506 edward muir
for Sanudo, clothing and fashion were more about colors and cloth than
design. There were honorable colors—gold, crimson, scarlet, purple—and
honorable materials—damask, gold thread, fur—that were proper for
distinguishing the patriciate and bringing honor to Venice’s ceremonies.
Mourning black always seemed to disappoint Sanudo: at a wedding “both
the compagnia members and the groom wore black, which in my opinion
was not the thing to do. on a day like today they should have worn [red]
silk, or at least scarlet cloth.”56 he also recorded the fashions of the poor.
During a famine he wrote how “it is heartrending to see the numbers of
the destitute and above all, the poor women of Burano, who go seeking
alms with their outer skirts over their heads, as is their custom.”57
The competitive impulse to impress through conspicuous dress, large
dowries, lavish weddings, and expensive parties created a tension in patri-
cian society manifest in the recurrent sumptuary laws, most of which tar-
geted women. The most minute details were regulated, down to the size of
the gold chains ladies were allowed to wear around their necks. “pelisses
may not be lined with lynx, sable, marten, ermine, or squirrel-back, nor
may they have a covering of iridescent silk or silk, nor bodices of gold or
silver, nor any other type of work.” Despite threats that “women who will
have been found to have broken the law in any way, or who have worn the
forbidden items, even some of them, will be stripped of the garments and
will forfeit them,” the laws were frequently ignored, and those who were
caught paid fines that amounted to a kind of consumption tax.58
The theatrical world of Venice manifest in its civic rituals and grand fes-
tivities coalesced during Sanudo’s own lifetime around the comic theater
associated with carnival and the festive compagnie della calza. especially
in the productions of the paduan playwright Angelo Beolco, known by
his stage name ruzante, the patrician and peasant worlds met in drama.59
from the neighborhood campi, patrician palaces, churches, and convents
to the piazzetta of the Ducal palace, drama permeated Venetian life, espe-
cially during carnival. here the tensions of class and gender, pretense and
poverty, piety and sacrilege were played out, sometimes to general satis-
faction, sometimes to scandal. Sanudo considered himself a good judge of
drama: “Zuan polo and his son did the intermezzi; they were rather good.”
56 Sanuto, I diarii, 37:471. for translations, see Sanudo, Cità Excelentissima, p. 299.
57 Sanuto, I diarii, 47:42. for translation, see Sanudo, Cità Excelentissima, p. 333.
58 Sanuto, I diarii, 50:305 on gold chains; 11:796–99 for clothing details. for translations,
see Sanudo, Cità Excelentissima, pp. 306, 307.
59 linda l. carroll, Angelo Beolco Il Ruzante (Boston, 1990).