Venice: The election of the first Doge

Edgecumbe Stanley’s history if the dogeressas has a lengthy section on the election of the first doge, but it’s not of great interest to us. I’ve cut it down so it contains only the pieces which Ars Magica characters, six hundred years later, might interact with.

“The Greek protection of Veneto and the lagunes was withdrawn in 641…Parliaments representative of every class—work-people, middle class, and patricians,—with the clergy at their head, were called together for deliberation and unity of action…wisely chosen, one from each of twelve most important settlements, who had exercised their tribuneship to good account, forgathered at Eraclea to elect a worthy guardian of the State, a leader—”Dux,” ” Doxe ” or ”Doge” of the Venetians.”

So, we see here why the Venetians are the last republic in the West. People of all classes elect the twelve tribunes, and then they elect a Doge. The title of Doge is actually a Roman one (in the Byzantine sense). It means “leader” and is the same word that leads to the English “duke”. It was given by the Greeks before their protection fell away as the Empire contracted.

The women and the girls of the islands brought with them to Eraclea armfuls of sea-pinks and sprays of jessamine, red poppies and yellow flags, fragrant orange flowers and the sweet bays of myrtle, gathered from their gardens. They wove gay garlands with the tenacious dune rushes and coiled them about with the tendrils of the vine. Every street shrine in Eraclea. every Virgin ikon in her modest homes, was adorned with floral offerings, and the altars of her sanctuaries were covered with pure white fragrant lilies.

Stanley notes that flowers are a luxury, but a mandatory one, in Venice. The salt winds of the city destroy most weak plants, and so flowers are time consuming and difficult to grow. Dogaressa Elena, who we will meet slightly later, is one of the first to make the little courtyard at the centre of Venetian houses into a flower garden. This sets a fashion. This is also why our putative Dianic cult of Venetian witches all have alchemichal, perfumed gardens and pots of herbs in their altanes.

The twelve electors held their parliament in the modest basilica and cast their votes in secret, but all were satisfied when Paolo Lucio Anafesto of Aquileia was hailed as the first of Venice Doges — judge, general, and pope combined. Promptly the Patriarch of Grado blessed the new Head of the State, and the twelve electors joined in crowning him with the ” Corno’—the horned Phrygian bonnet of renown and liberty.

So, the Doge wasn’t actually the pope of Venice, but remember that the Church of Venice had no land, and relatively little wealth, so the doges eventually become its great patrons.

The Phyrigian cap is the symbol of House Mercere. We’ve talked about the red cap being descended from the Milvi, the Egyptian magicians who joined the Cult of Mercury in the House books. For shape and material bonuses, It’s a hat, effectively, but a lot of people wear a pin in it, and that can be made of metals, which allows more potent effects to be enchanted into the item.

The Phrygian cap was given to Roman slaves upon manumission, and represented liberty. It was the symbol of the Roman republic, and was used by the people who killed Ceasar to signal the return to the older ideal. In Venice it is deliberately not a crown. Remember that in medieval France and England, even some barons have crowns. The hat also has a link with Mithranism, which I can’t use yet, but want to record as a promising thread.

The day’s solemnities performed all held picnic in the woods ; Eraclea kept open house. Night fell all too soon and lines of gaily-lighted gondolas made off to homes across the phosphorescent waves and the summer moon smiled upon a scene of perfect peace and content.

Picnics in the woods are popular with the Venetians after major events. Is this a Diana cult link again?

Alas for the stability of mundane matters—two short years were scarcely spent when Doge Anafesto met with his death, lamentably enough, in a conflict between the citizens of Eraclea and Jesolo…Three Doges only ruled at Eraclea, and then in 742 the seat of the Government was removed to Malamocco as being less open to attack, and more favourably placed for the development of trade with the east. The Doge was elected for life and his family, if of plebeian origin, ennobled : his wife however had no precedence and was regarded pretty much as one of her spouse’s goods and chattels.

The mosaics at San Marco’s show that velvets and brocades were worn with handsome furs and folds of lace. Blue was the favourite colour with all classes—a cerulean tint, like the reflection of the azure skies in the still waters of the lagunes.

I note this because it helps us imagine what our characters wear. Cerulean blue is the theme colour for Venice, apparently. Modern cerulean is a dye that only comes into use in the 17th century, so I’m not sure of the source of the period dye. For fellow design nerds, I’d like to point out that the colour Stanley is discussing is far darker than Pantone’s cerulean (9BC4E2 – Pantone’s “Colour of the Millenium” and “Hue of the Future” which seems a big call. Then again, this year’s colour was Classic Blue, so I shouldn’t complain.) I’m sure the mehtod of making Venetian blue will turn up in our searches. At worst it’s likely in Findlay’s Colour. which I have a copy of about the place. I’ve snuck the two ceruleans into the graphic above.