politics and constitution 59
determining precedence in civic rituals.19 Such labels thus began to take
part in republican political discourse, and we can see them in the summa-
ries of discussions and conflicts that took place in the Senate or Maggior
Consiglio during the 16th century. Rather than defining the boundaries of
partiti or fazioni or the construction of a solid identity, these in fact only
temporarily frame individuals or families. These were labels and fragile
identities that the actors in Venetian political life could appropriate to
legitimate themselves, to define their particular rights or to stigmatize the
role of adversaries and limit their prerogatives. In the sole years of the
Interdict (the jurisdictional conflict between Venice and the papacy at
the beginning of the 17th century), the old labels of vecchi and giovani
assumed new meanings: the denomination vecchi came to indicate the
defenders of the overall neutrality of the Republic and the Italian and
European geopolitical map as designed by the Habsburgs and the Roman
curia. The giovani, in contrast, designed the contours of a group of politi-
cal actors that intended to make Venice again a candidate for a leading
role in Mediterranean and continental politics, as the central link in an
anti-Habsburg and anti-Roman coalition of powers.20
In his extremely dense Diari—daily annotations of all that was said
and done in the city between 1496 and 1533—Marin Sanudo precisely
transcribed the summaries of current debates in the Senate, Maggior
Consiglio, and Council of Ten. In reading Sanudo’s pages we can vividly
grasp the voice and physiognomies of the protagonists of Venetian poli-
tics; the deeper reasons for differences of opinion—if, how, and where to
erect a ghetto for the Jews; whether to favor an alliance with France or
the Empire or, rather, advocate equidistant neutrality. At the same time,
we are able to understand, better than during any other time in Vene-
tian history, how “emotions” defined the role of politics and the idioms of
power.21 Indeed, archival sources appear reticent or silent on this topic.
The archive’s construction participated in the conservation of the mem-
ory of the myth of Venice: the synthetic registration by notaries of the
different positions within the great magistracies contributed consciously
to the transmission of an image of the well-ordered republic; dissenting
19 Matteo Casini, I gesti del Principe. La festa politica a Firenze e Venezia in età rinasci-
mentale (Venice, 1996); Edward Muir, Civic Ritual in Renaissance Venice (Princeton, N.J.,
1981).
20 Fundamental are William J. Bouwsma, Venice and the Defense of Republican Liberty
(Berkeley, 1968); and Gaetano Cozzi, Il Doge Nicolò Contarini. Ricerche sul patriziato vene-
ziano all’inizio del Seicento (Venice-Rome, 1968).
21 Serena Ferente, “Storici ed emozioni,” Storica 43/45 (2009), 371–92.