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Age Qualification and the Venetian Constitution: the Case of the Capello Family*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2013

John Easton Law
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Extract

Marino Sanudo in the introduction to his description of Venice and its constitution told Doge Agostino Barbarigo what every patriot already knew: ‘in verità, principe sublime, tal e tanto è il nome de la città de Venetia, che, dirò cussì, per tutto il mondo n’ è fatto grande estimatione; quelli che non l'hanno veduta, bramano di vederla et intender come si governi; quelli l'hanno veduta, non finiscono di lodarla’. This article continues the interest, but is less concerned with praise. It is based on a series of incidents in the history of one branch of the Capello family in the second quarter of the fifteenth century, showing how the age qualifications built into the constitution of which Sanudo was so proud could be abused, how family interest could be stronger than observance of the law. In Italian medieval history this point has been made before; but historians of the Venetian constitution have been concerned with the roles of councils and magistracies, or with the ideas of Venetian and foreign political theorists. They have been less concerned with the actual conduct of Venetian nobles. The present study of the political behaviour of the Capello family has for its point of departure a document of 28 June 1428 from the Antico Archivio del Comune of the Archivio di Stato at Verona. The archives of Verona, like those of other terraferma cities once subject to Venetian rule, contain much administrative material, not preserved in Venice, which can be used to illustrate the workings of Venetian magistracies and the political conduct and family interests of Venetian nobles.

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Research Article
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Papers of the British School at Rome , Volume 39 , November 1971 , pp. 125 - 137
Copyright
Copyright © British School at Rome 1971

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References

1 Sanudo, Marino, Cronachetta (ed. Fulin, R.) (Venice, 1880), 3Google Scholar.

2 Archivio di Stato di Verona (A.S.Ver.), Antico Archivio del Comune (A.A.C.), Reg. 10, ‘Registrum litterarum ducalium, C’, f. 21r; and Document 1, below (pp. 136–7).

3 Davis, J. C., The Decline of the Venetian Nobility as a Ruling Class (Baltimore, 1962), 15Google Scholar.

4 Maranini, G., La Costituzione di Venezia dopo la Serrata del Maggior Consiglio (Venice—Perugia—Florence, 1931), 44–45Google Scholar.

5 Romanin, S., Storia Documentata di Venezia, ii, Bk. 7 (Venice, 1854), 346Google Scholar; Maranini, 41.

6 I have found no study of the social relations between the colonial nobility and the capital city. Thiriet, F. in ‘Le quart et demi de la Romanie’, Venise au temps des galères (Paris, 1968), 64Google Scholar, says that most of the colonial nobility remained attached to family interests in Venice through the obligation to replace a dead relative in the Maggior Consiglio. On the other hand, the influence of Crete was strong. Geanakoplos, D. J. in Greek Scholars in Venice (Cambridge, Mass., 1962), 42Google Scholar, mentions that there were alliances between Venetian and Cretan families against the central government. Apparently some Venetians even adopted Greek Orthodoxy, and intermarriage between Venetian and Cretan noble families was not uncommon. But what was the social and constitutional status of the children of such marriages ? There were periods of political tension between Venice and the colonial nobility. Cessi, R., Storia delta Repubblica di Venezia, i (Milan—Messina, 1968), 191–220, 323Google Scholar. Generally see Thiriet, F., La Romanie vénitienne au moyen âge (Paris, 1959Google Scholar).

7 Lazzarini, V., ‘Antiche Leggi Venete intorno ai Proprietari nella Terraferma’, reprinted in Proprietà e Feudi, Offizi, Garzoni, Carcerati in Antiche Leggi Veneziane (Rome, 1960), 9–29Google Scholar.

8 Biblioteca Comunale di Verona (B.C.Ver.), Ms. 1884, Regolamenti per i Rettori Veneti, f. 73r–74v; Biblioteca Capitulare di Verona, Cod. 498, Statuti per li Signori Rettori, f. 60v–61r; and also Cod. 505, f. 21v–23r.

9 Davis, 54–55.

10 Ferro, M., Dizionario del Diritto Comune e Veneto, vii (Venice, 1780), 67–81Google Scholar; Romanin, 346–349; Molmenti, P., Venice in the Middle Ages, i (London, 1906), 84–85, 169Google Scholar; Maranini, 41; Lane, F. C., ‘Medieval Political Ideas and the Venetian Constitution’, in his Venice and History (Baltimore, 1966), 306–308Google Scholar.

