Grand Procession of the Doge, 16th century

For about a thousand years, the chief magistrate and leader of the Most Serene Republic of Venice was styled the Doge, a rare but not unique Italian title derived from the Latin Dux, as the major Italian parallel Duce and the English Duke. Doges of Venice were elected for life by the city-state's aristocracy. Commonly the person selected as Doge was the shrewdest elder in the city. The Venetian combination of elaborate monarchic pomp and a republican (though 'aristocratic') constitution with intricate checks and balances makes La serenissima Venice a textbook example of a crowned republic. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1724x2460, 483 KB) Summary Grand Procession of the Doge, Venice (Sixteenth Century). ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1724x2460, 483 KB) Summary Grand Procession of the Doge, Venice (Sixteenth Century). ... Chief Magistrate is a generic designation for a Magistrate whose office -individual or collegial- is the highest in his class, in either of the fundamental meanings of Magistrate (which often overlapped in the Ancient régime): as a major political and administrative office (in a republican form of government, at... Borders of the Republic of Venice in 1796 Capital Venice Language(s) Venetian, Latin Religion Roman Catholic Government Republic Doge  - 1789–97 Ludovico Manin History  - Established 697  - Treaty of Zara June 27, 1358  - Treaty of Leoben April 17, 1797 * Traditionally, the establishment of the Republic is dated to 697. ... The word doge (pronounced /dôdj/ in English, /do-dje/ in Italian; plural dogi or doges) is a dialectical Italian word (in standard Italian it became duce) that comes from Latin dux, meaning leader, especially military, and giving rise to the noble or princely title duke in English. ... The Misspeling of Ducks ... Duce is an Italian word meaning leader, derived from Latin word dux of the same meaning, of which Duke is a derivation. ... A duke is a nobleman, historically of highest rank and usually controlling a duchy. ... A crowned republic is an informal term for a nation that was/is nominally a republic, but whose head of state was/is de facto hereditary, or otherwise assumed/assumes the trappings of a monarchy. ...

Origins

According to the chronicler John the Deacon, author of the Chronicon Venetum ("Chronicle of Venice"), written about AD 1000, the office of doge was first instituted in Venice about 700, replacing tribunes that had led the cluster of early settlements in the lagoon. 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 a power structure termed caesaropapism. John, deacon of Venice (d. ... Europe in 1000 The year 1000 of the Gregorian Calendar was the last year of the 10th century as well as the last year of the first millennium. ... Venice (Italian: Venezia, Venetian: Venezsia, Latin: Venetia) is a city in northern Italy, the capital of region Veneto, and has a population of 271,251 (census estimate January 1, 2004). ... // Events Saint Adamnan convinces 51 kings to adopt Cáin Adomnáin defining the relationship between women and priests. ... Byzantine Empire at its greatest extent c. ... Caesaropapism is the concept of combining the power of secular government with, or making it supreme to, the spiritual authority of the Christian Church; most especially, the inter-penetration of the theological authority of the Christian Church with the legal/juridical authority of the government; in its extreme form, it...

Choosing of the Doge

The doge's prerogatives 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. Events Duke Richard of Aquitaine becomes Duke of Poitiers. ... Ratchet: Deadlocked is a videogame being developed by insomniac games ... To tie or draw is to finish a competition with identical or inconclusive results. ... Events February 18 - The Sixth Crusade: Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor signs a ten-year truce with al-Kamil, regaining Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem with neither military engagements nor support from the papacy. ...

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. Conradin (right) is executed by Charles I of Sicily, thus extinguishing the Hohenstaufen dynasty, in 1268. ... 1797 (MDCCXCVII) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 11-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Sortition is the method of random selection, particularly in relation to the selection of decision makers also known as allotment. ...

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.

Doge's Palace Complex

Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1280x960, 347 KB) photo by Radomil 26. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1280x960, 347 KB) photo by Radomil 26. ... Doges Palace. ...

