Scuole: Guilds & Confraternities

One of the most remarkable facts about the Republic of Venice is that the people, completely shut out of power by the ‘Locking’ of the Maggior Consiglio in 1297 never revolted in the 500 years that followed.

There were occasional riots, especially by the seafarers in the Renaissance, who were universally mistreated and often cheated. But by and large, the Venetians lived much better and with more security than their mainland counterparts.

When Napoleon barged in on the scene to introduce the democratic joys of the French Revolution, it was ironically the people who wept, whereas many patricians were so relieved they danced with the soldiers around the Liberty Tree in Piazza San Marco.

The secret of Venice’s popular success was a precocious sense of social justice. Venice’s merchant aristocrats, who never claimed any kind of divine right or natural superiority, knew the best way to retain their monopoly of power and their profits was to devote themselves to the public good: the only real privilege a patrician had was to serve the state.