Gleanings from Venetian history

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Salve Venetia !.....

I. The Beginnings. ......

II. The Little Golden Age ....

II The Little Golden Age

As soon as the fugitives had given up all hope of returning to the mainland, they began that tremendous struggle with nature which built up the Venice we still see, and which, in some degree, will end only when it shall have finally disappeared again in the course of ages. The beginners displayed an almost incredible activity, which their descendants sustained without a break for centuries.

n THE LITTLE GOLDEN AGE 25

They strengthened the muddy islands with dykes and rows of driven piles ; they dug canals and lined them first with timber and then with stone ; they straightened the courses of the currents, lest these should wash away the least fragment of land, where there was so little ; they worked like beavers to win a few poor yards of earth from the restless flood.

The different tribes led strangely independent existences, though living so near together in the islands they had seized. Each one endeavoured to model the new home as much as possible upon the old, celebrating the same feasts in honour of the same saints, upon altars that enshrined the same long-treasured relics, and clinging with the affection and tenacity of unwilling exiles to the traditions and customs of the fatherland.

Though living almost within a stone's throw the one from the other, the people of Aquileia, of Altinum, and of Padua held at first hardly any communication, and had little in common ; but they all clung to the patriarchal life, as is easily proved by very ancient documents. It is quite certain that each group had a chief, chosen to govern the little colony on account of his superior experience, riches, and authority. He was the guardian of the old home traditions, and strove to preserve them ever young, and "'"' '' ^^' to him appeal was made in all questions of justice and equity.

It is most important to remember that all these early settlers were descended from people who had been subject for centuries to Roman influence, as well as to

26 GLEANINGS FROM HISTORY n

Roman government ; and it was only natural that they

should long afterwards show traces of such early national

training, if I may use the expression. Their society

almost instinctively sifted itself into castes :

'"""- '- ^^' there were nobles— that is, the rich ; there were the burghers, and there were the ' little people,' as they were called— 'minori.' It was the duty of the nobles to provide all the rest with the means of living, as well as to govern and protect them. Custom required that every rich man should entertain under

Rom. i. 60. j^jg pj.Qtection a certain number of families of lower rank, who were called the 'convicini,' that is, 'fellow-neighbours,' a usage which recalled the Roman system of patron and client. The father of the family, as in Rome, had almost unlimited power over his children. All meetings of importance were presided over by the clergy.

It was, in fact, an assembly of the clergy and of

fathers of families which, in each group of emigrants,

had given the leader of the expedition the

Rom. I. 7 . j^Qj^^^j^ ^-^jg Qf Tribune ; and after a

leader's death his successor was elected in the same way, very generally from amongst his direct descendants. If this occurred during three or four successive generations his family became naturally invested with a real hereditary authority. The relation between the head of the family and the ' fellow-neighbours ' consisted of generosity on the one hand and of gratitude on the other, a species of exchange of sentiments not likely to produce undue tension. But

II THE LITTLE GOLDEN AGE 27

where the head of the colony was concerned, an ambitious tribune, who showed signs of trying to turn himself into an autocrat, was held in check by the necessity of being re-elected to his office every year. For in each island, on the feast of its particular patron saint, the people met together, either in the church or on the shore, to choose the chief for the next twelve months, and they often elected the same tribune again and again ; but if he had done the slightest thing to displease them, they had it in their power to choose a better man in his place.

During his term of office the tribune took for himself tithes on game that was killed, fish that was caught, and crops that were harvested.

Properly speaking, there were neither magistrates nor tribunals at that time, for the tribune himself judged all causes in public, most often in the church. A few fragments of written law existed, no doubt, but they were wholly inadequate ; and though it was attempted to supply their deficiencies by adding some articles from the Lombard code, the real law was tradition. Such was the good faith of that little golden age, that the sworn evidence of two respectable persons was enough to convict any misdoer without any further form of trial, and condign punishment followed directly upon conviction.