11 Brown, H., Studies in Venetian History, i (London, 1907), 64Google Scholar; Chambers, D. S., The Imperial Age of Venice, 1380–1580 (London, 1970), 76Google Scholar.

12 On Barbaro's life and works, Cicogna, E. A., Delle Inscrizioni Veneziane, vi (Venice, 1853), 20–26Google Scholar.

13 Document 1, below (pp. 136–7).

14 Barbaro, M., Genealogie delle Famiglie Patrizie Venete, iGoogle Scholar, Biblioteca Marciana di Venezia (B.M.V.), Cod. It. Glasse VII, 925 (8594), f. 214r, where the family is written as ‘Cappello’. A less common variant is ‘Chapelo’ as in B.M.V., Cod. It. Cl. VII, 186 (7654). For corroborative genealogical information with some biographical details on individuals see Capellari, G. A., Il Campidoglio Veneto, iGoogle Scholar, B.M.V. Cod. It. Cl. VII, 15 (8304), f. 227.

15 Cipolla, C., Storia Politica di Verona (Verona, 1954), 205Google Scholar. Verona surrendered on 22 June 1405; the Venetians entered the city the following day.

16 A. S. Ver., Archivio della Camera Fiscale (A.C.F.), Reg. 1, f. 25v. The Veronese notary Bartolomeo de Santa Cecilia, a contemporary, wrote under January 1405, ‘Guerra cum Venetiis, Epidemiaet fames in Verona’, a gloomy observation kept up over the following months. War and its after-effects caused a rise in the price of wheat in the city until it reached from 7 to 8 lire the ‘minale’ in February and March 1406, ‘horribilefactum’, as Bartolomeo said. In March, Venice began to send wheat to the city, an operation in which Alvise was probably involved: B.C.Ver., Ms. 936, Liber dierum iuridicorum Comunis Verone. For the notary, see Sancassani, G., ‘Cancellerie e cancellieri del Comune di Verona nei secoli XIII–XVIII’, Atti e Memorie della Accademia di Verona, x (1958–1959), 287Google Scholar.

17 A.S.Ver., A.C.F., Reg. 1, f. 25v, Reg. 97, f. 13r.

18 Sancassani, G., ‘I Beni della ‘Fattoria Scaligera’ e la loro Liquidazione ad Opera della Repubblica Veneta’, Nova Historia, xii (1960), 23, 250Google Scholarf estratto.

19 The woollen industry maintained its traditional importance for the Veronese economy into the 15th century. Lecce, M., Vicende dell'industria della lana e della seta a Verona dalle origini al XVI secolo (Verona, 1955Google Scholar); Ferrari, C., ‘La Campagna di Verona all'epoca veneziana’, Miscellanea di Storia Veneta, iv (1930), 21Google Scholar. The best treatment of the standards and reputation of the Veronese industry in an earlier period is Mazzaoui, M., ‘The Emigration of Veronese Textile Artisans to Bologna in the Thirteenth Century’, Atti e Memorie della Accademia di Verona, 144 (1967–1968Google Scholar). For the peculiar economic conditions of the Monti Lessini see Borghetti, A., ‘Antichi privilegi e correlativi oneri inerenti alle “Montagne del Carbon” nei Lessini’, Atti e Memorie della Accademia di Verona, 115 (1937), 9–60Google Scholar; also Simeoni, L., Verona. Guida Storico-Artistica della Città e Provincia (Verona, 1953), 260–262Google Scholar.

20 A.S.Ver., A.A.C., Busta 263. I would like to thank Dr. Mazzaoui for this reference.

21 A.S.Ven., Archimo Notarile (A.N.), ‘Serie testamenti’, Busta 68, no. 217; Busta 69, no. 4. Marino's brother Michiel also had property in the Veronese, the eighth of a ‘decima’ worth 50 ‘staio’ of wheat a year in 1447, according to the deputadi al conzar de la terra, the Venetian officials in charge of tax assessment, A.S.Ver,. A.A.C., Reg. 11, f. 10r; A similar exhortation to value estates in the Veronese can be found in the will of Nicolo Barbarigo of 1496, Lane, F. C., Andrea Barbarigo, Merchant of Venice (Baltimore, 1944), 37–38Google Scholar.

