Venetian nobility

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The Venetian patriciate (Italian: Patriziato veneziano, Venetian: Patrisiato venesian) was one of the three social bodies into which the society of the Republic of Venice was divided, together with citizens and foreigners. Patrizio was the noble title of the members of the aristocracy ruling the city of Venice and the Republic. The title was abbreviated, in front of the name, by the initials N.H. (Nobilis Homo or Nobiluomo), together with the feminine variant N.D. (Nobilis Domina). Holding the title of a Venetian patrician was a great honour and many European kings and princes, as well as foreign noble families, are known to have asked for and obtained the prestigious title.

Coat of arms of the Republic of Venice, featuring the Lion of Saint Mark.
The Great Council in a voting session at the Doge's Palace, 1648.

The patrician houses, formally recorded in the Golden Book, were primarily divided into Old Houses (Case vecchie) and New Houses (Case nuove), with the former being noted for traditionally electing the first Doge in 697 AD. The New Houses were no less significant, as many became very prominent and important in the history of the Republic of Venice. The families were furthermore divided into several other "categories", including Ducal Houses (Case ducali, whose members had become Doges), Newest Houses (Case nuovissime) raised to the patriciate in 1381, non-Venetian patrician families, and "Houses made for money" (Case fatte per soldo, usually wealthy landowning or bourgeoisie families who contributed to the state during the War of Candia and the Morean War).

Although there were numerous noble houses across Venice's Mainland Dominions and the State of the Sea, the Republic was in fact ruled as an aristocratic oligarchy by about 20 to 30 families of Venice's urban nobility, who elected the Doge of Venice, held political and military offices, and directly participated in the daily governing of the state. They were predominantly merchants, with their main source of income being trade with the East and other entrepreneurial activities, on which they became incredibly wealthy. The most important families, who dominated the politics and the history of the state, included the Contarini, Cornaro, Dandolo, Giustinian, Loredan, Mocenigo, Morosini and the Venier families. Nobles were forbidden by law to marry outside of the nobility, so the families intermarried within themselves, and from a young age followed the cursus honorum of Venetian noblemen, training in the army, the naval fleet, the law, and the affairs of state.

Characteristics

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Portrait of the Loredan family, by Giovanni Bellini, 1507, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. Leonardo Loredan, 75th Doge of Venice, ruled from 1501 until his death in 1521 and was a member of the Loredan family, one of the Republic's most prominent noble houses.[1] His four sons are depicted wearing the typical regalia of Venetian noblemen.

The basic foundation of belonging to the patriciate was the exclusive possession of political power. Starting from the Great Council Lockout (Serrata del Maggior Consiglio) of 1297 and the law of 1320 which precluded the inclusion of new families, this social body became the only one to have the privilege of sitting in the Great Council, the highest governing body of the city and the state. Privilege concretised with the right for each male member of noble families, starting from the age of majority, to participate in the sessions.[2]

Within the patriciate, all members enjoyed absolute political equality. Each vote, including that of the Doge, had the same value during the voting of the councils. Everyone had, at least theoretically, the same chance of accessing any public office, up to becoming a Savio del Consiglio, Procurator of Saint Mark or the Doge. Reflection of this principle was the equal title of "Nobleman" (Nobilis Vir, Nobilis Homo, Nobil Homo) recognized to the patricians, without any distinction, throughout the Republic. Whoever wore it carried within himself a portion of that sovereignty in which every patrician was a participant, together with the other members of his class. This made the Venetian patricians, in the noble hierarchy, of a rank equal to that of the Princes of the Blood (also given the equal possibility of rising to the royal rank of Doge).

