Venice as the polity of mercy : guilds, confraternities, and the social order, c. 1250-c. 1650

__Venice, Polity of Mercy__ presents a history of the people of Venice from the mid-thirteenth century to the mid-seventeenth, and provides a new perspective on the changing relationship of their economic, political and religious life.

This study re-examines Venice’s political economy from the viewpoint of its ordinary people or popolani who, despite the commonly held view that they were excluded from political life by the nobility or nobili, actually organized and ran for themselves hundreds of corporations within the city-state. Mercy was central to this popolani’s Christian values and those who offered mercy to their fellow men and women in temporary hardship were investing in the expectation of reciprocity in their own time of need. Beginning by tracing a formative linking of religion, economy, and polity from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries, Venice as the Polity of Mercy then chronicles the collapse of this triad during the struggles between church and state in the mid-sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, followed by a revitalizing reconnection of economy and polity within a different religious climate after the plague of 1630. As such, Richard Mackenney’s book offers up a revitalized image of Renaissance Venetian society as dynamic rather than static, as well as a new understanding of the city’s significance through a reconfiguration of its history and artwork.

This study re-examines the political economy of Venice from the point of view of the hundreds of corporations which ordinary people - despite their apparent "exclusion" from political life - organized and ran for themselves. Mercy was central to their Christian values. Those who offered mercy to their brethren - and sisters - in temporary hardship were investing in the expectation of reciprocity in their own time of need. Venice as the Polity of Mercy traces a formative linking of economy, polity, and religion in the thirteenth century, then the expansion and extension of a network of overlapping institutions in the fourteenth and fifteenth. There followed a dislocation during the struggles of Church and State between the mid-sixteenth century and the mid-seventeenth, and a revitalizing reconnection of economy and polity in a different religious climate after the plague of 1630. The book offers a picture of circulation and movement rather than of stability and continuity, and a new understanding of the significance of Venice through a reconfiguration of Venetian history and the history of Venetian art Contents List of Figures List of Tables and Appendices Acknowledgments Introduction: Economy, Polity, and Religion, c. 1250–c. 1650 1. Venice as Mercantile System, c. 1250–c. 1300 2 Proliferation and Punctuation, c. 1300–c. 1500 3. Who Were the Venetians, c. 1500–c. 1600? 4. Officers and Office in the Mercers’ Guild, c. 1450–c. 1600 5. Monuments to Mercy, c. 1500–c. 1600 6. The Venetians and the Confessional State, c. 1550–c. 1600 Conclusion: A Final Realignment of Economy, Polity, and Religion? c. 1600–c. 1700 Maps List of Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Index