Venice, Patriarchate of

VENICE, PATRIARCHATE OF. - Patriarchate and provincial capital city in the Veneto.

The diocese has a population of 362,564 inhabitants, of whom 357,250 are Catholics, distributed in 94 parishes served by 241 diocesan priests and 301 regulars; it has 42 male religious communities and 134 female ones (Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 94).

I. THE REPUBLIC

Toward the end of the 8th century Paul the Deacon warned his readers about the difference between the Venice of the Roman age (v. VENETO) and that of his own time, in that the former "non solum in paucis insulis, quas nunc Venetias dicimus constat" (Hist. Langob., II, 14). However, even in his time this second one was not limited to a few islands but included the lagoon territory from Cavarzere to Caorle, the lagoons of Marano (soon joined to the Friulian Duchy) and those of Grado with a thin strip of mainland defended by a great coastal forest that stretched from Grado as far as Ravenna. The activities of the inhabitants of this zone in the 6th century are known from the emphatic praises that Cassiodorus makes of them in his letters; they were fishermen and navigators who kept communications alive in the territory and were able to render useful services to the public authorities. Among them found refuge the fugitives forced gradually to leave the nearby cities of Aquileia, Concordia, Oderzo, Altino during the successive barbarian invasions up to the Lombard one. Thus arose the large centers of Grado, Caorle, Cittanova dell'Estuario (later called Eraclea, now Grisolera), Equilium (Sesolo, Cavazuccherina), Torcello, Malamocco (later Chioggia), each of which had a bishopric. Despite rivalries, the most important center, after Grado, was Cittanova, which seemed destined to dominate over the others. All this country remained under the Exarchate of Ravenna under the government of tribunes who, at least at the fall of the Exarchate (751), had, like other countries, at their head a dux subject directly to the Empire of Constantinople. Nevertheless, more or less peaceful contacts with the neighboring Lombard dukes and sovereigns (who never had power over the sea) could not fail to occur, until fairly stable boundaries were established during the 8th century. When the Carolingian dynasty came to power with Charlemagne, it seemed for a moment that mutual interests would counsel closer political relations with the formation of a party favorable to the Franks, which briefly had as its head Fortunatus, patriarch of Grado; until Pepin, king of Italy, attempted by force a coup by land and sea against the lagoons; but the Particiaci, who held the Duchy from 811 to 887 with the help of the East, succeeded in thwarting it. Meanwhile the center of the Duchy, which had shifted a first time to Malamocco, established itself on the group of small Rialto islands (812), and with this V. truly had its beginning, while the decline of Grado and Torcello began.

How concerned Constantinople was to preserve a sovereignty that was, however, becoming ever more nominal is shown by its contacts with V.: tribunes and doges were occasionally decorated with the pompous titles of patricians, hypatoi, protospatharioi, proedroi, and marriage ties were even formed with the most prominent families. Not for this reason, however, after 840, did there fail to be repeated pacts with the sovereigns of the mainland to secure Venetian independence; so that while dependence on Constantinople grew ever weaker, no feudal ties of any kind were created with the hinterland, and instead the full autonomy of V. was established. Certainly the internal institutions on which it rested were not so secure and precise as to prevent internal rivalries, uprisings, and even cruel repressions. Among the refugees who had brought with them the remnants of an ancient fortune and the local inhabitants who had experience of the sea, a social body had been able to form, bound together by common public and private needs, yet without preventing within it the gradual emergence of localities and families capable of exercising a preponderance in the common assembly, to the point of in fact directing the course of affairs and taking the leading parts in politics. Men rich in experience and energy created their own followers, formed parties, held a predominance to the point of forming a kind of ducal dynasties: thus the Particiaci were followed by the Candiani (932-76), who did not hesitate to lean on the sovereigns of the Saxon house, and then by the Orseoli (976-1032). The first military enterprise in force at sea was that conducted by Pietro II Orseolo in 1000 along the Dalmatian coast from Zara to Ragusa to break the violence of the Slavic pirates who infested the Adriatic and had dared to attack Grado and V. itself and to demand a tribute. Thus began that right to the defense of the gulf that V. reserved to itself, excluding every other armed fleet from the Adriatic, and which later found its solemn symbol in the rite of the marriage to the sea celebrated every year on Ascension Day. In this way those commercial relations with Constantinople, Alexandria, Syria and the whole Levant as far as the Black Sea, which were the primary reason for the prosperity of V., could be maintained broader and more secure. In keeping with these strengthened relations and with the greater well-being that was being brought about by the rise of the Italian Communes and by the increase of their agricultural and industrial production, which facilitated the possibility of lucrative exchanges, stands the concern of V. to keep open the communications and markets of the hinterland, in supporting the political and social aspirations of the Communes themselves and favoring their leagues in defense of their liberties. Hence its hostile attitude toward Frederick Barbarossa and Frederick II and its constant intention of drawing, even by force, the patriarch of Aquileia and the Istrian cities into the sphere of its own interests.

V. found itself alongside Pisa and Genoa in aiding the Crusades; but it made no scruple of subordinating the Fourth to its own interests, when with the participation of the Western warriors it first wrested Zara from Hungarian rule and then directed the ships under doge Enrico Dandolo against Constantinople (1201-1204), where the Latin Empire was established, lasting until 1261 (v. ORIENTE, Impero d', II), and the Latin patriarchate was reserved for Venetian prelates. This increased the importance and credit of V.; but after 1261 the possibility was offered also to Genoa of extending its fortunes under the Palaeologi as far as the Black Sea, thus in competition with V. A competition that turned into open hostility after the definitive fall of St. John of Acre (1291), when there was a first war between the two Republics (1294-99); then a second (1350-55) followed by the loss of Dalmatia for V. (1358), finally by a third even more serious in 1375, when V. momentarily lost even Istria and Chioggia and had against it Friuli, Hungary and Padua. It succeeded, however, in blockading Chioggia, in driving out the Genoese, in concluding in 1381 the Peace of Turin, as a result of which it reconquered a great part of what had been lost, reestablished its prestige in the East and expanded its commerce, especially with Egypt: twice a year its ships in "caravan" visited the most distant markets of the East and reached as far as Flanders; they transported pilgrims to the Holy Land at fixed times; the silver ducat (minted in 1193) and the zecchino or gold ducat (minted in 1284) had sure credit in exchanges. V. reached its highest splendor, thanks also to the franchises it enjoyed and was able to protect citizens and interests entrusted to the baili who resided permanently in the most frequented places.

