[4] 'The policy of the late Chamber with regard to religion, education,
and the army had very much greater weight with the electors.... The
persistent threat held out by certain Republicans to destroy the Church,
either by a hypocritical fulfillment of the Concordat or by the forcible
separation of Church and State, has been skilfully used by their
adversaries amongst the peasantry, who dread nothing so much as having
to pay their cure themselves. The Government was so well aware of this
fact, that in some of the departments the Catechism was ordered to be
recited in the schools during the last week before the elections, though
only two months earlier the teachers had been strictly forbidden to use
it. This childish stratagem had, as might have been expected, no great
success.'--Gabriel Monod, in 'Contemporary Review,' of December, 1885.
Art. III.--_The State Papers of the Venetian Republic_; namely,
_Cancelleria Inferiore, Cancelleria Ducale, Cancelleria Secreta,_
preserved in the Convent of the Frari, at Venice.
In recent years a new tendency has been given to historical studies by
the avidity with which scholars have investigated the masses of State
documents accumulated through centuries, almost untouched, in the Record
Offices of various nations. This tendency has been in the direction of
minuteness and accuracy of detail. The finer shades of policy, the
subtler turns in the game of nations, have been revealed by this
intimate study of the documents which record them. Among the archives of
Europe there is none superior, in historical value and richness of
minutiae, to the Archives of the Venetian Republic, preserved now in the
convent of the Frari at Venice. The importance of these archives is due
to three causes: the position of the Republic in the history of Europe,
the fullness of the archives themselves, and the remarkable preservation
and order which distinguishes them, in spite of the many dangers and
vicissitudes through which they have passed. Venice enjoyed a position,
unique among the States of Europe, for two reasons. Until the discovery
of the passage round the Cape of Good Hope, she was the mart of Europe
in all commercial dealings with the East--a position secured to her by
her supremacy in the Levant, and by the strength of her fleet; and, in
the second place, the Republic was the bulwark of Europe against the
Turk. These are the two dominant features of Venice in general history;
and under both aspects she came into perpetual contact with every
European Power. The universal importance of her position is faithfully
reflected in the diplomatic documents contained in her archives. The
Republic maintained ambassadors and residents at every Court. These men
were among the most subtle and accomplished diplomatists of their time,
and the government they served was exacting and critical to the highest
degree. The result is that the dispatches, newsletters and reports of
the Venetian diplomatic agents, form the most varied, brilliant, and
singular gallery of portraits, whether of persons or of peoples, that
exists. There is hardly a nation in Europe that will not find its
history illustrated by the papers which belong to the Venetian
department for foreign affairs. Nor are the papers which relate to the
home government of the Republic less copious and valuable. Each
magistracy has its own series of documents, the daily record of its
proceedings: in this we find the whole of that elaborate machinery of
State laid bare before us in all its intricacy of detail; and we are
enabled to study the construction, the origin, development, and
ossification, of one of the most rigid and enduring constitutions that
the world has ever seen; a constitution so strong in its component
parts, so compact in its rib-work, that it sufficed to preserve a
semblance of life in the body of the Republic long after the heart and
brain had ceased to beat.
Admirable as are the preservation and order of these masses of State
papers, it is not to be expected that each series, each magisterial
archive, should be complete. There are many broad lacunae, especially in
the earlier period, which must ever be a cause for regret: for Venice
growing is a more attractive and profitable subject than Venice dying.
During the nine hundred and eighty-seven years that the Government of
the Republic held its seat in Venice, the State papers passed through
many dangers from fire, revolution, neglect, or carelessness. When we
recal the fires of 1230, 1479, 1574, and 1577, it is rather matter for
congratulation that so much has escaped, than for surprise that so much
has been destroyed. The losses would, undoubtedly, have been much more
severe had all the papers and documents been preserved in one place, as
they are now. But the Venetians stored the archives of the various
magistracies either at the offices of those magistrates, or in some
public building especially set apart for the purpose. The Secret
Chancellery, which was always an object of great solicitude, containing
as it did all the more private papers of the State, was deposited in a
room on the second floor of the Ducal Palace. Many of the criminal
records belonging to the Council of Ten were stored in the Piombi under
the roof of the Palace; and the famous adventurer Casanova relates how
he beguiled some of his prison hours by reading the trial of a Venetian
nobleman, which he found among other papers piled at the end of the
corridor where he was allowed to take exercise. Soon after the fall of
the Republic, the following disposition of the papers was made. The
political archive was stored at the Scuola di S. Teodoro; the judicial,
at the convent of S. Giovanni Laterano; the financial, at S. Procolo. In
the year 1815, the Austrian Government resolved to collect and arrange
all State papers in one place. The building chosen was the convent of
the Frari; and the work was entrusted to Jacopo Chiodo, the first
director of the archives. The scheme suggested by Chiodo has served as a
basis for the arrangement that has been already carried out, or is still
in hand.
Under the Republic it was natural that access to important diplomatic
papers and to secrets of State should be granted with reserve, and only
to persons especially authorized to make research. The directors
appointed by the Austrian Government showed a disposition to maintain
that precedent; and M. Baschet relates that it was only by a personal
appeal to the Emperor that he obtained access to the archives of the
Ten. The Italian Government allow nearly absolute liberty; and nothing
can exceed the courtesy of the officials under their distinguished
director, the Commendatore Cecchetti.
Any attempt to explain the archives of Venice and to display their
contents, must be preceded by a statement of the main features of the
constitution of the Republic upon which the order and the arrangement of
the archives is based. The constitution of Venice has frequently been
likened to a pyramid, with the Great Council for its base and the Doge
for apex. The figure is more or less correct; but it is a pyramid that
has been broken at its edges by time and by necessity. The legislative
and political body was originally constructed in four groups, or
tiers--if we are to preserve the pyramidal simile--one rising above the
other. These four tiers were the Maggior Consiglio or Great Council, the
Lower House; the Pregadi or Senate, the Upper House; the Collegio, or
the Cabinet; and the Doge. The famous Council of Ten and its equally
famous Commission, the Three Inquisitors of State, did not enter into
the original scheme; they are an appendix to the State, an intrusion, a
break in the symmetry of the pyramid. Later on we shall explain their
construction and relation to the main body of government. For the
present we leave them aside, and confine our attention to the four
departments of the Venetian constitution above mentioned.
The Great Council, as is well known, did not assume its permanent form
and place in the Venetian constitution till the year 1296. At that date
the famous revolution, known as the closing of the Great Council, took
place. By that act, which was only the final step in a revolution that
had been for long in process, those citizens who were excluded from the
Great Council remained for ever outside the constitution; all functions
of government were concentrated in the hands of those nobles who were
included by the Council; the constitution of the Republic was
stereotyped as a rigid oligarchy. Previous to the year 1296, a great
council had existed, created first in the reign of Pietro Ziani (1172);
but this council was really democratic in character, not oligarchic; it
was elected each September, and its members were chosen from the whole
body of the citizens. Earlier still than the reign of Ziani, the
population used to meet tumultuously and express their opinion upon
matters of public interest, such as the election of a Doge or a
declaration of war, first in the _Concione_ under their tribunes, while
Venetia was still a confederation of lagoon-islands; and then in the
_Arengo_ under their Doge, when the confederation was centralized at
Rialto. But of these assemblies the latter was disorderly and irregular,
and the former was of doubtful authority. It is from the closing of the
Great Council that we must date the positive establishment of the
Venetian oligarchy, and the completion of that constitution which
endured for five hundred years, from 1296 till the fall of the Republic
in 1797.
The age at which the young nobles might take their seats in the Council,
that is to say, might enter upon public life, was fixed at twenty-five,
except in the cases of the Barbarelli, or thirty nobles between the ages
of twenty and twenty-five, who were elected by ballot on the fourth of
each December, St. Barbara's day; and in the case of those who, in
return for money advanced to the State, obtained a special grace to take
their seats before their twenty-fifth year.
