Sanudo Diaries: official posts, prelude to July 10, 1513

nedits: What did Marin Sanudo do? What was his resume? In 1499, Sanudo was at last able to report on activities as an elected (but new and temporary) member of the savi ai ordeni. But this savi was the most junior of official posts, "...this body of five patricians dealt with matters pertaining to any part of the dominion that had to be reached by water; it was also in charge of naval supplies and overseas trade." Appendix B p. 548

Editor's note: "The savi ai ordeni or Savi da Mar, sometimes translated as 'Sages of the Maritime Ordinances,' constituted one of the three branches of the Collegio, the leading policymaking organ in Venice, which prepared all business for discussion in the Senate.... This position was the acknowledged first rung of the Venetian political ladder, Sanudo called it "a most ancient and authoritative office" (2:240).... " p.6

nedits: What work led Sanudo here? Twelve years before that, at age 21, on July 8, 1487, Sanudo had become a lawyer in the judicial magistracies of the Ducal Palace, by right of his education and patrician class status. In March 1498, after eleven years of this he was selected a signore di notte, a night-watchman (1:906).

Editor's note: "He was one of six, each from a different sestiere of the city, who literally watched by night (accompanied by a small guard) over morals and malefactors, prohibiting dangerous nocturnal dances, affairs between Christians and people of other religions, restraining violence and ribaldry, and judging offences of these types. Sanudo held this office for six months (nearly all Venetian offices rotated fairly rapidly, lasting from six months to a year), until on September 27, 1498, he was chosen as one of the savi ai ordeni." p.6

nedits: That first term would last for six months, but he would continue to sit in and report on the proceedings whether as a member or not in the ensuing years unless away from the city at some foreign post. . For example,

Editor's note: "Later that year... in August 1499 there was a naval encounter between the Venetian armada, led by [later doge] Antonio Grimani, and the Turkish fleet at Zonchio, between the Peloponnesus and the Greek mainland. The Venetian armada was badly defeated, to the dismay and anger of the government.... As a savi ai ordeni, Sanudo supported the proposal that additional defensive forces be sent to Corfu and that four of the disgraced naval leaders be dismissed.... Sanudo was selected savi ai ordeni three more times and after a sixteen month term as treasurer of Verona (1501-2), he served as a savi ai ordeni yet three more times. His political fortunes, however, seemed to have leveled out with these relatively minor positions." p. 9-10

nedits: He got married in 1505 to a wealthy widow and did less in politics or service but continued with the diaries. 

This included dividing up the house he shared with relatives as recorded on July 15, 1506.

She died in 1508, but that was the year of the beginning of the war of the League of Cambrai, 

what he would describe as a great conflagration for Venice and all of Italy. 

Although after the great defeat to the French near Agnadello in May 1509, 

Venice did beat back her adversaries and recovered much of her seized land on terrafirma. 

But by the summer of 1513, forces of the Emperor were back again, Threatening Treviso and Padova.

Editor's note: "But as the foreign armies swayed the fortunes of war back and forth, Sanudo felt all the more compelled to continue his writing .... At the same time, he felt equally compelled to intervene on behalf of his country, and so in the summer of 1513, when Venetian Terrafirma territories close to home were once again at risk, he made his first speech in the Great Council. He was forty-seven years old." p. 10


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