Doges of Venice

For some thousand years, the chief magistrate and leader of the Republic of Venice was the Doge (Duke). Doges of Venice were elected by the city-state's aristocracy. Commonly the person selected as Doge was the most politically shrewd older man in the city.

Contents

Origins

In Venice the office of doge was first instituted about 700, replacing tribunes that had led the cluster of early settlements in the lagoon, according to the chronicler John the Deacon, author of the Chronicon Venetum ("Chronicle of Venice"), written about 1000 CE. Whether or not the first doges were technically local representatives of the Emperor at Constantinople, the doge like the Emperor held office for life and was similarly regarded as the ecclesiastical, the civil and the military leader, in the power structure termed caesaropapism.

Choosing of the Doge

The doge's perogatives were not defined with precision, and though the position was entrusted to members of the inner circle of powerful Venetian families, after several doges had associated a son with themselves in the ducal office, this tendency towards a hereditary monarchy was checked by a law which decreed that no doge had the right to associate any member of his family with himself in his office, or to name his successor. After 1172 the election of the doge was finally entrusted to a committee of forty, who were chosen by four men selected from the Great Council, which was itself nominated annually by twelve persons. After a deadlocked tie at the election of 1229, the number of electors was increased from forty to forty-one.

New regulations for the elections of the doge introduced in 1268 remained in force until the end of the republic in 1797. Their object was to minimize as far as possible the influence of individual great families, and this was effected by a complex elective machinery. Thirty members of the Great Council, chosen by lot, were reduced by lot to nine; the nine chose forty and the forty were reduced by lot to twelve, who chose twenty-five. The twenty-five were reduced by lot to nine and the nine elected forty-five. Then the forty-five were once more reduced by lot to eleven, and the eleven finally chose the forty-one who actually elected the doge.

When a new doge was chosen, before he took the oath of investiture he was presented to the people with the formula "This is your doge, if it please you," preserving the fiction that the people of Venice ratified the selection, yet in a real sense the doge was the highest servant of the greater community.

Regulations

While doges had great temporal power at first, after 1268, the doge was under strict surveillance: he must wait for other officials to be present before opening dispatches from foreign powers; he was forbidden to leave the city and was not allowed to possess any property in a foreign land. He was by law confined for the rest of his life to the Doge's Palace complex and the connected Basilica di San Marco.

After a doge's death, a commission of inquisori passed judgment upon his acts, and his estate was liable to be fined for any discovered malfeasance. The official income of the doge was never large, and from early times holders of the office remained engaged in trading ventures. These ventures kept them in touch with the requirements of the grandi.

Ceremony

One of the ceremonial duties of the doge was to celebrate the symbolic marriage of Venice with the sea. This was done by casting a ring from the state barge, the Bucentaur, into the Adriatic. In its earlier form this ceremony was instituted to commemorate the conquest of Dalmatia by Doge Pietro II Orseolo in 1000, and was celebrated on Ascension Day. It took its later and more magnificent form after the visit of Pope Alexander III and the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I to Venice in 1177. On state occasions the Doge was surrounded by an increasing amount of ceremony, and in international relations he had the status of a sovereign prince.

The last Doge

As the oligarchical element in the constitution developed, the more important functions of the ducal office were assigned to other officials, or to administrative boards, and he who had once been the pilot of the ship became little more than a figurehead. The last doge was Lodovico Manin, who abdicated in May 1797, when Venice passed under the power of Napoleon.

List of Doges of Venice

The listing is followed by the year in which they took office.

