“Seeing Foreign Parts” 1638–1639Spain. Milton’s later tracts suggest that he paid close attention to the structure
called for by its ancient constitution: an elected Doge and Senate, a Grand Council
composed of all the noble families, and assorted executive councils.^85 Venice was
famous for its stable government and commercial prosperity, and was seen as the
modern embodiment of the Greek and Roman republican ideals. Evelyn observes
that the Venetian republic had endured longer than any of the four ancient mon-
archies, and that it ruled vast regions around the Adriatic, in Italy, Greece, Crete,
Rhodes, and Slavonia.^86 Like most travelers, Milton probably did not recognize
that the republic’s institutions were in some decline: the state had become an
oligarchy, the list of noble families with political privileges shrank greatly, inscrip-
tion had to be purchased, major offices remained in the hands of a few families,
non-noble classes had no political privileges, and the Council of Ten wielded
enormous power as they dealt in secret with all matters pertaining to the security
of the state.^87
The Venice Milton visited was the most tolerant state in Italy, and saw itself as
defender of liberty against Turk, Spaniard, and pope. Peace with the Turks had
held since the Battle of Lepanto (1571), allowing Venetian trade with the East to
flourish. Venice set itself in constant, if often disguised, opposition to Spain’s
military and diplomatic ventures in surrounding states; it supported the sover-
eignty of the Protestant Grisons in nearby Valtellina, excluded Spanish ships from
the Adriatic Sea, and had recently thwarted an attempted coup d’etat (1618) mounted
by the Spanish ambassador to take over Venice for Spain. Venice also took con-
siderable pride in maintaining lay jurisdiction over the Inquisition, the censors,
and any clergy charged with crimes; in 1606 the pope issued a bull of excommu-
nication over the issue of ecclesiastical courts, but the state held firm and took the
occasion to expel the Jesuits, keeping them out till 1657. Milton later cited with
great respect the eminent Venetian scholar Fra Paolo Sarpi, whose History of the
Council of Trent (1619) launched a powerful attack on the secular power of the
papacy.^88
After his month in Venice Milton proceeded to Geneva “by way of Verona,
Milan, and the Pennine Alps, and then along Lake Leman” (Lake Geneva) (CPW
IV.1, 619–20). With his interest in antiquities, Milton likely viewed the great
amphitheater at Verona (the Arena), reported by Evelyn to be the “most intire now
extant in the world of ancient remaines.”^89 Passing through Brescia to the Venetian
frontier, he entered the Spanish Milanese territories and crossed the fertile Lombard
plains, whose abundant olive trees, vineyards and streams led Evelyn to call it “the
Paradise of all Lombardy.”^90 But all was not paradisal. Lombardy was the site of
frequent battles in the 1630s between Savoy, Spain, the Habsburgs, and France. In
no part of Italy was the power of the church more extensive, repression of thought
more complete, the Inquisition more severe and dangerous, and the power of the
Spanish governor more absolute. The great plague of 1630 had devastated the small
region of the Milanese more severely than other parts of Italy, causing some 180,000