88 michael knapton
and/or feudal fringes, especially Friuli and mountain areas in general, it
had experienced the economic, social, political, and cultural development
of the Italian city communes and included cities large or very large by
European standards: in around 1500 Verona had about 40,000 inhabitants
and Brescia about 50,000. This communal experience, which had been
mostly assimilated by 14th-century lordly regimes, left a lasting imprint
in terms of outline similarity between territories but also of connotations
specific to each, despite some 14th-century experience of amalgamation
into larger units. It concerned their overall socio-economic characteris-
tics (from Verona, vastly populous and rich, a crossroads between major
north-south and east-west trade routes, to Feltre, a quiet hill town one-
tenth of its size); the general evolution of public institutions, government
policy, statute law, and administrative practice; the balance between
urban and other jurisdictions in controlling rural areas; and the nature
and composition of local elites, their degree of cohesion, and their iden-
tification with cities.3
The provinces’ relationship with Venice in the mainland state intro-
duced other variables. The circumstances of their annexation affected
initial concessions to local prerogatives: Treviso, conquered very early,
and Padua, taken after a bitter war to defeat its Carraresi rulers, were at
a disadvantage. Both experienced relatively earlier and stronger govern-
ment action from the capital, favored by proximity, which also meant the
precocious pull of the Venetian market in basic foodstuffs and the greater
presence there of individual Venetians’ private interests, especially land-
holding and possession of church benefices.4 Measured on these same cri-
teria and on its size, wealth, and position towards the Milanese frontier,
Brescia’s weight and strength in relating to Venice were quite different.5
3 Andrea Castagnetti and Gian Maria Varanini, eds., Il Veneto nel medioevo. Le signo-
rie trecentesche (Verona, 1995); Gian Maria Varanini, Comuni cittadini e stato regionale.
Ricerche sulla Terraferma Veneta nel Quattrocento (Verona, 1992); and Gian Maria Vara-
nini, “L’organizzazione del distretto cittadino nell’Italia padana dei secoli XIII–XIV
(Marca Trevigiana, Lombardia, Emilia),” in Giorgio Chittolini and Dietmar Willoweit,
eds., L’organizzazione del territorio in Italia e Germania: secoli XIII–XIV (Bologna, 1994),
pp. 133–233.
4 Giuseppe Del Torre, “Stato regionale e benefici ecclesiastici: vescovadi e canonicati
nella terraferma veneziana all’inizio dell’età moderna,” Atti dell’Istituto Veneto di Scienze,
Lettere ed Arti 151 (1992–93), 1171–1236; Giuseppe Del Torre, Il Trevigiano nei secoli XV e XVI.
L’assetto amministrativo e il sistema fiscale (Treviso, 1990); Michael Knapton, “I rapporti fis-
cali tra Venezia e la terraferma: il caso padovano nel secondo ’400,” Archivio Veneto, 5th ser.,
117 (1981), 5–65; and Gian Maria Varanini, “Proprietà fondiaria e agricoltura,” in Storia di
Venezia, vol. 4: Il Rinascimento. Politica e cultura, ed. Tenenti and Tucci, pp. 807–79.
5 Joanne Ferraro, Family and Public Life in Brescia, 1580–1650 (Cambridge, 1993).