venetian language 951
foregrounding happened at the expense of Latin but also set in motion
the process of functional dialectalization of other varieties spoken within
national territories. Seen from both the historical and linguistic view-
points, Venice appears unusual against the backdrop of these develop-
ments. the Serenissima was a state near the height of its power in 1500. it
was a major european territorial player, with an overseas colonial empire,
and would remain independent for another 300 years. and yet it never
defined, or felt the need to define, a de iure national language of its own,
in spite of having a written vernacular tradition going back more than
three centuries.52 Language debate at the institutional level in this period
only occurred sporadically, and when it did it was in very special circum-
stances which had to do with “progressive” versus “conservative” factions
within the patriciate. in any case, it involved argument about the use of
Latin or the vernacular, never about which vernacular to adopt.53 the
state refrained from legislating, or even pronouncing, on the nature of its
vernacular (MidV volgar ~ vulgar, ital. volgare). What we see is, in a sense,
a continuation of the linguistic pragmatism, even lack of interest, that had
already been visible throughout the eV period over the question of Latin
or vernacular choice.
Venice’s peculiar indifference to language policy cannot, obviously, be
divorced from the type of state that it was. although immensely wealthy
and influential, as well as being territorially far-flung, the Stado Veneto
was conceptually a very different state from France, Spain, or england.
they coalesced round national monarchies and territorial absorption, in
the direction of that fundamental modern political entity the nation-state.
governed by a unique hereditary oligarchy that was never drawn from
anywhere but the lagoon city itself, the great maritime Republic was to
become, both mentally and constitutionally, an increasingly anachronistic
polity on the european scene—although often comforted by foreign polit-
ical thinkers in its projected self-image as a model of good government.
Venice was a city-state whose patriotism was essentially municipal and
52 On the foregrounding, post-1400, of language as an identity marker alongside the
religious and juridical identities dominant in the medieval period see alberto Varvaro,
“ ‘La tua loquela ti fa manifesto’: lingue e identità nella letteratura medievale,” in Varvaro,
Identità linguistiche, pp. 227–41.
53 tomasin, Il volgare e la legge, pp. 123–24; Rembert eufe, “Politica linguistica della
Serenissima. Luca tron, antonio Condulmer, Marin Sanudo e il volgare nell’amministra-
zione veneziana a Creta,” Philologie im Netz 23 (2003), 15–43.