22 Lazzarini, V., ‘Beni carraresi e proprietari veneziani’, in Studi in onore di Gino Luzzatto, i (Milan, 1950), 274–288Google Scholar; Dr. Sancassani shows that Venetians bought about a quarter of the land sold under government auspices in Verona in the early fifteenth century, but often in partnership with Veronese, ‘I Beni’, 10–11. For the general history of Venetian investments in the terraferma see Woolf, S. J., ‘Venice and the Terraferma: Problems of the Change from Commercial to Landed Activities’, in Crisis and Change in the Venetian Economy, ed. Pullan, B. (London, 1968), 175–203Google Scholar.

23 Barbaro, Genealogie, f. 214r.

24 M. Barbaro, Libro di Nozze Patrizie, B.M.V., Cod. It. Cl. VII, 156 (8492), f. 98v, and f. 218r. A.S. Ven., A.C., Reg. 107/2, ‘Cronaca Matrimoni’, f. 77r, confirms the date as 1402 but calls his wife ‘Maddalena’.

25 A.S.Ven., A.N., ‘Serie testamenti’, Busta 68, no. 217 and Busta 69, no. 4.

26 Contarini, Gasparo, De Magistratibus et Republica Venetorum (Basle, 1547), 36Google Scholar.

27 Contarini, 33–35.

28 Sanudo says that nobles were eligible for the draw at 18 but if they were successful they did not enter the council until they were 20; Sanudo, 220–221. Perhaps he describes a transitional stage from the custom followed in this period to that described by Contarini, who gives the age as 20; Contarini, 33. Maranini, 43, gives 18 as the age between 1441 and 1497; before and after that period, he says the privilege was given at 20. But see the note following.

29 A.S.Ven., A.C., Reg. 162/1, ‘Balla d'Oro’, f. 2; and Document 3 below (p. 137).

30 Discussed below, p. 131.

31 Document 2, below (p. 137).

32 Document 3, below (p. 137).

33 Lane, F. C., ‘Rhythm and Rapidity of Turnover in Venetian Trade of the Fifteenth Century’, in his Venice and History (Baltimore, 1966), 110Google Scholar. Young nobles also qualified at the age of twenty for six months of service as state advocates, ‘avvocati piccoli’. But it does not appear that they had to submit to the same procedure as those proving to be of age to go as crossbowmen on the galleys. On the ‘avocati, chiamati pizoli’ see Sanudo, 221 and Cassandro, G. I., ‘La Curia di Petizion’, Archivio Veneto, xix (1936), 105–112Google Scholar.

34 Document 1, below (pp. 136–7).

35 Gilbert, C., ‘When did a Man in the Renaissance grow old?’, Studies in the Renaissance, xiv (1967), 7–32CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

36 They existed in other communes. 17 was the minimum age for a member of the Veronese Council of 500 by the Statutes of 1393. If the head of the family was dead, entry was allowed at an earlier age. Statuta Comunis Verone, B.C.Ver., Ms. 2008, Bk. 1, Cap. 30.

37 Document 1, below (pp. 136–7). For this period, Venetian historians do not have the valuable diaries and family chronicles which survive in such number for Florence. See Jones, P. J., ‘Florentine Families and Florentine Diaries in the Fourteenth Century’, PBSR, xxiv (1956), 183–205Google Scholar. The case of Alvise Capello, however, does suggest that the Venetian nobility did keep family records and were not restrained by ‘fear of the inquisitorial magistracy, the Council of Ten’, or by a ‘system of training and education which stressed group action and achievement’; see Brucker, G., Two Memoirs of Renaissance Florence (New York, 1967), 12Google Scholar. And see note 47 below. But the notebooks of Alvise would not have provided the avogari with ‘authentic proof’ of Carlo's age. See Ferro, ix, 92–93 on the processes of ‘proba’.

38 Document 2, below (p. 137).

39 From a comparative study of the Molin family it appears that young nobles establishing their age for one post would cite previous successful attempts to prove their age to the avogari. See the case of Maffeo de Molin on 17 July 1430 who was accepted as eligible to be a captain of a ‘sestiere’ of the city at the age of 30. Reference was made to a previous ‘proba’ of 27 July 1421. A.S.Ven., A.C., Reg. 177/1, ‘Prove di età’, f. 7v.