Meanwhile the internal institutions had proceeded apace. An aristocracy of the most powerful families that had formed at Rialto, excluding any representation of the lesser centers, tenaciously sought to limit the authority of the doge, imposing its own control on him and obliging him to swear a promissio or program of government, while it removed the people from government by reducing to nothing the powers of the popular assembly. Therefore two, then six (one for each sestiere of the city) savi (sapientes) were placed beside the doge; in 1223 the Quarantia is found established, the supreme tribunal of the State; and the three heads of the Quarantia together with six councillors and the doge constituted what after 1423 was called the Signoria, and in their turn together with the 6 savi grandi, the 5 savi di terraferma and the 5 savi agli ordini they formed the Collegio, a kind of ministry. The assembly, on the other hand, was supplanted by the Maggior Consiglio reserved for the members of the most important families, whose number, restricted by particular conditions, was further limited in 1297 with the "serrata" of the Maggior Consiglio under doge Pietro Gradenigo; this assembly formed the basis of the State and to it were reserved the appointments to the most important offices, except that of the doge, which was reached through a complicated system of ballots. The soul of the State, on the other hand, was the Consiglio dei Pregadi (Senate), within which the major affairs of the State were discussed, definitively organized in 1229 with 60 members elected by the Maggior Consiglio, which was later increased with the Zonta of another 60. Also participating in it were the members of the Collegio, the procurators of St. Mark, whose number grew in the 15th century up to 9, and their task was the supervision of the Basilica, of legacies ad pias causas and of charitable works; the three avogadori di commu, fiscal agents charged with upholding the rights of the State; and later the inquisitors. The treasurers of the State were the camerlenghi, who resided at Rialto, while other commissions were entrusted with special duties for the protection of public finance or of morality. In 1310, on the occasion of conspiracies and riots, the Council of Ten was established and made permanent in 1335: it was presided over in turn each month by three of its members, called the "Capi dei X"; to them was entrusted the supreme service of police and surveillance for the safety of the State, and it proceeded with rapidity and absolute secrecy, controlling the conduct of all magistrates and diplomats, including the doge. It concentrated so much authority, to the detriment of the other supreme bodies of the State, that toward the end of the 16th century it became necessary to limit its powers. The people gathered in their schools, in which nobles also took part, in the guilds, in the confraternities, the latter for the most part linked to the religious Orders; while the clergy had no part whatsoever in public offices of any rank, except, at least in the earliest times, that of notary. Public offices were unpaid, including embassies, and only for extraordinary expenses was a compensation paid. Although there was no lack of interference, the system of government functioned very well and long aroused the admiration of those who recognized its stability and its upright conduct.

The intricate events of the hinterland, complicated by Austrian and Hungarian ambitions, had offered the occasion and imposed the necessity for V. to intervene more effectively than in the past. With the conquest of Friuli (1420) all the Venetian cities (except Mantua) now entered its dominion, which in 1426-27 also included Bergamo, Brescia and other lesser districts. As a consequence, V. found itself more closely entangled in the web of mutual jealousies and conflicts that kept relations among the various Italian powers agitated, beginning with Ferrara. Mistress of Ravenna in 1441, of Faenza, Rimini and other places in Romagna after the fall of the Valentino (1503), of Otranto, Brindisi, Trani, Gallipoli and other places in the Kingdom of Naples, it provoked against itself the League of Cambrai (1509) among the Empire, France and Spain, to which Julius II also acceded to get his share, so that it seemed it would be reduced within its lagoons. But the harsh war that followed forced V. to give up its recent possessions in Romagna and Apulia, yet allowed it to recover the rest of its dominion in Italy, and to keep it, albeit with exposed and uncertain borders on the Isonzo, until the Napoleonic invasion.

More serious for Venice, from this time onward, were the repercussions on its commerce of the Portuguese discovery of the new route to the East Indies, while that system of relations it had managed to create with Alexandria and the eastern Mediterranean was crumbling. Indeed, with the Turkish penetration into Europe in the second half of the 14th century, there began that absorption of territories which led to the capture of Constantinople (1453) and the conquest of almost the entire Balkan and Greek region, where V. too had possessions and interests. By now V. was the only maritime power resisting the Turkish power in the seas of the Levant, after the Turks were able to arm a fleet; and this even when the European powers, troubled by dynastic disputes or by the desire for aggrandizement at the expense of others, instead of lending it support, readily accused it of lack of faith if it was forced to come to terms with the Turk. Urged on by the popes beginning with Eugene IV, and always helped by them, it again committed ships, wealth and captains to a struggle that lasted until the end of the war of Candia (1669); fortresses and islands were lost and retaken, even several times, with alternating fortune. In 1470 one of the greatest bulwarks, Negroponte, fell; and to prevent Cyprus too from falling into Turkish hands, V. in 1489 forced Caterina Corner, widow of James II of Lusignan, king of the island (d. 1473), to cede it the dominion, and set about fortifying it; but the enterprises of 1500-1503 in alliance with Alexander VI and of the Prêvesa with Paul III in 1539-40 did not lead to the hoped-for results. Even after that most glorious, which culminated in the victory of Lepanto (7 Oct. 1571), to which V. contributed with a remarkable effort, it did not obtain those advantages that would have been its due; it lost Cyprus and, not adequately aided by its allies, had to conclude an onerous peace with the Turk. The struggle, resumed very soon, culminated in the following century with the war to maintain possession of Candia, which lasted from 1645 to Sept. 1669. This island too had to be evacuated after a heroic defense accompanied by diversionary episodes that exhausted the economic resources of V., forced to resort even to the goods of the Church and to the sale of offices, but did not prevent it at the end of the century from reconquering the Morea and some islands, which it lost again with the Peace of Passarowitz of 1718. From these epic struggles the Turkish Empire emerged exhausted, and Europe was preparing for a new political order; V. continued still in the defense of Dalmatia, Albania and the Ionian islands in order to keep navigation in the Adriatic secure, where, however, at Trieste the Habsburg power was beginning to appear. In 1797, with the Treaty of Campoformio, V. lost its independence, and Napoleon ceded it to Austria. The splendor that V. had preserved to the very last was extinguished, glorious memories were scattered, to the point of being reduced to a provincial city without life or initiatives of its own, under the rule of a flat and monotonous bureaucracy, and only in 1849, for a few months, the glories of an unfortunate resistance interrupted the Austrian dominion, which lasted still until 1866.

