugar and egg whites beaten up with a little bit of flour and a generous portion of pine-nuts, then dropped by spoonfuls to bake in a not very hot oven, sometimes with cut-up orange or lemon flowers added as well; calisoni are filled pastries either fried or baked (the filling usually marzipan in a dough that included sugar and rose-water); "confecti senza corpo" are sweetmeats in some soft or jellied form (these definitions were supplied by Phyllis Pray Bober). Fongi de Savonia were sweetmeats of sugar, starch and rose water and spongadeviz.it sweets molded into various shapes: castles, ships, nymphs, animals, coats of arms. See Ambrosini, 496.

XII 64 value may not exceed one ducat each. Conversely, the bride may not give to the sponsor pine-nut cakes exceeding a total of ten ducats. The penalty for such transgressions will be forfeiture of the items with which they have broken the law plus sixty ducats. The silversmiths who made the forks or spoons will incur a fine of ten ducats.

These sumptuary laws were obviously hard to enforce, and Sanudo elsewhere refers to the sumptuary magistracy as officio odioso.60 Venetians evidently considered sumptuous display (lapompa) as an honorable sin, a matter of pride rather than chagrin. The impression remains that these laws were more honored in the breach than in the observance, especially when extravagance served civic reputation as well as family pride.61

PROSTITUTE BRIDES AND A BIGAMOUS HUSBAND Far more shameful than excessive expenditure was to marry way down on the social scale as happened on this occasion in 1526. Today one heard openly about the wedding between ser Andrea Michiel.. . and a certain Cornelia Grifo, a most beautiful and sumptuous widowed prostitute. She is rich and has been publicly kept by ser Ziprian Malipiero, and for a while she belonged to ser Piero da Molin of the Banco [branch of the family], and to others, who have given her a dowry o f . . . thousand ducats. The wedding was held at the monastery of San Zuan [San Giovanni] on Torcello and has cast great shame on the Venetian patriciate."62

60

Sanudo, De origine, 250.

61

It is interesting that there were laws attempting to control the dowry, the number of guests invited, the types of food served, the decor, and the gifts, but very little was said about the bride's dress. Cloth-of-gold might be prohibited, but other luxurious fabrics seem to have been permitted and might raise the cost of the dress to as much as 300-500 ducats. Mueller (650) gives this figure for elegant dresses in the fifteenth century, and they would undoubtedly have cost more later. 62 11 April 1526; 41:166. San Zuan on Torcello was a special monastery for the convertite, that is, those women who had turned away from a life of prostitution. As such, it was an appropriate place for this wedding. The amount of the dowry was left blank in the diarist's text. Sanudo often omitted figures which he intended to supply later. This was clearly a respectable dowry for a bride considered less than respectable, although as a "vedoa meretrice somptuosa et bellissima," Grifo had a certain standing within her profession. The "shame" cast on the patriciate to which Sanudo refers may have led to the debates and legislation, within the following fortnight, concerning the preservation of the nobility's "purity and status" through marital registration with the State Attorneys (Diarii, 41: 201, 203). See Chojnacki 1998, 142.

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Even worse, because illegal, was a misalliance compounded with bigamy. 24 April 1532: Today, after dinner, the Quarantia Criminal (Court of Forty for Criminal Affairs) met,63 It is an unusual thing to have any council meet when the doge is out of the ducal palace. Ser Filippo Tron, the avogador (state attorney), introduced the case of ser Paulo da Canal, who is accused of having taken two wives. First he married a prostitute named . . . 'balla le oche.' Then he married a sister of ser Bertuzi Valier . . . months ago, and about 400 ducats of the dowry was [still] owed him. The said [ser Paulo] was subpoenaed in Castello by his first wife, who obtained a judgment against the second [wife, affirming] that she [the first wife] was the true one. Therefore the avogador recommended and it was unanimously decided that he be detained. [Ser Paulo] absented himself.

With these words, the case disappears from Sanudo's Diaries but not from the court records.64 One month later, a sentence of perpetual banishment was pronounced against Paolo da Canal, allowing him to pursue his life only on the island of Cyprus or in service on Venetian merchant or armed ships. It is possible that he may have received a reprieve in later years due to pressure from his family, but the sentence indicates that such flouting of social mores was taken seriously, as do the following reactions to incidents involving women (who were probably young and unmarried), the protection of whose chastity from even symbolic gestures ranked high in the legal codes of the period.

ILLICIT GESTURES 13 May 1500: "I will not omit something that I heard, that the son of Andrea Morosini, the former state attorney, having kissed a woman and taken a jewel from her, was brought before the Senate. And [Andrea Morosini] said publicly [of his son]: 'Hang him! Off with his head!' And so he was condemned." 65 There is no further mention of this charge or punishment in the Diaries, which Sanudo would certainly have recorded had it taken place. But the paternal reaction was an entirely possible one, given the social injury such actions represented, a form of symbolic rape and infringement 63

This Court of Forty for Criminal Affairs was the highest criminal court in Venice. ^Diarii, 56:95-96. For the sequel, see in the Archivio di Stato di Venezia, Avogadori di Comun, Raspe 3667, fol. 20 v (numero antico), 28 May 1532. 65

13 May 1500; 3:314-15. The exclamation points, lacking in the original, were added by the more rhetorically-minded nineteenth-century editors. The original flat statements argue for the veracity of the reporting.

