Page 26 - 1

552 David Laven

confronto dell’antica possanza» had meant that armed neutrality was
not only wise but the only realistic course: in essence it reflected the
wisdom enshrined in Venice’s widely-admired constitution . Why was
36
Venice not more resilient? If much of Tentori’s book stressed the un-
scrupulous conduct of the French, he also highlighted the degenera-
tion Venice’s élites. The «lunga pace» and «il continuo ozio» accompa-
nied «gravi disordini, i quali indebolivano le pubbliche deliberazioni» .
37
Venice suffered from «un certo egoismo, sempre fatale alle Repubbli-
che», «un riflessibile raffreddamento» in patrician zeal, indulgent ma-
gistrates, a cavalier attitude to state secrets,

un serpeggiante stravizzo, una noncuranza delle cose sacre e religiose, un im-
moderato spirito di passatempi, una scandalosa impudenza nelle donne, un
libertinaggio […] 38 .

Venice became «una spezie di Oligarchia, quanto funesta alla
Causa Pubblica, altrettanto contraria alla Costituzione della Re-
pubblica» . Venice’s collapse reflected the corruption of its élites, a
39
failure of will, rather than military impotence. Tentori deplored the
brutal hypocrisy of the French, but ultimately he blamed «lo stato
d’inerzia» of the Senate and the Maggior Consiglio’s unconstitutional
vote to dissolve itself.
40

Tentori’s lament contrasted with Marin’s. Few people today read
Marin’s eight-volume Storia civile e politica del commercio de’ Venezi-
ani . He is remembered only as the model for Ippolito Nievo’s tragi-
41
comic Count Rinaldo in Le confessioni d’un Italiano. All but the last of
Marin’s volumes were published under Austrian rule; the last came
out when Napoleon ruled Venice. Yet, despite being written from the
perspective of foreign domination, Marin's history remained nostalgi-
cally patriotic. In the volumes published under the Austrians, Marin
proudly described himself as «Patrizio Veneto».
At the basis of Marin’s approach was the need to place the history
of commerce centrally to the history of the Republic:

36 Ibidem, p. 15.
37 Ibidem, p. 16.
38 Ibidem, p. 16.
39 Ibidem, p. xiv.
40 Ibidem, vol. II, p. 414.
41 C.A. Marin, Storia civile e politica del commercio de’ Veneziani, 8 vols; vol. 1-2 Sebastian
Coletti, Venice; vol. 3-8 printed privately at author’s expense, Venice, 1798-1808.

Mediterranea – ricerche storiche – Anno XIX – Dicembre 2022
ISSN 1824-3010 (stampa) ISSN 1828-230X (online)