Pio Paschini

II. IL PATRIARCATO DI GRADO

The ecclesiastical origins of V. are closely linked with the formation of the two patriarchates of Aquileia (v.) and of Grado (v.), and particularly of the latter, which came into being following the Venetian schism of the Three Chapters (v.). The extinction of that schism (end of the 7th century) did not restore unity, and the patriarchate of Grado continued to exist despite repeated attempts, both legal and violent, on the part of Aquileia. The communities established along the coastline and in the islands of the gulf obeyed Grado when V. did not yet exist; later, when the inhabited center that had formed at Rialto had gained strength and political importance, the patriarch, who was constantly chosen from among the foremost Venetian families, preferred to reside there, also because of the progressive decline of Grado and the domineering ambitions of the patriarch-prince of Aquileia. Thus the patriarch Vitale IV Candiano (d. 1018) resided in V., near the church of S. Silvestro, which had been granted in jurisdiction to the patriarch of Grado as early as 989, without for all that officially transferring the see there. The patriarch Enrico Dandolo (1131-86), forced to take refuge in V. because of the invasion of Ulrico II, patriarch of Aquileia, built there the Patriarchal Palace, behind the church of S. Silvestro; a palace which Pope Boniface VIII (1294-1303) later made independent of the jurisdiction of the bishop of Castello. The doge Vitale Michiel II (1156-1172) soon recovered Grado, but the same patriarch Dandolo obtained in 1177 from Alexander III the transfer of the residence to V. with his Curia, the tribunals and the ordinary diocesan jurisdiction, not only over the parish of S. Silvestro but also over those of S. Giacomo dell'Orio, S. Martino, S. Cassiano, S. Matteo di Rialto, S. Bartolomeo, and over the monasteries of S. Maria dei Crociferi and of S. Clemente on the island. Interferences and disputes between the two authorities existing in the same city, one metropolitan and the other suffragan, were easy, whether over questions of rights, perhaps not well defined, or because of the ambitions of some patriarch to extend ever further within V. the diocesan jurisdiction, or because of the insubordination of ecclesiastics who declared themselves dependent now on one and now on the other, in order not to depend on anyone. It is true that Alexander III himself wrote on 21 January 1178 to the doge Sebastiano Ziani urging him to lend his support so that the patriarchal see of Grado might be transferred to V.; but on 31 April the doge died and nothing more was said of it.

When the patriarch of Grado, Domenico VI Michiel, died in 1451, Nicholas V, with the bull Regis Aeterni of 8 October 1451, suppressed the bishopric of Castello (Venice) and the patriarchate of Grado; he united their revenues, rights, privileges, obligations and jurisdictions, and constituted the patriarchate of V., appointing as first patriarch Lorenzo Giustiniani (v.), the last bishop of Castello. The ecclesiastical province of Grado, with its suffragan bishops, was erected into the patriarchal province of the Church of V. On 23 December the bull was executed in the cathedral of S. Pietro di Castello, and thus resulted the patriarchate of V., which extended its diocesan jurisdiction over all the parishes of the city (with the exception of S. Marco, which was governed as an abbey nullius), over the parishes of Grado and Latisana, over the rural deanery of Campardo (Conegliano), which was later to consist of six parishes (S. Giovanni Battista di Fior di sopra; S. Lorenzo di Pianzano; S. Vendemiano; S. Martino di Bibano; S. Pietro di Zoppé; S. Giustina di Fior di sotto), over the curacy of S. Martino di Torre di Mosto, the sole survivor of the suppressed diocese of Eraclea or Cittanova, united to the patriarchate of Grado in 1440; and later over the parish of S. Giovanni Battista di Jesolo, risen from the ruins of the ancient diocese of Equilio, suppressed and united to the patriarchate of V. in 1466; and over the parish of S. Giovanni Battista di Gambarare, ancient land of the abbey of S. Ilario. The metropolitan jurisdiction extended over the dioceses of the Venetian mainland (Caorle, Torcello, Chioggia). The patriarchate of V. further inherited the primatial jurisdiction over the metropolitan church of Zara, with its suffragans of Veglia, Ossero and Arbe, which Adrian IV, by brief of 22 February 1155, had subjected to the patriarch of Grado; a jurisdiction always confirmed by the Pontiffs and always fought by the people of Zara, until with the patriarch Gianfranco Morosini (1644) it was judged the better counsel to preserve of such supremacy at least the title alone.

III. THE DIOCESE OF OLIVOLO OR CASTELLO

It is held that in 421 the first houses and the first church arose at Rialto, subject in spiritual matters to the bishop of Padua, who found from time to time a refuge on the maritime island of Malamocco. In any case, by the 8th century a community of twenty-five islands with their respective churches had come into being. Once the ducal Castle was established at Rialto, near the church of St. Theodore, then the principal patron of the nascent community, and the relics of St. Mark had arrived from Alexandria in 828, it was resolved to erect a sumptuous basilica in honor of the holy evangelist, who became the principal patron and, with his lion, the living symbol of Venice. Obscure, on the other hand, are the true origins of the bishopric of Olivolo, which had jurisdiction over the islands and its center more toward the sea, with the Cathedral dedicated to St. Peter and the baptistery to the Baptist; in 1091 it changed its name to that of the bishopric of Castello. Despite uprisings and rebellions of various kinds, in the course of the centuries new churches, convents, monasteries, hospitals, and charitable institutions arose. By 1450 one hundred and forty churches had already arisen (six of which no longer existed); without taking into account the reconstructions, which amounted to as many as fifty in the 12th century alone.