The importance of this social body was such that every aspect of the Venetian noble's life was carefully monitored and regulated by the State, which took care to carefully verify all family ties and deeds necessary to prove the registration of the nobles into the Golden Book (Libro d'Oro), the register of nobles strictly guarded in the Doge's Palace.[3] There was also a Silver Book, which registered all those families that not only had the requisites of "civilization" and "honour", but could also show that they were of ancient Venetian origin; such families furnished the manpower for the State bureaucracy – and particularly, the chancellery within the Doge's Palace itself. Both books were kept in a chest in the Scrigno room of the Doge's Palace, inside a cupboard that also contained all the documents proving the legitimacy of claims to be inscribed therein.[2]

The robe of the nobles was the toga of black cloth with wide sleeves, lined in red for the Savi, the Avogadori and the leaders of the Quarantia. The toga became completely red for the senators and the ducal councilors. The whole was completed by the squat beret (a low cylindrical hat of black cloth) and the fur indicating the rank within the magistracy. It was an absolute obligation to wear the regalia during the exercise of one's office, in the councils and in the entire area of Saint Mark's Square.

Alongside this political aspect, however, the Venetian nobility had another peculiar character in their mercantile vocation. Contrary to the feudal nobility, in fact, the patriciate in Venice based its power not on the possession of land, but on the wealth of trade with the East as the basis of the entire economy. This stimulated this social class to a remarkable dynamism and resulted in incredible wealth.

The patricians thus served themselves and the state as captains of galleys, merchants, ambassadors, governors, public officials, and in every other form of civil and military organisation of the Republic.

Being Venetian patricians was an honour for all of European nobility and it was common with princes and kings of other states to ask for and obtain the title of N.H., including, among others, the kings of France, the Savoy, the Mancinis, the Rospigliosi, and the papal families of the Orsini and the Colonna.

Noble houses

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These very ancient families died out before the Great Council Lockout of 1297, but nevertheless played a leading role in the politics of the Republic. Given their historical distance, the information and knowledge about these families is very scarce and steeped in legend.

Arms Family Notable members Description
  Candiano [it] Pietro I, Pietro II, Pietro III, Pietro IV, Vitale Originally from Padua, they gave five Doges to the Republic in the 9th and 10th centuries.
  Centranico Pietro Sometimes also called Barbo or Barbolano.
  Flabanico Domenico
  Galbaio Giovanni, Maurizio The surname came from the family's reputed descent from the ancient Roman emperor Galba.
  Ipato Gioviano, Orso, Teodato The surname is thought to be derived from imperial honorific hypatos, granted to Orso by Emperor Leo III the Isaurian.
  Monegario Domenico The surname may derive from monegarium, that is, a friar or monk, or monetarium, that is, a minter.
  Orseolo Frozza, Giovanni, Otto, Peter, St. Pietro I, Pietro II Descended from Orso and Teodato Ipato, they gave three Doges to the Republic and are notable for leading the Venetian expansion into Dalmatia.
  Participazio [it] Agnello, Giovanni I, Giovanni II, Giustiniano, Orso I, Orso II, Pietro A dynasty originally from Eraclea, they gave seven Doges to the Republic in the 9th and 10th centuries, also moving the capital from Malamocco to Rialto.
  Tradonico Pietro Originally from Pula, Istria (in modern Croatia), they came to Rialto via Jesolo.
  Tribuno Pietro

Old houses

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The group of Old houses, whose members were called "longhi", has been well defined since the 1350s. In the so-called "pseudo-Giustinian" Chronicle, drawn up at that time, the group is distinguished from the already substantial corpus of patricians of twenty-four (or, better,[clarification needed] twenty-five) families more powerful and constantly engaged in Venetian political life. In the Chronicle these patrician houses are divided into two further groups: the first includes the families Badoer, Baseggio, Contarini, Corner, Dandolo, Falier, Giustinian, Gradenigo-Dolfin, Morosini, Michiel, Polani and Sanudo; the second includes the families Barozzi, Belegno (later Bragadin), Bembo, Gauli, Memmo, Querini, Soranzo, Tiepolo, Zane, Zeno, Ziani (later Salamon) and Zorzi.[4]

The author of the paper justifies this situation by listing in detail the deeds performed by their ancestors in the foundation of Venice. Although imaginative, the information contained in the Chronicle served to distinguish an elitist nucleus from the large mass of families included after the Serrata, above all those New houses that during the fifteenth century would contend with the "longhi" for the ducal throne.[5]

It should also be noted that tradition defined twelve "apostolic" families (Contarini, Tiepolo, Morosini, Michiel, Badoer, Sanudo, Gradenigo-Dolfin, Memmo, Falier, Dandolo, Polani and Barozzi) and four other "evangelical" ones (Giustinian, Corner, Bragadin and Bembo); the history of Venice evidently wanted to be compared to that of the Church, founded on the Twelve Apostles and advocated by the Four Evangelists.

