politics and constitution 57
truces, pacts, and the modes of collecting money.”16 It must be remem-
bered that the Senate, or Consiglio dei Pregadi, was made up of 120 perma-
nent members. Moreover, the principal exponents of the Venetian myth
in the 16th century, men such as Gasparo Contarini and Paolo Paruta,
would describe it as an organ of mediation between the “democratic”
and disorderly Maggior Consiglio, controlled in their eyes by plebeian
nobility subject to corruption, and the authoritarian decisiveness of the
Council of Ten. The Senate, then, was the anchor of republican wisdom
and prudence.
These images of a perfectly balanced power system rehashed and devel-
oped aspects of the encomiastic and celebratory literature of the myth
of Venice which had already been elaborated during the 15th century by
humanist politicians such as Paolo Morosini, Lauro Querini, and Bernardo
Giustinian.17 If we are to gain a better understanding of the contradiction
made explicit here between those who viewed the Senate as useless and
those instead who saw it as crucial, as well as of the contrast between
“broad” and “narrow” government, we must return to the general politi-
cal picture and consequences on the Venetian constitution of the turning
point of the “Italians wars” in the early 16th century.
In 1509, a coalition comprising the main Italian and European powers
together with the papacy inflicted upon the Venetian army one of the
most humiliating defeats in its entire history. The defeat of Agnadello
represents a turning point in Venetian history. It would put an end to
Venetian expansionist aims in the direction of “Lombardy.” The slow
reconquest of the state in the century’s second decade would force the
Venetian ruling class to rethink the foundations of its own legitimacy
and intervene radically in two fundamental sectors of princely power: fis-
cal administration and justice. Responses to the crisis were articulated
with a vast array of political proposals and debates on the Venetian con-
stitution which, nevertheless, failed to produce any relevant changes.
16 Donato Giannotti, “Della Repubblica de’ Viniziani,” in Opere politiche, vol. 1, ed. Furio
Diaz (Milan, 1974), p. 89.
17 On these aspects, see Franco Gaeta, “Venezia da ‘Stato misto’ ad aristocrazia ‘esem-
plare,’ ” in Girolamo Arnaldi and Manlio Pastore Stocchi, eds, Storia della cultura veneta,
6 vols (Vicenza, 1976–86), vol. 4 (1984): Dalla Controriforma alla fine della Repubblica. Il
Seicento, part 2, pp. 437–94; Margaret. L. King, Venetian Humanism in a Age of Patrician
Dominance (Princeton, N.J., 1986); Patricia Labalme, Bernardo Giustiniani. A Venetian of
the Quattrocento (Princeton, N.J., 1969); and Angelo Ventura, “Scrittori politici e scritture
di governo,” in Storia della cultura veneta, vol. 3 (1981): Dal primo Quattrocento al Concilio
di Trento, part 3, pp. 513–63.