XII 66 on the integrity of the women involved, as demonstrated three decades later by the procedures in a similar case. 29 May 1530: Bartolomeo Comin, the secretary of the Council of Ten, made public two guilty verdicts handed down yesterday in the most excellent Council of Ten against ser Zuan Soranzo and ser Marco Garzoni. On the eleventh day of the present month, the feast of St. Job, they hung around the door of his church and took handkerchiefs out of the hands and belts of the women, giving bad example. Since something needs to be done about this, these two will be banished for four years from Venice and the surrounding area, with a reward [to the informer] of 1500 ducats' worth of their goods to be levied if they violate the terms of the banishment. If they are caught, the reward is to be paid, and they are to be sent back into banishment, which is to begin all over again, since the four years are to be continuous. Their goods are to be bound over for the payment of the reward, and if these are not sufficient, the reward is to be paid with money belonging to the Signoria. They cannot be pardoned except by vote of five-sixths of this Council, in its stated number of seventeen. This verdict is to be announced at the next meeting of the Great Council.66 THE THWARTED A B D U C T I O N Attempts on women's honor were not always symbolic. In 1518, an incident took place in the Venetian terraferma, in Brescia, which involved the temporary abduction of a wealthy ten-year old girl by members of an aristocratic Brescian family, and in particular one Camillo Martinengo, who wished to make her the bride of his brother. This Martinengo was a condottiere employed by the Venetian government as had been his father, and therefore entitled to have armed men with him. He went to the child's home and engaged her mother in chit-chat while his followers seized the child, and then Martinengo put her in a convent where he had other relatives. The child's aggrieved mother went to the Venetian governor in Brescia, remonstrating at this insult and the governor immediately had the child brought to his palazzo, then placed in 66 29 May 1530; 53:234. The case is also mentioned in 53:214, 217, 223. The judicial group in charge was the Consiglio semplice (the Council of Ten) meeting with the doge and his six councillors, but without its additional "Zonta" of fifteen. It was this more restricted group which had first taken cognizance of the case on 17 May 1530 (53:214), and it was hoped that the narrower body ("congregate col prefato numero di 17") would be less exposed to pressure from relatives eager to have the exiled culprits pardoned than would be an enlarged Council. See Archivio di Stato di Venezia, Council of Ten, Criminali, Filza 6, 17 and 28 May 1530, for the proposed penalties and the votes taken to punish a crime described as "heedless," "arrogant," and "offensive."

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another convent more securely under his authority, and he wrote the Venetian government to have the case prosecuted. After heated debate, probably due to the prominence of the perpetrators, the Council of Ten decided to send a state attorney, to try the case in Brescia. A few weeks later, the Council of Ten voted that Camillo Martinengo, with utmost secrecy, should be taken into custody.67 A month later, the case was reviewed in Venice. The reading of the 100-page dossier took two days, and on 23 June, sentences of exile were pronounced against Camillo Martinengo and his henchmen, all but one of whom were relatives. Camillo Martinengo and one other were exiled from "Verona and the Veronese and all the Venetian territory beyond Verona," that is, in effect, from the Venetian terraferma for five years. Three of the others were exiled for three years, and the one who was not a relative but a servant who, in all likelihood, had laid his hands on the child, was exiled for a ten-year period, and should this last miscreant be apprehended in violation of the exile, he should suffer, before the door of the house from which he seized the child, the amputation of his offending hand. The child herself was to be restored to the place from which she had been abducted and reestablished in that "status, being, and legal position" she held before the abduction, an indication that her virginity, lineage, and heritage should be considered intact.68 The story has a coda. A fortnight after the sentences were pronounced, the honor of knighthood was bestowed on the child's stepfather who, according to the records, had earlier planned, together with his current wife, that this wealthy child of hers and step-child of his should marry one of his own sons by his previous marriage. The insult therefore, had not been just to the mother and the child. Moreover, the step-father was Giulio Averoldi, a relative of the papal legate to Venice, Altobello Averoldi. Altobello Averoldi was an important figure in the diplomatic and social life of Venice, and he had involved himself in the case, arousing the government against the Martinengo family for the vio-

67 23 April, 28 April, 18 May, 21 May, 1518; 25:363, 368, 417, 420. Vettor Martinengo, the father of Camillo, is described as "zentilhomo nostro," indicating that he had received honorary patrician status in Venice and was probably well-connected there (25:368). On the Venetian concern to control the rivalries of Brescian elite families, often at odds over the patrimony of aristocratic heiresses, see Ferraro, 134ff. 68

21 and 25 June, 1518; 25:493 and 495-96. The child's fate is described in this way: "La puta veramente sia restituita et reposta nel luogo proprio dove la fu rapita, et remagni in quel stato, esser et rason nel qual la era avanti la fusse rapita."

