THE VENETIAN NOBLE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.*
FEW cities exercise over the mind greater fascination than Venice. Steam locomotion has made it easily accessible to thousands, and few, if any, who fall under the spell of its unique characteristics would willingly escape from the dominion which they wield over thought and fancy. It is not merely the singular external beauty of Venice, nor the glowing wealth of art within its palaces and churches, which captivates the sojourner or flying tourist. He is conquered by more subtle influences. The whole place is the mausoleum of extinct greatness, and stands up in the pure Italian air, surpassed only by Rome, as the monument of a national life prolonged for thirteen centuries, and crowned, in its prime, by a well-filled circlet of human
glory. Even the Doge, as an institution, endured from 697 to 1797,—eleven hundred years. There is no other example of an elective monarchy, wherein the King reigned, but did not govern, being continued unbroken for so vast a period. The shadow of a permanence in human institutions, so rare, still hangs over Venice, and impresses alike the unlearned and the scholar. Active living power has departed long ago, and the frame in which it had a dwelling-place lies there on the waves like a sleeping queen, rather than the outward semblance of an entity which no magic art or nineteenth-century nostrum can call up from its tomb in the graveyard of time. But the cityis enchanted _ ground, peopled with shapes which live in imagination, statesmen, warriors, artists, merchants, surrounded by an atmosphere in which sagacious polity and gloomy crimes supply the light and shade, while the arts shed over all the ripened lustre of undying fame. Not merely power, tough as well-tempered steel, regular in its action almost as a law of nature, lies embalmed in the now silent city ; but the business faculty, the art of rationally accom- plishing great ends with small means, and of, still keeping the original principle steadily in view when the basis broadened and the store of appliances increased, is not less visible, and is all the more impressive because it is clothed in elegant and sumptuous forms. No wonder that the poet, the artist, the historian have tried to repeople the gorgeous halls, the noble churches, the deserted quays, the sparkling water-ways, and the magnificent square with real or fanciful beings, and have invoked the creative spirit of imagination to resuscitate the mighty dead.
Among those who have yielded to the charm is M. Charles Yriarte. An accomplished scholar and lover of the arts, he visited, some years ago, the country house of a Venetian noble standing on Terra Firma, near Asolo, in the district of Trevisa. The motive which led him thither was a wish to see the works of Paul Veronese still glowing on the walls of the Villa Barbaro. This structure was built by Palladio, ornamented by the sculptor Alessandro Vittoria and the great painter we have named. M. Yriarte was deeply impressed by the combination and its results. On the pediment he first read the name of " Barbaro," and inferring from the show of elevated tastes and sumptuous surroundings that the noble who bore it must have been a man of mark, he sought him out in the great records of the past, and as he followed the clue step by step, the stores of knowledge acquired induced him to engage in the task of bringing to light an unknown existence. His aim gradually expanded, until it led him to picture afresh the Noble of Venice as he existed in the sixteenth century, and to show his place amid the striking institutions which render the Venetian Republic so unique in its political aspects. The plan was attractive, and - worth the pains of working out. Marco Antonio Barbaro proved no unfitting hero, for he was a man of great ability, who filled high posts, and figured conspicuously in some splendid scenes. In the course of his long life he rose to the highest offices
• La Vie dun Patricien de Venice au &frame Sieele—dapres les Papier. dElat des Archives de Venice. Par Charles Yriarte. Paris: Plon et Cie. 1874.
below the level of the Dogeship ; and his conduct entitles him to stand in the literary atelier as a sort of model of the Venetian magnifico. Ever seeking to complete his study, M. Yriarte did not rest until he had obtained a counterfeit presentment of its hero, and he found one in the rich collection at the Belvedere of
Vienna, from the pencil of Veronese himself. So far he un- doubtedly was fortunat,. He had a moving theme, a worthy personage, whose fortunes and character might well impart the element of direct human interest, while the scene was the whole sixteenth century, abounding in events lacking no dramatic- feature that forms the attraction of the historic page. But we are bound to say that the happy idea to which the Villa Bar- baro gave birth has not been entirely realised ; and that the personality of its founder is frequently lost under elaborate dis- quisitions on the institutions of Venice. Our starting-point is a. man, but we are soon plunged into his surroundings, and what was to have been a biography, becomes a series of admirable essays on the political machinery, means and appliances, or the educational and military systems prevailing in the Republic. That is the defect of a work which is otherwise excellent. M. Yriarte has spared no pains to master his subject ; his style is lucid, and his criticism acute ; and if he has not quite succeeded in breathing the breath of life into Marco Antonio Barbaro, he does really bring before the attentive reader, not only the wonderful institu- tions, but the spirit of a State which three hundred years ago was in its prime. Moreover, it is possible for a quick fancy to picture the Patrician himself, and form a tolerably lively conception of some great qualities which the Republic demanded and actually obtained from her SOUS. She held herself entitled to the whole hearty service of even the most richly endowed; she specially required. patriotism, self-abnegation, obedience, and she crushed relentlessly all who tried to thwart the public policy by which the State was governed. Barbaro was a man of more than average ability, who readily took the form and pressure of the prevailing institutions, and consequently became a model servant of his order, of whom vir- tually the so-called State consisted. He was upright, industrious, large-minded, ready to compass sea and land on public business, sagacious and penetrating, thoroughly imbued with the principles on which Venetian polity was based, and completely broken-in to the methods whereby it was carried out. Besides, he was grace- ful and accomplished in his public and private life ; and as shadowed forth by M. Yriarte, he may be taken as a fair specimen of an oligarch, gifted with an unusual amount of political sagacity, and the shrewdness and strict regularity which go to make up the man of business.