The chief functions of the Great Council were the passing of laws, and
the election of magistrates. But in process of time the legislative
duties of the Council were almost entirely absorbed by the Senate; and
the Maggior Consiglio only retained its great and distinguished
function, the election of almost every officer of State, from the Doge
downwards. The large number of these magistracies, and the various
seasons of the year at which they fell vacant, engaged the Great Council
in a perpetual series of elections. It is not our intention to explain
in detail the elaborate process by which the Venetians carried out their
political elections; such an explanation would carry us beyond our
scope, which is to state the position and functions of each member in
the constitution of the Republic. But, briefly, the process was this.
The law required either two or four competitors for every vacant
magistracy, and the election to that magistracy was said to take place
_a due_ or _a quattro mani_, respectively. If the office to be filled
required _quattro mani_, the whole body of the Great Council balloted
for four groups of nine members each, who were chosen by drawing a
golden ball from among the silver ones in the balloting urn. Each of
these groups retired to a separate room, and there each group elected
one candidate to go to the poll for the vacant office. The names of the
four candidates were then presented to the Council and balloted. The
candidate who secured the largest number of votes, above the half of
those present, was elected to the vacant office. Thus the election to
the magistracy was a triple process; first, the election of the
nominators, then the election of the candidates, and finally the
election to the office.
The Great Council, as representing the whole Republic, possessed certain
judicial functions, which were used on rare occasions only, when the
State believed itself placed in grave danger through the fault of its
commanders. The famous case of Vettor Pisani, after his defeat at Pola,
in 1379, and the case of Antonio Grimani, in the year 1499, were both
sent to the Grand Council, who passed sentence on those generals. But,
broadly speaking, the judicial functions of the Maggior Consiglio hardly
existed, its legislative functions dwindled away, and were absorbed by
the Senate, and its chief duty and prerogative lay in the election of
almost every State official.
Coming now to the second tier in the pyramid of the constitution, the
Senate, or Pregadi,--the invited, we find that the Senate proper was
composed of sixty members, elected in the Great Council, six at a time.
The elections took place once a week, and were so arranged that they
should be complete by the first of October in each year. In addition to
the Senate proper, another body of sixty, called the _Zonta_ or
addition, was elected by the outgoing Senate at the close of its year of
office; but it was necessary that the names of the _Zonta_ should be
approved by the Great Council before their election was valid. The
Senate and the Zonta together formed one hundred and twenty members; and
besides these, the Doge, his six councillors, the Council of Ten, the
Supreme Court of Appeal, and many special magistrates, who presided over
departments of Finance, Customs, and Justice, belonged _ex officio_ to
the Senate, and brought the number of votes up to two hundred and
forty-six. Further, fifty-one magistrates of minor departments also sat,
with the right to debate, but without the right to vote.
The Senate was the real core of the Administration. The presence, _ex
officio_, of so many and such various officers of State sufficiently
indicates the wide field which was covered by the authority of the
Pregadi. The large number of the Senatorial body, and the diversity of
subjects with which it dealt, required that business should be carried
on with parsimony of time and precision of method; and therefore private
members were restricted to the right of debate. Only the Doge, his
councillors, the Savii Grandi and the Savii di Terra ferma had the right
to move the Senate; and their propositions related to peace, war,
foreign affairs, instructions to ambassadors, and representatives of
foreign Courts, to commercial treaties, finance, and home legislation.
The various measures were spoken to by their proposers, and by the
magistrates whose offices they affected. As in the case of the Great
Council, the Senate also on rare occasions exercised judicial functions.
It was in the discretion of the College to send a faulty commander for
trial either to the Great Council or to the Senate; but in that case the
charge must be one of negligence or misjudgment; if the charge implied
treason, it was taken before the Council of Ten. A few of the higher
officers of State were elected in the Senate, among them the Savii
Grandi and the Savii di Terra ferma, and the Admiral of the Fleet. The
functions of the Senate were legislative, judicial, and elective. But
just as the Great Council was pre-eminently the elective body, so the
Senate was pre-eminently the legislative body in the constitution of
Venice.
The Collegio or Cabinet of Ministers, formed the third tier in the
pyramid. The College was composed of the following members: The Doge,
his six councillors, and the three chiefs of the Court of Appeal; these
ten persons formed the Collegio minore, or Serenissima Signoria; in
addition to these there were the six Savii Grandi; the five Savii di
Terra ferma, and the five Savii da mar; a body of twenty-six persons in
all, forming the College. Beginning with the lowest in rank, the Savii
agli ordini, or da mar, were, as their name implies, a Board of
Admiralty; but they acted in that capacity under the orders of the Savii
Grandi upon whom the naval affairs of the Republic immediately depended.
The Savii agli ordini had a vote but no voice in the College; this post
was given, for the most part, to young and promising politicians; it was
a training school for statesmen: 'Officio loro,' says Giannotti, 'e
tacere ed ascoltare.' The office lasted for six months only; and so
there was a constant stream of young men passing through the political
school, and becoming intimately acquainted with the affairs of the
Republic and the methods of government. How excellent that school must
have been will become apparent as we proceed to note the functions of
the College of which the Savii agli ordini formed a silent part.
Next in order above the Savii agli ordini came the Savii di Terra ferma.
This Board was composed of five members; the Savio alia Scrittura, or
Minister for War; the Savio Cassier, or Chancellor of the Exchequer; the
Savio alle ordinanze, or minister for the native militia in the cities
on the mainland; the Savio ai da mo, or minister for the execution of
all measures voted urgent; the Savio ai Ceremoniali, or Minister for
Ceremonies of State. These Savii di Terra ferma, like the Savii agli
ordini, held office for six months only.
The six Savii Grandi, who came above the Savii di Terra ferma,
superintended the actions of the two boards below them, and, if
necessary, issued orders which would override those of the other
ministers. They were, in fact, the responsible directors of the State.
The Savii Grandi were required to prepare all business to be laid before
the College, where it was first discussed and arranged before being
submitted to the Senate for approval. To facilitate this labour of
preparation, each of the Savii Grandi took a week in turn, and the Savio
of the week was, in fact, Prime Minister of Venice. It was he who read
dispatches, granted audiences to ambassadors, and prepared official
replies. The Doge presided in the College, it is true, but it was the
Savio of the week who opened the business, and suggested the various
measures to be adopted.
Besides these boards of Savii, the College included the Ducal
Councillors, and the three chiefs of the Court of Appeal. We shall speak
of these latter when we come to the judicial department of the
constitution. The office of Ducal Councillor was, perhaps, the most
venerable in Venice. These six men held, as it were, the Ducal honours
and functions in commission; they embodied the authority of the Doge to
such an extent, that without their presence he could not act; he became
a nonentity unless supported by four at least of his council; while, on
the other hand, the absence of the Doge in no way diminished the
authority of the Ducal Councillors. For example, the Doge without his
council could not preside, neither in the Maggior Consiglio, nor in the
Senate, nor in the College, but four Ducal Councillors had the power to
preside without the Doge. The Doge might not open dispatches except in
the presence of his council, but his council might open dispatches in
the absence of the Doge. Yet, great as were the external honours of the
Ducal Councillors, the office was rather ornamental than important. It
was the Savii Grandi who were the directing spirit through all the
multitudinous affairs of the College. As we have seen, those affairs
embraced the whole field of government, except the field of Justice. The
College had no judicial functions, nor did it legislate. As the Maggior
Consiglio was the elective member, and the Senate the legislative, so
the College was the initiative and executive member of the State. The
College proposed measures which became law in the Senate; and the
execution of those laws was entrusted to the College which had the
machinery of State at its disposal. It is this right of initiating which
distinguishes the College; and it is just upon this point that the Ducal
Councillors appear to have a slight pre-eminence; for the Doge, his
council, and the Savii alone, had the right to initiate in the Senate;
the Doge, his council, and the chiefs of the Ten alone, had the right to
initiate in the Council of Ten; the Doge and his council alone had the
right to initiate in the Maggior Consiglio. The Doge and his council
alone move through all departments of government, presiding and
initiating, embodying the spirit of the Republic; and yet in no case is
their power great; for the Savii had more influence in the Senate, the
Chiefs of the Ten in the Council of Ten; and the Great Council, where
the Doge and his councillors had the field to themselves, was of little
importance in the direction of affairs.
