Uprising In Friuli: Sanudo Diaries: March 1511

It was the first week in March of 1511, and there were tensions in Friuli. Since 1420 the larger than usual subalpine region of the Patria of Friuli had been protected by Venice. Considered an essential member of that necklace of numerous cities that continued to be effectively held in orbit by Venice in stasis as separate client city-states, Friuli had split into factions.

Our Editors for Sanudo refer us here to Edward Muir's 1993 book Mad blood stirring: vendetta and factions in Friuli during the Renaissance from Johns Hopkins University, for their brief introduction of the topic. It was the time of the War of the League of Cambrai where a number of forces in the larger world had decided to put some limits on the power and prestige of Venice. This time it was the Germans massing their army, riding into the plain. And just then the troubles boiled over as,

Editor's note: "... two Friulan clans, the della Torre and the Savorgnan, erupted in a vendetta of pillage and bloodshed, which the Venetian authorities attempted, with varying degrees of success, to control." [p. 97]

The dutiful luogotenente, or lieutenant of the Patria of Friuli sent letters, Sanudo tells us, that were read for the council of Ten at the Collegio in Venice, and it was awful news. The head of the della Torre clan don Alvise and a number of relatives and castellan had been killed, eight in all. Twenty-two houses of the family and their partisans were  pillaged and burned. The Signoria had brought the heads together at one point to work out their differences, but to no avail.

Now, 200 German cavalry and 500 infantry were closing in on Udine, the center of the Friulian plain. But when the people were arming themselves and readying to guard the gates of the city, something was said against pasrtisans of the Savorgnan and a fight broke out. The deaths and fires then took place. Property of don Antonio Savornan was also destroyed, according to the lieutenant's report. The Editors remind us in a footnote [p. 98] that the chronology of events isn't entirely clear as Sanudo himself continues to report on events and backstory for the next several days. And they refer us again to the book of scholarship of Edward Muir again.

Sanudo Diaries: March 1, 1511 (12:5-6): "The luogotenente writes that all of Udine was armed and involved in the uprising, that public artillery was used to knock down the door of the house...".

The lieutenant had sent for infantry to come from nearby to help guard the city.The Council agreed to reconvene later in the day and the debate then went on for hours. At last they decided to send one of the Ten to discharge orders given him. This person was Andrea Loredan, former luogotenente, selected by ballot.

Sanudo Diaries: March 1, 1511 (12:8): "Some would have preferred someone else, saying that he is a friend of the Savorgnan, but it seems to me that his friendship with Savorgnan is probably the chief reason why he was chosen."

The situation got worse as more letters were received in ensuing days. Two more castles of the della Torre clan, outside Udine had been taken and the matron of the family - the recent widow of don Alvise - was captured and tortured to reveal the locations of her children. If the opposition could find and kill or capture their children, then the leaders no longer would have to worry about retribution from that family. The Collegio talked at length again about this and decided to send a notary to the State Attorney's Office along to help with Andrea Loredan. A notary could write down official agreements and proclamations, to ensure their legality. Also a constable was selected to go with 200 local infantry gathered locally. And with a marvelous detail, the picture in Venice is completed.

Sanudo Diaries: March 3, 1511 (12:15): "Thus the drummer went around the town..."

Which meant literally that a drummer was sent from place to place in the city to announce and recruit volunteers to go and help stop the conflict in Friuli. Apparently this is what they did in these situations.  Fluid bands of men were gathered up and in short order sent to restore order. Their payment, it was understood in those days, would come, if possible through what they might pillage in heroic deeds of valor. More letters arrived.

Most of the peasants had been sent away from that area, one imagines to keep them out of harm's way, but as it turns out, because some "...wanted to sack the Jews." The leogotenente in the name of the Council and the Signoria of Venice told them all that this should not be allowed. But apparently the peasants would not listen. Today, this turn of events may be difficult to understand.

The reality is far simpler. Christians could not charge interest in transactions or loans in the market. It was considered a Catholic sin (until the 20th century, after WWI) for Christians to charge interest on loans. Jews were not forbidden by the Torah from that as an activity and thus became essential to those markets. As a result, they became wealthy when others in a community like the peasants toiled without such gains. In just a few generations, by their own vigor, education and good sense, a Jewish community could flourish in an amenable village or city in Italy, or the rest of Europe. With the sudden upheaval of these old local houses - the record doesn't call them Jews - the pillaging that took place in those houses excited the locals into thinking they too, could have a chance at some loot. The other houses nearby, that the peasants knew where wealth might be hid, often was those of Jews who worked in the markets and helped with loans. It really is an old story showing deep disparity of wealth and the desperate means which people were willing to go to secure it. Especially during uncertain times of larger war. In this case with foreign armies just over the horizon.

Then more letters were received, this time from ser Loredan detailing where he had stopped other peasants trying to sack a castle and again south of Udine, were more doing the same.

Sanudo Diaries: March 7, 1511 (12:31): "Yet the entire Patria is in arms. On March 5 he entered Udine and was met by the leogotenente and don Antonio Savorgnan and all the others... He [Loredan] will try to hold the trial and to complete the return to peace, which he has been commissioned to do."

These were the days that Leonardo Loredan was doge. Another reason why a Loredan might be sent to tighten things up in Friuli. A certain Andrea Loredan was also responsible for this building, designed by Mauro Codussi, to be built some thirty years before. This temporal distance makes it unlikely it is the same Andrea as the Ten member who went to Friuli in 1511, but Leonardo did help pay for construction. That would be the house that Richard Wagner would die in, in 1883 and which now houses the Wagner Museum in Venice.
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notes from 'our editors' and Sanudo Diaries 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