According to the accounts they have left of themselves, these primitive Venetians were a simple and devout people, who divided their time between honest labour, the singing of psalms and devout hymns, and the narration to each other of beatific visions of Apostles

2 8 GLEANINGS FROM HISTORY n

and Virgin Martyrs, who appeared for the purpose of ordering themselves churches. The churches M'ere undoubtedly built in great numbers, largely out of the better fragments which could still be gathered amidst the ruins of the old forsaken cities on the mainland. The nobles of Padua, who were probably the best of the colonists, brought enough old material to build themselves the whole town of Heraclea, on the island of that name ; but even there the best and most artistic pieces of stone and marble were used in the construction of the churches and monasteries.

The people worked in the fields, cultivated the vine, bred cattle, and dealt in salt, which latter was one of their chief resources. They were not yet rich, but they were already economical, and their gains more than sufficed for their needs, so that the slow accumulation of wealth began at a very early period.

The ancient Venetian type, described in Roman times, continued to dominate even beyond the fourteenth century. The men were large, fair- 7. j^^jj.g(j^ ^j^^ strong ; the women were rather inclined to be stout, and it was noticed that their hair turned grey comparatively early.

Both sexes dressed with great simplicity, and for a

long time clung to the old Roman fashions. They had

always shown a remarkable liking for blue

P'eceUio. i i j • • 1 ■

clothes ; durmg many centuries the inhabitants of Venetia had been known as the ' Blues,' and long after the division of the Empire one faction in the games of the circus went by that name.

II THE LITTLE GOLDEN AGE

Mut. Costumi.

Their speech was still Latin at that early time, but soon afterwards the influence of the Greeks and Lombards began to make itself felt in their language, as well as m their dress and ornaments, and even in their architecture.

They lived in a certain abundance, and ate much meat, after the manner of all young nations. One may dig almost anywhere and come upon layers of the bones of wild boar and other game, as well as of cattle and sheep. Among fish they are known to have thought the turbot the best, and they preferred wild ducks to all other birds. The vine throve also, and produced good wines which soon gained a reputation on the mainland.

At first the emigrants needed no occupations beyond husbandry, fishing, and the preparation of salt ; but as the population increased and prices rose accordingly, since saving had begun, the need of a wider field of activity was felt, and the Venetians rapidly developed the seafaring instincts of all healthy and active island peoples. Two hundred years had not elapsed since the raid of the Huns before the small archipelago at the head of the Adriatic was in possession of the finest fleet of vessels that Italy could yet boast.

Such a golden age as the chroniclers describe could not last long. In every newly-peopled country the rule is good faith, mutual help and charity between man and man, so long as there is a common adversary to be overcome, whether in the shape of natural difficulties, as was the case in the Venetian islands, or of wild

30 GLEANINGS FROM HISTORY n

beasts, or of human enemies, as in North America. So long as the settlers in the archipelago had to fight against the elements to win a stable foundation for their towns against the changeful, hungry currents ; so long as they had to work hard to break and plough the land, to plant the vine, to build habitations for themselves and temples for their protecting saints, just so long did they abstain from coveting their neighbours' goods. There was even a sort of rough-and-ready federation between the islands for the joint protection of their commerce and their ships, and now and then, in exceptional circumstances, the tribunes of the different isles had met together in debate for the common welfare. Their improvised parliament even received a name ; it was called the Maritime University.

But as the general wealth increased, and the energetic struggle with nature settled into a steady and not excessive effort, the people of each island very naturally began to think less about themselves and more about their neighbours. Leisure bred vanity, vanity bred envy, and envy brought forth violence of all sorts.

The evil began at the top of the communities and spread downwards. The families of the tribunes became jealous one of another, and tried to outdo each other in wealth and display and power ; and the poorer sort of the people took sides with their leaders and vied with each other, island with island, so that before the end of the seventh century much blood had dyed the lagoons.