XII 68 lence committed.69 The sentences of exile against the malefactors and the palliative gesture towards the injured family therefore served a diplomatic purpose as propriety was restored to the family and the state: That morning Giulio Averoldi appeared in the Collegio. He is a citizen of Brescia and relative of the papal legate, and he was in the city because of the case prosecuted in Brescia against Count Martinengo who had abducted one of his [step-] daughters. And after the case was tried, he wished to be knighted, and he was made knight, with a gold chain placed around his neck, and spurs put on by ser Polo Capello and ser Andrea Trevixan, knights, and then, accompanied by trumpets and many companions, he went through the city to the house of the Duke of Ferrara where together with the legate, his relative, he was lodged. He held a ball all that day for some patricians, and [a few] days later [Giulio Averoldi] departed thence and returned to Brescia much satisfied, molto contento™ So the failed forced wedding was converted to the celebration of a knighthood. This was a colorful incident, but perhaps the most revealing cautionary tale in a collection of how-not-to-get-married tales is the following story of a flagrant interruption of a properly conducted wedding procedure and rejection of the societal system this procedure served. Sanudo, our diarist, was particularly incensed at this story; he tells it twice. The first mention includes the denouement. Then, after more than six weeks, he was to tell the story all over again. THE RELUCTANT BRIDEGROOM 8 March 1519: Since today is Mardi Gras, no meetings were held after dinner. There is one noteworthy item, however: ser Andrea Mocenigo, doctor, former senator, and grandson of the [former] doge, agreed to be married during this past Carnival to the daughter of ser Zuan Alvise Duodo from Sant'Anzolo.71 The contract and betrothal ceremonies were celebrated together with the family presentations; it was impressive. The woman was not pretty, but he took her and, having taken her, went through with the betrothal, etc. However, some days later, even though he had given his hand, he said he no longer wanted her as his wife, and he would no longer go to her. The brides father and brother, who were amazed at this, did everything they could to keep the learned man, who had the reputation of being wise, from inflicting such an insult on them. The dowry was reasonable, the 69

25:420. On Altobello Averoldi, see the article by Gaeta, 399-400. The papal legate was well-known to Sanudo. 70 5 July 1518; 25:522. 71 Andrea was the grandson of Doge Giovanni Mocenigo, 1478-1485.

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woman was not deformed, and such things are just not done. Her family is very large, and they all consider themselves insulted. But he was adamant in stating that he did not want her, and neither the father nor the brother could persuade him to accept her. Announcing that he wished to enter a religious order, he stopped coming to public places. The whole city was talking about this, and he continued with his caprice of not accepting her all through Lent. However, after Easter he was so goaded that he took her in marriage, and brought her to his home.72

The diarist s entry over a month later was written the day after Easter and recapitulated the story, adding that at least twice the putative bridegroom gave his hand and then refused to see the putative bride. But finally he was persuaded to return to her. And so today he was at the house of this bride and he will wed her at the agreed upon time. But the city will not forget what he has done, and that he was ill-advised to do this, and that just as [during this rejection] he was not seen around town, today he came to San Marco and the next day to the meeting of the Great Council.73

So this story ends with a wedding and with an affirmation of the close link between the proper private behavior of a Venetian patrician and his public reappearance in the central spaces and political councils of the city. It is an indication of how integrated marital ritual was with the civic ethos of the sixteenth-century Venetian city-state, how indignantly its interruption was treated, and how the city closed in upon the transgressor to assure the desired and satisfactory outcome. Andrea Mocenigo was, in effect, brought back to the family table, bringing his bride and all her family connections with him. It remains to add a final word about our source. These accounts of proper marriages and those marriages or the marital process gone awry are only a very small part of a vast and variegated record penned by the observant Venetian diarist. Sanudo fully intended someday to condense and arrange the materials into an organized history, focused on the great events he saw unfolding around him.74 In such a more formal and politically oriented account, the commedia performed before distinguished 72

8 March 1519; 27:30-31. Note that the last part of this entry was written after Easter, which was on 24 April that year, a good deal later than the Mardi Gras and Lenten events described. But there is no indication in the manuscript that only the last sentence as added later, a clue to Sanudo s actual composition of the Diaries from notes kept and records transcribed, sometimes daily, sometimes over a few days, sometimes over a period of weeks before being entered into the serial pages of the Diaries. 73 25 April 1519; 27:209. 74 See his expression of this intention on 1 March 1523; 34:5.

XII 70

nuptial guests, the parade of 95 handsomely attired women across the Piazza San Marco, the rowdy revenge of the under-entertained Compagnia della Calza, and the reluctance of a bridegroom to consummate marriage with his less-than-beautiful wife might well have suffered condensation if not eclipse. That the diarist could not forego his love of recounting the human life of the city, its governmental intrigues, its everyday commerce, its despatches from abroad, its theatrical spectacles and diplomatic receptions, its weather, famines, and funerals, and here and there, its notable weddings in all their splendid detail, is our good fortune. Sanudo may have died poor and frustrated, his grand history never written, but the legacy of his Diaries has abundantly "dowered" our appreciation of his times.