At the apex of the constitutional pyramid we find the Doge. The Doge
also had his distinctive functions in the State; his duties were
ornamental rather than administrative. Though all the acts of the
Government were executed in his name, laws passed, dispatches sent,
treaties made, and war declared, yet it is not in these departments that
the Doge stands pre-eminent; it is throughout the pomp and display of
the Republic that he is supreme; and the archive wherein his glory shows
most brightly is the _Ceremoniali_.
The Doge was elected for life. When a Doge died, the eldest Ducal
Councillor filled the office of Vice-Doge until the election of the new
Prince. The remains of the deceased Doge were laid out in the Chamber of
the Pioveghi, on the first floor of the Ducal Palace, dressed in robes
of State, the mantle of cloth of gold and the ducal beretta. Twenty
Venetian noblemen were appointed to attend in the chapelle ardente. On
the third day the Doge was buried; and the Great Council on the same day
elected the officers who were to revise the coronation oath, and to
render its provisions more stringent if the conduct of the deceased had
revealed any point where a future Doge could exercise even the smallest
independence in constitutional matters. At the same time the Council
elected another body of officers, who were required to examine the
conduct of the late Doge, and, if he had violated his coronation oath,
his heirs paid the penalty by a fine. Immediately after the appointment
of these officers, the Maggior Consiglio proceeded to create the
forty-one electors to the dukedom. The process of election was long and
intricate, and occupied five days at the least; for there was a
quintuple series of ballots and votings to be concluded before the
forty-one were finally chosen. When the forty-one noblemen had been
appointed they were taken to a chamber specially prepared for them,
where, as in the case of a papal election, they were obliged to stay
until they had determined upon the new Doge. They were bound by oath
never to reveal what took place inside this election chamber. But this
oath was not always observed in the spirit; and memoranda of the
proceedings of the forty-one are still preserved in the private archives
of the Marcello family. The first step was to elect three priors, or
presidents, and two secretaries. The presidents took their seats at a
table on which stood a ballot-box and an urn. The secretaries gave to
every elector a slip of paper, upon which each one wrote the name of the
man whom he proposed as Doge. The forty-one slips of paper were then
placed in the urn, and one was drawn out at hazard. If the noble, whose
name was written upon the slip, chanced to be an elector, he was
required to withdraw. Then each of the electors was at liberty to attack
the candidate, to point out defects and recal misdeeds. These hostile
criticisms, which covered the whole of a candidate's private life, his
physical qualities and his public conduct, were written down by the
secretaries, and the candidate was recalled. The objections urged
against him were read over to the aspirant, without the names of the
urgers appearing, and he was invited to defend himself. Attack and
defence continued till no further criticisms were offered, and then the
name of the candidate was balloted before the priors. If it received
twenty-five favourable votes, its owner was declared Doge; if less than
twenty-five, a fresh name was drawn from the urn, and the whole process
was repeated until some candidate secured the necessary five-and-twenty
votes. As soon as this issue was reached, the Signoria was informed of
the result, and the new Doge, attended by the electors, descended to
Saint Mark's, where, from the pulpit on the left side of the choir, the
Prince was shown to the people, and where, before the high altar, he
took the coronation oath and received the standard of Saint Mark. The
great doors of the Basilica were then thrown open, and the Doge passed
in procession round the Piazza and returned to the Porta della Carta. At
the top of the Giants' Stair the eldest Ducal Councillor placed the
beretta on his head, and he was brought to the Sala dei Pioveghi, where
the late Doge had lain in state, and where he too would one day come.
Then the Doge retired to his private apartments, and the ceremony of
election closed.
As we have already observed, the position of the Doge in the Republic of
Venice was almost purely ornamental. The Doge presided, either in person
or by commission through his councillors, at every Council of State; he
presided, however, not as a guiding and deliberating chief, but as a
symbol of the Majesty of Venice. He is there not as an individual, a
personality, but as the outward and visible sign of an idea, the idea of
the Venetian oligarchy. The history of the personal authority of the
Doge falls into three periods. A period of great vigour and almost
despotic power dates from the foundation of the Dukedom, in the year
697, down to the reign of Pietro Ziani in 1172. During this first
period, the Ducal authority showed a tendency to become concentrated,
and almost hereditary in the hands of one or two powerful families. For
example, we have seen Doges of the Partecipazio house, five Doges of the
Candiani, and three of the Orseoli. But the rivalry and balanced power
of these great families eventually exhausted one another, and preserved
the Dukedom of Venice from ever becoming a kingdom. A second period
extends from the year 1172 down to 1457, and is marked by the emergence
of the great commercial houses, and the development of the oligarchy
upon the basis of a Great Council. The aristocracy during this period
were engaged in excluding the people from any share in the government,
and in curbing and finally crushing the authority of the Doge. The steps
in this process are indicated by the closing of the Great Council, the
revolution of Tiepolo, the trials of Marino Faliero, Lorenzo Celsi, and
the Foscari. The third period covers what remains of the Republic, from
1457 down to 1797. During this period the Doge was little other than the
figurehead of the Republic; the point of least weight and greatest
splendour; the brilliant apex to the pyramid of the Venetian
constitution.
So far, then, we have examined the four tiers in the original structure
of the constitution, the Doge, the College, the Senate, and the Great
Council; and we have seen that, broadly speaking these were,
respectively, ornamental, initiative and executive, legislative, and
elective. But this pyramid of the constitution was not perfectly
symmetrical; its edges were broken. This interruption of outline was
caused by the Council of Ten. The exact position in the Venetian
constitution occupied by this famous Council, and its relations to the
other members of the government, have proved a constant source of
difficulty and error to students of Venetian history. Leaving aside the
obscure problem of the origin of the Ten, it is still possible for us to
indicate the constitutional necessity which called that Council into
existence. As we have pointed out, the College could not act on its own
responsibility without the Senate; the Senate could not initiate without
the College, for the preparation of all affairs passed through the hands
of the College. To establish connection between these two branches of
the administration was a process that required some time; it could not
be done swiftly and secretly. In all crises of political importance,
whether home or foreign, some instrument, more expeditious than the
Senate, was required to sanction the propositions of the College. That
instrument, acting swiftly and secretly, with a speed and secrecy
impossible in so large a body as the Senate, was created with the
Council of Ten. The Ten were an extraordinary magistracy, devised to
meet unexpected pressure upon the ordinary machine of government. The
emergence of the Ten proves this view. Without determining whether the
Council existed previous to the year 1310, we may take that year as the
date of its first appearance as a potent element in the State. The
rebellion of Tiepolo and Querini, an aristocratic revolt against the
growing power of the new commercial nobility, paralysed the ordinary
machinery of State, and revealed the danger inherent in a large and
slow-moving body of rulers. The Ten were called to power, just as the
Romans created the Dictatorship, in order to save the State in a
dangerous crisis.