The islands of Rialto, by then all regulated and joined by bridges, constituted the city of Venice, divided into seventy contrade (parishes) with their respective churches, almost all collegiate, united in five groups with the title of filiali, headed by the collegiate church (the mother or baptismal parish church). The monastic movement, begun with the Benedictines in the 800s, and perhaps earlier, and with the Benedictine nuns in 727, became rapid after the year 1000; and in 1450 there were twenty-seven religious Orders with forty-nine houses (19 female and 30 male) and their respective church: Benedictine nuns (9), Benedictines (3), Camaldolese (1), Canons Regular of St. Anthony of Vienna (1), Canons Regular of the Holy Spirit (1), Lateran Canons Regular of the Most Holy Savior of Bologna (1), Lateran Canons Regular of the Most Holy Savior of Lucca (1); Secular Canons of St. George in Alga (1), Carmelites of the primitive observance (1), Knights of St. John (1), Teutonic Knights (1), Carthusians (1), Cistercians (1), Crociferi (1), Dominican nuns (1), Dominicans (2), Hermitesses of St. Augustine (7), Hermits of St. Augustine (1), Hermits of St. Jerome of Fiesole (1), Augustinian Hermits of Monte Ortone (1), Hermits of St. Jerome (1), Franciscan Poor Clares (1), Friars Minor (5), Jesuits (1), Olivetans (1), Servants of Mary (2), Humiliati (1). Twelve hospitals, seven of which with their own church, and other non-parochial churches complete the crown of one hundred and thirty-four churches that adorned Venice at the middle of the 16th century; all rich in art and in precious relics brought, for the most part, from the East. Foremost was the basilica of St. Mark, rebuilt in 1063 in its definitive form. It soon became the ducal chapel with its primicerius and its clergy. In 1071 it began to be adorned with mosaic works and precious marbles transported from the East, and it was solemnly consecrated on 8 October 1094, in which year the body of St. Mark, of which every trace had been lost, was miraculously discovered (25 June). In 1053 the pontiff Leo IX passed through Venice, returning from Germany; after his death a parish church would be dedicated to his name. In 1177 Alexander III met at Venice with Barbarossa. There is no lack of some friction between the Republic and the Papacy, but the questions never touch religion (the interdict of 1309-13 on the occasion of the war for Ferrara). The series of its bishops, apart from negligible exceptions, is a series of holy pastors. One, Angelo Correr, assumed the triple crown under the name of Gregory XII (1406-16); the last, Lorenzo Giustiniani (v.), rose to the honors of the altars. Venice has its saints also among the faithful. The holy doge Pietro Orseolo I (v.), who in 978 left the dogeship to lead a solitary and penitent life, died on 10 January 997; St. Gerard Sagredo (v. GERARDO di CAVAD); the blessed Pietro Acotanto, father of the poor, a beggar for the love of God, died on 26 August 1187; the blessed Giacomo Salomonio (v.), a Dominican, died on 31 May 1314. Another Venetian (Gabriele Condulmer) became pope under the name of Eugene IV (1431-47), when Lorenzo Giustiniani rose to the bishopric of Castello (1433) and, in the full Renaissance, impressed upon Venice a robust seal of spirituality, whereby, despite manifold snares, it was able to resist Protestant propaganda. The Council of Trent was fully accepted in the same year of its conclusion (1564).

IV. THE PATRIARCHATE IN VENICE

From the mid-15th century to the second half of the 18th century the rhythm of erections continues of new churches (fully forty-five) which, together with those already existing, are incomparable models of every style: from Byzantine to Romanesque, to Gothic, to Renaissance, to Baroque, and finally to Neoclassical. The religious Orders already stationed in V. developed, and those of new foundation always found a good welcome, such as the Capuchins and Capuchin nuns, the Carmelites and Discalced Carmelite nuns, the Carmelites of the congregation of Mantua, the Fatebenefratelli, the Filippini, the Minims, the Reformed Minorites, the Jesuits, the Mechitarists, the Somaschi, the Theatines, etc., who vie with noble rivalry in the spiritual life of the city. With the canonical suppression of seven Orders (Humiliati, 1462; Venetian Priory of the Teutonic Knights, 1592; Canons Regular of the Holy Spirit and Crociferi, 1656; Secular Canons of S. Giorgio in Alga; Hermits of St. Jerome of Fiesole and Jesuits, 1668), whose goods were devolved to the Republic for the wars against the Turks, V. counted in the middle of the 18th century forty religious Orders in eighty-one houses. In the first half of the 16th century Gian Pietro Carafa (Paul IV) and St. Cajetan of Thiene gave a shining example of charity and faith in the city; and the Venetian nobility gave to the altars Girolamo Emiliani (v.), d. 13 Feb. 1537, and the companion and faithful imitator of St. Cajetan, Giovanni Marinoni (v.), d. 13 Dec. 1562. In this age two sensational ecclesiastical interdicts, caused by controversies of a political character, interrupted peaceful relations with the Holy See: that under Sixtus IV in 1483 on the occasion of the war for Ferrara, and that of 1509 under Julius II on the occasion of the League of Cambrai, which V. closed with submission when it became aware of its political error. The interdict of Paul V in 1605 had greater resonance in the public life of the time. Provoked by reasons more strictly of ecclesiastical discipline, it struck, together with the city, the whole territory subject on the mainland, provoking true crises of conscience. Jesuits, Capuchins, Theatines obeyed the Pope and were expelled from the Venetian States. The Senate raged, in a special way, against the Jesuits, with a decree of perpetual banishment: although in 1657 they found the way of return. The conflict, dangerous from every point of view, was resolved thanks to the mediation of the King of France. On the occasion of the plague of 1630, which caused in the city alone 46,536 victims, the Republic voted the magnificent temple to S. Maria della Salute. This century too had its saints: Lorenzo da Brindisi (v.), born of a Venetian family (d. 22 July 1619) and the ven. Gregorio Barbarigo, bishop of Bergamo and then of Padua (d. 18 June 1697). The Venetian nobility continues in the luminous wake of the Giustiniani, with a series of twenty-nine patriarchs (the last, Lodovico Frangini, d. 29 Feb. 1804), some of whom died in the odor of sanctity, of many bishops and cardinals and of three other pontiffs, Paul II (1464-71; Pietro Barbo),

Alexander VIII (1689-91; Pietro Ottoboni), Clement XIII (1758-69; Carlo Rezzonico).

