SOCIAL LIFE: VENICE
Two Courtesans: Vittore Carpaccio
What you are working towards
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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
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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
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What are these in Venice ?
Economic Bases: The Maritime Empire
Ship Building
Glass and Lace Industries
Venice as an ‘entrepot’
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Political Bases:
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The Patriciate
The Arsenale
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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 Hierarchies
The Patricians
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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
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Originari (hereditary) or de intus (granted)
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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
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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
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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
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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 campo
with the Palazzo surrounding the square and the well in the
centre
Campo Sant’ Angelo
The Scuole
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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
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Venice had 51 Guilds
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Most guilds controlled their membership by
means of strict requirements for matriculation
Key Knowledge
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gender, and class relationships
The importance of family, marriage, dowries,
charity, social legislation and festivals
Women, Marriage and Dowries
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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‘“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?