VENICE
Venice’s largest governing body was the Great Council, whose membership had been closed in 1297 and opened only once, in 1381, to allow several more members. This body drawn from the aristocracy elected the doge, who ruled for his lifetime but could not pass on the position to an heir. Venice was unlike other Italian republics in that membership in the Great Council was lifelong and hereditary, making the council a relatively closed, rigid society. As we shall see later, elsewhere in Italy short terms of office were considered an important element of successful republican government. The Great Council, totaling more than 2,500 adult males during the Renaissance, also elected members of the Senate, the main legislative body. This smaller, inner body of some 200 men advised the doge and determined which business would be raised before the Great Council. Within the Senate was a core of advisers, the Council of Ten. The doge and his six councilors, the three heads of the court of criminal appeal, and 16 ministers composed the Collegio. This Collegio, along with the Council of Ten and three attorneys general, determined which business would pass before the Senate. These 39 men were the oligarchy ruling Venice, and they often rotated from one position to another. The structure of government in Venetian maritime dominions, such as the island of Crete, mirrored that of Venice itself. The Great Council of Venice elected the governor of Crete, a member of the Venetian nobility. Crete, in turn, had its own Great Council, which comprised resident Venetians and lesser officials elected by that body.
During the 15th century, Venice had expanded its territory to include parts of the mainland, or ter-raferma. As in the maritime possessions, the Venetian government interfered as little as possible. A governor, the podesta, was appointed for each major city, along with a captain. These were the two Venetians who took their instructions from the Senate, or from the Council of Ten in urgent matters. Local councils were left to deal with details such as sanitation, medical care, water supplies, and transportation, following their own statutes. Venice left well enough alone as long as commerce flourished, peace was preserved, and taxes were collected. The island republic, with almost no land, needed the grain and wine from its dominions.
In Venice, as in other “republics,” rights of the working class, whose members were viewed as servants for those having the responsibility of government, were not recognized. The humanistic ideals of virtue and service applied only to the nobility and to well-educated males. This sort of upper-class attitude led to revolts and temporary republicanism in other cities, but not in Venice. As for the clergy, the Senate of Venice claimed jurisdiction over them, opposing what Venice considered to be papal interference. The conflict over Venice’s rights versus those of the papacy accelerated toward the end of the 16th century, and the republic was placed under papal interdiction in 1606-07. (This was not the first time that Venice experienced interdiction.)
FLORENCE
Although the ruling class in Florence was not as rigidly closed as that in Venice, Florence nevertheless had an oligarchic republic in spite of the proclaimed openness of its election laws. Although Florence did have representative institutions during the 15th century, the Medici family became powerful enough by the 1430s to dominate the government. The history of the Florentine republic is intertwined with the history of the Medici. When open votes were being cast by city leaders during the 1480s, for example, Lorenzo de’ Medici (1449-92) was known to have walked threateningly around the room, noting how each man voted. In the city of Florence the highest executive body was the Signoria, in which several elected men equally represented the four main quarters of the city. As in many other cities in northern Italy with this quarter system, population density was not a factor; all “fourths” had the same number of representatives. Each fourth in turn was divided into four, creating the gonfaloni (sixteenths) that constituted the foundation of the city’s administrative organization. The most powerful positions in Florentine republican government were held by members of the Signoria and by the heads of the various councils. Several deliberative bodies also advised the Signoria.
Whereas Lorenzo de’ Medici virtually ruled Florence as a prince, his son, Piero II de’ Medici
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(1471-1503), did not command the same respect. When the French invaded northern Italy and Piero subsequently fled, the people of Florence revolted. Rather than rebelling with weapons and violence, they ridiculed Piero for his cowardice, shouting from windows and ignominiously pushing his family members along the streets and out of the city. Townspeople sacked the Medici palace and plundered the houses of the Medici bank’s officers. An oligarchy of important families quickly assumed the reins of government, publicly hanging the unpopular Medici government official who had been in charge of the public debt. Thus the Medici hold over the Florentine republic was broken for several years. One important result was that noble families who had been exiled by the Medici began to return to Florence, expecting to gain their social and political positions and to have their confiscated property returned. The constitution and administrative structure were inadequate for the civic unrest of 1495, and reforms were obviously necessary. Into this situation stepped Girolamo Savonarola (1452-98), a Dominican friar and famous preacher who had predicted the apocalyptic fall of the Medici. (See chapTer 2 For information pertaining to religion and Chapter 12 for his influence on daily life.)