The Thirteen
Crest Name Notable members Member portrait
  Badoer Alvise, Andrea, Giacomo, Giacomo, Giovanni Alberto, Luca, Marino  
  Baseggio Cesco, Pietro
  Contarini Albano, Alvise, Alvise, Ambrogio, Andrea, Bartolomeo, Bartolomeo, Carlo, Cecilia, Domenico I, Domenico II, Enrico, Francesco, Gasparo, Giovanni, Giovanni Matteo, Jacopo, Maddalena, Marino, Nicolò, Piero, Polissena  
  Cornaro Andrea, Andrea, Andrea, Caterina, Elena, Federico, Federico, Federico, Felicia, Francesco, Francesco, Francesco, Giorgio, Giorgio, Giorgio, Giorgio, Giovanni, Giovanni I, Giovanni II, Laura, Luigi, Luigi, Marco, Marco, Marco, Marco, Marco Antonio, Pietro, Pisana, Vitsentzos  
  Dandolo Andrea, Andrea, Anna, Emilio, Enrico, Enrico, Enrico, Francesco, Giovanna, Giovanni, Marino, Raniero, Zilia  
  Dolfin Caterina, Dolfin, Gentile, Giampaolo, Giovanni, Giovanni, Giovanni, Giovanni, Giovanni, Giovanni, Giovanni, Pietro  
  Falier Marino, Ordelaffo, Vitale  
  Giustinian Alicia, Giacomo, St. Lawrence, Marcantonio, Marco, Marco, Olimpia, Pantaleone, Paul, Pompeo, Sebastian, Zorzi  
  Gradenigo [it] Aluycia, Bartolomeo, Bartolomeo, Giovanni, Pietro  
  Morosini Agostino, Aliodea, Dana, Domenico, Francesco, Giovan Francesco, Giovan Francesco, Bl. John, Lodovico, Marco, Marieta, Marino, Michele, Morosina, Sergio, Thomas, Tomasina  
  Michiel [it] Domenico, Giovanni, Marcantonio, Vitale I, Vitale II  
  Polani [it] Giovanni, Pietro  
  Sanudo Angelo, Cristina, Fiorenza, Fiorenza I, Guglielmazzo, John I, Marco, Marco, Marco I, Marco II, Maria, Marino, Marino, Nicholas I, Nicholas II, William I
The Twelve
Crest Name Notable members Member portrait
  Barozzi Andrea I, Andrea II, Angelo, Elena, Francesco, Francesco, Giovanni, Iacopo I, Iacopo II, Pietro  
  Belegno [it]
  Bembo Bernardo, Gianfrancesco, Giovanni, Petronilla, Pietro  
  Gaulo Galla
  Memmo [it] Andrea, Marcantonio, Tribuno  
  Querini Angelo Maria, Elisabetta, Marina, Pietro  
  Soranzo [it] Giovanni, Vittore  
  Tiepolo [it] Bajamonte, Giovanni Battista, Giovanni Domenico, Jacopo, Lorenzo, Lorenzo  
  Zane [it] Lorenzo, Matteo, Paolo
  Zeno Antonio, Antonio, Apostolo, Carlo, Giovanni Battista, Nicolò, Nicolò, Pietro, Pietro, Reniero  
  Ziani [it] Marc'Antonio, Pietro, Pietro Andrea, Sebastiano  
  Zorzi Alvise, Bertolome, Chiara, Francis, Jacob, Marino, Marino, Marino Giovanni, Nicholas I, Nicholas II, Nicholas III  

Later, the Bragadin replaced the Belegno and the Salamon replaced the Ziani, following the two families' extinctions.[5]

Crest Name Notable members Member portrait
  Bragadin Marcantonio, Marcantonio, Marcantonio  
  Salamon Bl. James, Marina  

New houses

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This group includes numerous patrician families who were not part of the Old houses, but were nevertheless very significant, as some became very prominent and important in the politics of the Republic.