II THE LITTLE GOLDEN AGE 31

Naturally enough, such internal discord laid the communities open to attacks from without ; and the Slav pirates came sailing in their swift vessels from the Dalmatian coast, and gathered rich booty in the archipelago. In the face of a common danger home quarrels were once more forgotten, and the people of the islands met to consider the general safety.

It was soon decided that internal peace could only be maintained by electing a single leader over all, a Dux, a Duke, a Doge, and the first choice fell on Paulus Lucas Anafestus, of Heraclea. ^'^^'^'^ "'"' Each island was to preserve its own tribune, its own laws, and its own judges, if it had any, and the Doge was to meddle with nothing that did not concern the common welfare of the whole federation. Moreover, no measure proposed by him was to become law until the people had voted upon it in general assembly called the Arengo.

Such was the remedy proposed, and in it lay the germ of the future form of government. But at first it produced a result the contrary of what was expected. The families of the different tribunes had envied and hated one another ; they united to envy and hate the family of which the head was in power as Doge.

A violent dispute between the partisans of Anafestus and those of the tribune of Equilio brought about the first conflict. Equilio was in part overgrown with pme-trees, and the angry adversaries met in the dusky grove and fought to the death ; and it is recorded that the small canal, which

32 GLEANINGS FROM HISTORY n

drained the land under the trees, ran red that day, wherefore it was afterwards called ' Archimicidium,' which I take to mean ' the beginning of killing ' ; but it is now the Canal Orfano, in which criminals were drowned during many centuries.

That day was indeed the beginning of murder between the people of Equilio and those of Heraclea, and their hatred for each other was handed down afterwards from generation to generation, to our own times, so that even when the two islands were both included in the city of Venice, and both governed by the same municipal laws, the people still formed two hostile factions, of which more will be said hereafter.

After having elected three doges, the people concluded from the result that they had been mistaken in

choosing such a form of government, and

737-74^ ■■'■"• 1 , .1

by common agreement the power was

placed in the hands of a military head, who was called

the Chief of Militia ; but as this experiment proved a

failure after a trial of five years, the federation went

back to the election of a Doge.

During all this period, and up to the ninth century,

the islands were nominally under the protection of the

Eastern Empire, if not under its domination ; but

a little study of the subject shows that the actors more

than once changed parts, and that the protected were

as often as not besought to become the protectors.

For instance, the Exarch Paul, the viceroy of the

Emperor, could never have re-entered his city of

Ravenna, after the Lombards had taken it, unless the

THE LITTLE GOLDEN AGE ^3

Venetians had helped him ; and when the Doge Orso received of the Emperor the title of ' Hypatos,' it must have been given to him rather as the acknowledgment of a debt of gratitude to an ally than as a recompense granted to a faithful subject.

In such a difference there is something more than a shade that distinguishes two similar formalities ; and historians have interpreted the Emperor's brief, and other acts of the Court of Constantinople, according to their varying pleasure. Yet the truth is clear enough rhe new-born Republic possessed a real independence, based on the good relations she maintained with her neighbours in general. She was satisfied with her power of governing herself, and was not inclined to quarrel with the Court of Constantinople, or with her nearer neighbours on the peninsula, about such trifles as words and forms. Her early policy was rather to escape notice than to boast of her liberty; yet it cannot be denied that during the seventh and eighth centuries the Greek influence predominated, both in the spirit of the laws and in the commercial activity of the Republic.

Meanwhile the more discontented citizens, and notably the more powerful families, which were jealous of each other, did their best to stir up faction and to bring about a revolutionary change which would have been ruinous. In the hope of internal quiet, the capital was transferred from. Heraclea to Malamocco, of which the inhabitants were considered the most peaceful and law-abiding in all the lagoons ; but the

VOL. I

II remedy was not a serious one, and the doges ^ were

successively murdered, or exiled, or forced to abdicate.

The Republic was on the point of perishmg in these inglorious struggles when an unforeseen danger from abroad saved it from ruin by forcing all the Venetians to forget their differences and unite against a common enemy.