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Mushower, 136-86. University Park, PA, 1990. . Venice &Antiquity: The Venetian Sense of the Past. New Haven and London, 1997. Campolieti, Giuseppe. Caterina Cornaro. Milan, 1987. Canal, Martino da. Les Estoires de Venise. Cronaca veneziana in lingua francese dalle origini al 1275. Ed. Alberto Limentani. Florence, 1972. C[ecchetti], B [artolomeo]. "Nomi antichi delle campane della torre di San Marco." Archivio Veneto, n.s., vol. 32, pt. 1 (1886): 379-380. Chojnacki, Stanley. "Marriage Legislation and Patrician Society in FifteenthCentury Venice." Law, Custom and the Social Fabric in Medieval Europe, ed. Bernard S. Bachrach and David Nicholas, 163-84. Kalamazoo, 1990.

XII THE DIARIES OF MARIN SANUDO . "Measuring Adulthood: Adolescence and Gender in Renaissance Venice." Journal of Family History, 17, no. 4 (1992), 371-95. . "Nobility, women and the state: marriage regulation in Venice, 14201535." Marriage in Italy, 13001650, ed. Trevor Dean and K. J. P. Lowe, 128-51. Cambridge, 1998. . "Patrician Women in Early Renaissance Venice." Studies in the Renaissance, 21 (1974): 176-203. . "Social Identity in Renaissance Venice: the second Serrata." Renaissance Studies, 8 (1996): 341-58. . "Subaltern Patriarchs: Patrician Bachelors in Renaissance Venice." Medieval Masculinities: Regarding Men in the Middle Ages, ed. Clare A. Lees, 73-90. Minneapolis, 1994. Coltro, Dino. Sapienza del tempo contadino: lunario veneto. Venice, 1980. Davis, James C. A Venetian Family and its Fortune 1500-1900. Philadelphia, 1975. Ferguson, George. Signs and Symbols in Christian Art. New York, 1961. Ferraro, Joanne M. Family and Public Life in Brescia, 1580-1650. Cambridge, 1993. Finlay, Robert. Politics in Renaissance Venice. New Brunswick, 1980. Gaeta, Franco. "Averoldi, Altobello." Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, 13 (1959): 399-400. Glossario degli antichi volgari italiani. Ed. Giorgio Colussi. Helsinki, 1983- . Grendler, Paul F. "The leaders of the Ven e t i a n state, 1540-1609: a prosopographical analysis." Studi Veneziani, n.s. 19 (1990): 35-85. Grubb, James S. Provincial Families of the Renaissance. Baltimore, 1996. Killerby, C. Kovesi. "Practical Problems in the Enforcement of Italian Sumptuary Law." In Crime, Society, and the Law in Renaissance Italy, ed. T.

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Dean and K. J. P. Lowe, 99-120. Cambridge, 1994. King, Margaret L. "Caldiera and the Barbaros on marriage and the family: humanist reflections of Venetian realities," Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, vol. 6, no. 1 (Spring 1976): 19-50. Klapisch-Zuber, Christiane. "An Ethnology of Marriage in the Age of Humanism." Women, Family, and Ritual in Renaissance Italy, trans. Lydia Cochrane, 247-60, Chicago and London, 1985. . "Les femmes dans les rituels de 1'alliance et de la naissance a Florence." Riti e rituali nelle societa medievali, ed. J. Chiffoleau et al., 322,Spoleto, 1994. . "The Medieval Italian Mattinata," Journal of Family History, 1980:2-27; reprinted as "The 'Mattinata' in Medieval Italy." Women, Family, and Ritual in Renaissance Italy, trans. Lydia Cochrane, 261-82, Chicago and London, 1985. . "Zacharias, or the Ousted Father: Nuptial Rites in Tuscany between Giotto and the Council of Trent." In Women, Family, and Ritual in Renaissance Italy, trans. Lydia Cochrane, 178-212, Chicago and London, 1985. Mancini, Franco et al. / teatri del Veneto, vol. I.Venice, 1995. Molho, Anthony. Marriage Alliance in Late Medieval Florence. Cambridge, MA, 1994. Molmenti, Pompeo. La storia di Venezia nella vita privata, 3 vols. Turin, 1880. Reprint Trieste, 1973. Morelli, Jacopo. Delle solennita e pompe nuziali gia usate presso li venetiani. Venice, 1819. Originally pub. for Nozze Almor6-Tiepolo Gradenigo. Venice, 1793.