Nevertheless the seed left by Sarpi (v.) and by Micanzio (v.) on the occasion of the interdict of 1606 and of the polemic that accompanied it, continued in the consultori in iure who assisted the signoria in ecclesiastical controversies, favoring its jurisdictionalist tendencies. The Apostolic See favored it in financing the long war of Candia and that of the Morea, granting it to recoup itself on ecclesiastical goods, particularly those of the religious; but the Republic, following the fashion spreading throughout Europe, claimed to proceed by its own authority, availing itself of the politico-religious theories that conferred on it a right in this matter; it thus introduced the prohibition for churches to receive testamentary inheritances, restrictions on offerings of Holy Masses, etc. Not content with this, from 1768 onward it issued a series of laws all contrary to the freedom of the Church. Clement XIII protested in vain; V. claimed to provide for ecclesiastical discipline, on the pretext that Rome was not attending to it. In reality the Republic was in agony and needed money. It began with the union and suppression of various convents: seven in the city (Carmelites of the Congregation of Mantua of S. Angelo della Giudecca, 1768; Canons Regular Lateranense of S. Maria della Carità, 1768; Benedictines of S. Niccolò di Lido, Castello, 1771; Camaldolese of S. Giovanni Battista della Giudecca, 1771; Benedictine commendatory abbey of S. Gregorio, 1776; Cistercians of S. Cristoforo, 1787), but far more than three hundred in the State. It is the end of the Republic. V., which for eleven centuries had not seen a foreign foot, had to witness the parade of the French republican armies, right in its heart, in the magnificent Piazza di S. Marco (16 May 1797). The provisional government was the first storm against religious institutions. The advent of Austria, in the same year, after the Treaty of Campoformio, brought a relative calm, and there was the election of Pius VII on the island of S. Giorgio Maggiore on 14 May 1800, four months after the death of its most pious patriarch, Federico Maria Giovannelli (10 Jan. 1800). The Napoleonic storm was in full swing. In 1806-807 all the schools, the Confraternities, the Fraterne of whatever kind and purpose (more than 700 in V. alone) were suppressed; in 1807 eleven convents and eighteen monasteries were concentrated and suppressed; in 1808 the seventy parishes reduced to forty and then to thirty; in 1810 the nineteen convents and twenty-two monasteries still surviving were also suppressed. Except for some churches, which for various reasons, in the course of time, were reopened for worship, of the sixty that were suppressed, almost all are now demolished! Exempt from the suppression were: the Mechitarist Monks: Armenians of S. Lazzaro on the island, the Hospitallers of S. Servolo on the island, the Basilian nuns (Greek); the Salesian nuns (French) of S. Giuseppe di Castello, S. Giorgio dei Greci, S. Giorgio degli Schiavoni, S. Croce degli Armeni, the Scuola di S. Rocco. In 1807 the transfer of the cathedral see from S. Pietro di Castello to S. Marco was ordered, with the fusion of the two Chapters: patriarchal of S. Pietro and ducal of S. Marco, with twenty beneficed clergy, then living, who were to descend gradually to fourteen. The patriarch, with all his offices, also had to move to S. Marco in a provisional residence, until 1851, when he had a stable dwelling in today's palace. In 1815 Austria returned and it was necessary to think of rebuilding. The bull of 1 May 1818 of Pius VII suppressed the dioceses of Torcello and of Caorle and united them to V. (12 parishes) from which it removed Grado, Latisana and the forania of the Campardo (6 parishes). Thus the patriarch counted 32 parishes in the city (including: Giudecca, Lido, Gambarare) and 12 in the foranie of Caorle, Murano, Torcello. The same bull assigned as suffragans the dioceses of Adria, Belluno and Feltre, Ceneda, Chioggia, Concordia, Padua, Treviso, Verona, Vicenza, and temporarily Udine, an arrangement that is still in force. From 1819 to 1859 thirteen male and fifteen female religious houses were reopened: some of new foundation. The congregations begin, especially female ones; it is the moment of an intense charitable activity that flourished in particular institutions on behalf of infancy and youth.

With the events of 1866 V. became part of the Kingdom of Italy, and in 1867 the law of July 7, 1866 was applied. By great good fortune, although confined within the narrow limits of a few premises, some religious were able to remain, under the protection of the so-called "religious associations" recognized by that same law; the nuns remained in their monasteries, even though state-controlled, to the number of six, and thus the churches remained open for the convenience of the faithful. The last thirty years of the 1800s mark a wave of sectarian anticlericalism; but the clergy, branded as pro-Austrian and anti-Italian, was in fact working for the good of V. and of Italy. The Institute for juvenile criminals arose, willed by the great heart of the young priest Carlo Coletti; the Institute for young women, established by the parish priest Fr. Giuseppe Solesin; the Work of Evening and Holiday Patronages, founded by the priests Giovanni B. Piemonte and Angelo Bortoluzzi; and the Work of Congresses, which prepared and foreshadowed the political activity of Italian Catholics. Thus one arrives at the threshold of 1900 with the great Eucharistic Congress (1897) willed and guided by Cardinal Patriarch Bl. Giuseppe Sarto (v. PIO X). The last fifty years, with the two world wars, recall Cardinal Pietro La Fontaine and Cardinal Adeodato Giovanni Piazza, who saved V. from the German threats. In 1919 the parish of S. M. Assunta di Malamocco, with the island of Poveglia, was united to the patriarchate, having been detached from the diocese of Chioggia; and in 1927 eleven parishes (among them Mestre), detached from Treviso.