Regulations

While doges had great temporal power at first, after 1268, the doge was constantly under strict surveillance: he must wait for other officials to be present before opening dispatches from foreign powers; he was not allowed to possess any property in a foreign land. Conradin (right) is executed by Charles I of Sicily, thus extinguishing the Hohenstaufen dynasty, in 1268. ...

The doges normally ruled for life (although a few were forcibly removed from office). 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.

From July 7, 1268, during a vacancy in the office of doge, the state was headed ex officio, with the style vicedoge, by the senior consigliere ducale (ducal counsellor). is the 188th day of the year (189th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Conradin (right) is executed by Charles I of Sicily, thus extinguishing the Hohenstaufen dynasty, in 1268. ...

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. Departure of the Bucentaur, by Francesco Guardi (1712-1793): in the distance at the right, the Doges Palace, the Piazzetta, the campanile and the domes of St Marks The Bucentaur (from Venetian bucintoro) was the state galley of the doges of Venice, on which, every year on Ascension... A satellite image of the Adriatic Sea. ... Dalmatia, highlighted, on a map of Croatia. ... Pietro II Orseolo was the Doge of Venice from 991 to 1009. ... Europe in 1000 The year 1000 of the Gregorian Calendar was the last year of the 10th century as well as the last year of the first millennium. ... For other meanings see Ascension (disambiguation) The Ascension is one of the great feasts in the Christian liturgical calendar, and commemorates the bodily Ascension of Jesus into Heaven forty days after his resurrection from the dead. ... Alexander III, né Orlando Bandinelli (c. ... The Holy Roman Emperor was, with some variation, the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire, the predecessor of modern Germany, during its existence from the 10th century until its collapse in 1806. ... Frederick Barbarossa in a 13th century chronicle. ... Events November 25 - Baldwin IV of Jerusalem and Raynald of Chatillon defeat Saladin at the Battle of Montgisard. ... The term prince, from the Latin root princeps, is used for a member of the highest ranks of the aristocracy or the nobility. ...

From the 14th century onwards the ceremonial crown and well-known symbol of the doge of Venice was called corno ducale, a unique kind of a ducal hat. It was a stiff horn-like bonnet, which was made of gemmed brocade and worn over the camauro, a fine linen cap. Every Easter Monday the doge headed a procession from San Marco to the convent of San Zaccaria where the abbess presented him a new corno crafted by the nuns. The ducal hat of the Duchy of Styria is jagged crown made out of gilded silver. ... A camauro (from the Latin camelaucum, from Greek kamelauchion, meaning camel skin hat) is a cap traditionally worn by the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. ...

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 Ludovico Manin, who abdicated on May 12, 1797, when Venice passed under the power of Napoleon's France following his conquest of the city. Lodovico Manin was the last Doge of The Most Serene Republic of Venice. ... May 12 is the 132nd day of the year (133rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1797 (MDCCXCVII) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 11-day-slower Julian calendar). ...

While Venice would again shortly declare itself a republic, attempting to resist annexation by Austria, it would never revive the dogal style, but various titles including dictator and collective heads of state, including a triumvirate. Dictator is originally the title of a magistrate in ancient Rome appointed by the Senate to rule the state in times of emergency. ...

See also

• List of Doges of Venice
• Doge of Genoa
• Senarica
• Signoria of Venice

This is a list of the Doges of Venice, ordered by the dates of their reigns. ... Flag of Genoa. ... A former tiny city-state republic in Italy, Senarica is now contained by the commune of Crognaleto in the Italian province of Teramo. ... The Signoria of Venice (Serenissima Signoria) was the supreme body of government of the Republic of Venice. ...

Sources and references

• Apostolo Zeno, Compendio della storia Veneta, self-published, Venezia, 1847.
• WorldStatesmen-Italy

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. Apostolo Zeno (born in Venice, December 11, 1668; died in Venice, November 11, 1750) was an Italian poet, librettist, journalist, and man of letters. ... 1847 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Encyclopædia Britannica, the eleventh edition The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911) is perhaps the most famous edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...