Ducal houses

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These are fifteen families of more recent nobility than the "longhi" (their members were called, not surprisingly, "curti"), as underlined by the same "pseudo-Giustinian" Chronicle. From it we learn that only the Barbarigo, the Marcello and the Moro had contributed to the foundation of Rialto by giving tribunes; Foscari, Gritti, Malipiero, Priuli, Trevisan, Tron and Venier are recognized as of non-Venetian origin; of the Donà, of the Grimani and of the Lando there is no information because they are only mentioned, while the Loredan are said to have originated from ancient Rome and were admitted to the Great Council under Doge Reniero Zeno (r. 1253–1268) or two centuries earlier, according to Jacopo Zabarella;[6] finally, the Mocenigo do not even appear.

Crest Name Notable members Member portrait
  Barbarigo Agostino, Agostino, Angelo, Contarina, Giovanni Francesco, St. Gregorio, Jacomo, Marcantonio, Marco, Marco  
  Donà Baldassare, Francesco, Leonardo, Nicolò, Pietro  
  Foscari Francesco, Girolamo, Paolo, Pietro  
  Grimani Antonio, Domenico, Edmund, Elisabetta, Giovanni, Luigi, Maria Margherita, Marino, Marino, Pietro, Vincenzo  
  Gritti [it] Alvise, Andrea, Triadan  
  Lando [it] Pietro  
  Loredan Alvise, Andrea, Andrea, Antonio, Antonio, Caterina, Fosco, Francesco, Francesco, Giacomo, Giorgio, Giovanni, Giovanni, Giovanni Francesco, Leonardo, Marco, Marco, Marco, Paolina, Pietro, Pietro, Teodoro  
  Malipiero [it] Domenico, Felicia, Francesco, Gian Francesco, Giovanni, Orio, Pasquale, Riccardo  
  Marcello Alessandro, Benedetto, Loredana, Lorenzo, Nicolò  
  Mocenigo Alvise Giovanni, Alvise I, Alvise II, Andrea, Giovanni, Lazzaro, Leonardo, Marco Antonio, Pietro, Sebastiano, Tommaso  
  Mòro Anton Lazzaro, Cristoforo  
  Priuli Agostino, Antonio, Antonio Maria, Giovanni, Girolamo, Girolamo, Lorenzo, Lorenzo, Matteo, Matteo, Michele, Marieta Morosina, Pietro  
  Trevisan [it] Marcantonio, Ludovico, Vittore Benedetto  
  Tron Nicolò, Nicolò  
  Venier Andrea, Antonio, Cecilia, Francesco, Giacopo Antonio, Lydia, Mara, Marco, Marco, Marie, Pietro, Sebastiano, Zuan Francesco  

The Vendramin family can also be counted among the ducal families who, despite having been aggregated only in 1381 after the War of Chioggia, managed to elect the doge Andrea Vendramin not even a century later.[5]

Crest Name Notable members Member portrait
  Vendramin Andrea, Francesco  

Others

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Some other families considered part of the Case nuove include:

Crest Name Notable members
  Abramo
  Agnusdio
  Amizzo
  Armer
  Arimondo
  Avanzago
  Baffo Franceschina, Giorgio Alvise
  Balbi Adriano, Gasparo, Girolamo, Ludovico, Teodoro
  Barbaro Antonio, Cornelia, Daniele, Donato, Ermolao, Ermolao, Federico, Francesco, Francesco, Giosafat, Marcantonio, Marco, Nicolò
  Barbo Giovanni, Ludovico, Marco, Pantaleone, Pope Paul II
  Benedetti Giambattista
  Bernardo
  Bollani Domenico
  Boldù
  Bon Filippo, Laura
  Bodulmier
  Briani
  Calbo
  Canal Fabio, Giovanni Battista
  Cappello Andrea, Antonio, Bernardo, Bianca, Girolamo, Vettore, Vincenzo
  Caravello
  Celsi Lorenzo, Lorenzo
  Civran Giuseppe
  Cocco
  Correr Antonio, Antonio, Francesco Antonio, Gregorio, Pope Gregory XII, Pietro, Pietro, Teodoro
  Da Mosto Alvise, Francesco
  Da Mula Marco Antonio, Polissena
  Da Ponte Antonio, Lorenzo, Nicolò
  Da Riva
  Diedo Antonio, Marcantonio
  Duodo
  Emo Angelo, Giovanni
  Erizzo Francesco
  Foscarini Antonio, Giovanni Paolo, Marco, Michele, Giacomo
  Foscolo Leonardo, Nikolaos, Ugo
  Fradello
  Gabrielli Cante, Cecciolo, Domenico, Giovanni, Giovanni Maria, Giulio, Giulio, Luigi, Nicolò, Pompeo
  Ghisi Agnese, Andrea, Bartholomew I, Bartholomew II, George I, George II, Geremia
  Giusti Agostino, Alvise, Girolamo
  Grioni
  Gussoni
  Magno Stefano
  Manolesso Emilio Maria
  Marin
  Mengolo
  Miani St. Gerolamo, Giovanni, Hieronimo, Valeria
  Minio Bartolomeo, Domenico
  Minotto
  Molin Alvise, Biagio, Francesco, Giovanni, Nicolò, Raffaele
  Muazzo
  Nadal Pietro
  Nani
  Navagèr Andrea, Bernardo
  Orio
  Pasqualigo Lorenzo, Luigi, Nicolò
  Pesaro Giovanni
  Pisani Alvise, Andrea, Carlo, Domenico, Francesco, Francesco, Luigi, Niccolò, Vettor
  Pizzamano
  Premarin
  Sagredo Caterina, Giovanni Francesco, Nicolò
  Selvo Domenico
  Semitecolo Niccolò
  Steno Michele
  Storladi
  Stornello
  Surian
  Valaresso
  Valier Agostino, Bertuccio, Silvestro
  Vitturi
  Zancaruol
  Zantani
  Zulian Girolamo, Polo

Families which can be added to these include the Albizzo, Basadonna, Coppo, dalle Boccole, da Lezze, d'Arduin, Fabriciacio, Galanti, Gambarin, Lanzuoli, Lombardo, Mazaman, Miegano, Mussolino, Navigroso, Sesendillo, Signolo, Viaro, Vielmo, Volpe, Zaguri, and the Zancani.

To these were added in 1298 some Venetian families which, at the time of the Serrata, were in the East, notably in Constantinople:

Crest Name Notable members
  Acotanto
  Bonomo Bl. Giovanna Maria, Jacobello, Pietro
  Mastalizi
  Ruzzini Carlo

Other families added in 1298 include the Costantino, Donadi, Marcipian, Massoli, Ruzier, Stanieri, Tolonigo, and the Tonisto.

The remainder came from Acre and were added in 1303. These include the Barison, Benedetti (another branch), Bondulmier (another branch), Lion, Marmora, Molin (the Molin d'Oro branch) and the Surian (another branch). All but the Lion and the Surian appear to have attended the Council sometime before the Serrata.[5]

Then there were fifteen families descended from citizens who had distinguished themselves in the repression of the Tiepolo conspiracy in 1310, some of which include:

Crest Name Notable members
  Agadi
  Caotorta
  Quintavalle Antonio

Other families added in 1310 include the Addoldo, Agrinal, Buoninsegna, Caroso, Diente, Diesello, Ferro, Grisoni, Mengolo (another branch), Papaciza, Sesendillo (another branch), and the Vidor.