40 Document 3, below (p. 137).

41 See above (p. 128.)

42 A.S.Ven., Maggior Consiglio, ‘Ursa’, f. 138 r.

43 Sanudo, 221; Contarini, 33–34.

44 Cappelli, A., Cronologia e Calendario Perpetuo (Milan, 1906), 202Google Scholar; Boerio, G., Dizionario del dialetto veneziano, i (Venice, 1829), 38Google Scholar. St. Barbara was a mythical saint who became patron to all involved in dangerous trades, Dunbar, A. C., A Dictionary of Saintly Women, i (London, 1904), 99–100Google Scholar. The supposed relics of St. Barbara were given to the Venetians by the Byzantine Emperor. They were buried in the convent of San Giovanni on Torcello in the eleventh century, Cappelletti, G., Le Chiese d'Italia, ix (Venice, 1853), 532–544Google Scholar; and the Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina (Brussels, 1898–1899), 142–146Google Scholar. There appears, however, to be no obvious specific connection between her cult and this annual custom, unless it be to underline the element of luck involved. Dunbar also says that St. Barbara was the patron saint of goldsmiths in Rome.

45 A.S.Ven., A.C., Reg. 162/1, ‘Balla d'Oro’, f. 2.

46 From 1455 all three had to investigate claims. See below (p. 135.)

47 Such family material could be used. See the case of Francesco Dandolo who proved that he was 25 on 8 March 1430 ‘per librum patris sui’, A. S. Ven., A.C., Reg. 177/1, ‘Prove di età’, f. lr.

48 A.S.Ven., A.C., Reg. 162/1, ‘Balla d'Oro’, f. 38r.

49 B.M.V., Cod. It. Cl. VII, 925 (8594), f. 214r.

50 But possibly Carlo was lucky. In an 18th-century list of ‘Barbarelli’, apparently copied from the archive of the Avogaria, Carlo is included for 1434; B.M.V., Cod. It. Cl. VII, 24 (8379), f. 6v. Barbaro's genealogies, also later copies, appear to mark successful Venetians with the notice ‘4 December’ and the year. Under 1434, Carlo is marked with the word ‘provato’. Perhaps he was passed by the avogari but not picked in the draw.

51 da Mosto, A., ‘Il Navigatore Alvise Da Mosto e la sua famiglia’, Archivio Veneto, ii (1927), 187–188Google Scholar. By the 15th century Venetian noble merchants generally travelled with their goods only as young men, Lane, Barbarigo, 85.

52 Discussed below (p. 133).

53 Sanudo, 220; Contarini, 34. Da Mosto, 186–187, gives this as the chronology of the early career of Alvise da Mosto: born 1426; at the age of 24 is submitted to the Balla d'Oro in 1450; applies for admission to the Maggior Consiglio at the age of 25 in 1451; and in 1451 and 1452 serves as a bowman on the galleys. This chronology contrasts with that suggested for Carlo Capello. I t shows d a Mosto being submitted for the Balla d'Oro and galley service at ages much over the minimum. But da Mosto's chronology is based round the application, which might not have succeeded, to the Maggior Consiglio in 1451, rather than on Alvise's own statement that he was born in 1432 and the fact that his father married in 1428. If 1432 is accepted as the date of birth Alvise's early biography is more in accord with the forms of the constitution and the example of Carlo Capello: born 1432; a t the age of 18 submitted for the Balla d'Oro in 1450; applied for the Maggior Consiglio at the age of 19 or 20; and in 1451 and 1452 served as a bowman between the ages of 20 and 21.

54 After a Venetian's claim had been approved by the avogari, his name was put in a ‘libro balote’, A.S. Ven., A.C., Reg. 162/1, ‘Balla d'Oro’, f. 2.

55 Document 3, below (p. 137). Lorenzo Capello, one of the avogari, was Carlo's uncle. Unlike the members of the family discussed here, Lorenzo had a distinguished political career: Capellari, 227. He took office as podestà of Verona in October 1435: A.S.Ver., Atti dei Rettori Veneti, Reg. 6, f. lr. If Alvise regarded his brother as an ally, he would have chosen the most suitable age from the Capello point of view for his son; if his brother was regarded as hostile and alert, he would have chosen the more accurate age. Either case supports the argument that Carlo was nearer 18 in 1434.