Vittorio Piva

V. INSTITUTES

First among the most illustrious Venetian institutes is certainly the Marciana Library (now national): it contains an initial collection from the Republic, augmented by the bequest of Cardinal Bessarion of 900 manuscripts, for the most part Greek; to these were later added various private collections, among which, in the 19th century, that of the Dominicans at the Zattere, through which it became rich in numerous rare editions, such as the collection of Aldines and in particular the celebrated illuminated Breviary left by Cardinal Domenico Grimani. Kept at first near the church of St. Mark, it was transferred to the famous "Libreria" that the Senate had built in 1559 by Jacopo Sansovino. It was transferred in 1812 to the Doge's Palace when the building was added to the Royal Palace (Procuratie nuove). In 1904 it passed into the premises of the old Zecca, suitably adapted, and in 1929 it also received the old building of the Libreria, when the Procuratie were given another purpose.

The State Archives, founded in 1815, were housed in the old great convent of the Conventuals at the Frari and comprise the Archive of the Venetian Republic, unfortunately damaged by fires, such as the disastrous one of 1571, the holdings of numerous monasteries, convents and confraternities of the Dominante and of its dominion; a source of the very first order not only for the history of Venice and of Italy, but also for that of other states of the nearby Levant and of the East. In 1869 Giovanni Querini-Stampalia bequeathed to his city his library, rich in manuscripts, to which were joined an art gallery and a museum, which he had gathered to preserve the memories of the past, thus saving them from dispersal.

A rich collection of Venetian manuscripts (among which are also those of C. E. Cicogna) and of coins forms part of the Civico Museo Correr, begun in 1836 and which has now found a place in the Procuratie nuove on St. Mark's Square. Close to the Museo Correr is the Archaeological Museum, established with an initial bequest to the Republic by Cardinal Domenico Grimani (d. 1523) and by his nephew Giovanni, patriarch. In the Patriarchal Seminary and in the sacristy of the church of the Salute, the rich Manfredini Gallery and Museum was arranged in the 19th century. In the grandiose Palazzo Rezzonico a Museum of the Venetian 18th century was recently assembled; while in that of the Pesaro the Museum of Oriental Art and the Gallery of Modern Art found a place in 1928. A precious collection is also the one that Baron Franchetti put together in the restored Ca' d'oro, which was added to the marvellous Venetian collections.

Instead, in the suppressed church of the Carità and in the adjoining convent, the Academy of Fine Arts found a place, begun only in 1750, which with its annexed galleries replaces an artistic institute of the first order and of excellent traditions.

In 1840 the Venetian Institute of Sciences, Letters and Arts held its first meeting, which then continued its activity without interruption and published in its Memorie and Atti very important scientific contributions and historical and literary research. The Ateneo Veneto also publishes a special journal. In 1871 Riccardo Pulin founded a Society for Historical Studies, which undertook the publication of the Archivio veneto (1871-90), later becoming Nuovo Archivio veneto (1891-1921), Archivio veneto tridentino (1922-26) and then again Archivio veneto (1927 ff.). In 1873 the Society became the Deputazione di storia patria per la Venezia, proposing the publication of studies and research of greater scope, of chronicles, of documents concerning Venice and the Veneto region (it should however be remembered that Trento and Trieste continued their own publications independently); especially notable are the 8 vols. of regests of I libri commemorati della Repubblica di V., by R. Predelli (1876-1913) and the Diplomatarium veneto-levantinum of G. M. Thomas and R. Predelli (2 vols. 1880-99).

VI. ART

The city of V. rises amid the waters of the Venetian Lagoon, at equal distance from the mainland (to which it is today joined by two long bridges) and from the open sea (with which it communicates through "ports" that interrupt the narrow coastal strip).

When the populations of the shores near the hinterland sought escape from barbarian raids and especially from the Lombard invasion, certain lagoon islands, until then wretched districts of fishermen, offered safe asylum and in a short time were brought to great prosperity (Torcello). The political authority of these immigrants, which emanated from that of the Byzantine exarch of Ravenna, resided at first at Eraclea, then at Malamocco, on the sea; a locality that proved too exposed to the incursions of the Frankish fleet. The capital was then (812) transferred to Rivo Alto (Rialto) in the heart of a maze of canals, on the banks of a broad waterway (the Grand Canal) that with its sinuous course bisects a dense archipelago of islets. From here began the fortune of V., a most singular city.

V., which measures 3,800 meters in length and 2,300 in width, today comprises, within a perimeter of 11 km, 108 islets (to which are added those of S. Giorgio Maggiore and the Giudecca), separated by 150 canals and "rii" (as the minor canals are called), scarcely deep, from four to ten meters wide. The largest is the Grand Canal, whose width varies from thirty to seventy meters, and which crosses the city, emptying into the basin of S. Marco.

About 400 bridges of stone, of iron, and, today by now rare, of wood, join the opposite banks of the "canals"; majestic are the three bridges over the Grand Canal: Rialto, degli Scalzi (of stone), dell'Accademia (of wood). Once the bridges were fewer in number (until 1854 the Rialto Bridge alone spanned the waters of the Grand Canal) and the rii were far more numerous, of which not a few have been filled in (whence the name Rio Terrà), making the use of the ferry necessary, even in the more internal zones of the city. In the eighteenth century there were about a hundred of them. For the ferry service, today limited to the opposite banks of the Grand Canal, the "gondola," the typical Venetian boat, is still employed. The buildings rise exploiting to the utmost the restricted space, creating narrow alleys (calli), without any urban plan; the layout of the city has some affinity in appearance with the Byzantine emporia. Not a few are the blind alleys (calli morte) that end abruptly or lead onto the water. Sometimes a narrow margin of land (fondamenta) was respected in the founding of buildings along the canals. The paving of the streets began only in 1676; the name "salizzada" (via silicata) recalls the singularity of the streets that were paved first. "Ramo" is the name given to a short branch of a calle. The calli sometimes widen into small squares called "campi" and "campielli." At the center of these are still frequently found the marble "vère da pozzo" of every epoch and style, that is, the parapets that like a ring (véra) enclose the edge of the artesian wells. "Corte" is the name given to an enclosed open space among buildings. "Sottoportico" is a calle carved out of the body of a building. "Ruga" (as already in late Latin), a street of medium width. The term "piscina" recalls water basins reserved for fish-farming, today all filled in. The name "piazza" is given only to that of S. Marco, and "piazzetta" to the two adjacent ones, that of the Leoncini and that between the Doge's Palace and the Marciana Library.

