The Most Serene Republic of Venice. The Republican Venetian court in the 15th and 16th century

Abstract

The following proseminar-paper works on the question whether there was a monarchic court and an equivalent courtly culture in Renaissance Venice despite its Republican constitution. The seafaring nation disposed of several aristocratic institutions which dealt with the political everyday business of the Republic, but strikingly the doge still appeared as an official leader. In this context, the following analysis focuses on the geostrategic and historical conditions, the economics of the city state as well as the Venetian constitution and the representational function of the doge and his wife, the dogaressa, in a plurality of cultural ceremonial acts in order to depict the evolution of the Most Serene Republic of Venice of the 15th and 16th century.