Sanudo Diaries: March 29, 1505, 1515

One widow that did well enough and brought a large dowry in remarriage was Cecilia Priuli who in 1505 married Marin Sanudo. Only rarely did Sanudo ever comment on personal affairs and his announcement to the families and the public was brief.

Sanudo Diaries: March 29, 1505: (6:144); "... on the twenty-ninth, after dinner, I announced my betrothal in the presence of the families and pledged my hand publicly to my wife, Cecilia Prioli. And then the Senate met and elected the five savi ai ordeni."

Editor's footnote: "Cecilia Priuli was related to Antonio Grimani, a powerful figure who at that time was in exile but who would later be doge...". [p. 29]

And unfortunately she died within four years of marrying him. But apparently, through her, Sanudo gained at least one female daughter and perhaps another.

________________________________________________________________

In one of those odd asymmetries between then and now, for Holy Thursday, the new pope Francis celebrated by washing the feet of twelve juvenile detention inmates and for the first time the feet of two women. Usually this is done with a dozen priests at the St John in Lateran basilica in Rome but Francis wanted to make the point that he wanted the church to be in service to the people and especially the poor. And he told them he was doing it from the heart.

In 1522, a hospital was established to care for the syphilitic in Venice by two women who undertook to cure three other women. Within two years it had grown and gained attention and was called the hospital of the Incurable.

Editor's footnote: "Syphilis first appeared in the Venetian territories in 1495. Some historians have suggested that the disease came from South America or originated in Haiti; others, that it was already known in antiquity. In the seventeenth century, Africa was added as a candidate for its origins. What was certain was that it struck Western Europe as an epidemic, although the novelty of the disease at this date prevented Sanudo from realizing its potential mortatlity...." [p. 329]

Sanudo Diaries: March 24, 1524 (36:102-3); "Today after dinner in the hospital [of the Incurabili], the washing of the feet took place with great devotion. The patrician [hospital] guardians and others, twelve altogether, with great humility washed the feet of the impoverished and ill syphilitic men, and the gentlewomen washed the feet of the women, that is, the females sick with this disease. There was quite a crowd watching, and many were moved to piety seeing this pious work performed by the prominent people of the city....

This hospital is a wonder, having grown so greatly in two years. It was in Lent of 1522 that it was founded... Maria Malipiera Malipiero ... and ... Marina Grimana ... undertook... three poor women from San Roche.... to a house in Santo Spirito, where the hospital now stands. With the help of Don Caieta -- the apostolic protonotary from Vicenza, a learned and good servant of God, it grew to such a size that now it feeds eighty mouths ... including a doctor and apothecaries and others -- men and women -- who serve, and all this is done with alms [donations], which are very abundant."

__________________________________________________________________

In 1515 someone had suggested the Jews should all be moved to Giudecca "... where it was believed the original Jewish merchants from the Levant had first established themselves." [p.338]

But by the next spring in 1516 movements and interests had mobilized to such an extent that it was deemed necessary "... to placate a deity viewed as angry with the city's sinful ways (including its toleration of a Jewish presence)." It does not seem out of place for Sanudo or cause any reflection for him about the nature of a formally  'Jealous God' and to whom or for what He or the city might otherwise do to reconcile the city's Jewish inhabitants. They just went ahead with the law they seem to have made up for the occasion -- the one aimed at complete segregation. Next it was proposed they be put in the old iron foundry which thereafter was called the Ghetto Nuovo.

Sanudo Diaries: March 26, 1516 (22:72); "News of the morning: ser Zacaria Dolfin, the savio di Consiglio, proposed in the Collegio in recent days that it is bad to have the Jews in this city, given that preachers are preaching that the afflictions of our state derive from this and from their having synagogues, which is not in conformity with the laws. He is thus of the opinion that they should all be sent to live in the Ghetto Nuovo, which is like a castle, and [that it be closed] off with a wall and drawbridges. They are to have only one gate, which is to be closed so that they remain within; and two of the boats of the Council of Ten are to go there and stay there all night. [The boatmen] are to be paid for by the Jews since they will benefit from the added security measure. As a result the doge and some councillors, warming to the idea, sent for the owners of the houses of the Ghetto."

Those who didn't live there were fine with the idea but those who did were afraid everything they had put into the place might be lost. Leaders of the Jewish people complained at great length and in many ways. The bill passed a few days later.

Sanudo Diaries: March 29, 1516 (22: 85): "According to the provisions of various laws of the Senate and our council, Jews are not permitted to live in this our city beyond a total of fifteen days over the course of a year. ... However ... the extremely urgent conditions of the times, Jews were allowed to come and live in Venice. This happened principally so that the possessions of Christians, which were in the hands of the Jews, would be preserved. However it cannot have been the wish of any citizen of our state who wants to live in the fear of God that, once the Jews had arrived here, they would disperse themselves throughout the entire city, sharing houses with Christians and going about day and night wherever they wish.... Therefore it is entirely necessary that appropriate and valid measures be taken.

To avoid such disorderly and unsuitable situations, it is proposed that the following provisions and decisions be made: that all Jews who currently live in the various parishes ... are obligated and must go immediately to live together in the group of houses that are in the Ghetto, near San Hironimo, a very spacious locale for them to inhabit."

Walls would be built to close off the ends that were open to canals, boats used to patrol at night and a gate drawn up at night as well would both make sure that no one could attack and plunder them and that no one could escape.
When was the last time I saw a picture of Gaza and their checkpoints in the press? Or even gated communities, places where curfews are normal. Detroit, Mali, Tunisia, Eastern Congo? I don't know.
In a footnote [p. 340], the Editors say that Brian S. Pullan confirmed this double function in Rich and Poor in Renaissance Venice: the social institutions of a Catholic state, p. 487, Oxford: Blackwell, 1971.

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