Newest houses

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Members of the Vendramin Family Venerating a Relic of the True Cross, by Titian and workshop, mid-1540s, National Gallery, London.[7] The sitters are Gabriel Vendramin (1484 - 1552), collector of works of art, his brother, Andrea Vendramin (1481 - 1547), and the latter's seven sons. The reliquary of the True Cross on the altar that their great-great-grandfather, an earlier Andrea Vendramin, had received on behalf of the Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista in 1369, still exists.[8]

At the turn of the fourteenth century, the War of Chioggia brought the Venetian economy to its knees. The Genoese fleet, deployed at the entrance to the Lagoon, had blocked all forms of commercial exchange and thus the revenue in terms of import duties.[4]

In 1379 the Venetian government decreed the granting of entry into the Patriciate to the thirty commoners who had contributed most in any way to the war effort. Many flocked to it, some making their servants, their children or themselves available, some keeping a group of soldiers, some arming galleys, some simply giving money. After the conflict, on 4 September 1381 the Senate elected the winners from a shortlist of sixty-two candidates (for a total of fifty-eight families). It is difficult to establish on the basis of which criterion this choice was made: many of the rejected had participated in the war effort with conspicuous offers, conversely there were those who were admitted with a very modest contribution. Evidently other factors weighed on them, including the marriage strategies that had allowed many non-nobles to create solid ties with the "old houses" of the aristocracy.[4]

In the list there are eleven candidates with the same surname to that of families already present in the Patriciate, and they can be presumed to belong to undocumented or illegitimate branches of those families.[5]

Crest Name
  Giorgio Calergi
  Rafaino Caresini
  Giacomo Cavalli
  Marco Cicogna
  Giacomo Condulmer
  Giovanni d'Arduin
  Antonio d'Arduin
  Alvise dalle Fornase
  Giovanni Garzoni
  Nicolò Garzoni
  Francesco Girardi
  Pietro Lippomano
  Nicolò Longo
  Francesco da Mezzo
  Paolo Nani
  Giovanni Negro
  Marco Orso
  Bartolomeo Paruta
  Marco Pasqualigo
  Pietro Penzini
  Nicolò Polo
  Donato da Porto
  Nicolò Renier
  Marco Storladi
  Nicolò Tagliapietra
  Giacomo Trevisan
  Paolo Trevisan
  Andrea Vendramin
  Giacomo Vizzamano
  Pietro Zaccaria
  Andrea Zusto

Non-Venetian patricians

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Portrait of Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg, by Cristofano dell'Altissimo, 1550s, Uffizi Gallery, Florence. A member of the Kastrioti family, Skanderbeg was an Albanian feudal lord and military commander who led a rebellion against the Ottoman Empire from 1443 to 1468.

Some time after the Serrata, the Patriciate was also conferred on those families of the mainland who had given military support to the Republic on various occasions. There are thirty-one families in all, but many never participated in Venetian politics, maintaining a merely honorific title.

Crest Name Origin Added
  Anguissola Piacenza 1499
  Avogadro Brescia 1437
  Battagia Milan 1439
  Bentivoglio Bologna 1488
  Benzon Crema 1407
  Castriota Albania 1445
  Cernovicchi Albania 1474
Codognola Milan 1446
  Collalto Treviso 1306
  Colleoni Bergamo 1450
  Comino Albania 1464
  Cossazza Albania 1430
  Gonzaga Mantua 1332
  Malatesta Rimini 1480
  Martinengo Brescia 1448
  Meli Lupi Cremona 1505
  Pallavicino Parma 1423
Protti Vicenza 1404
  Riario Forlì 1481
  Rossi Parma 1423
  della Rovere Savona 1473
  Savelli Rome 1404
  Savorgnan Friuli 1385
  Spadafora Sicily 1404
  Terzi Parma 1407
  dal Verme Verona 1388