  1. Paolo Lucio Anafesto, (697)
  2. Marcello Tegalliano, (717)
  3. Orso Ipato, (726)
  4. Teodato Ipato, (742)
  5. Galla, (755)
  6. Domenico Monegario, (756)
  7. Maurizio Galbaio, (764)
  8. Giovanni Galbaio, (787)
  9. Obelerio Antenoreo, (804)
  10. Angelo Participazio, (809)
  11. Giustiniano Participazio, (827)
  12. Giovanni I Participazio, (829)
  13. Pietro Tradonico, (837)
  14. Orso I Participazio, 864)
  15. Giovanni II Participazio, (881)
  16. Pietro I Candiano, (887)
  17. Pietro Tribuno, (888)
  18. Orso II Participazio, (912)
  19. Pietro II Candiano, (932)
  20. Pietro Partcipazio, (939)
  21. Pietro III Candiano, (942)
  22. Pietro IV Candiano, (959)
  23. Pietro I Orseolo, (976)
  24. Vitale Candiano, (978)
  25. Tribuno Memmo, (979)
  26. Pietro II Orseolo, (991)
  27. Ottone Orseolo, (1009)
  28. Pietro Barbolano, (1026)
  29. Domenico Flabanico, (1032)
  30. Domenico Contarini, (1043)
  31. Domenico Selvo, (1071)
  32. Vital Faliero de' Doni, (1084)
  33. Vital I Michele, (1096)
  34. Ordelafo Faliero, (1102)
  35. Domenico Michele, (1117)
  36. Pietro Polani, (1130)
  37. Domenico Morosini, (1148)
  38. Vital II Michele, (1156)
  39. Sebastian Ziani, (1172)
  40. Orio Mastropiero, (1178)
  41. Enrico Dandolo, (1192)
  42. Pietro Ziani, (1205)
  43. Jacopo Tiepolo, (1229)
  44. Marino Merosini, (1249)
  45. Reniero Zeno, (1252)
  46. Lorenzo Tiepolo, (1268)
  47. Jacopo Contarini, (1275)
  48. Giovanni Dandolo, (1280)
  49. Pietro Gradenigo, (1289)
  50. Marino Zorzi, (1311)
  51. Giovanni Soranzo, (1312)
  52. Francesco Dandolo, (1328)
  53. Bartolomeo Gradenigo, (1339)
  54. Andrea Dandolo, (1342)
  55. Marino Faliero, (1354)
  56. Giovanni Gradenigo, (1355)
  57. Giovanni Delfino, (1356)
  58. Lorenzo Celsi, (1361)
  59. Marco Cornaro, (1365)
  60. Andrea Contarini, (1367)
  61. Michele Morosini, (1382)
  62. Antonio Veniero, (1382)
  63. Michele Steno, (1400)
  64. Tommaso Mocenigo, (1413)
  65. Francesco Foscari, (1423)
  66. Pasqual Malipiero, (1457)
  67. Cristoforo Moro, (1462)
  68. Nicolo Trono, (1476)
  69. Nicolo Marcello, (1473)
  70. Pietro Mocenigo, (1474)
  71. Andrea Vendramino, (1476)
  72. Giovanni Mocenigo, (1478)
  73. Marco Barbarigo, (1485)
  74. Agostin Barbarigo, (1486)
  75. Leonardo Loredano, (1501)
  76. Antonio Grimani, (1521)
  77. Andrea Gritti, (1523)
  78. Pietro Lando, (1538)
  79. Francesco Donato, (1545)
  80. Marcantonio Trivisano, (1553)
  81. Francesco Veniero, (1554)
  82. Lorenzo Priuli, (1556)
  83. Giorolamo Priuli, (1559)
  84. Pietro Loredano, (1567)
  85. Alvise Mocenigo, (1570)
  86. Sebastiano Veniero, (1577)
  87. Nicolò da Ponte, (1578)
  88. Pasqual Cicogna, (1585)
  89. Marino Grimani, (1595)
  90. Leonardo Donato, (1606)
  91. Marcantonio Memmo, (1612)
  92. Giovanni Bembo, (1615)
  93. Nicolò Donato, (1618)
  94. Antonio Priuli, (1618)
  95. Francesco Contarini, (1623)
  96. Giovanni Cornaro, (1624)
  97. Nicolò Contarini, (1630)
  98. Francesco Erizzo, (1631)
  99. Francesco Molino, (1646)
  100. Carlo Contarini, (1655)
  101. Francesco Cornaro, (1656)
  102. Bertuccio Valiero, (1656)
  103. Giovanni Pesaro, (1658)
  104. Domenico Contarini, (1659)
  105. Nicolò Sagredo, (1674)
  106. Luigi Contarini, (1676)
  107. Marcantonio Giustinian, (1683)
  108. Francesco Morosini, (1688)
  109. Silvestro Valiero, (1694)
  110. Alvise Mocenigo, (1700)
  111. Giovanni Cornaro, (1709)
  112. Sebastiano Mocenigo, (1722)
  113. Carlo Ruzzini, (1732)
  114. Alvise Pisani, (1735)
  115. Pietro Grimani, (1741)
  116. Francesco Loredano, (1752)
  117. Marco Foscarini, (1762)
  118. Alvise Giovanni Mocenigo, (1763)
  119. Paolo Renier, (1779)
  120. Ludovico Manin, (1789)

See also

References

  • Apostolo Zeno, Compendio della storia Veneta, self-published, Venezia, 1847.bg:Дож

de:Doge fr:Doge de Venise it:Elenco dei Dogi di Venezia nl:Lijst van Venetiaanse Dogen pl:Doża Wenecji

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