introduction 9
city’s archives, and in short order received several important academic
appointments.21
Romanin’s expansive survey of venetian history was shaped by the
political and historiographical climate of his day. In terms of the latter,
Romanin was committed to providing a historical response to all the
“insults” that were being rained down “on unhappy and trampled venice.”
His version of venice’s past was intended to be an “admonition to the for-
eigner to judge better this venerable city” and an “incitement to venetians
to arise from their sloth” and rediscover the “past glories” of their history.
As for the former, Romanin’s focus on constitutional, legal, institutional,
and political history was part of a larger program to recover the histori-
cal roots of the nascent Italian nation-state of the Risorgimento, in which
venice came to occupy a position of “new and refulgent prestige.”22
Romanin’s sympathetic historical defense of venice resurrected many
of the elements of the old, positive myth of venice. He celebrated the
Republic’s justice and moderation, and its “defining attributes... peace
and concord.” Romanin’s mythmaking was even more accentuated in a
subsequent work, Lezioni di storia veneta, in which he assigned responsi-
bility for any disorder in venice not to the failings of its ruling class but
to its over-generosity in granting rights to its subjects.23 Nonetheless, the
Storia documentata represents an impressive survey of venetian history
from its founding to Romanin’s day; it is often elegantly composed and
is deeply rooted in the archival record.24 As his title indicates, Romanin
was a “sincere believer” in the “religion of the document.” Archival sources
reveal the real functioning of the “the machine of government,” which had
often been misrepresented because of archival ignorance. Thus, the pages
of his volumes are full of lengthy excerpts of documents which he is often
content to let speak for themselves, with minimal analysis. “The robust
shoulders” of Romanin’s Storia opened up a panorama of research possi-
bilities to subsequent generations of scholars of venice, and in recognition
21 Benzoni, “Dal rimpianto alla ricostruzione geografica,” pp. 366, 367; Infelise, “venezia
e il suo passato,” pp. 975–76.
22 Christophe Musitelli, “Deux regards sur le mythe politique à la chute de la répub-
lique: l’Histoire de Venise de Daru et la Storia della costituzione democratica de foscolo,”
in Alessandro fontana and Georges Saro, eds., Venise 1297–1797: La République des castors
(fontenay-Saint-Cloud, 1997), pp. 198–201; Infelise, “venezia e il suo passato,” pp. 975–76;
Pemble, Venice Rediscovered, pp. 96–97.
23 Povolo, “The Creation of venetian Historiography,” p. 503.
24 Benzoni, “La Storiografia,” p. 605.