508 edward muir
the peaceful paradise imagined in the myth, something Sanudo’s account
amply confirms no matter how often Sanudo himself evoked it. The Vene-
tian state was not everywhere, but it did attempt to spread its tentacles of
control into the narrow calle and dark taverns of the city and, especially
after the War of the league of cambrai, into the villages of the plains and
mountains of the terraferma. During the 16th century, the Venetian gov-
ernment evolved a comprehensive theory of malfeasance that included
as criminal acts not only transgressions against persons and property but
also scandalous language against private persons, the state, and god. in so
doing, the Venetian government attempted to become the cultural arbiter
of its territories by imposing its own assumptions about proper govern-
ment, proper behavior, and proper speech on all its subjects.64 in this
project of cultural colonization, however, numerous alternative spaces of
resistance persisted. no matter what their masters demanded, Venetian
workers had their own codes of honor found in pride of skilled work, the
carnivalesque pleasures of the campi, and the codes of masculinity mani-
fest in the bridge battles.65
A century after the young Marin Sanudo’s travels on the terraferma,
Venice’s attitude toward the feuding violence and aristocratic codes of
honor of the countryside had changed profoundly. Sanudo and his uncle
accepted rural society as it was, respected the local jurisdictions of the
aristocracy, and barely paid attention to distinctive rural mores. Venetian
culture was a thin veneer devoted to administering the institutions of jus-
tice, not eradicating the underlying causes of violence and disorder. By
the early 17th century, Venice wielded a much heavier hand. The repub-
lic authorized the officers of the inquisition to eradicate heresy, magical
practices, and superstitions. The republic’s judiciary attacked rural cul-
ture by criminalizing the traditional forms of conflict resolution through
vendetta and aristocratic violence. An alliance between the Venetian judi-
ciary and small landowners displaced the aristocratic tyrants. As revealed
in the sensational 1605 trial of paolo orgiano for rape, sodomy, and assault
of his own feudal subjects, Venice employed its judiciary in a program
of systematic cultural reform that redefined concepts of honor in a way
unheard of in Sanudo’s day. The lord of origiano did not deny the charges
64 Muir, Mad Blood Stirring; furio Bianco, 1511: La “crudel zobia grassa”: rivolte contadine
e faide nobilari (pordenone, 1995); povolo, L’intrigo dell’Onore; Mcgough, The Disease that
Came to Stay.
65 robert c. Davis, Shipbuilders of the Venetian Arsenal: Workers and Workplace in the
Preindustrial City (Baltimore, 1991); Davis, The War of the Fists, pp. 89–128.