The appearance of the city has continued to change over the course of the centuries. Every style has left its mark. Once enchanting vistas gladdened V. when the constructions of the last and present century had not yet appeared along the Grand Canal, when beside the penumbra of the calli that chase one another constrained between houses, leaning without interruption one against the other, gardens were numerous and unforeseen luminous spaces opened up. The excess of construction often stifled buildings, beautiful only if they can breathe in space and live on atmospheric reflection.

A city of the sweetest colors, from generation to generation it preserved and transmitted a chromatic sensibility that seemed innate to the Venetian soul and to the city, whence it is easily and mistakenly believed that the city itself could have determined the artistic sense constantly turned toward color of its major artists.

Every artistic current has contributed to giving V. its most singular physiognomy, perhaps losing every style of its genuineness and bending to collaborate in its fanciful scenography. From the Veneto-Byzantine to the Gothic, from the Renaissance to the Baroque and the Rococo, every style has been reduced under a constant coloristic interpretation, almost never plastic. The masonry does not convey weight and thickness: windows and loggias open densely on the façades of buildings avid for light, while the most subtle devices in decoration contribute to embellish, beneath the slow and gentle variation of the lighting scheme, even the most severe architectures. Exceptional therefore is this architecture that seems to elude every conventional definition. The "Venetian" red of the plasters, of the bricks, the window frames, the bas-reliefs, the mullioned windows worked like lace, the facing of the façades inlaid with other more precious marbles, the imperceptible projection of the skillful moldings, the chiaroscuro effectiveness of the façades of the Baroque age contribute to creating the suggestion of a coloristic drama, in their atmospheric felicity.

The history of sculpture and of painting is likewise equally singular, because Venetian art could be called pictorial by definition.

Every pronounced stylistic predilection that has any conceptual appearance, as for linear or for tactile values, found no welcome here. Generally considered, the arts in V. could all appear to move and articulate harmoniously in respect for a single principle: that of color. The city is divided into six districts, called "sestieri," three on this side of the Grand Canal (S. Marco, Castello, Cannaregio), and three on the other (S. Polo, S. Croce, Dorsoduro, to which is added the island of the Giudecca, separated from the rest of the city by a broad and deep canal that connects the industrial port of Marghera with the sea). For each sestiere the registry numbering is single and progressive, with the exception of the modern quarter of S. Elena. A series of recently built streets, obtained in part by filling in the rii, leads from the railway station to S. Salvador where the Mercerie begin, the main artery of the city, which opens into Piazza S. Marco. This is the historic and monumental center of the city. Here rise the Doge's Palace and the church of S. Marco which, with the Procuratie Vecchie, the Procuratie Nuove and the Napoleonic Wing, encloses the famous Piazza. The church of S. Marco dates in its original construction to the year 828, in which the remains of St. Mark the Evangelist were stealthily translated from Alexandria in Egypt, who replaced in primacy the old patron St. Theodore, the Venetians aiming at an elevation of their own prestige in relation to the patriarchate of Aquileia, placed under the protection of St. Hermagoras, a disciple of Mark.

After an initial rebuilding in the 10th century, which should not have altered the characteristics of the first structure, work was begun in 1063 on a larger construction for which a centralized plan was adopted, in the form of a Greek cross surmounted by five domes and smaller cupolas, with the nave area surrounded by an exonarthex: a plan believed to have been devised by Anthemius of Tralles, the Justinianic architect who had erected the church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople, which was likewise, like St. Mark's, a palatine chapel and not a cathedral church. At once the new Basilica began to be decorated with marble revetments, mosaic floors, and sculptures ranging from the bas-reliefs with Byzantine inlays, to the Romanesque arch of the central portal, down to the "flamboyant" Gothic crowning of the early 15th century.

The domes were covered with lead sheathing of Moorish profile. But St. Mark's owes its fame above all to the mosaics which, against a continuous gold background, completely cover its interior. From 1071 various workshops succeeded one another in this patient work, so that each century left its mark. Even among the oldest mosaics (11th-13th centuries) differences of style can be discerned, due in part to the periods and in part to the differing artistic tendencies of the workshops, which perhaps came from Ravenna, Rome, and Constantinople, before a true and proper Venetian school was formed. The work of mosaic decoration continued in the following centuries, both to fill gaps and to replace deteriorated parts; with results, however, of lesser fascination. Cartoons were supplied by Venetian and foreign painters from the 14th to the 19th century (M. Giambono, A. del Castagno, T. Vecellio, L. Lotto, P. Veronese, L. Bassano, P. Vecchia, G. B. Piazzetta). The iconographic program always remained unaltered, illustrating in the domes the Church Announced, the Church Militant and the Church Triumphant; along the walls and beneath the arches, the life of Jesus, of St. Mark, of St. Clement, and of the Baptist, while in the atrium are found the mosaics narrating the Old Testament.

