Venice: A Documentary History, 1450-1630

by David S. Chambers (Editor), Brian S. Pullan (Editor), Jennifer Fletcher (Contributor)

During the Renaissance, there were two centres of art, culture and mercantile power in Italy: Florence, and Venice. This is a source book of primary materials, almost none previously available in English, for the history of the city-state of Venice. The time period covers the apogee of Venetian power and reputation to the beginnings of its decline in the 1630s. Sources used include diaries, chronicles, Inquisitorial records, literature, legislation, and contemporary descriptions, and are organized in sections by theme and accompanied by brief introductions. Originally published by Basil Blackwell, 1992.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

484 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[Gitta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Venice; who does not picture gondolas, bridges, the lagoon, carnival and Casanova? Apparently, contemporary travellers shared this image of the myth of Venice, viewing it as the 'Pillar of Italy' and the 'bosom of all Christendom', where its women are 'adorned with big jewels and finery'.

However, early modern Venice was a vibrant republic where all this spender and decadence was often frowned upon and criticised. My purpose for reading this book was its section on sexuality: 'The Defence of Morality'.

Rialto, part of the San Polo sestiere, was assigned the place for the whores to reside. Arrangements were agreed upon to house these 'sinful women [peccatricibus]' where it would be 'least harmful for the island' and the prostitutes' business was restricted to the evenings. A place where these unfortunate women needed permission to leave the island and would have to display 'the usual sign' (it is not stated what that sign was).

Venice was a republic where, in 1480, it was decided that women dressed too much like men. That they 'conceal their sex and strive to please men by pretending to be men, which is a form of sodomy'. Where, from then on, your hairstyle could get you excommunicated and where the prostitutes would get flogged and get their head shorn -- I presume their choice of employment had already resulted in excommunication.

But the immorality, unsurprisingly, was also caused by men. By 1509, according to one document, homosexual behaviour was 'widely practised and highly esteemed in this city'. And if we are to belief the writer, it was partially because the youths would dress too effeminately, baring their chest and perfuming themselves. Their 'lascivious' appearance and conduct tempted fathers and senators to become passive homosexuals, which is a 'wicked and abominable thing, [...] especially among old men.' Had these early modern Venetians strayed so far from Christian behaviour? The author seems to agree, and offers a consoling conclusion: among the twelve apostles of Christ there was one bad too. Very helpful commentary...

This section paints a picture of a Venice pre-occupied with its prostitutes. Strikingly, they did not ban or condemn prostitution, but came up with methods to regulate it. Not only did 'good women' get mistaken for men, they increasingly confused with the prostitutes by the middle of the sixteenth century. For the latter were too well dressed and were thus easily mistaken for noble women. An easy solution was devised: prostitutes were not allowed to wear any clothing or jewellery made of or featuring gold, silver, silk, pearls or precious stones. Now that there was a method to distinguish the good from the bad apples, they also deemed it fit to define the whore:

"[W]omen who, being unmarried, have dealings and intercourse [commertio et praticha] with one man or The term 'whore' [meretrice] shall be understood to refer to those women who, being unmarried, have dealings and intercourse [comertio et praticha] with one man or more. It shall also apply to those who have husbands and do not live with them, but are separated from them and have dealings [comercio] with one man or more."

The life of the common prostitute was thus clearly defined and severely restricted, both in terms of their appearance and their behaviour. Another type of prostitute in Venice was the cortigiana onesta (both 'honest courtesan' and 'honoured courtesan'), who enjoyed and prospered in early modern Venice. I will be reading more about their lives shortly...

[Silvio Curtis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a collection of translated excerpts from primary sources from the Renaissance golden age of the Venetian Republic, arranged thematically. I don't think I've ever read a book with quite this format. At the cost of obscuring the sense of historical change during the time period, it gives a clear synchronic picture of what the city was like. In a few sections the fragmentation made it easy to get lost in details, but in most the different sources complemented each other surprisingly well. Most are from bureaucratic records, but there are a variety of other kinds scattered here and there through the book. Picking, out of the many topics covered, a few that tie into my other recent reading: There are some chilling descriptions of famine and plague, and of the (literal) morality police - it sounds like they gave sex workers a hard time and gay men a worse one. The head of the government was a Doge, who held office for life but couldn't choose his successor, kind of like a secular Pope. Or not that secular - the leaders of the state and of the church might not always be on good terms, but political ceremonies always had a lot of religious (Catholic) content. My old frenemy Aretino from In the Company of the Courtesan shows up a few times in the section on art, telling his favorite architects and sculptors how great they are. The first line of defense against poverty was scuole, brotherhoods who pledged to help each other in case of emergency, which sounds like a remarkably rational way of doing things despite its religious framework and although it must not have always worked.

[Lea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Venice: a Documentary History, 1450-1630 is a surprisingly fascinating collection of facts! It felt like seeing an x-ray of a place in history.

The book is organized into ten parts, each part having a summary/introduction and multiple sub-sections containing the relevant written quoted/translated artefacts. As a whole, this all creates an appreciable sense of what Venice was like during this time.

As a reader, I could not help but compare the rules and systems at play of Venice during this time to a modern day situation. It makes me curious about the future that is yet to be created! And what might historians 500 years from now say about a place I live in today…