The place of the Ten in the constitutional structure is below the
College and parallel with the Senate. Below the College the
administration bifurcates, the ordinary course of business flows through
the Senate, the extraordinary through the Ten. The Ten possessed an
authority equal to that of the Senate; the choice of which instrument
should be used, rested with the College. The Ten appear to be of more
importance than the Senate, solely because they were used upon more
critical and dramatic occasions. Wherever the machinery of the College
and Senate moves too slowly, we find the swifter machinery of the
College and the Ten in motion. And so not only in political affairs,
home and foreign, but also in affairs financial and judicial, the
Council of Ten takes its part. The Ten, as being the readier instrument
to the hands of the College, gradually absorbed more and more of the
functions which originally belonged to the Senate. This process of
absorption, and the extension of the province of the Ten, is marked by
the establishment of its sub-commissions, that took their place in every
department side by side with the delegations of the Senate and the
ordinary magistrates. In politics and foreign affairs there is the
famous office of the Three Inquisitors of State. In the region of
Justice all cases of treason and coining, and certain cases of outrage
on public morals, came before the Ten; and it was always open to the
College to remove a case from the ordinary courts to the Ten, when State
reasons rendered it expedient to do so. In the Police department the
Esecutori contro la Bestemmia, and in Finance the Camerlenghi, were
officers of that Council. In the War Office the artillery was under
their control; and in the arsenal certain galleys, marked C.X., were
always at their disposal.
These five great members of the State, four regular and one irregular,
formed the political and legislative departments of the Venetian
Government. It would require too many details to give a similar account
of the Judicial, Educational, and Religious machinery.
One of the most remarkable features in the Venetian constitution is the
infinite subdivision of government, and the number of offices to be
filled. Nobles alone were eligible for the majority of these offices,
and if we consider how small a body the Great Council really was, it is
clear that the larger number of Venetian noblemen must have been
employed in the service of the State at some time in their lives. The
great political and administrative activity which reigned inside the
comparatively small body that formed the ruling caste, as compared with
the absolute stagnation and quiet which marked the life of the ordinary
citizen, is one of the most noteworthy points in the history of Venice.
Every noble above the age of twenty-five was a member of the Maggior
Consiglio; every week that council had to fill up some office of State,
had some new candidate before it. The tenure of all offices, except the
Dukedom and the Procuratorship of St. Mark, was so brief, rarely
exceeding a year, or sixteen months, that the fret and activity of
elections must have been nearly incessant. This constant unrest bore its
fruit in perpetual intrigues, and the censors were appointed to check
the rampant canvassing and bribery. But the main point which is
impressed upon us is the universality of political training to which all
the nobles of Venice were subjected. No matter how frivolous a young
patrician might be, he would be obliged to sit in the Great Council; he
would be called upon to assist in electing the Ten, whose omniscience
and severity he had every reason to dread; he might even find himself
named to fill some minor post. It was impossible, under these
circumstances, that he should fail to be educated politically, or that
he should ever lose the keenest interest in every movement of the State.
It is to this political activity that we may possibly look for one of
the reasons which conduced to that extraordinary longevity which the
constitution of Venice displayed.
Each of the Government offices, many as they were, possessed its own
collection of papers. These are either still in loose sheets, just as
they left the office, or bound in volumes. They are indicated by the
name of the Government department, the subject dealt with, and the date.
The pages are of three kinds; first, there are the files or _filze_, the
original minutes of the Board, written down in actual Council by the
secretaries, and with the _filze_ are the dispatches or other documents
upon which the Council took measures. In many of the more important
departments, such as the Senate, the Ten, or the College, these _filze_
were epitomized; the substance of each day's business was written out in
large volumes known as _Registri_; each entry was signed by the
secretary who had made the digest, and was accepted as authentic for all
purposes of reference. These registers are, in many cases, of the
greatest value where the files have been destroyed or lost. They were
more constantly in use, and therefore more carefully preserved; and now
they frequently form our sole authority for certain periods. As a rule
the registers are very full and good; they contain all that is of
importance in the files; but in making research upon any point it is
never safe to ignore the files where they exist. In some cases the
secretaries made a further digest of the registers in volumes known as
Rubrics, which contain in brief the headings of all materials to be
found in the registers. As the registers sometimes supply the place of
lost files, so the rubrics are occasionally our only authority where
registers and files are both missing. The rubrics are often of the
highest value. As an instance, we may cite the twenty volumes of rubrics
to the dispatches from England between the years 1603 and 1748. The
method of research, therefore, where all three kinds of documents exists
is this, to examine first the rubrics, then the registers, and then the
files. But the infinite subdivisions of the Government offices in Venice
render the task of research somewhat bewildering; and a student cannot
be certain that he has exhausted all the information on his subject,
until he has examined a large number of these minor offices. He will
probably find some notice of the point he is examining in the papers of
the Senate or of the Ten, and, if it be a matter of home affairs, he can
trace it thence through the various magistracies under whose cognizance
it would come; or if it be a matter of foreign policy, he will find
further information in the papers of the College.
Under the Republic these collections of State papers were not known as
archives, but as chancelleries. The collections of highest interest, the
papers to which the student is most likely to turn his attention, are
those relating to the ceremony, to the home, and to the foreign policy
of Venice. These three groups are contained in the Ducal, the Secret,
and the Inferior Chancelleries. The three chancelleries were committed
to the charge of the Grand Chancellor and his staff of secretaries, who
received, arranged, and registered the official papers as they issued
from the various Councils of State. The Grand Chancellor was not a
patrician; he was chosen from that upper class of commoners known as
_cittadini originarii_, an inferior order of nobility, ranking below the
governing caste, but bearing coat armour. The office of Grand Chancellor
was of great dignity and antiquity, and was held for life. The
Chancellor was head and representative of the people, as the Doge was
head and representative of the patricians; and, when the nobility began
to exclude the people from all share in the government, the Grand
Chancellor was allowed to be present at all sessions of the Great
Council and of the Senate as the silent witness of the people,
confirming the acts of the Government, and bridging, though by the
finest thread, the gulf that otherwise separated the governed from the
governing. The part which the Grand Chancellor took in the business of
the Maggior Consiglio and of the Senate was a constant and an active
part. It was his duty to superintend the arrangements for every
election, to direct the secretaries in attendance, to announce the names
of the candidates for office, and to proclaim the successful competitor.
His seat in the Great Council Hall was on the left-hand of the Doge's
dais, and his secretaries sat below him. But the custody of the State
papers was by far the most important function which the Grand Chancellor
had to perform. To assist him in these labours he was placed at the head
of a large College of Secretaries, trained in a school especially
established to fit them for their duties. In the year 1443 a decree of
the Great Council required the Doge and the Signoria to elect each year
twelve lads to be taught Latin, rhetoric and philosophy, and the number
of the pupils was gradually increased. From this school they passed out
by examination, and became first extra-ordinaries and ordinaries, called
Notaries Ducal, then secretaries to the Senate, and finally secretaries
to the Ten. The post of secretary was one which required much diligence
and discretion. The secretaries were in constant attendance on the
various Councils of State, and thus became intimately acquainted with
all the secret affairs of the Republic. They were frequently sent on
delicate missions. It was a secretary of the Ten who brought Carmagnola
to Venice to stand his trial; and, as we shall presently relate, it was
a secretary of the Senate who announced to Thomas Killigrew, the English
Minister, his dismissal from Venice. The secretaries were sometimes
accredited as Residents to foreign Courts, though they were not eligible
for the post of Ambassador. Inside the Chancellery the secretaries were
entirely at the disposal of the Grand Chancellor, and their duties were
to study, to invent, and to read cipher; to transcribe the registers
and rubrics; to keep the annals of the Council of Ten, and to enter the
laws in the statute book.
We may now turn our attention to the principal series of State papers
which issued from the five great members of the Constitution, the
Maggior Consiglio, the Senate, the Ten, the College, and the Doge, and
show how these papers were arranged under the three Chancelleries of
which we have spoken.