XII 72 Mueller, Reinhold C. The Venetian Money Market: Banks, Panics, and the Public Debt 1200-1500. Baltimore, 1997. Muir, Edward. Civic Ritual in Renaissance Venice. Princeton, 1981. . Mad Blood Stirring: Vendetta and Factions in Friuli during the Renaissance. Baltimore, 1993. Muraro, Maria Teresa. "La festa a Venezia e le sue manifestazioni rappresentative: Le Compagnie della Calza e le 'MomarieV In Storia della cultura veneta, vol. 3, pt. 3, 315-41. Vicenza, 1981. Newton, Stella Mary. The Dress of the Venetians, 1495-1525. Aldershot, 1988. Padoan, Giorgio. "La commedia rinascim e n t a l e a Venezia: dalla sperimentazione umanistica alia commedia 'regolare.'" Storia della cultura veneta* vol. 3, pt. 3., 377465. Vicenza, 1981. Padoan Urban, Lina. "La festa della Sensa nelle arti e nell'iconografia." Studi veneziani, 10 (1968): 291-353. Pazzi, Piero. Igioielli nella civilta veneziana. Treviso, 1995. Povoledo, Elena. "La scenografia." Storia di Venezia - Temi: L'Arte, 2:623-67. 2 vols., ed. R. Pallucchini. Rome, 1995. Priuli, G. I diarii di Girolamo Priuli. In Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, vol. 24, pt. 3. Eds. Arturo Segre and Roberto Cessi. Cittk di Castello and Bologna, 1912-1938.

Queller, Donald E. and Thomas F. Madden. "Father of the Bride: Fathers, Daughters, and Dowries in Late Medieval and Early Renaissance Venice." Renaissance Quarterly, 46 (1993): 685-711. Romanin, Samuele. Storia documentata di Venezia, vol. 5. Venice, 1856. Sansovino, Francesco. Venetia citta nobilissima. Venice, 1663. Reprint Venice, 1968. Sanudo, Marin. De origine, situ et magistratibus urbis Venetae. Ed. A. Caracciolo Aric6. Milan, 1980. . / Diarii di Marino Sanuto (1496-1533). 58 vols. Ed. R. Fulin et al. Venice, 1879-1903, reprint Bologna, 1969-1970. Sardella, Pierre. Nouvelles et speculations a Venise au d^but du XVI siecle. Paris, 1948. Tamassia, Nino. Lafamiglia italiana nei secoli decimoquinto e decimosesto. Milan, 1910. Veneroni, Giovanni. Dizionaire Frangais etltalien. Venice, 1720. Venezia e le sue lagune, 2 vols. Venice, 1847. Venturi, L. "Le Compagnie della Calza, sec. XV - XVI." Nuovo Archivio Veneto, n.s. 16 (1908): 161-221, 17 (1909): 140-233. Vitali, Achille. La moda a Venezia attraverso i secoli. Lessico ragionato. Venice, 1992.

INDEX Abondio, Agostino: VI 125-6 Academy of the Infecondi: III 166; IV 140, 151 Adam and Eve: III 167; IV 139; V 82 Adrian VI (pope): VI119; VIII 37-8; IX 304, 308; XI 339 Agnadello, battle of: XII48 Agnello, Benedetto: VI 124 Albicante, Gian Alberto (Milanese writer): VI 124 Alexander VIII (pope): VIII41-2 Anjou,Reneof:X241 Antonino, Saint: IX 298 Aragon, Alfonso of: X 241-2 Aretino, Pietro: VI passim La Cortigiana: VI 119-23, 126 Ragionamenti: VI 127 Ariosto, Lodovico: V 86; VI 122 Aristotle: IV 129; V 82, 93 Armani, Vincenza (Venetian actress): V 106 Ascension, feast of: VIII 16; X 238-9 Attendolo, Michele: X 240 Augustine, Saint: II489; VII 4 Averoldi, Altobello: VIII28, 30; XII 67-8 Averoldi, Giulio: XII 67-8 Avogadori di Comun: VII 9, 16; XI 65-6 Barbarigo family: IX 302 Barbarigo, Agostino (doge): VII 20 Barbarigo, Daniele: XII 52 Barbarigo, Gregorio: IV 142, 152 Barbarigo, Marco (doge): IX 302 Barbara family: XI 331,337 Barbara, Ermolao the Younger: XIpassim letter to Marco Dandolo XI243-4 Barbara, Francesco (d. 1454): I 1-3; XI 337 Barbara, Francesco (d. 1549): XII 50 Barbara, Zaccaria: XI 337 Bellini, Gentile: VIII20 Bellini, Jacopo: VIII20; XI246 Bembo, Pietro: VIII 35 Boldo, Filippo: VII 35 Bollani, Domenico: VI 122 Bost, Arnold: XI 341 Brescia: VII29; XII 65-8 Brognoli, Benedetto, da Legnano: II 491-2, 499

