Sanudo Diaries: a wedding 1514; death of doge Loredan, election of a new doge, June-July 1521

nedits: Leonardo Loredan had been doge of Venice for twenty years (1501-1521) and seen the empire through some of her most troubling times. With him now dead, once again the laborious process of picking a new doge began. That portrait of him (at the link) is very famous and nearly twenty years before he died. Skinny, stern, fearsome, powerful, in those times. As far as I know he still sits in the church known as San Zanipolo. A once famous person, in a famous place in a famous city, in a famous country on a famous continent.

Sanudo Diaries: June 24, 1521: (30:394); "The funeral ceremony had been ordered for tomorrow, after none [noon]; a message has been sent to all senators to come at none. The body of the doge has begun to stink, and the face has become distorted, to the point that it is fearsome to behold, even though just yesterday he looked as if he were sleeping. And so, at five hours after sundown, his sons had him put in a coffin sealed with pitch upon his own catafalque. On top of the coffin were placed the gold cloth, the robe, the cushion, sword, spurs paired with the scarlet stockings, and the corno on the cushion."

Editor's note: "The next day after was the feast day of St Mark, but no celebration took place: it was the day of the doge's funeral. Sanudo summarizes the letters that came in from abroad. The obsequies for the dead doge continued.... The body lay in state in the Sala di Piovegi and then was carried by the Arsenal sailors  to the church of Zane Polo, where it was interred." p. 58 [here's a link to google images etc.]

"The election of a doge was no simple matter: it involved a complicated sequence of committees designed (since 1268) to moderate factions and rivalries. Thirty members of the Great Council, none of whom could be related, were chosen by lot and then reduced by lot to nine. These nine then elected forty, each of whom had to receive at least seven votes. Twelve of the forty were then chosen by lot to elect twenty-five more, who had to receive at least nine votes each. The twenty-five were reduced by lot to nine, who elected forty-five, each having at least seven votes. Eleven of the forty-five were chosen by lot to elect another forty-one, each receiving at least nine votes. These forty-one... had to elect a doge by a majority of at least twenty-five votes." p. 59

nedits: a view from inside the doge's palace, looking into the central courtyard.

Editor's note: "At the same time, the Great Council made arrangements for the government's fundamental work to continue ... the Senate and the Council of Ten could be convened while the doge's office was vacant and his successor's election was in progress." p. 60

"After a week of considerable delays and maneuvering, Doge Antonio Grimani was elected...." p. 61

nedits: The festivities began on July 6, 1521 and lasted three days.

___________________________________________________________________________

1514

Editor's note: "The principal occasion for a patrician festa was a wedding, the bonding - economically and politically, as well as socially - of two prominent families. Sanudo describes a number of these occasions, carefully recording the dowries, which, in spite of legislation to control them, grew to significant sizes; the number of guests; the elegant costumes of the bride, the groom, and the attendants; the courses served at dinner; and the wedding entertainments. All these were set forth as a statement of the city's wealth and power." pp. 295-6

nedits: in 1999, Renaissance Quarterly published an article by our editors and translator of their ongoing work with Sanudo's Diaries, entitled, "How to (and how not to) get married in sixteenth-century Venice", RQ: 52:43-72.

Editor's note: "So important were weddings as a barometer of public mood that in 1511, two years into the war of the league of Cambrai and two years after Venice's disastrous defeat at Agnadello at the hands of a French army, Sanudo reported on two weddings with "many women and maskers at both, so that although the city has expenses and is in mourning, three very beautiful momarie were put on today and ... they have cheered the city considerably." (March 3, 1511; 12:16)." p. 296

nedits: Five years into that war of the League of Cambrai, with alliances shifted and broken and remade all over, disasters, advances, temporary truces and setbacks weathered, an excuse for a good time was offered after the Feast of St Mark in 1514. A wedding.

Sanudo Diaries: June 26, 1514: (18:299-300) "Today the entire city is celebrating because after this morning's wedding of ser Beneto Grimani to the daughter of ser Vetor Pixani, the members of his compagnia decided, after many difficulties, that they would obtain from ser Vetor the party that they had planned for today on the Grand Canal. They prepared a bucintoro by adorning a wine barge with tapestries and covering tables with galley awnings and pennants. It was a very attractive sight, and they made places to seat the women, and they procured everything necessary to hold a supper on it.... The barge was towed by six boats from San Nicolo.... They left from San Benedetto and followed the Grand Canal to the columns of San Marco, dancing all the while and stopping in many places. Then they turned around and came back along the Grand Canal as far as Santa Croce. Many boats followed them to watch, and women and others came to the balconies of their house to see the spectacle."

nedits: There was another compagnia of young men who hussled up another barge, bedecked it, got the ladies on board and took off down the Rialto to meet up with the first one. Trains of boats followed them, and much hilarity ensued. Sanudo seems almost hasty to mention that they paid for this second boat themselves. He usually does mention who pays for a thing, whether the state pays, who has ownership, etc. It was a mark of honor that would be remembered if you paid for it. Families would be associated with foreign or local ventures and projects and remembered for it. We have brands now. They had family names (but not coats of arms anymore in Venice) and orders and guilds. A 1268 ban on displaying family coats of arms on buildings had been put in place due to family and faction fights. If you've seen a Romeo & Juliet like the Zeffirelli version, you'll have a pretty good idea how that might happen. 

But in this story, another boat joined in and the party on the Rialto lasted all night, until sunup the following day.


All quotes as Sanudo Diaries or Editor's notes or Editor's Footnotes from Venice, Cita Excellentissima, Selection from the Renaissance Diaries of Marin Sanudo translated by Linda L Carroll,  editors: Patricia H LaBalme and Laura Sanguineti White, published by Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008