The Cancelleria Inferiore was preserved in one large room near the head
of the Giants' Staircase in the Ducal Palace, and was entrusted to the
care of the Notaries Ducal, the lowest order of secretaries. The
documents in this Chancellery related chiefly to the Doge; his rights,
his official possessions, his restrictions, and his state. Among these
papers, accordingly, we find the coronation oaths, the Reports of the
Commissioners appointed to examine those oaths, and the Reports of the
Commissioners appointed to review the life of each Doge deceased. This
series is valuable as revealing the steps by which the aristocracy
slowly curtailed the personal authority of the Doge, and bound his
office about with iron fetters, and crushed his power. In addition to
these papers the Inferior Chancellery contained the documents relating
to the dignitaries of St. Mark's in its capacity as Ducal Chapel; the
order and ceremony of the Ducal household; the expenditure of the Civil
List; and the archives of the Procurators of Saint Mark, which contained
the will, trusts, and bequests of private citizens.
The Ducal Chancellery, which the Council of Ten once called 'cor nostri
status,' was preserved on the upper floor of the palace, and was reached
by the Scala d'oro. The papers were arranged in a number of cupboards
surmounted by the arms of the various Grand Chancellors who had presided
in that office. The documents of the Ducal Chancellery are of far higher
importance than those contained in the Cancelleria Inferiore; they
consist of political papers which it was not necessary to keep secret.
Among the many interesting series of documents which fell to the Ducal
Chancellery, the most valuable are the 'Compilazione delle Leggi,' or
statute-books distinguished by the various colours of their
bindings--gold, roan, and green--to mark the statutes which relate to
the Maggior Consiglio, the Senate, and the College respectively; the
Secretario alle voci, or record of all elections in the Great Council;
the Libri gratiarum, or special privileges. But most important of all is
the great series of documents which include the whole legislation of the
State relating to Venetian affairs on sea and land. Of this vast series
those marked _Terra_ contain 3128 volumes of files, 411 volumes of
registers, and 7 volumes of rubrics; those marked _Mar_ number 1286
volumes of files, 247 volumes of registers, and 7 volumes of rubrics. It
will easily be seen how important the Ducal Chancellery is both for the
verification of dates, and also as displaying so large a tract of the
Venetian home administration.
But important as the Ducal Chancellery undoubtedly is, it cannot vie in
interest with the Cancelleria Secreta, which might, with every justice,
have been called 'cor nostri status', for it is in the papers of that
Chancellery that the long history of the growth, splendour, and decline
of the Republic is to be traced in all its manifold details and
complicated relations. The Secret Chancellery was established by a
decree of the Great Council in the year 1402. Its object was to preserve
those papers of the highest State importance, from the publicity to
which the Ducal Chancellery was exposed. The regulation of the Secret
Chancellery was undertaken by the Council of Ten, and the rigorous
orders which they issued from time to time abundantly prove the
difficulty they experienced in securing the secrecy which they desired.
The Secret Chancellery became the depository of all State papers of
great moment; and if we take the chief members of the constitution in
order, and note the documents issuing from them which fell to the
custody of the Secreta, we shall see how the great flow of Venetian
history is to be followed here rather than in any other department of
the archives.
To begin with the Maggior Consiglio, we have the long series of
registers containing the deliberations of the Council from the year 1232
down to the fall of the Republic in 1797, occupying forty-two volumes,
and distinguished, at first, by such capricious names as Capricornus,
Philosus, Presbiter, and Fronesis; and later on by the names of the
secretaries who prepared them, Ottobonus primus, Ottobonus filius,
Busenellus, and Vianolus. In the special archive of the Avogadori di
Commun a contemporary series of registers is to be found; it covers from
1232 to 1547, and should be consulted together with the first series,
for it is more voluminous and minute. The first reference to England
that occurs in the Venetian archives is in the volume Fronesis
(1318-1385). This, and all other documents relating to Great Britain,
have been collected and rendered accessible in the splendid and
monumental series of the 'Calendar of State Papers,' edited with such
diligence and care by the late Mr. Rawdon Brown. Mr. Brown's published
work goes down to the year 1552; and it is only after that date that any
work relating to England remains to be done. That work, however, is
voluminous, for the regular and unbroken series of dispatches from
England does not begin till the reign of James I. Little more respecting
England is to be expected from the papers of the Great Council, however;
for at the date where Mr. Brown's work ends, the Maggior Consiglio had
ceased to occupy a high position in the direction of Venetian foreign
policy; its functions were chiefly confined to the election of
magistrates.
The Senate supplied a far larger number of papers to the Secret
Chancellery than that yielded by the Great Council. This was to be
expected, owing to the central position of the Senate in the
constitution, and its prominent place in the management of Venetian
policy, home and foreign. The oldest documents in the archives of Venice
belong to the Senate. They are contained among the volumes of Pacts or
treaties, seven in number, without including the volume Albus, which is
devoted to treaties between the Republic and the Eastern Empire, nor the
volume Blancus, which contains the treaties between Venice and the
Emperors of the West. The thirty-three volumes of Commemoriali formed a
sort of commonplace book for the use of statesmen; in them were
registered briefly the most important events and abstracts of principal
documents which passed through the hands of the Government. The
Commemoriali cover the years 1293 to 1797; but after the middle of the
sixteenth century they were neglected, and they are chiefly valuable
down to that date only. After the Patti and Commemoriali we begin the
record of the regular proceedings in the Senate. This series contains
papers relating to home government, foreign policy, the dominions of
Venice on the mainland, in Dalmatia and the Levant, ecclesiastical
matters, relations with Rome, instructions to ambassadors and reports
from governors. So widely spread and so varied were the attributes of
the Senate, that the analysis of a single day's proceedings in that
house would prove most instructive to the student of the Venetian
constitution, and would, in all probability, bring him into contact with
a large number of the leading magistracies of the Republic. The series
of senatorial papers proceeds in almost unbroken completeness from the
year 1293 down to the close of the Republic; and counting files,
registers and rubrics, numbers 1599 volumes. This main series is known
by different names at different periods, and shows signs of that
tendency to subdivision which characterizes all Venetian Government
offices. The volumes which run from the year 1293 to 1440 were known as
Registri misti; those covering from 1491 to 1630, and overlapping the
first Misti, were called Registri secreti. After the year 1630 the
papers of the Senate are divided into those known as Corti, relating to
foreign Powers; and those known as Rettori, relating to the government
of the Venetian dominion.
Besides this great series of Deliberazioni, containing the general
movement of business in the Senate, there is another voluminous series
of documents, equally important, and even more interesting to the
student of general history, the dispatches received from Venetian
representatives in foreign Courts, and the Relazioni, or reports which
ambassadors read before the Senate upon their return from abroad.
Nothing can exceed the brilliancy of this series; and the value of the
Relazioni at least has been fully recognized. Yet it should be borne in
mind that the Relazioni are only a part of the series, and that, taken
alone and isolated from the dispatches, they lose much of their value.
For we must not forget that the Relazioni were drawn up on more or less
conventional lines; the headings, under which the report was to fall,
were indicated by the Government, and were invariable; and, further, the
home-coming ambassador handed his report to his successor, who
frequently used it as a basis in drawing up his own. The result is that,
except in the descriptions of Court life, and in the sketches of
prominent characters, the Relazioni are apt to repeat themselves. But,
taken with the dispatches, which arrived almost daily, they form the
most varied, brilliant, and minute gallery of national portraits that
the world possesses. The reports and dispatches were made by men whose
whole political training had rendered them the acutest of observers, and
they were presented to critics who were filled with the keenest
curiosity, and were accustomed to demand full and precise information.
Not a detail is omitted as unimportant; the diurnal gossip of the Court,
the daily movements of the sovereign and his favourites; are all
recorded with impartial and unerring observation. The relation of the
Dispacci to the Relazioni is the relation of the study to the picture.
The Relazioni are the large canvas upon which the whole nation is
broadly depicted, the Dispacci are the patient and minute studies upon
which the excellence of the picture depends. The majority of the
Venetian Relazioni between the years 1492 and 1699 have been published;
the earlier part by Signor Alberi, and the later by Signori Barozzi and
Berchet. The eighteenth century still remains to be worked out. In the
series of Relazioni and Dispacci, Great Britain occupies a comparatively
small space. While France, Germany, and Constantinople, each give five
volumes of reports, England gives one only, dating from 1531 to 1763. Of
dispatches from England there are 139 volumes in all; while from
Constantinople we have 242, from France 276, from Milan, 230, and from
Germany 202.