Bruni, Leonardo: I 1 Bucintoro: XII 53, 58-60 Calcagno, Francesco (priest in Brescia): VII 29 Calfurnio, Giovanni: II 486, 491-2, 500 Camera degli Imprestiti: II486, 495-6 Campeggi, Tommaso (papal legate): VIII 38 Canal, Paulo da: XII 65 Canali Adreini, Isabella (Venetian actress): V106 Canonization, process of: VIIIpassim', IXpassim; X 234-5, 243-5; XI 336 Capello, Bernardo: VI 126; XII 56, 59 Capello, Polo: XII 68 Capodilista, Francesco: VII 27 Cappello, Bianca: V 86-7 Carafa, Alexander (cardinal): VII 22, 28 Caravaggio, battle of: X 240 Casalmaggiore, battle of: X 240 Casola, Pietro: VII 38 Cavalli,Zuanedi:XII51 Cavazza, Constantino: VI 125-6 Cavazza, Niccolo: VI 125-6 Charles V (Holy Roman Emperor): VI 123, 127; VIII 32 Charles VIII (king of France): XII 48 Chigi, Antonio: VIII 32 Chojnacki, Stanley: IV 130, 135 Clement VII (pope): VI119, 123; VIII29-31, 38-9; IX 29, 299, 304 Colacio, Matteo: II486 Collegio: VIII27, 31; XII49, 61 Collegium contra sodomitas: VII 9, 13-17, 21, 34. See also sodomy Colleoni, Bartolomeo: X 240 Compagnia degli Eterni: XII 48, 50-51 Compagnia degli Ortolani: XII 55-8 Compagnia della Calza: XII46, 61 Companies (in Venice): XIIpassim Congress of Nice: VI 125 Contarini family: IX 303, 305; XII 54-5 Contarini, Antonio (patriarch of Venice): VIII28, 38-9; IX 303-5, 308 Contarini, Battista: XII 52 Contarini, Clario: VII 8, 19 Contarini, Eleanore: II 485

2 Contarini, Filippo: XII 56 Contarini, Francesco: XII 54, 56 Contarini, Gasparo: VII 2, 43 Contarini, Giovanni: XII 52 Contarini, Matteo (patriarch of Venice): VII 26-7 Contarini, Polo: XII 54-5 Contarini, Santo: XII 52 Cornaro family: III 163; IV 140-41, 143, 150. See also Corner Cornaro, Alvise: III 162 Cornaro, Caterina (queen of Cyprus): III 63;V 86 Cornaro, Giambattista: III 163-5; IV 150-52 Cornaro Piscopia, Elena Lucrezia: lllpassim; IV 129, 140^4, 150-51 Corner, Fantin: XII 56 Corner, Giorgio: IX 19 Correr, Bernardino: VII 232 Coryat, Thomas: V 108 Council of Basel: X 241 Council of Mantua: VII 246 Council of Ten: VI 124-6; VII 6-17, 19-36, 38; XII 66-7 capi of: VII 7-8, 11-14 Council of Trent: V 106; VII28-9, 36 Cyprus: III 164-5; XII 56-7 Dandolo, Andrea (husband of Orsa Giustiniani): II 485, 489, 498 Dandolo, Andrea (fl. 1459): VII 27 Dandolo, Cecilia (Bernardo Giustiniani's granddaughter) II 489, 498 Dandolo, Giacomo: XII 52 Dandolo, Marco: VIII 37^10; IX 298-9, 301, 303-5, 307; XI 331, 334, 338^10 letter to: XI 343^ Dandolo, Maria (Bernardo Giustiniani's granddaughter): II489, 498 Davis, James C.: IV 130, 131 Delia Rovere, Francesco Maria: VI 124, 125 Doge, election of: IX 302^; XI 334-5 Doglioni, Niccolo: V 84-5, 89 Dolfin, Dolfin: XII 55 Dolfin, Ermolao: VI 126 Dolfin, Pietro: VIII 36 Donate, Girolamo: XI 334 Dowries, in Venice: IV 131-2, 137, 145-6, 148-9; V 106-7; XII45-7, 48, 60, 68-9 Duodo, Zuan Alvise: XII 68 Education, of women: lllpassim; IV 137, 141-2; V 83^, 87, 100

INDEX Errizo, Antonio: II 485 Esecutori contra la Bestemmia: VI 124, 130; VII42-3 Eugenius IV (pope): VIII 15, 43; X 241 Falier, Zuan: XII 52 Feasts, Venetian: VIII 16-17; X 238-9, 247-8; XII 46, 49-50, 56. See also Ascension, feast of Fedele, Cassandra: V I 0 3 Ferdinand of Naples (king): XI 339 Foscari, Ferigo: XII 49, 52 Foscari-Venier wedding: XII 49-53 Francis I (king of France): VI 125-6; VIII 32-3; IX 305 Fregoso, Cesare: VI125-6 Franco, Niccolo (poet): VI 124 Garzoni, Marco: XII 66 George of Trebizond: II 491 Giustiniani family: II 487-8, VIII 17; 1X299-300, 305; XI 336 Giustiniani, Andrea: IX 305 Giustiniani, Bernardo (d. ca. 1392): II 493, VIII 17-18, 27 Giustiniani, Bernardo di Leonardo (d. 1489): n passim; VIII 17-18, 27; X 236^4; XI 331-5, 342 bequests to family and friends: II489-90, 497-8, 499-500 bequests to religious houses: II 488-9, 495-8 text of will: II494-501 Giustiniani, Bernardo di Leonardo, works of De divi Marci Evangelistae vita: X 235-6 De origine urbis Venetiarum: II 483, 486, 491-2; XI 332-3 Vita Beati Laurentii Justiniani: VIII18-20; IX 299; X 244-6 Giustiniani, Eufemia, Blessed: II 488 Giustiniani, Leonardo di Bernardo (d. 1446): I 1-2; II490, 493; XI 331 Giustiniani, Leonardo di Marco: II485, 490, 492, 499-500 Giustiniani, Lorenzo, Blessed: II 485; VIII passim; IX passim; X passim; XI 331, 333 canonization of: VIIIpassim; IXpassim; X 243-7; XI 336 Giustiniani, Lorenzo di Bernardo: II 486, 490, 492, 499-500 Giustiniani, Luigi di Marco: II 485, 490, 492, 499-500 Giustiniani, Marco di Bernardo: I 1-2; II 485

