The Doge of Venice, is the first magistrate of the Republic, elected for life, and head of all the councils. [1]

It was in 709 that the Venetians, considering them as a republic, obtained their first doge , who was only a sort of tribune of the people elected by the citizens of the city. Many of the families which gave their votes to this first doge , persist to this day. They are the oldest nobles in Europe, without excepting a single house, and prove, M. de Voltaire says, that nobility can be obtained without possessing a chateau, or purchasing titles from a sovereign.

The power of the doge of the republic increased with that of the state; already toward the middle of the tenth century he took the title of duke of Dalmatia, dux Dalmatioe ; for this is what the word doge means: in the same period, Berengar, recognized as emperor in Italy, granted Venice the privilege of coinage. Today the doge of Venice is but a phantom of princely majesty, of which the aristocratic republic has retained all authority, while decorating the office with a vain shadow of sovereign dignity.

One always addresses the doge as his serenity, and the Venetians say that this is a title above that of highness. All the senators rise and salute the doge when he enters into the councils, and the doge rises for no one except foreign ambassadors. The Republic gives him a pension of 14,000 ducats for the upkeep of his house, and for the expense he undertakes to entertain four times a year ambassadors, the Signoria, and the senators attending functions on such days. His retinue typically consists of two manservants, four gondoliers, and several attendants. The republic pays all other officials who serve him only at public ceremonies. He dresses in crimson like other senators, but he wears the hat of a general of antiquity, of the same color as the jacket.

He is the protector della Virginia , [2] collator of all the benefices of St. Mark, and names several other small officers as his house bailiffs, known as commanders of the palace . His family is not subject to the ministers of pomp, [3] and his children may have attendants and gondoliers outfitted in livery. Such are the privileges of the first magistrate of Venice, whose dignity is elsewhere so tempered, that it is not difficult to conclude that the doge belongs to the republic, and not the republic to the doge .

Firstly, mourning is not worn at the death of the doge , in order to prove to him that he is not the sovereign; but we shall see by a number of other details that he is rather far from being able to arrogate to himself this title.

He is subjected to the laws like all other citizens without exception; while the letters of accreditation which the republic sends to its ministers in foreign courts are written in the name of the doge , nevertheless it is a secretary of the senate who is charged with signing them, and affixing on them the seal of the arms of the republic. [4] While ambassadors address their dispatches to the doge , he may only open them in the presence of counselors, and indeed they may open and respond to them without him.

He holds audiences for ambassadors, but he does not give them any response on his own initiative in important affairs; he has only the right to respond as he sees fit to the compliments that they make to his authority, as such responses are always without consequence.

To remind him that he only lends his name to the senate, no deliberation or resolution is made on the propositions of ambassadors and other ministers, unless it is discussed with his counselors. Thus things are examined, the advice of wise men consulted, and deliberation drawn up in writing, to be brought before the senate assembly, where the doge meets with his counselors, like other senators except for his voice, to approve or disapprove of resolutions made in his absence.

He may neither make official visits, nor receive those paid to him by ambassadors on extraordinary occasions, without the permission of the senate, which rarely provides it, unless it lacks honest pretexts for refusal. In this fashion, the doge leads so retired a life, that one might say that solitude and subordination are the most essential qualities of his position.

The Venetian money known as the ducat , is minted in the name of the doge , but not at his order or bearing his arms, as was the custom when he had absolute power over the government.

It is true that he presides over all the councils, but he is only recognized as prince of the republic as head of the senate, in the tribunals he attends, and in the ducal palace of Saint Mark. Outside of these, he has less authority than a simple senator, such that he would not dare to meddle in any single affair.

He knows not to leave Venice without demanding some sort of permission from his counselors; and if he were then to meet some disorder in the place where he found himself, the head of police would be vested with public authority to bring about order, and not the doge .

His children and his brothers are excluded from the highest offices of state, and may obtain no benefice from the court of Rome except the cardinalate, which is no benefice, and accords no jurisdiction.

Lastly, if the doge is married, his wife is not treated as a princess; the senate not having desired to crown her since the 16th century.

And yet while the office of doge is tempered by all the things of which we have just spoken, which render this dignity onerous, this does not prevent families that have yet to give a doge to the republic, from doing their utmost to achieve this honor, whether to improve their stature, or in the hope of better establishing their fortune by this new decoration, and by the assets that this first magistrate can amass if he is lucky enough to live long in his employment.

Indeed, hardly anyone is elevated to this dignity save men of a particular merit. Ordinarily one of the procurators of Saint Mark is chosen, [5] a subject who has served the state in the embassies, in command, or in the exercise of one of the first offices of the republic. But as the senate places someone in this high rank to govern in name only, the leading senators are not usually elected to occupy this office. Advanced age, illustrious birth, and moderation of character, are the three qualities most often attributed to them.

The first thing done after the death of the doge , is to name three inquisitors to investigate his conduct, to hear all possible complaints against his administration, and to do justice to his creditors in the expenses of his succession. The funerary rites of the doge are no sooner over than they proceed to name his successor through a long process of deliberation and voting by ballot, such that fortune and merit concur equally in this choice. While the electors are enclosed, they are closely guarded, and treated in almost the same manner as cardinals in conclave.

After his election the doge takes an oath, swears to observe the laws, and shows himself to the people: but as the republic never lets him taste a pure joy without mixing it with some of the bitterness which makes him feel the weight of servitude which his position demands, on descending he is made to pass by the room where his body will be exposed after his death. It is there that he hears from the chancellor the compliments upon his exaltation.

He then mounts a machine which is called the well , and which is stored in the arsenal for this ceremony: in fact, it has the external form of a well, supported on a stretcher, which is of an extraordinary length, and the two arms of which are joined together. Around a hundred men, or more, support this machine on their shoulders.

The doge sits on this sort of litter, having one of his children or one of his closest relatives standing behind him. He has two basins filled with gold and silver coins minted expressly for this occasion with whatever image and inscription he pleases, and he throws these to the people, as he is carried around Saint Mark’s place. Thus ends his installation.

It follows from this overview, that whatever the apparent decoration of the doge , his power has been effectively diminished from what it was at its origin; but the power is always united in the hands of the nobles; and while there is nothing but exterior pomp to indicate a despotic prince, the citizens feel this at every instant in the authority of the senate.

1. Legislative, judicial, and executive functions in Venice were carried out by various “councils.”

For more on the government and history of the Republic of Venice, see Venise, république de , and Venise, gouvernement de.

2. The reference is probably to Santa Maria delle Vergini, a convent in Venice which was under the protection and patronage of the doge. See Nicolas Amelot de la Houssaye. History of the government of Venice (London, 1677), 121.

3. Here Jaucourt is referring to the sopra proveditori (superintendants or censors of pomp), also known as the Magistrato alle pompe or magistracy of pomp. Amelot de la Houssaye (from whose text much of this article is drawn), compares these three Venetian officials, who were responsible for enforcing sumptuary laws, to Roman censors. See Amelot de la Houssaye.   Histoire du gouvernement de Venise (1675)   (Amsterdam, 1695),   1: 220, 223; History of the government of Venice, 188. See also Alexandre Toussaint Limojon de Saint-Didier. La ville et la république de Venise (Paris, 1680), 248, 250.

4. For more on the senate of Venice, see the article Prégadi.

5. For more on the procurators of Saint Mark, see the article on this topic, Procurateur de S.Marc.