56 Lane, Barbarigo, 16–17, and ‘The Crossbow in the Nautical Revolution of the Middle Ages’, in Economy, Society and Government in Medieval Italy; Essays in Memory of Robert L. Reynolds, ed. Herlihy, D., Lopez, R. S. and Slessarev, V. (Kent, Ohio, 1969), 161–171Google Scholar. I would like to thank Miss Georgiana Davidson for the second reference.

57 Sanudo, 45–16.

58 A. S. Ven., A.C., Reg. 177/1, ‘Prove di età’.

59 Thiriet, F., Régestes des délibérations du sénat de Venise concernant la Romanie, iii (Paris, 1961), 13–16Google Scholar.

60 A.S.Ven., A.C., Reg. 177/1, ‘Prove di età’.

61 ‘The Crossbow’, passim.

62 Andrea Barbarigo in the early stages of repairing the family fortune served as a bowman, probably in 1418. Lane describes this post as ‘a sort of socialised apprenticeship to trade and to the sea’, Barbarigo, 16–17. Contarini, 183–6, describes with evident approval the Venetian tradition of sending young men to sea. He justifies it as character-building and as contributing to private fortunes and the general good. But, like many traditionalists, he represents the young of his day as neglecting the old values and giving themselves over to the corrupting influence of luxury and ambition associated with terrestrial rather than maritime pursuits.

63 Lane, Barbarigo, 17.

64 Document 1, below (pp. 136–7), ‘Nam ipse multis infortuniis oppressus’. Can this be tied in with his debts of 1419?

65 Document 3, below (p. 137). In the 1440's he was the agent of Andrea Barbarigo: Lane, ‘Rhythm and Rapidity of Turnover in Venetian Trade of the Fifteenth Century’, in his Venice and History, 123. He was successfully prosecuted by Barbarigo for the maladministration of his interests in Constantinople, Barbarigo, 97–98.

66 A.S.Ven., A.C., Reg. 162/1, ‘Balla d'Oro’, f. 38r.

67 Davis, 27.

68 His example was followed by his son Marino. His landed interests have been mentioned. The Florentine Benedetto Dei claimed that he understood Venetian commercial practice from staying ‘a Vinesia … in sul Chanal Maore in cha di messer Marino Chappelo a San Puolo’ for 12 years: Azzi, G. Dagli, ‘Un frammento inedito della cronaca di Benedetto Dei’, Archivio Storico Italiano, 398 (1952), 109Google Scholar.

69 Lane, ‘The Crossbow’, 165.

70 Davis, 27–28.

71 Sanudo, 222, says that in 1493 2,600 nobles were entitled to membership. He calculates that 1,800 would attend on an exceptional occasion, and that between 1,400 and 1,500 would attend normally. Most of the practical business of government was done in the smaller councils elected by the Maggior Consiglio.

72 Maranini, 122–123. In this council the majority of nobles could discuss and vote; but they could not propose legislation.

73 Herlihy, D., ‘Vieiller au Quattrocento’, Annales, xxiv (1969), 1338–52CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

74 Quirini, A. M., Diatriba praeliminaris … ad Francisci Barbari et aliorum ad ipsum epistolas (Brescia, 1741), 194–195Google Scholar.

75 A.S.Ven., Consiglio dei Dieci, ‘Misti’, Reg. 15, f. 46v–47r.

76 Differences of attitude and policy have often been seen as being polarised, especially in the 16th century, by an antagonism between younger and older nobles: most recently, Bouwsma, W. J., Venice and the Defense of Republican Liberty (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1968), 193Google Scholar; and Chambers, 82–86.

77 Contarini, 104, 134–135, 155–156; Chambers, 84.

78 Sanudo, 98.

79 Sanudo, 95.

80 Sanudo, 221.

81 In this case ‘villa’ probably refers to the community of Nogara rather than to a country house.

82 Place-name illegible. Possibly Este in the Padovano. Vicars were normally citizens of the communes subject to Venice which administered contado areas of secondary importance.

83 ‘Asseruit officio nobilem’ replaces the perhaps more normal formula, in this case scored out, ‘presentavit officio nobilem’.