98 michael knapton
In dispensing justice and in the laws it was based on, Venetian policy
was complicated by the marked diversity of legal culture.24 On the one
hand, the Roman law-based tradition of terraferma statutes, sources of
law in general, and judicial practice was a tradition much dependent on
the legal expertise of jurists organic to local elites. On the other hand,
Venice’s own, separate legal and judicial tradition was characterized by
the space for empirical, informal, “political” criteria of equity in judging
and by assignment of judicial posts to patricians with no legal training.
Though much mainland judging remained the business of local courts
with local judges, the uneasy reconciliation of these two approaches was
evident in the dual options of mainland governors: they used an entou-
rage of legal professionals, judging by local law, but were also empow-
ered to override the usual priority in sources of law. A similar contrast
and compromise affected subjects’ appeals to courts in the capital like
the Forty: though desirable in underlining Venice’s reputation for good
justice, such appeals were often incompatible with defense of terraferma
courts’ prerogatives and local elites’ contentment—issues to which Vene-
tian authority was equally sensitive. Local statutory traditions continued
essentially intact, with periodic renewal of statutes subject to Venetian
approval, which entailed no drastic interference. Such codes were gener-
ally not significantly updated by new laws formulated by mainland legis-
lators once under Venetian dominion, nor did they include as statutory
norms the heterogeneous accumulation of Venetian laws and rulings,
referred to single territories or (more rarely) to the whole mainland. Both
these facts pointed towards the eventual partial superseding of statute
law, though only long-term.
In economic policy, Venetian authority imposed no drastic changes and
left much regulation of production and commerce to local bodies, partly
owing to the strong imprint already given by treaties with the terraferma’s
previous rulers.25 Directives thus formulated already favored the flow of
goods to and from Venice, placed Venetian-supplied salt in mainland
monopolies, and eased Venetian access to inland supplies of timber and
24 Claudio Povolo, “Un sistema giuridico repubblicano: Venezia e il suo stato territoriale
(secoli XV–XVIII),” in Italo Birocchi and Antonello Mattone, eds., Il diritto patrio tra diritto
comune e codificazione (secoli XVI–XIX) (Rome, 2006), pp. 297–353; Gian Maria Varanini,
“Gli statuti delle città della Terraferma veneta dall’età signorile alle riforme quatrocente-
sche,” in Varanini, Comuni cittadini, pp. 3–56.
25 Paola Lanaro, ed., At the Centre of the Old World. Trade and Manufacturing in Venice
and the Venetian Mainland, 1400–1800 (Toronto, 2006); Paola Lanaro, I mercati nella Repub-
blica Veneta. Economie cittadine e stato territoriale (secoli XV–XVIII) (Venice, 1999).