422 david d’andrea
and operation of the Venetian state.3 Medieval political theory, mostly
based on thomist-aristotelian thought, elaborated on this basic concept
of charity, equating individual acts of charity to the meritorious works
of the entire community. Just as the works of an individual could merit
salvation, so the pious actions of a city-state could garner divine favor.4
a well-governed and charitable state could earn divine favor through its
care of the poor. Charity gave glory to God, garnered God’s grace, and
produced civic harmony and brotherhood, the goal of any polity.
the relationship between God’s glory and the exalted republic was a
common theme in Venetian political thought. a combination of medieval
theology, political theory, and humanism produced the “myth” of Vene-
tian political stability in which adherence to ritual and legend rendered
the political order mystical and sanctified.5 Political theorists noted that
a key to the stability and popular support for a republic governed by a
closed nobility was the welfare system. Venetian charity must be under-
stood within the larger context of Venetian political theory that correlated
good government, charity, and virtue. the Venetian republican theory
bound rulers and ruled in a system of service and sacrifice.
the nobles who guided the Venetian ship of state were steeped in
medieval theology and humanist learning.6 in general, Venetian human-
ists were seriously pious, embracing scripture, theological texts, lives of
saints, and defenses of Catholic orthodoxy. as Margaret King explains,
“the political life was not seen as a secular arena in which to unleash
human energies striving for a secular perfection. it was seen as nurtured
3 Brian Pullan, “Poverty, Charity and the reason of state: some Venetian examples,”
Bollettino dell’Istituto di Storia della Società e dello Stato Veneziano 2 (1960), 17–60; Christo-
pher Black, Italian Confraternities in the Sixteenth Century (Cambridge, 1989). for the most
recent scholarship arguing against the artificial dichotomy between sacred and secular in
premodern states, see augustine thompson, Cities of God: The Religion of the Italian Com-
munes, 1125–1325 (University Park, Pa., 2005).
4 on the relationship of charity to the common good in italian communes, see John
henderson, Piety and Charity in Late Medieval Florence (Chicago, 1994), Ch. 1, pp. 13–30.
for a discussion of aquinas and medieval political thought as directly related to Venice,
see frederic Lane, “Medieval Political ideas and the Venetian Constitution,” in Venice and
History: The Collected Papers of Frederic C. Lane (Baltimore, 1966), pp. 285–308.
5 for the myth of Venice, see edward Muir, Civic Ritual in Renaissance Venice (Prince-
ton, 1981); James Grubb, “When Myths Lose Power: four decades of Venetian histori-
ography,” Journal of Modern History 58 (1986), 43–94; and donald Queller, The Venetian
Patriciate: Reality versus Myth (Urbana, 1986).
6 on the topic of humanism and Christianity, see Charles trinkaus, In Our Image and
Likeness: Humanity and Divinity in Italian Humanist Thought (Chicago, 1970); and Margaret
King, Venetian Humanism in an Age of Patrician Dominance (Princeton, 1986).