418 APPENDIX, 2, 3

2. P. 19.-POWER OF THE DOGES

The best authorities agree in giving the year 697 as that of the election of the first doge, Paul Luke Anafesto. He was elected in a general meeting of the commonalty, tribunes, and clergy, at Heraclea, “divinis rebus procuratis,” as usual, in all serious work, in those times. His authority is thus defined by Sabellico,¹ who was not likely to have exaggerated it:-“Penes quem decus omne imperii ac majestas esset: cui jus concilium cogendi quoties de republica aliquid referri oporteret; qui tribunos annuos in singulas insulas legeret, a quibus ad Ducem esset provocatio. Cæterum, si quis dignitatem, ecclesiam, sacerdotumve cleri populique, suffragio esset adeptus, ita demum id ratum haberetur si dux ipse auctor factus esset.” (Lib. I.) The last clause is very important, indicating the subjection of the ecclesiastical to the popular and ducal (or patrician) powers, which, throughout her career, was one of the most remarkable features in the policy of Venice. The appeal from the tribunes to the doge is also important; and the expression “decus omne imperii,” if of somewhat doubtful force, is at least as energetic as could have been expected from an historian under the influence of the Council of Ten.

3. P. 19.-SERRAR DEL CONSIGLIO²

The date of the decree which made the right of sitting in the grand council hereditary, is variously given; the Venetian historians themselves saying as little as they can about it. The thing was evidently not accomplished at once, several decrees following in successive years; the Council of Ten was established without any doubt in 1310, in consequence of the conspiracy of Tiepolo. The Venetian verse quoted by Mutinelli (Annali Urbani di Venezia, p. 153) is worth remembering:-

“Del mille tresento e diese

A mezzo el mese delle ceriese³

Bagiamonte passò el ponte

E per esso fo fatto el Consegio di diese.”

The reader cannot do better than take 1297 as the date of the beginning of the change of government, and this will enable him exactly to divide the 1100 years from the election of the first doge into 600 of monarchy and 500 of aristocracy. The coincidence of the numbers is somewhat curious; 697 the date of the establishment of the government, 1297 of its change, and 1797 of its fall.⁴

¹ [Rerum Venetarum libri xxxiii, Venetiis, 1487.]

² [Particulars of the constitutional changes referred to in this appendix may be read in H. F. Brown’s Venice, pp. 161-164.]

³ [June, “the month of cherries;” see in Stones of Venice, vol. ii. ch. viii. § 124, the description of Capital No. 25 in the Ducal Palace.]

⁴ [Cf. Stones of Venice, vol. ii. ch. viii. § 12.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]