The year 8io marks the beginning of a new era.

FISH BASKETS

V£MC£ FROM THE UDO

III The Republic Of Saint Mark

During some time the influence of the Franks had been felt m the islands, and was beginning to counterbalance that of the Greeks. The great families now separated mto two distinct parties, one of which favoured the rising Empire of the West, while the sympathies of the other remained firmly attached to the Court of Constantinople. These opposite leanings however, were caused by questions of trade and money-' makmg much more than by any political tendency, and neither side had any inclination to accept a master.

Yet one man seems to have seriously meditated betraying the Republic to Pepin, the son of Charle-

Ill magne, who had received the Kingdom of Italy as his

SHOPS NEAR THE RiALTO portion, and desired to extend his dominions by wresting Dalmatia and Istria from Nicephoros, Rom. i. :4o- ^^^ Emperor of the East. The traitor was the Doge Obelerio, who had spent a part of his youth in THE REPUBLIC OF SAINT MARK 37

at Pepin's court, and is said to have married his daughter.

The army of the Franks appeared on the mainland, by a secret agreement with the Doge, and before preparations could be made for opposing it. But the common danger became at once a bond of union ; the Venetians forgot their discords and their quarrels, and rose as one man to defend their liberty. Almost from the first the Doge was suspected of treachery ; he was watched, he was convicted by his own acts, he was taken, and he paid for his treason with his life His severed head was set up on a pike on the beach of Malamocco, where the enemy could watch how the carrion birds came daily and picked it to a skull.

But the Franks took the nearer islands one by one, till at last the Venetians left Malamocco and sought refuge on the Rialto and Olivolo, which ^„, ^,^,_„ were the more easy to defend, as it was ^?- harder for the enemy to reach them. A legend says that one poor old woman stayed behind, resolved to save Venice or perish in the '^°^"'"' attempt, and we are told that she went to meet Pepin and counselled him to build a wooden bridge that should extend all the way from ^ii^'o/Riaito. Malamocco to Rialto, and that Pepin 4»'^1S^;' followed her advice ; but the horses of his /l^;,,^^^,^ army were scared by the dancing lights on Scrutinio. the water, and by the swaying of the light bridge, and they plunged and reared and fell oiF into the lagoon.

and they and their riders were drowned by thousands, like Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea.

A more Ukely story tells us that the Franks had no hght boats of shallow draft, and that in pursuing the Venetians their heavier vessels got aground in the intricate channel, so that the Venetians surrounded them, ship by ship, and did them to death conveniently and at leisure.

Be that as it may, Pepin was defeated and forced^ to give up the attempt, and when he had burned everything on the islands he had taken, he went away, in anger and humiliation, towards Ravenna. Thereafter, when peace was made between him and the Eastern Empire, Venice was reckoned with the East.

Among those who most distinguished themselves during the short struggle was Agnello, or Angiolo Partecipazio, a member of one of the most renowned families of the former tribunes. Sismondi says, I cannot find with what authority, that this noble house changed its name to Badoer, in the tenth or eleventh century, under which name it still lives. It was this Angiolo who persuaded the people to retire to Rialto, by which measure Pepin was defeated, and when the war was over he was soon elected Doge.

His first step was to fortify Rialto, which from that day became the seat of government, and the small neighbouring islands were soon united to it. Upon them grew up what was the beginning of modern Venice, eleven hundred years ago, and the waste land

Ill THE REPUBLIC OF SAINT MARK 39

was covered with dwellings, towers, churches, and religious houses in a wonderfully short time.

The devout tendencies of the people had changed little since the first fugitives had placed the islands under the protection of those several tutelary saints whose relics they had saved, and the descendants of ft

GRAND CANAL, NEAR RIALTO those early emigrants now cast about for a holy patron who should, as it were, guarantee to them the blessing of Heaven. They then remembered the ancient legend : how Saint Mark the Evangelist was shipwrecked and cast upon the shores of Rialto, and how he heard a mysterious voice saying, ' Pax tibi Marce, Evangelista meus ' ; that is, ' Peace be with thee, O

Mark, my Evangelist.' And the words became the motto of the Republic.