The Doge's Palace was the seat of the highest magistracies and the residence of the doge. Its first construction in the form of a fortified castle dated back to the 9th century. After various vicissitudes, at the beginning of the 14th century, once the reasons that had recommended particular defensive works had ceased, the palace began to be built in its present appearance, in Gothic style. To Antonio Rizzo and his school (late 15th century) are due the Renaissance facades on the courtyard and on the Rio di Palazzo, and the Scala dei Giganti. A gallery suspended over the waters (the Bridge of Sighs) connects the Doge's Palace with that of the Prisons. Inside, the various halls were decorated by the most famous painters of the Venetian school: the masters of the 16th century predominate there. Among all the halls, those of the Anti-Collegio, the Collegio and the Council of Ten shine forth, decorated by Paolo Veronese and by Jacopo Tintoretto. An entire wall of the hall of the Greater Council is covered by one of the vastest paintings in the world, the work of Tintoretto: Il Paradiso. On the left the square is closed by the Procuratie Nuove (16th century); to the preceding century belong the Procuratie Vecchie that rise opposite. They take their name from the procurators of the fabric of St. Mark's and from the legal procurators of the Friars Minor who had their dwelling in these palaces. The Marciana Library, which rises opposite the Doge's Palace, is another work of the Renaissance (Jacopo Sansovino).

The campanile of St. Mark's, which rises at the corner of the square, has very ancient origins, was completed in various periods and completely rebuilt after the collapse of 1902, "as it was and where it was."

Very few original elements are preserved by the oldest churches of the city, which were of the Ravennate type with a basilical plan. Among the 90 churches of the city, particularly celebrated are those of Sts. John and Paul (early 15th century), a true "pantheon" of the glories of the Most Serene Republic (a construction in Venetian Gothic adorned with paintings by Bellini and sculptures by Antonio Rizzo), and the contemporary one of the Frari, which preserves works by Bellini, by Antonio Rizzo, and by Titian (the Assumption altarpiece and the Pesaro altarpiece).

Numerous are the minor Gothic churches, with their characteristic mixtilinear gable (S. Stefano, S. Giovanni in Bragora, Carità). At the end of the 15th century, Mauro Codussi gave the facade to the church of S. Zaccaria and built the churches of S. Michele in Isola, S. Giovanni Crisostomo, and S. Maria Formosa, pictorial inventions on the basis of the teachings of L. B. Alberti. In the 16th century Jacopo Sansovino provided the models for many churches; set apart, those due to Palladio shine with particular light: S. Giorgio Maggiore on the island of the same name opposite the piazzetta, and the Redentore at the Giudecca. To the 16th century also belongs that of S. Sebastiano, entirely decorated with paintings by Paolo Veronese.

Like a singular, fanciful "machine" rises on the Grand Canal the Baroque church of S. Maria della Salute, the work of Baldassare Longhena.

To the 17th century also belong the facades of S. Moisé and of S. Maria del Giglio. In the 18th century, the Baroque is refined and cooled in the churches of the Gesuiti (paintings by Piazzetta and Tiepolo), and of S. Stae (S. Eustachio), a veritable picture gallery of the Venetian 18th century.

Among religious architectures, those of the surviving schools of devotion should also be remembered: that of S. Rocco, the work of Scarpagnino, entirely decorated with paintings by Jacopo Tintoretto; and that of the Carmini with ceilings by G. B.

Tiepolo. Along the banks of the Grand Canal stand palaces that allow one to follow the styles of Venetian architecture in every period, from the Veneto-Byzantine ones of the 12th century (Ca' da Mosto, Ca' Loredan, Ca' Farsetti, Fondaco dei Turchi), with their characteristic windows with a raised arch on the impost block, to the Gothic ones, among which shines, besides the Doge's Palace, the Ca' d'Oro.

In the 15th century, Pietro Lombardo built palaces with facades inlaid with polychrome marbles (Palazzo Dario), while Mauro Codussi reveals true architectural genius in the Palazzo Vendramin-Calergi. In the following century Sanmicheli erected the Palazzo Grimani with a monumental sense, while Jacopo Sansovino bent his classicist manner to the specific requirements of the Venetian tradition (Palazzo Corner). In the 17th century, Baldassare Longhena exalted the pictorialism of Sanmicheli and Sansovino, impressing on his architectures a more vibrant rhythm and a more pronounced play of chiaroscuro (Ca' Pesaro, Ca' Rezzonico). In the 18th century Giorgio Massari gave the cold facade of Palazzo Grassi. The weak L. Santi proves himself incapable of bringing the Neoclassical style up to the level of the preceding tradition.

Constant over the course of the centuries was the layout of the Venetian patrician house: a portico that opens onto the water; a courtyard at whose center is the well; on the upper floors, corresponding to the portico, the "portigo," a kind of atrium that frees the various rooms. To this type also belong the "fondaci," emporia reserved for the various foreign nations, such as that of the Germans, probably the work of Scarpagnino.

At the Galleria dell'Accademia one can follow the development of Venetian painting from its origins (Master Paolo) to the artists of the fifteenth century (Vittore Carpaccio, Giovanni Bellini) who laid the foundations of the painting school, to Giorgione (The Tempest), Titian, Lorenzo Lotto, Tintoretto, Paolo Veronese, Jacopo Bassano, down to Tiepolo, Guardi and Canaletto, who close that glorious tradition. The Pinacoteca Querini-Stampalia also houses works for the most part by Venetian masters (Palma il Vecchio, P. Longhi). At the Ca' d'Oro a rich collection of Venetian sculptures and paintings by A. Mantegna, Cima da Conegliano and F. Guardi is arranged. Ca' Rezzonico is the seat of a permanent exhibition of the Venetian eighteenth century (paintings by G. Battista and G. Domenico Tiepolo, Pietro Longhi, Rosalba Carriera; sculptures by G. M. Morlaiter).

Ca' Pesaro is the seat of the International Gallery of Modern Art. Also noteworthy are the Archaeological Museum (with original works of Greek and Roman sculpture), the Historical-Naval Museum at the Arsenal, where memories of the gigantic workshop are collected, in whose shipyards the military works of the Republic were prepared; and the Museum of Natural History, dedicated to the flora and fauna of the Adriatic. - See plates CXXVI-CXXIX.

Michelangelo Muraro