Previous to the year 1603, when the regular series of dispatches from
England begins, there had been intermittent relations between the
Republic and the English Court. Sebastian Giustiniani was Venetian
ambassador in London in the reign of Henry VIII. (1515-1519); and in the
reign of Mary, Giovanni Michiel represented the Republic for four
years--from 1554 to 1558. The Protestant reign of Elizabeth caused a
long break, during which the Republic received its information about the
affairs of England from its ambassadors in France and Spain. Permanent
relations were not resumed between the two Powers till the accession of
James I., one of whose earliest acts was to send Sir Henry Wotton to
Venice as his ambassador. The appointment of Sir Henry Wotton was a
movement of gratitude on the part of the King; and the cause of it
cannot be better told than in the words of Sir Henry's biographer, who
thus describes this 'notable accident:'
'Immediately after Sir Henry Wotton's return from Rome to
Florence--which was about a year before the death of Queen
Elizabeth--Ferdinand, the Great Duke of Tuscany, had
intercepted certain letters that discovered a design to take
away the life of James, the then King of Scots. The Duke
abhorring this fact, and resolving to endeavour a prevention
of it, advised with his Secretary Vietta, by what means a
caution might be best given to that King; and after
consideration it was resolved to be done by Sir Henry
Wotton, whom Vietta first commended to the Duke, and the
Duke had noted and approved of above all the English that
frequented his Court.
'Sir Henry was gladly called by his friend Vietta to the
Duke, who dispatched him into Scotland with letters to the
King, and with those letters such Italian antidotes against
poison as the Scots till then had been strangers to.
'Having parted from the Duke, he took up the name and
language of an Italian; and thinking it best to avoid the
line of English intelligence and danger, he posted into
Norway, and through that country towards Scotland, where he
found the King at Stirling. Being there, he used means, by
Bernard Lindsey, one of the King's bed-chamber, to procure
him a speedy and private conference with his Majesty.
'This being by Bernard Lindsey made known to the King, the
King required his name--which was said to be Octavio
Baldi--and appointed him to be heard privately at a fixed
hour that evening.
'When Octavio Baldi came to the Presence-chamber door, he
was requested to lay aside his long rapier--which,
Italian-like, he then wore;--and being entered the chamber,
he found there with the King three or four Scotch Lords
standing distant in several corners of the chamber; at the
sight of whom he made a stand; which the King observing,
bade him be bold and deliver his message; for he would
undertake for the secrecy of all that were present. Then did
Octavio Baldi deliver his letters and message to the King in
Italian; which when the King had graciously received, after
a little pause, Octavio Baldi steps to the table, and
whispers to the King in his own language that he was an
Englishman, beseeching him for a more private conference
with his Majesty, and that he might be concealed during his
stay in that nation; which was promised and really performed
by the King, during all his abode there, which was about
three months. All which time was spent with much
pleasantness to the King, and with as much to Octavio Baldi
himself as that country could afford; from which he departed
as true an Italian as he came thither.'
The presence of Sir Henry in Venice, where he was a _persona
gratissima_, both for his love of Italy and his knowledge of the
language, did much to strengthen the new relations between England and
the Republic. The feeling between Venice and the Stuart kings became
extremely cordial; but on the outbreak of the Civil War, in 1642, the
Republic suspended the commission of Vincenzo Contarina, who had been
appointed to succeed Giovanni Giustinian as ambassador to England. The
secretary Girolamo Agostino, however, continued to discharge Venetian
affairs till the year 1645; and his dispatches contain minute
particulars concerning the progress of the Civil War. In the year 1645,
Agostino was recalled, and the interests of Venice in England were
entrusted to Salvetti, the Florentine resident. Agostino left behind him
in England a secret agent, with instructions to forward a weekly report
on the progress of affairs to the Venetian ambassador in France, among
whose dispatches we find these newsletters from London. After the death
of Charles I it is not likely that the Republic would have been
represented at the Court of Cromwell, towards whom the feeling of Venice
was not cordial, had she not been in great straits for help against the
Turk. But in the year 1652 she resolved to dismiss the representative of
Charles II, then in Venice; and, at the same time, the Government
instructed the ambassador at Paris to send his secretary, Lorenzo
Pauluzzi, to London to open negociations with Cromwell. With Pauluzzi
the series of dispatches from London recommences; but these dispatches
are to be found among the communications from the Venetian ambassador in
Paris, by whom they were forwarded to the Senate. The dispatches of
Pauluzzi are of great importance, and give us a vivid though hostile
picture of Cromwell and his surroundings. 'Nell' universale,' he says,
'ha pochissimo affetto;' and further on, 'non ardiscono tentare alcuna
cosa ne parlare che tra i denti; ma ognuno sta sperando un giorno
verificate le profizie che questo governo non possa a lungo durare.' In
1655 the negociations between England and Venice had advanced so far
that the Republic had determined to send an Ambassador Extraordinary to
the Protector's Court. Giovanni Sagredo, ambassador at Paris, was
chosen, and the closing paragraph of his first dispatch shows how
strongly Cromwell's personality impressed him. 'Per il resto,' he
writes, 'e uomo di 56 anni, con pochissima barba, di complessione
sanguigna, di statura media e robusta e di presenza marziale. Ha una
fisonomia cupa e profonda. Porta una gran spada al fianco. Soldato
insieme ed oratore, e dotato di talenti per persuadere e per operare.'
The result of Sagredo's mission is contained in the long and brilliant
Relazione which he read in the Senate on his return to Venice in 1656.
In this splendid specimen of a Venetian report, he gives, with singular
lucidity and grasp, a brief sketch of the condition of Great Britain; of
the causes of the Civil War; of Cromwell's rise to power; of his foreign
relations; and closes with a portrait of the Protector which confirms
Pauluzzi's unfavourable view, and draws a terrible picture of that
restlessness and dread which clouded Cromwell's last days--'piu temuto
che amato ... vive con sempiterno sospetto.' When Sagredo returned to
Venice, his secretary Francesco Giavarnia was left behind in England, as
Venetian resident, and continued to hold that post till the Restoration,
sending dispatches every week direct to Venice, detailing the close of
the Protectorate, and the return of Charles II., whom he was the first
to welcome at Canterbury the day after his landing. In 1661 the Republic
gladly re-opened full relations with the Stuarts. Giavarnia was
superseded by two Ambassadors Extraordinary, who conveyed to Charles two
gondolas for the water in St. James's Park, and from that date onwards
the diplomatic connection between England and the Republic followed the
ordinary course.
We come now to the papers of the Council of Ten; all of these were
committed to the custody of the Secret Chancellery. We have already seen
that the Council of Ten was an extraordinary office, used upon
extraordinary occasions, where secrecy and speed were required. Its
chief occupations may be summed up under three heads--safety of the
State, protection of citizens, and public morals. That being the case,
the number and interest of its documents is very great--greater than
that of any other Council of State; but this interest is confined, for
the most part, to matters affecting the home policy of the Republic;
foreign affairs finds comparatively little illustration among the
papers of the Ten. The series of documents, containing the ordinary
business of the Ten, dates from the year 1315 to the close of the
Republic. The documents are arranged according to the matter they deal
with, that is to say political matter, _parti communi_ and _secreti_, or
criminal matter, _parti crimminali_. The immense importance and interest
attaching to the papers of the Ten will be illustrated by the statement,
that there we find the cases of Marino Faliero, of the Carraresi, of
Carmagnola, of Foscari, of Caterina Cornaro, and of Foscarini.
