075. Election Day

The system for electing the Doge of Venice is one of the great crowning masterpieces of political complexity. The multi-stage process was first used for the election of 1268. This week we look at the details of how it worked, and at the political culture of the city that made this bizarre process such an enduring feature of the Republic.

Background Reading:

Every book or website about the Venetian Republic will feature an explanation of the electoral system for the Doge. The main sources that we used for this episode were:

“Il Doge di Venezia” by Giorgio Ravegnani

“Venice - the remarkable history of the lagoon city” by Dennis Romano

“La Venezia segreta dei Dogi” by Alberto Toso Fei

“A History of Venice” by John Julius Norwich

“Le Promissioni del Doge di Venezia dalle Origini alla Fine del Duecento” (Fonti per la storia di Venezia, sezione 1, Archivi Pubblici). This is the text, in Latin, of every surviving Promissione Ducale up to the end of the 13th century. 

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Intro and outro music is Primavera from Vivaldi’s Le Quattro Stagioni, used under Creative Commons licence from musopen.org