The devotion to Saint Mark grew at an amazing rate after the revival of this old tradition, and it became the dream of every Venetian to obtain relics of the Evangelist's body. This precious treasure was at that time preserved in Alexandria, and was therefore in the power of the Mussulmans ; but a strict ordinance of the Emperor Leo, to which the Doge had been obliged to agree on behalf of the Venetians, forbade all intercourse with the unbelievers, even for purposes of commerce.

Two Venetian merchants and navigators, Buono da Malamocco and Rustico da Torcello, determined to risk their lives and fortunes in disobeying RoM.i.i68. ^^^ in,perial decree. They fitted out a very fast vessel and freighted her with merchandise for the Eastern market, and set sail without declaring their real destination. Reaching Alexandria with a fair wind, they proceeded at once to the basilica in which the body of the saint was kept, and obtained possession of it by the simple process of bribing the men in charge of the church. Here the story says that they placed their treasure in the bottom of a cart, and heaped salt pork upon it, as much as the mules could draw, sure that no Mussulman would touch the unclean meat ; and so they passed through the city and got on board of their ship, and put to sea that very night.

When they came near home, saiHng with a fair wind and the blessing of Heaven and Saint Mark, they sent

HI THE REPUBLIC OF SAINT MARK 41

a light boat into the lagoons to inform the Doge that they were bringing the Evangelist's body; for they were sure that he and their fellowcitizens would gladly forgive them for Itril^^^ having disobeyed the imperial decree. J^UtlfV 1 hen all the people gathered on the shore *>" ^'^"''

as the ship came in; and the noblest of facade 0/ the Venice took the priceless burden upon ^""""'■ their shoulders and bore it to the private chapel of the ducal palace, where it was to remain in state until a church could be built for it ; and a great cry of 'Viva San Marco' rang from street 'to street, and from island to island, even up to Grado and down to Malamocco, and it was ever afterwards the war-cry of Venice. Thus was Saint Mark proclaimed protector of the Republic, and the words which he himself had heard became the nation's motto ; and Saint Theodore took the second rank, though he had been patron of the lagoons ever since the days of Narses and Justinian.

It was clear to those simple believers that Saint Mark had not come among them against his will. Had he been displeased with the change from Alexandria to Venice a storm would surely have arisen in the night, and the holy relics would have disappeared in thunder, lightning, and rain, to return to their former resting-place or to be miraculously transported to another ; for such was the pleasure of the saints in the dark ages. But Saint Mark remained where he was, pleased, no doubt, with the homage of that glad young people, and rejoicing already in the glories they should attain under his patronage ; and from this complaisance the Venetians naturally concluded that a divine blessing had descended upon them, and they became once more a single family, bonded as brothers to stand and win together.

But before pursuing the great story of what came afterwards, let us stand awhile on the threshold of the tenth century and look at Venice as she was a few years after Saint Mark had taken her under his special protection.

In the 'first place, the alternate currents caused by the tide and the rivers were not yet completely controlled by stone-faced canals, and in many places the soil still consisted of long stretches of unstable mud, upon which the tide threw up masses of seaweed that lay rotting in the sun. The only means of obtaining a firm foundation for a stone building on such ground lay in laboriously driving piles, side by side, and so close that each one touched the next, and the whole formed a solid surface. It was a slow method, it was costly and required considerable skill ; but the result was good, and has stood the test of a thousand years, for there are buildings standing to-day on piles driven in the year 500.

