the venetian intellectual world 573
work of Paulus diaconus but had been largely established by 13th-century
chroniclers, notably Martin da canale,5 writing in the crucial moment
between the conquest of constantinople and the serrata of the Maggior
Consiglio. The principal output of Venetian intellectual culture prior to
the renaissance, these chronicles narrated the myth of Venice long before
that myth became a factor in italian political struggles.6 They celebrated
Venetian origins, Venetian piety, Venetian triumphs, and Venetian des-
tiny, in a rhetoric devoid of anecdote or personal detail but packed with
quotations from the documents that were written, managed, and filed
by the notaries and secretaries who composed the accounts. From that
notarial milieu dandolo, too, emerged, and towered above it.
a latinist well read in classical sources, dandolo admired Petrarch’s
humanist culture. after their brief meeting, the two carried on their
friendship in letters rich in citations of ancient authorities but addressing
a present problem: that of war and peace, with Petrarch advocating the
latter and dandolo, at that moment engaged in the epochal struggle with
the Genoese, defending the necessity of the former. in 1354, dandolo died.
his secretaries carried on his work: the Grand chancellor raffaino caresini
continuing dandolo’s chronicle (for the period 1343–88) and his predeces-
sor, the Grand chancellor Benintendi ravagnani (d. 1365), sustaining the
relationship between Petrarch and the curial circle. ravegnani’s contacts
with the humanist led the Senate to invite Petrarch to come to Venice and
bring with him his famous library, then the largest and richest in europe.
The Senate would provide him with a residence; and on his death, Venice
would inherit his books.
(Venice, 2006), pp. 15–25; and for the 14th century chroniclers, see Girolamo arnaldi and
lidia capo, “i cronisti di Venezia e della Marca Trevigiana,” in Storia della cultura veneta,
vol. 2 (1976): Il Trecento, pp. 272–337.
5 Martin da canal, Les estoires de Venise. Cronaca Veneziana in Lingua Francese Dalle
Origini Al 1275, ed. alberto limentani (Florence, 1972). See also antonio carile, “aspetti
della cronachistica veneziana nei secoli Xiii e XiV,” in Pertusi, ed., La storiografia veneziana
fino al secolo xvi, pp. 75–126; Giorgio cracco, “il pensiero storico di fronte ai problemi del
comune veneziano,” in Pertusi, ed., La storiografia veneziana fino al secolo xvi, pp. 45–74;
Gina Fasoli, “i fondamenti della storiografia veneziana,” in Pertusi, ed., La storiografia
veneziana fino al secolo xvi, pp. 11–44; and agostino Pertusi, “Maistre Martino da canal
interprete cortese delle crociate e dell’ambiente veneziano del secolo Xiii,” in Branca, ed.,
Storia della civiltà veneziana, 1:279–95.
6 Much has been written on the “myth of Venice.” See especially James Grubb, “When
Myths lose Power: Four decades of Venetian historiography,” The Journal of Modern
History 58.1 (1986), 43–94; John J. Martin and dennis romano, eds., Venice Reconsidered:
The History and Civilization of an Italian City-State, 1297–1797 (Baltimore, 2000), introduction
(“reconsidering Venice”), pp. 1–35; and edward Muir, Civic Ritual in Renaissance Venice
(Princeton, 1981), pp. 13–61.