Houses made for money

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Portrait of the Valmarana family, by Giovanni Antonio Fasolo, Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza. The family of Gianalvise Valmarana, portrayed with his wife Isabella Nogarola and eight of their twelve children. In 1659 the Valmarana family led by the brothers Triffone, Stefano and Benedetto was given Venetian patrician status after they paid 100,000 ducats to help fund the Cretan War.[9]

Having become almost inaccessible for centuries, the noble body resumed opening up to new families when, with the decline of Venetian power, the State began to "sell" the title (for 100,000 ducats) to fill the public coffers, no longer supported by profitable trade with the East. Between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries there were three openings to the aristocracy, with the aggregation of one hundred and thirty-four families such as the Medicis and the Gherardinis, (a not inconsiderable contribution, given that the nobility had been suffering from a serious demographic crisis for some time). Some of these families had already been making history in the Venetian hinterland for centuries, and their titles sometimes dated back to the Holy Roman Empire (such as the Brandolini, the Martinengo, the Piovene, the Spineda, the Valmarana). Others were bourgeoisie families enriched through trade (Benzon di San Vidal, Lin, Zanardi).[10]

Barnabotti

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A particular category of patricians was constituted by the fallen nobles, called Barnabotti, who, having dissipated the family wealth, still maintained their right to vote in the Great Council.[11] They were a class of impoverished nobility whose name is derived from the fact that the group met and lived in the zone of the Campo San Barnaba (the area, being distant from the city centre, attracted lower rents).[12] Towards the end of the Republic they often represented the tip of the balance between the political factions of the council, influencing it through the trading of their votes to which they were often dedicated, usually selling them in the Orchard of Saint Mark.[13]

During the eighteenth century the Venetian political system underwent a sclerosis. The aristocracy in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was very numerous; a high birth rate among the nobility, combined with the mercantile (and merchant-entrepreneur) profession undertaken by a large part of this class, involved a broad aristocratic government with varied interests, in which the poor nobles were a minority. There were, however, numerous events of social mobility within the class, brought about by the rapid enrichments in trade with the East and by the new factories set up in the Lagoon. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the economic situation worsened, more and more after 1618, and the Venetian aristocracy was increasingly dependent on their properties in the mainland and in the colonies, as well as on public sinecures. In Europe the idea spread that trade and industry were unworthy of the aristocracy, an idea rejected by the Venetian aristocracy, but which nevertheless changed the mentality of the nobility. The wars against the Ottomans of the mid- and late-1600s decreased trade with the East for many years, as well as in the early 1700s, ruining other merchant families or those who had not been able to diversify their investments in land and real estate. Few families changed their economic status considerably and rapidly upward, allowing an increasingly small group of families to maintain a relatively large wealth, while many others were constantly losing their position, often without even the money to decently live on.

 
Church of San Barnaba, Venice

This made the Barnabotti an evident phenomenon of Venetian society, while a reflection began on how to change forms of government. In fact, a group, the oligarchs, consisting of the richest families, managed, even by corrupting the poorest nobles, to exclude the middle and poor who were not at their service. The Venetian government, through the Council of Ten and the state inquisitors, however, prevented reforms of any kind (also because these bodies were in the hands of the oligarchy that was taking over the state, to its exclusive advantage). Attempts at reform were tried, but never implemented, in particular during the reign of Francesco Loredan, when Angelo Querini in 1761 tried to restore power to the more collegial organs of the Venetian aristocracy, while in the late 1770s Giorgio Pisani and Carlo Contarini, through the formation of a sort of "noble party", attempted an overall reform. At the center of their proposals there was precisely the social and political recovery of the poorest parts of the Venetian nobility, done through the assignment of dowries to the young patricians, especially the poor ones, increase in the salaries of the Forty and other Colleges, granting of donations for some prestigious political positions (previously free and then monopolised by rich nobles), setting a uniform for the nobles in order to distinguish them from the commoners, etc. In practice, they advocated for the creation of a "political" aristocracy and service, collectively capable of governing the city and the empire. Then there were some issues arising with the new Enlightenment ideas, such as opposition to internal espionage (which was very common in Venice), freedom of speech, defence and resumption of trade, etc. Precisely this attempt at a "noble reaction", not without populist maneuvers in favour of the Barnabotti, was crushed by the spies of the inquisitors, who, well informed, accused the two of having bought electoral votes from some Barnabottis, and also accused them of conspiring. They imprisoned Contarini in Cattaro (where he died, perhaps poisoned) and Pisani in Vicenza. When the French and the Jacobins arrived, Pisani tried to legitimise himself as an opponent of the despotism of the state inquisitors, of which he had been a victim, but, recognized for what he was, namely an aristocrat who had tried to modernise the structures of the Republic of Venice, however still remaining within the nobility, and indeed strengthening its aristocratic character, the new rulers marginalised it.