Among the papers of the Collegio we find ourselves once more in the
general current of foreign politics. The ordinary proceedings of the
College, the papers containing the arrangement and discussion of affairs
to be presented to the Senate, are included in the volumes of files and
registers, known as the Notatorii del Collegio. The College was
entrusted, as we have said, to receive all the representatives of
foreign Powers and to open all letters and dispatches addressed to the
Government. It is in the three series known as Lettere Principi,
Espozioni Principi, and Ceremoniali, that we obtain the fullest
information about the action of the agents from foreign Courts resident
in Venice. The series called Lettere Principi, letters from royal
personages, covers the years between 1500 and 1797, and is contained in
fifty-four volumes of _filze_. England is represented by two of these,
beginning with the year 1570, and ending with 1796, entitled 'Collegio,
Secreta, Lettere. Re e Regina d'Inghilterra.' These volumes contain one
hundred and seventy-one letters, thus distributed among the various
sovereigns; there are thirteen in the reign of Elizabeth; forty in that
of James I.; four in that of Charles I.; three from Oliver Cromwell; one
from Richard Cromwell; one from Speaker Lenthal: ten during the reign of
Charles II.; five during that of his brother; three during the reign of
William, including one from the Old Pretender; seven in the reign of
Anne; eight in that of George I.; twenty-one from George II; and
fifty-five from George III. These letters are concerned with formal
announcements and the exchange of courtesies, the credentials of
ambassadors and notices of royal births, marriages and deaths. Their
historical importance is very slight. The long series of George III. is
almost entirely occupied by noting the yearly increase of his family.
The autographs of the ministers who countersigned the letters, form
their greatest attraction. The late Mr. Rawdon Brown has published
facsimiles of these autographs down to the year 1659; but after that
date we find such interesting endorsements as those of Lauderdale,
Arlington, Bolingbroke, Carteret, Pitt, Halifax, Henry Conway,
Shelburne, and Charles James Fox. On a loose parchment among these
letters is one very curious document. It is dated Bologna, 21st
February, 1671, and begins 'Carlo Dudley per la gratia di Dio Duca di
Northumbria et del Sacro Romano Impero, Conte di Woruih e di Licester,
et Pari d'Ingliterra.' The document goes on to state that Charles
Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, in consideration of the affection and
partiality always shown towards his person and house, grants to Ottavio
Dionisio, noble of Verona, the title of Marquis to him and to his eldest
son, to his younger sons and to his brothers and their sons the title of
Count, in perpetuity; and this in virtue of the declaration and
authority of His Holiness Pope Urban VIII., which conferred on Charles
Dudley and his eldest born the right to exercise all the privileges of
an independent prince. At the date which this document bears, 1671,
there was no Duke of Northumberland; that title had lately been bestowed
by Charles II. on an illegitimate son, and had perished with him. This
Charles Dudley was probably some pretender to the honours of the Dudley
family who once held the dukedom of Northumberland. The document is
curious, for the noble family on whom Charles Dudley conferred this
title of Marquis still exists, and we do not know if any British
subject, either before or after, has even claimed to be a fountain of
honour. But Charles Dudley is not the only English pretender who figures
among the papers at the Frari. Filza 8 of the loose papers, titled
'Miscellanea Diversi Manoscritti,' contains the marriage certificate and
will of James Henry de Boveri Rossano Stuart, natural son of Charles
II., and seven letters from his son James Stuart, dated Milan, Gemona
and Padua, 1722 to 1728. The majority of these letters are addressed to
Cardinal Panighetti, from whom this 'povero principe Stuardo,' as he
calls himself, hoped to receive money and support in some imaginary
claims on the Crown of England. The letters are full of a certain
pathos--the pathos which cannot fail to attach itself to fallen royalty.
The handwriting is that of an uneducated man; and James Stuart, in these
letters, certainly shows no signs of the ability required to meet so
trying a situation. He appeals to the Cardinal first on the grounds of
his creed. It is 'for the Faith that he finds himself in the miserable
little town' of Gemona. Failing upon this line, James Stuart abandons
himself to astrology, in the hope that the stars may give an answer
favourable to his hopes. But to all his appeals the Cardinal replies
with cold reserve, and when he hears of astrology, he adds a sharp and
crushing reprimand.
Leaving the Lettere Principi we come to the last two series of State
papers of which we shall speak, the Espozioni Principi, or record of
all audiences granted to ambassadors and of the communications made by
them in the name of the Power they represented; and the Libri
Ceremoniali, or record of the great functions of State, coronations and
funerals of the Doges, the elections of the Grand Chancellors, the
reception accorded to ambassadors, princes and distinguished travellers.
The Republic of Venice was as punctilious as any Court of Europe upon
the points of precedence, ceremony, and etiquette. The reader will not
have forgotten the amusing account, given by the elder Disraeli, of the
long struggle between the Master of the Ceremonies and the Venetian
ambassador at the Court of St. James. The Government required from its
representatives a minute account of every detail of etiquette observed
towards them, and replied in kind in their treatment of foreign
ministers in Venice. The Republic was punctilious abroad, and no less so
at home. Every stage in the public entry, first audience and _conge_ of
foreign ambassadors were carefully regulated and based upon precedent.
The ambassadors of Spain and France had each a special volume devoted to
the ceremonies and etiquette which the Republic observed towards them.
M. Baschet describes at length the receptions of the French ambassadors,
for whom he claims the highest rank among the representatives of foreign
Powers at Venice. Great Britain sent fifty-eight embassies, in all, to
the Republic, between the years 1340 and 1797. Of these ambassadors, Sir
Gregory Cassalis filled the office twice, Sir Henry Wotton thrice, the
Earl of Manchester twice, and Elizeus Burgess twice. The ceremony to
which the ambassador was entitled may be gathered from the accounts of
these embassies preserved in the Esposizioni Principi and the
Ceremoniali.
The reception of Lord Northampton in the year 1762 will afford us the
most detailed view of the ceremony, for on that occasion some questions
of precedent arose, and the Cavaliere Ruzzini, who was entrusted with
the conduct of the affair, presented a long report to the Senate on the
subject. The ambassador was not officially recognized by the Government
until he had made his public entry, and presented his credentials at his
first audience in the College. Until that had taken place, he remained
incognito, and was in fact supposed not to be in Venice. Before the
ambassador arrived, the English Consul was expected to hire a palace for
his use. There was no fixed embassy in Venice; Thomas Killigrew lodged
at San Cassano, Lord Holdernesse at San Benedetto, Lord Manchester at
San Stae. John Udny, who was consul at the time of Lord Northampton's
Embassy, rented the Palazzo Grimani at Cannaregio for the ambassador
whenever his appointment was announced, and an amusing and
characteristic story attaches to this affair. The palace belonged to a
Contessa Grimani, and was in bad repair; but the owner promised to
restore and fit it up for the ambassador. When the consul went to see
the palace, shortly before the ambassador's arrival, he found that
nothing had been done to it, and moreover that a gondolier and his wife
occupied the ground-floor and refused to move. He wrote at once to the
Contessa requesting her to remove the gondolier, to which he received
for answer that the gondolier's wife had been nurse to one of the
Countess's boys, and the Grimanis had promised her twenty ducats a-year;
if the ambassador liked to pay that amount, the gondolier would turn
out; if not, they must manage to share the palace between them. The
consul appealed to the English Resident, John Murray, who wrote an angry
letter to the Government, complaining of this treatment; 'La carita
della nobile donna,' he says, 'verso la moglie del gondoliere merita
senza dubbio gran lode, ma il sottoscritto s'imagina che l'avvocato piu
scaltro si troverebbe bene intrigato di produrre una legge o esempio per
incaricare l'Ambasciatore Inglese di questa carita.'
