SOCIAL LIFE: VENICE

Two Courtesans: Vittore Carpaccio

What you are working towards

This outcome leads to Section C of the Exam, which is an essay on Social Life. Therefore you are going to be called on to display your knowledge of the nature of the Venetian community and what the elements of this community were. You will have to evaluate the relative importance of these elements and how they affected the society; whether Venice was really a place of concord and harmony.

Study Design

The study design speaks of the distinct social structures of each city state that are shaped by their economic and political bases

The social hierarchies being reflected in aspects of the everyday life

Social relationships are variously described as competitive, pragmatic or cooperative, typified by economic and political networks and rarely by ties of love and friendship

Economic and Political Bases

What are these in Venice ? Economic Bases: The Maritime Empire Ship Building Glass and Lace Industries Venice as an ‘entrepot’

Political Bases: The Patriciate

The Arsenale

The basis of much of Venice’s wealth was her Maritime Empire

The ship building enterprise at the Arsenal was vital to this

The workers at the Arsenal were called the Asenalotti

Glass Making at Murano

Glassmaking was one of Venice’s most important industries

Venice’s reputation as a glass centre relied on successful cooperation between nobles and master craftsmen

Places of work and residence closely linked

Nature of Social Relationships

You have to be able to identify the nature of the social relationships that existed in Venice.

Why and how did people meet and relate to one another?

Nature of Social Relationships

Were these social relationships competitive,

pragmatic or cooperative, Were they typified by only by economic and

political networks or by ties of love and friendship

Definitions

It is important to know what the terms mean when you are writing an essay analysing the respective importance of the elements of social life.

Social HierarchiesThe Patricians

Venice had three main castes or classes. The Patriciate Bartolus, a lawyer and political thinker said:

Although they are few compared to the whole population of the city, they are many compared to those ruling in other cities, and because they are many, the people are not resentful of being governed by them. Also because they are many, they are not easily divided among themselves; moreover, many of them are men of moderate wealth, who are always a stabilising force in a city.

The Cittadini

Originari (hereditary) or de intus (granted)

The position of the cittadini was summed up in 1509 by the Doge Loredan : “We bear the name, and you the prizes; we the leaves and you the fruit.”

The Plebians/Popolani

The third caste made up 90% of the population

Gary Wills says it was not simply an economic distinction.

These were the mass of people who had no special privileges or status

Detail of Bellini’s ‘Procession’showing the popolani spectators

Clergy and Foreigners

Clergy were another legally defined group in Venice and were religious men, the priests and monks who lived within the city.

Romano estimates there would have been approximately 450 in the city at this time

religious women, the nuns who lived in the many convents

There were a number of foreign groups resident in Venice

Social Map

It is helpful to think of the cramped nature of the Republic and the way the Venetians organised their city to allow for the activities that they regarded as important.

F C Lane speaks of the urban structure of Venice as “the parish communities …supplemented by zones with specialised functions which gave a unified life to the city as a whole”

Neighbourhood:

Parishes and Campi

The contrata, or the parish, was ‘the basic unit of urban administration’, according to Denis Romano.

FC Lane calls the integration within the parishes as the foundation stone of Venice’s social stability.

De Barbari Map

The Campo

•Along with the parish, the campo was the most important location of social life.

•The limited space in Venice meant that Venetians were limited for choice of public arena and places of congregation

A typical Venetian campowith the Palazzo surrounding the square and the well in the centre

Campo Sant’ Angelo

The Scuole

Scuole were lay devotional associations linked to a parish whose works included poor relief, the provision of dowries

6 Scuole Grande Many Scuole piccole

Venetian Guilds

Venice had 51 Guilds

Most guilds controlled their membership by means of strict requirements for matriculation

Key Knowledge

gender, and class relationships

The importance of family, marriage, dowries,

charity, social legislation and festivals

Women, Marriage and Dowries

Fortini Brown claims ‘marriage stood at the intersection between public and private life’

Chojnacki sees the provision of dowries as ‘the currency of matchmaking’

Marriage served to not only bind the patriciate together but also to ally patricians with those immediately below them

Mansueti The Miracle of the Relic

Family

Giovanni Caldiera parallels the home and family with the structure of the Republic

For the patrician, the family acted as a gateway to a life of civic devotion.

For the popolani the family institution provided a measure of security

Social Legislation: Poor Laws

The Venetian State passed laws which sought to impose order and also to encourage charity.

While the Scuole had a charitable role, the Venetian Govt also intervened in times of crisis to support the poor.

1528, the Venetian Govt build a number of hospitals for the poor

The Venetian Senate passed the Poor Law in 1529

Social Legislation: Sumptuary Laws

Sumptuary laws were attempts by the Government to curb the conspicuous consumption of the rich.

They tried to control spending on houses, clothing, dowries

Festivals

Festivals were public occasions where the Venetian community could come together in a way that blurred the social divisions.

Festival of the Twelve Marys lasted for 8 continuous days beginning Jan 25

Feast of St Mark April 25 Marriage of the Sea Feast of Corpus Christi

Festivals

Foreign Populations

Venice was a cosmopolitan city 1468 Cardinal Bessarion ‘as all the people of

the world seem to gather in your city…’

The control of foreign populations was very clear

Essay Questions for Section C

‘“For the 95% of the population who were not allowed to participate in the exercise of political power, there were important arenas of participation that helped to ensure a domestic tranquillity for which Venice was acclaimed.” P.F. Brown, The Renaissance in Venice,

Discuss the areas of participation for those who did not exercise political power, and the relationship between this and Venice’s acclaimed tranquillity.

Virtually all the scuole accepted both nobles and commoners and thus formed areas of cohesion where Venetians of every condition could come together in a context of social solidarity and mutual assistance.”

To what extent do you agree with the interpretation of the significance of the scuole in Venetian social life?

The Patrician class was bound together by a cherished fiction of equality” To what extent do you agree with this explanation of the social cohesion of the Venetian

republic?