Residences

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Palaces

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Villas

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Bibliography

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  • Dorit Raines, "Cooptazione, aggregazione e presenza al Maggior Consiglio: le casate del patriziato veneziano, 1297-1797" (PDF), in Storia di Venezia - Rivista, I, 2003, pp. 2–64, ISSN 1724-7446 (WC · ACNP).
  • Todesco Maria-Teresa, "Andamento demografico della nobiltà veneziana allo specchio delle votazioni nel Maggior Consiglio (1297-1797)" (PDF), in Ateneo Veneto, CLXXVI, 1989.
  • Francesco Schröeder, Repertorio genealogico delle famiglie confermate nobili e dei titolati nobili esistenti nelle Provincie Venete, Venezia, Tipografia di Alvisopoli, 1830, p. 246.
  • Renzo Derosas, Dal patriziato alla nobiltà. Aspetti della crisi dell'aristocrazia veneziana nella prima metà dell'Ottocento. Publications de l'École française de Rome 107.1 (1988): 333–363.

References

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  1. ^ AB (May 2020). "Famiglia Loredano | Conoscere Venezia" (in Italian). Retrieved 3 August 2021.
  2. ^ a b Raines, Dorit (2003). Cooptazione, aggregazione e presenza al Maggior Consiglio: le casate del patriziato veneziano. Firenze University Press. ISSN 1724-7446.
  3. ^ "The Nobility of Venice | Nobility titles". nobilitytitles.net. 7 November 2017. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
  4. ^ a b c Norwich, John Julius (2003). A History of Venice. Penguin Books Limited. ISBN 9780141936789.
  5. ^ a b c d e Chojnacki, Stanley (1997). La formazione della nobiltà dopo la Serrata, in Storia di Venezia, Vol. 3. Treccani.
  6. ^ Zabarella, Jacopo (1646). Trasea Peto. Padua.
  7. ^ "Titian | The Vendramin Family | NG4452 | National Gallery, London". www.nationalgallery.org.uk. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
  8. ^ "'The Vendramin Family, venerating a Relic of the True Cross'". 31 May 2009. Archived from the original on 31 May 2009. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
  9. ^ Francesco Schröeder, Repertorio genealogico delle famiglie confermate nobili e dei titolati nobili esistenti nelle Provincie Venete, Vol. 2, Venezia, Tipografia di Alvisopoli, 1830, pp. 341-343.
  10. ^ Sitwell, Sacheverell (ed.). Great Houses of Europe.
  11. ^ James H. Johnson (2 March 2011). Venice Incognito: Masks in the Serene Republic. University of California Press. pp. 149–. ISBN 978-0-520-26771-8. Retrieved 8 May 2012.
  12. ^ Beverle Graves Myers (27 May 2011). Painted Veil: A Tito Amato Mystery. Poisoned Pen Press Inc. p. 85. ISBN 978-1-61595-141-3. Retrieved 8 May 2012.
  13. ^ Eco O. G. Haitsma Mulier (1980). The myth of Venice and Dutch republican thought in the seventeenth century. Van Gorcum. p. 12. ISBN 978-90-232-1781-7. Retrieved 8 May 2012.