The matter was probably arranged, for on the 22nd of October Lord
Northampton arrived, incognito, of course, with all his suite, and took
up his residence. Lord Northampton was ill, and it was not until the
beginning of the next year that he took the necessary steps to make his
entry and to secure his first audience. The etiquette observed upon such
occasions required that the ambassador should send his secretary to
leave copies of his credentials at the door of the College, and to ask
on what day the Doge would receive him. The College reply through one of
their secretaries that an answer will be sent. The Doge was then
consulted what day would suit him, and he answers by putting himself at
the disposal of the College. The Senate is then informed of the
ambassador's arrival, and sixty senators, under the direction of a
leader, are appointed to attend the ambassador until the ceremonies of
his reception shall be completed. The days selected for Lord
Northampton's reception were the 29th and 30th of May, 1763; and the
Caveliere Ruzzini was named as head of the sixty senators who were to
attend the ambassador. Ruzzini informed Lord Northampton of these
arrangements, and at the same time sent him a programme of the ceremony,
which was based upon that observed towards Lord Holdernesse, and was
identical with that which the Republic offered to the ambassador of the
King of Sardinia. Before his public entry, the ambassador and all his
suite went to the island of San Spirito, in the lagoon towards
Malamocco. The fiction of the ceremony supposed all ambassadors to be
lodged there until they had presented their credentials. San Spirito was
chosen as the point of departure for the ambassadorial procession
because the distance between that island and Venice was supposed to
correspond exactly with the distance between London and Greenwich,
whence the Venetian ambassador was wont to begin his progress. Sir Henry
Wotton's second embassy forms a rare exception to this rule, for the
Venetians were so fond of that charming and accomplished poet, that they
allowed him to make his entry from San Giorgio Maggiore, which is much
nearer the city and more convenient. After midday on the 29th, Ruzzini
and his sixty senators, each in his gondola, arrived at San Spirito, and
found the household of the ambassador drawn up along the landing-place
_en grande tenue_. Lord Northampton was informed of Ruzzini's arrival,
and came to meet him on the staircase. After exchanging the prescribed
compliments, Ruzzini, with the ambassador on his right hand, descended,
and both entered the Cavaliere's gondola. The whole procession left San
Spirito and proceeded by the Grand Canal to the ambassador's lodging at
San Girolamo, accompanied, as Ruzzini says, by 'un immenso popolo
spettatore del nostro viaggio;' for these official entries were among
the most popular of the Venetian spectacles, and the whole city went out
to witness them. At the palace fresh speeches and compliments followed.
Lord Northampton was suffering acutely from an illness of which he died
that same year, but Ruzzini reports with obvious satisfaction that he
did not spare him a single ceremony, 'adempi ad ogni parte del consueto
ceremoniale.' The next day Ruzzini and the sixty senators again attended
at the ambassador's palace to conduct him to his audience in the
College. Lord Northampton was worse than he had been the day before; but
Ruzzini was implacable. It cost the ambassador three-quarters of an hour
to ascend the Giant's Stair. When at last he reached the door of the
Collegio, the Doge and all the College rose; the ambassador uncovered
and made three bows, and, leaving his suite behind him, he mounted the
dais and took his seat on the right hand of the Doge. The ambassador
then covered his head, and simultaneously one of each order of the Savii
did the same. The ambassador handed his credentials to the Doge, and
remained uncovered while they were being read. The Doge made a brief and
formal reply, welcoming the ambassador to Venice, and each time the
King's name occurred, the ambassador raised his cap. After repeating his
three bows, the ambassador retired, and was accompanied to his palace
by the sixty senators who had waited for him at the door of the
Collegio. This closed the ceremony of entry.
The English Ambassador Extraordinary enjoyed certain privileges which
were established on the precedent of the embassy of Lord Falconberg,
Cromwell's son-in-law. Among these privileges was the right to lodging
and maintenance at the cost of the Republic, a right which the
ambassador usually compounded for the sum of five or six hundred ducats;
a box at each theatre in Venice was placed at his disposal, and when he
took his _conge_ the Senate voted him a gold chain and medal of the
value of two thousand scudi. The ambassadors ordinary enjoyed certain
exemptions from customs dues. These exemptions were frequently abused,
and were the cause of constant friction between the Government and the
representatives of the Powers. In the year 1763 Mr. John Murray's
Istrian wine was seized, and he only recovered it after expressing
himself _ben mortificato_. Mr. Murray was constantly in trouble on this
subject. The year before he had addressed an indignant letter to the
Government because 'a certain official of the Custom House had accused
him of allowing his servants to sell wine and flour at the door of the
Residency. It is but a poor satisfaction after so long a period of
suspicion to know that that official is bankrupt and no proof of the
accusation is forthcoming.' But by far the most curious episode of this
nature was that which befell Tom Killigrew, the poet, grandfather of the
Mrs. Anne Killigrew of Dryden's famous ode and a friend of Pepys, who
recals him as 'a merry droll, but a gentleman of great esteem with the
King, who told us many merry stories,' this, perhaps, among the number.
Killigrew was sent to represent Charles II. at Venice in 1649, just
after the execution of Charles I., and while his son was _a ramingo_, or
knocking about, as the Venetian ambassador politely puts it. Killigrew
was received in the usual way on February 10, 1650, and made his address
'in lingua cattiva,' as the report affirms. But the Republic soon tired
of its alliance with an exiled king, and resolved to dismiss Killigrew
as soon as possible. Killigrew was poor, and his master had little or
nothing to give him, so he hit upon the expedient of keeping a butcher's
shop, where he could sell meat, cheaper than any one else in Venice, by
availing himself of his exemptions from octroi. The Senate resolved to
fasten upon this illicit traffic as a pretext for dismissing Killigrew;
and on the 22d of June, 1652, they sent their Secretary, Busenello, to
tell Killigrew, _viva voce_, that he must go. Busenello went to San
Fantin, and there found one of Killigrew's butchers, who told him that
the Resident only kept his shop there, but lived himself at San Cassano.
At San Cassano Busenello was told that Killigrew was dining at Murano,
and would not be home till evening; but very soon after he saw the
Resident at his window, and insisted on being announced. He explained
'with all possible delicacy,' as he says, the order of the Senate; but
Killigrew received the message with every sign of anger and pain. With
tears in his eyes he declared that it was the other ambassadors who
robbed the customs, while he had all the blame. It was true that he did
keep 'a little bit of a butcher's shop to support himself,' but that
could not hurt the revenue; and he added that, under any circumstance he
should leave Venice, for he had received his letters of recall from
France, four days previously. The Senate no more than their secretary
believed in the existence of this letter of recall; but Killigrew really
had the letter, dated March 14th, and it was sent into the College,
along with a brief exculpatory epistle from the Resident, on the 27th of
June. Killigrew left Venice the same day as he was bound to do by
ambassadorial etiquette; and Charles had not another recognized agent to
the Republic until his restoration; for the Venetians definitely adopted
the policy of courting Cromwell, in the vain hope that he would assist
them against the Turk.
With the papers of the College we close this notice of the political
documents in the archives at the Frari. The other departments of the
Government had each their own series of papers, equally copious and
valuable. The heraldic and genealogical archives of the Avvogadori di
Commun, for example, the Charters of the German and Turkish Exchanges
and the records of the Mint and the public Banks, offer a wide and a
rich field for study; and in spite of the profound and extensive labours
of such scholars as Thomas, Checchetti, Barozzi, Berchet, Fulin,
Lamansky, Mas Latrie, and Rawdon Brown, it will be long before the
materials in the vast storehouse of the Frari are exhausted or even
adequately displayed.
Art. IV.--1. _Journal of a Residence in Norway during the years 1834,
1835 and 1836._ By Samuel Laing, Esq. London, 1837.
2. _Le Royaume de Norvege et le Peuple Norvegien._ Par le Dr. O. I.
Broch. Christiania, 1878.
3. _Official Reports of Prefects on the Economic Condition of the
Provinces of Norway in 1876-80._ Christiania, 1884.