The great bulk of the book, however, is not taken up with Signor Barbaro, but with descriptions of the social and political institutions of Venice, together with accounts of two or three great events which occurred between his birth and death. Thus the origin of the Barbaro family, and the birth of Marco Antonio in 1518, naturally introduce us to a sketch showing the intellectual accomplishments exacted at that time from the nobles, and the great care which the Republic bestowed on schools and universities, es- pecially that of Padua, more fully treated in a later chapter, dealing with the hero when he became the principal State functionary connected with that institution. When the Barbaro marries at an early age, we have a very interesting sketch of the women of Venice, the position they occupied, and the part they played at a. timewhen the Oriental stamp upon Venetian domestic life was yet fresh and unbroken. No sooner does the young man enter the:Grand Council with a right to vote, than our attention is turned to that body; and thus in succession we review the Senate, the diplomatic service, the commercial policy and local adminis- tration, the grand ceremonials, the Doge as a public officer, and so on, until, having traversed nearly the whole range of employ- ments, Barbaro goes on the sick list, and dies a few months later. The reader can readily imagine how a fertile theme on such a plan can be treated so as to provide instruction and entertain- ment. The noble whose career runs like a thin golden thread through the fabric had been an ambassador to France during her religious wars ; to the Grand Turk when, sending forth his fleets, he captured Cyprus and lost the battle of Lepanto ; and at a later stage, to Sixtus V.; so that we are brought into contact with France, Constantinople, and Rome ; and catch glimpses of their chief man. Indeed, Barbaro was six years in the capital of Turkey, and for some part of the time a prisoner. Moreover, when Henry m. of France, flying by stealth from Poland on the death of Charles IX., passed through Venice on his homeward journey, Marco Antonio was selected to attend on the King, and carry the light canopy or umbrella which shaded his Majesty. M. Yriarte has taken great pains to describe the festivities and solemn formalities with which the fugitive from fierce Polish nobles was greeted by a Republic anxious to secure a useful ally, and the picture is only one among many which add interest to these pages. But the special value of the book lies in the careful description not only of the methods and processes whereby the most jealous oligarchy in the world successfully held its own, but of the spirit underlying and breathing life into these exacting forms. Venice was exalted and held together by an esprit de corps, which acquired almost the force of a sacred tradition. The most thorough and crafty worldliness was never perhaps carried to so high a pitch of efficiency in any organic political and social machine. The whole system was based upon an unwritten loi des suspects, and any member of the ruling caste was crushed without mercy if he strayed from the orthodox path. The wise plan of having something like a permanent civil ser- vice, drawn not from the nobles, but the class immediately below them, and even from the artisans, furnishes a clue to the reasons why, independently of their abilityand cultivation, the nobles main- tained so prolonged an ascendancy. They gave some satisfaction to talent and ambition outside the pale, they were enabled to use the better capacities for their own purposes, and confine their own labours chiefly to direction and control. Another reason why these hard patricians kept their monopoly so long unimpaired was that they steadily excluded the sacerdotal element, and unflinch- ingly confined the priest to his proper functions. As an example of what can be done by a self-appointed class, shrewd, audacious, unscrupulous, absorbing power within itself and using it for its own profit and glory, the history of Venice furnishes a unique study ; supplies a political and social framework not likely to be rivalled snywhere, now that the oligarchy of the Southern Slave States has been thoroughly defeated, and its grand scheme of reviving some- thi greater than Venetian power on a still more nefarious basis scattered to the winds.
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