INDEX Giustiniani, Orsa (wife of Marco Dandolo): II485, 498; XI 339 Giustiniani, Niccolo di Marco: II 485, 490, 492, 499-500 Giustiniani, Pietro di Marco: II 485, 490, 492, 499-500 Gonzaga family: VI 124 Gonzaga, Federico: VI119 Greek scholarship: I 1-3; VIII22; XI 335, 338 Gregory XIII (pope): IV 138 Grimani family: XII 61-2 Grimani, Antonio (doge): IX 304; XI 340 Grimani, Lunardo: XII 61 Grimani, Vettor: XII 60 Grimani, Vincenzo: VI 126-7 Gritti, Andrea (doge): VI 123; VIII40; IX 305; XI 340; XII 54 Gritti, Vincenzo: XII 56 Gritti-Contarini wedding: XII 54-9 Guarino of Verona: I 1-3 Guarino, Battista: XI 339 Harvel, William (English ambassador): VI 127 Henry III (king of France): IV 134 Henry VIII (king of England): VI 127 Howell, James: VII2, 43 King, Margaret L.: IV 130; V 81 Leo X (pope): VI 119; VIII28-9, 33, 37-8, 40; IX 299-304, 308 Lezze, Luca da: XII48, 50 Lion, Maffeo: VI 125-6 Loredan, Leonardo (doge): IX 303^ Maggior Consiglio: II 484n; III 163^; VII2, 12, 15-16, 22; IX 302-3; XII45, 69 Magistrate alle Acque: V 85 Malipiero, Michiel: XII 56 Malipiero, Ziprian: XII 64 Mantua: VI 119, 124 Manutius, Aldus: VI 123 Marcello, Niccolo (doge): XI 336, 340 Marguerite of Naverre: V 103 Marinella, Lucrezia: III 167; IV 135, 147; V92-8, 102-5, 106;VII40n La Nobilta e I'Eccellenza delle Donne co'Diffetti e Mancamenti de gli Huomini: III 161 ;V 92-1 Marriage, in Venice: IV 131-2, 136-7, 143, 145-6, 149; V 84-6; Xllpassim. See also Wedding Feasts

3 Martinengo, Camillo (count): XII 66-8 Martolosso, Girolamo: I 125 Maximilian (Holy Roman Emperor): VIII 32; XII 48 Medici, Cosimo de': X 241 Medici, Cosimo de' (duke of Tuscany): VI 124 Medici, Francesco de' (duke of Tuscany): V86 Medici, Giovanni de'. See Leo X (pope) Medici, Giovanni della Bande Nere: VI 119 Medici, Giulio de'. See Clement VII (pope) Memmo family: IX 302 Memmo, Bartolomeo: IX 301 Memmo, Marc Antonio: XII 50 Mendoza, Don Diego de: VI 126 Merula, Giorgio: XI 337 Michiel, Andrea: XII 64-5 Michiel, Marcantonio: VII 21 Minio, Marco (Venetian ambassador): VIII26, 29-33, 35 Mocenigo, Andrea: XII 68-70 Mocenigo, Pietro (doge): IX 302; XI 336 Molin, Piero da: XII 64 Molmenti, Pompeo: IV 130, 144-5 Montaigne, Michele de: V 105 Monte, Antonio del (cardinal): VIII 31, 35 Moro, Cristoforo (doge): IX 302 Morosini, Alvise: XII 61 Morosini, Andrea: XII 65 Morosini, Domenico di Pietro: II 485-6, 491-2, 499-500; VIII 36-7 Nani family: XII 48 Nicholas V (pope): VIII 15; X 241 Nogarola, Isotta: V 103 Orseola, Pietro (doge): IX 300, 308 Osanne, Blessed, of Mantua: VIII 39; IX 308 Ottoman Turks: VI 123, 125; VIII 16-17, 22, 32; X 242; XII 48, 51 Padua, University of: II 486, 492, 500; m passim; IV 129, 142-3; VII 27 Palazzi, Giovanni: V 108 Palmieri, Matteo: VIII 33 Paul, Saint: IV 142, 161; V 82 Pavia, battle of: IX 305 Pellicier, Guillaume (French ambassador): VI 125 Pesaro, Antonio: XII 56 Petrarca, Francesco: VII2 Pisani, Giorgio: VIII 36; IX 308 Pius II (pope): VII28 Plato: I 3