Supported by thousands of his adherents, including many members of the middle class, Savonarola began to direct a movement for drafting a new constitution, His initial goal was to create a more representative, democratic government. The model followed was that of Venice, the most stable republic in Italy, with a Great Council replacing the medieval councils. This council elected members of the new Senate (the Eighty), just as in Venice. The chief executive branch still consisted of the Signoria, the gonfaloniere of justice, and eight priors. Each held office for only two months. Thus the legislative system of Venice was combined with the old executive system of Florence, with the significant difference that in Florence the more cumbersome Great Council, with its advisory bodies, determined policy. It was impossible for the government of Florence to act quickly, especially without an authority figure such as the doge. The first laws passed were influenced by Savonarola, a strict moralist who opposed gambling, blasphemy, and other vices.
In addition to his efforts on behalf of Florence, Savonarola had antagonized the pope by creating a new, nonsanctioned congregation of monks. He was excommunicated in 1497, and the following year Florentine leaders agreed with the pope that Savonarola should be arrested. He had become too powerful within Florentine politics, and he was hanged and his body burned.
Because of external threats and the inherent weakness of the new Florentine republic in dealing with them, the Medici were welcomed back in 1512. With the national militia and the Great Council abolished, oligarchic rule once again became the accepted form of government. Although the Medici were expelled between 1527 and 1530 (the “Last Republic”), the family was restored to power by the Habsburg emperor, Charles V, and Cosimo I (1519-74) became
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1.1 Portrait of Cosimo Ide’ Medici. Workshop of Bronzino. (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1908 [08.262])
The first grand duke of Tuscany. During the 16th century, political stability increasingly depended upon aristocratic rule.
MILAN
Milan and its territory were ruled by authoritarian ducal lords (signori), namely, the Visconti, between 1287 and 1447, then the Sforza between 1450 and 1515, 1521 and 1525, and 1529 to 1535. They were advised by several councils with appointed members, the most important being the Secret Council and the Council ofJustice. Milan was briefly occupied by the French and by imperial forces, becoming part of the Holy Roman Empire in 1535 and then in 1546 a dependency of Spain. Here we shall discuss a shortlived but historically interesting phenomenon, the Ambrosian Republic of 1447-50. The last Visconti duke made no preparations for a successor or for an interim form of government. After his death, overnight the leading citizens of Milan proclaimed the republic of Saint Ambrose (patron saint of the city). This action revealed not only the resentment of all classes against seignorial government, but also the undercurrent of popular political tendencies reminiscent of medieval communal government. While generals in the ducal military force argued among themselves about the succession, the republic was born. The population of the city gathered near the cathedral with shouts of “Liberty!” in true revolutionary fashion.
Commoners, however, had nothing to do with formulating the new constitution, which was finalized in secret by an oligarchy consisting of a group of noblemen and lawyers with political experience, who had consulted prominent bankers and heads of the major guilds. As a first step, this group appointed a council of 24 captains, the chief governing body, with six-month terms of office. Parish elders were then given the task of selecting members of the Council of Nine Hundred, with equal representation of each district of the city. Fiscal problems, including massive debts left by the Visconti, haunted the city. The captains ordered that tax documents be destroyed (thus causing irreparable loss to Milan’s archives) and attempted to create a public fund in which citizens could invest, to no avail. Moreover, Milan was losing income from subject cities in the territory that were rebelling against the authority of the Ambrosian Republic and attempting to establish their own republic or turning to other powerful cities for support. During the winter of 1449, accusations of treachery led to the execution of dozens of men. Several months later, on the day before elections, the people revolted against the captains, storming the palace, murdering one of them, and sacking the homes of the others. In the midst of this chaos, the troops of Francesco I Sforza (1401-66) were blocking deliveries of food to the city, whose inhabitants slowly began to starve. The Ambrosian Republic lasted for 30 months, finally subdued because members of the nobility, wealthier merchants, and former ducal advisers defected to the camp of the mercenary captain Francesco I Sforza. As the husband of Bianca, the sole offspring of the last Visconti duke, Francesco had been promised the dukedom and thus was a logical choice for those who abandoned the republic.
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