the terraferma state 109
in the state as a whole, and—within the terraferma—away from tradi-
tionally important towns towards rural areas, more dynamic demographi-
cally and, though more selectively, also economically.
For the last decades of this period, Berengo’s pioneering portrait repre-
sented the Venetian government’s relationship with the terraferma darkly:
imprisoned in antiquated and contradictory conceptual premises; just able
to discuss the political present freely but incapable of adapting to it and
still less of shaping it; resignedly aware of considerable gaps between itself
and many mainland subjects, and between their behavior and many gov-
ernment policy directives; vigilant over sporadic political dissent—which
included rhapsodic enthusiasm for the French Revolution, from 1787, and
then for Napoleon’s advancing army in 1796–97.47
Reacting to that vision of decline, decadence, and involution, subse-
quent studies have given due emphasis to the circulation of Enlightened
ideas in the Venetian state of the mid-18th century, though even Franco
Venturi’s final volume on the subject affords scant evidence that such ideas
carried through into incisive government policy, and there is little disput-
ing the overall rigidity of formal political arrangements.48 But especially
for the century or so subsequent to 1630, research coverage of many mat-
ters concerning the mainland is still spotty. As part of a wealthy, strategi-
cally sited, small state in a European scene dominated by large, aggressive
monarchies, the terraferma was vulnerable to outside attack long before
1797, but it is less easy to establish the extent and eventual timing of the
degeneration of internal political relationships, and also the measure of
real control exercised by Venetian authority over many matters of pro-
vincial administration apparently subjected to progressive centralization.
b. The Aims and Limits of Venetian Policy
Despite rapid decline to secondary importance in Mediterranean trade
from the early 17th century, Venice devoted enormous energy, atten-
tion, and resources to long wars over its maritime dominions against
the Ottoman Empire between 1645 and 1718.49 Those aims seem to have
shaped much policy towards the mainland, especially in the form of
47 Berengo, La società.
48 Franco Venturi, Settecento riformatore, 5 vols (Turin, 1969–90), vol. 5 (1990): L’Italia
dei Lumi, part 2: La Repubblica di Venezia (1761–1797).
49 Where not otherwise stated, what follows in this section is drawn from Storia di
Venezia, vol. 6 (1994): Dal Rinascimento al Barocco, ed. Gaetano Cozzi and Paolo Prodi,
and vol. 7 (1997): La Venezia barocca, ed. Gino Benzoni and Gaetano Cozzi; and Giovanni