4

INDEX

Polo, Zuan: XII 53 Pozzo, Modesta da: V 84-92, 93-5, 97-8 102, 106, 108 // Merito delle Donne: V 87-91, 95 Tredici canti di Floridoro: V 86-7 Priuli, Constantino: II 485 Priuli, Francesco: II 485 Priuli, Girolamo, VII 23, 40 Prostitution: IV 137; VII 24-5, 37-9, 41; XII 64-5 Quarantia: VII 6; IX 308; XII 65 Querini, Francesco: IX 301, 308 Querini, Girolamo: IX 298, 300 Querini, Quirina (mother of Blessed Lorenzo Giustiniani): VIII 17 Roman authors, study of: II491-2; III 165; XI 339 Rosso, Niccolo (Venetian notary): II 484, 501 Sabbadini, Remigio: I 1 Sagredo, Gerardo (bishop): IX 300-301, 308 Saint Mark, cult of: X 233-7, 245, 247-8 translation of: X 235-7 Saint Nicholas of Myra, cult of: X 234, 243, 248 Saint Theodore, cult of: X 243, 236-8, 245, 247-8 Saint-Didier, Alexandre Toussaint de Limojon, sieur de: IV 136-7, 148 Saints, cult of, in Venice: X passim San Domenico di Castello (monastery): II488-9, 496 San Giorgio in Alga (monastery): VII 28, 35; VIII 18, 24-5, 27; IX 297, 300; X 245; XI 335 San Giorgio Maggior: VIII 40; IX 307 San Giovanni e Paolo (San Zanipolo): VII 11 San Marco (Basilica): X 236, 244, 248 San Marco (Piazza): III 134; VII 11, 25, 30-31; X 237; XII 57-8, 69-70 San Niccolo di Lido: X 237-8, 243 San Pietro di Castello: II486, 496; VIII 36, 40; IX 297, 299, 308; X 236 Sansovino, Francesco: XII44 Santa Croce (Giudecca): II487-8, 496, 498 Santa Maria dell'Orto: VII28; VIII27, 40; IX 300, 307-8 Santa Maria della Carita (Scuola in Padua): II498, 496 Sanudo, Antonio: IX 298, 300, 307 Sanudo, Francesco: IX 300 Sanudo, Marin: IV 134; VI 124; VII 21-2; VIII26-8, 31-2, 36-7, 41; IX 297,

298-300, 305, 307; Xllpassim Sanudo, Marin, quoted: IV 146-7; VIII27-8, 40^1; IX 297-8, 307-8; XII 47-50, 50-51, 53, 56-8, 59, 61-2, 62-4, 65, 66, 68-9 Senate (Venetian): VIII15, 18, 19, 40, 43; IX 300, 303; X 240n; XI 337; XII 57 Sforza, Francesco (duke): VIII23-4, X 239^0, 242 Signori di Notte: VII 6-9 Sixtus IV (pope): VIII 15, 22-3, 28, 39; 1X308 Sodomy; VI 124-7; Vllpassim; XII 57 case of 1407: VII 7-10, 19, 25-6, 34-5 denned: VI 6-9 punishments for: VII 23-5, 28-9, 30-5, 42,45 See also Collegium contra sodomitas Soranzo, Jacopo: IX 298, 300, 305 Soranzo, Zuan: XII 66 Soria, Don Lopes: VI 126 Strozzi family: III 13; VI 126 Sumptuary laws: IV 132-5, 146-7; V 107; VII 43; XII 47-8, 62^ Tarabotti, Arcangela: IV 135-6, 138-9; V98-106 La Semplicita Ingannata: V 99-100, 103 Paradiso Monacale: V 100-102 Teronda, Leonardo (Veronese notary): I 1 Thomas Aquinas, Saint: V 83 Tiepolo, Stefano: XII 50, 52 Titian: VI 126-7 Trevisan, Andrea: XII 68 Trevisan, Girolamo (bishop of Cremona): VIII 34, 38 Tron, Filippo: XII 65 Valier, Bertuzi: XII 65 Valier, Gian Francesco: V 104; VI 125-6 Venier, Zuan: XII 49 Visconti, Filippo Maria: X 239 War of the League of Cambrai: VI 119; VII 36; XII47-8, 62 Wedding feasts, in Venice: XII 49-60. See also Foscari-Venier wedding, GrittiContarini wedding Zane, Antonio: XII 56, 57-8 Zeno, Francesco: XII 50 Zorzi, Beneto: XII 52-3 Zorzi, Domenico: XII 56-7 Zorzi, Filippo: XII 85, 89 Zorzi, Marino: VIII 36; IX 308