It follows that in the tenth century the majority of dwelling-houses were still only light constructions of wood, which could stand upon the mud without danger of sinking. There were many stone buildings already, however, but like their humbler neighbours they mostly in THE REPUBLIC OF SAINT MARK 43

had only one story above the ground floor, with small windows on the outside, and larger ones on the inner court, and all alike were roofed with thatch. It is hard to imagine Venice a thatched city, of all cities in the world ; yet the reason of the peculiarity is plain enough. Neither brick nor tiles could be made from the soft mud of the lagoons, a wooden house cannot have a flat roof, and the construction of a vaulted roof upon a stone house requires a greater skill in building than the Venetians then possessed.

In building ordinary dwellings, Sagredo tells us that the usual method was to lay down a floor of heavy planks, upon which a thick layer of mortar and small pebbles was spread out and beaten "'^'^ "' down to a hard surface ; upon this again a second layer of cement mixed with pounded bricks was spread, and this was beaten with heavy wooden beaters till it was perfectly hard and even. Precisely the same method is employed to-day in southern Italy; and it was from this beginning that the so-called ' Venetian pavement ' soon developed. For rich people caused small pieces of coloured marbks, and even of mother-of-pearl, to be set into the cement of the second layer, which was then no longer beaten, but rolled with a ponderous stone roller and then rubbed down with a smooth stone and sand and water, and at last polished to a brilliant surface. To this day the ' Venetian pavement ' is made in this way in all parts of the world. The Venetians had probably inherited the art directly from the Romans, together with some knowledge of mosaic, which it roughly resembles.

44 GLEANINGS FROM HISTORY iii

The polished floor of the main room was an especial object of pride in the eyes of good housekeepers.

The Venetian houses resembled those of the Romans in many respects. A covered portico, surrounding a closed court, gave access to the ' hall of the fireplace,' as the principal place of gathering for the family was named, and to the kitchens and offices. The upper story consisted entirely of bedrooms, and had a wide balcony called the ' liago ' — a word corrupted from the Greek heliacon, 'a place of sunshine.' Here in warm weather the family spent the evening. Higher still, a rustic wooden platform was built over a part of the gabled and thatched roof, and was called the 'altana.' It was here that the linen was dried after washing, and later, in Titian's day, it was here that the Venetian ladies exposed their hair to the sun after moistening it with the fashionable dye.

The ' hall of the fireplace ' was more than any other part of the house a special feature of Venetian dwellings, and was as necessary to them as the balcony that ran round the mner court. io this day the Venetians boast that their ancestors invented the modern chimney flue, and that while King Egbert still warmed himself like a savage before a fire of which the smoke escaped through a hole in the roof, the poorest Venetian fisherman had a civilised fireplace before which he could warm his toes as comfortably, and with as little annoyance from smoke, as any fine lady of the twentieth century.

Another peculiarity of the early Venetian house

Ill THE REPUBLIC OF SAINT MARK 45

which has come down to our day was that it almost always had two entrances, the one opening upon the

A WATER DOOR NEAR S. BENEJ5ETT0 water, and the other, at the back, upon land. In those days this back door almost always gave access to a bit of garden, in which flowers and a few kitchen vegetables were carefully cultivated, but these gardens were soon crowded out of existence by the necessity for larger and more numerous houses.

The palace of the Doge differed from other Venetian dwellings chiefly by its size and its battlemented walls, and was very far from resembling what we see to-day in its place. It was destroyed by fire again and again, and only here and there some fragment of the original walls was incorporated in the new buildings which the doges were so often obliged to construct for themselves. A high battlemented wall joined the island of Olivolo with Rialto and enclosed the ducal palace.

The churches were out of all proportion richer and better cared for than the private dwellings, and were generally built after the model of the Roman basilica, with an apse and a portico for worshippers, which frequently served as a shelter for all sorts of little shops and money-changers' booths, very much like the temple in Jerusalem. These churches have been rebuilt and repaired again and again till there is little left of the originals ; but many fragments of them have been used again, here a light column, there a bit of mosaic, a carved capital, a piece of early sculpture or a delicate marble tracery — all of them, more often than not, of better workmanship and in purer taste than the later buildings they now help to adorn.