68 alfredo viggiano
were, in fact, subject to the rule of the sale of offices.44 The norms
that were meant to be applied appear formally irreprehensible and pre-
cise, but the dynamic universe that managed the letting and sub-letting of
offices, regulated exchanges, and carried out “institutionalized” vendettas
devoid of any physical violence easily escaped what tenuous disciplinary
control there was.
It is not possible to draw a meaningful comparison between the unsta-
ble careers of those subjects who occupied “minor” office, often compo-
nents of small family clans who hoped to gain access to the golden circle
of the Ducal Chancellery,45 and the great dynasties of that same Chan-
cellery which, by the early 17th century, already disposed of family trees
modeled on those of the nobility. They remained two distinct and parallel
worlds, and passage between the two was not permitted.
II. Justice, Violence, and Politics in the 16th and 17th Centuries:
The Council of Trent and the Counter-Reformation StateThe Spanish historian Josè Antonio Maravall dedicated many an interesting
page to the loss of individual and collective identity, the breakdown of the
traditional bonds of class and social group, and the accentuation of feelings
of disquiet expressed in forms of mobility that authorities countered with
new techniques of definition, closure, and repression.46 From Catalonia
to Naples, Flanders to Portugal, the Habsburg Empire was forced to con-
front separatist movements, popular revolts, and demands for autonomy;47
while an increase in rural unrest and noble feuding and an ever-widening
gap between rich and poor were all phenomena that shook the great
French monarchy and brought about a new configuration of power rela-
tions within its borders.48 “To withstand this complex, multi-faceted and
44 The only work on the phenomenon in the Venice, and which is only an introduction
and proposal for future research, is Roland Mousnier, “Les trafic des offices à Venise,” in
Mousnier, La plume, le faucille et le marteau: institutions et société en France, du Moyen Age
à la Révolution (Paris, 1970), pp. 387–95.
45 Andrea Zannini, “La logica della distinzione. I Borgheselao, una casata di Terraferma
al servizio della Serenissima (XVI–XVIII sec.),” Ateneo Veneto 193 (2006), 63–126.
46 José Antonio Maravall, La società del barocco: analisi di una struttura storica (Bolo-
gna, 1985).
47 The classic work on this is John H. Elliot, The Revolt of Catalans. A Study in the Decline
of Spain (Cambridge, 1963).
48 For France, see the recent synthesis of Fanny Cosandey and Robert Descimon,
L’absolutisme in France. Histoire et historiographie (Paris, 2002).