Galla (Doge)

Alleged coat of arms of the fifth doge according to the Venetian tradition and, according to current knowledge, probably the third doge with the inscription "Galla Gaulo". The coats of arms of the early medieval doges are mere rear projections of family coats of arms, in this case from the 17th century. The Heraldry began only in the third quarter of one of the 12th century, and later Arms were awarded to the early doges in retrospect, who had never led a coat of arms ( "fanta-araldica"); this served to relate the families of this epoch to the earliest possible doges, which gave them prestige as well as political and social influence. Galla was only given a coat of arms for the sake of completeness, like all other doges, because he was considered a tyrant.

Galla , later also called Galla Lupanio or Galla Gaulio , was the fifth doge according to the “tradition”, as the state-controlled historiography of the Republic of Venice was described in Venice , but the third one follows the system of Roberto Cessi . He ruled from about 755 to 756, but more or less different dates were also mentioned. Galla bears in the scanty sources that mention him, the unflattering epithets infedelis ( unfaithful ) or vir sceleratissimus (unscrupulous man). He is the only doge who was not assigned any of the usual family names even in the late Republic.

Domination

The briefly ruling Galla, who had been regarded as a follower of his predecessor Diodato , used the opportunity in a phase of unexplained power relations between the Franks and the Lombards to drive the Doge, usually described as "legitimate", and to seize power in the Venetian lagoon whose main town had been Malamocco for little more than a decade . Galla was overthrown in barely more than a year, either by the people who opposed their tyranny or by an aristocratic opposition from Eraclea who opposed the dominance of one of the competing places in the lagoon, whose headquarters were not yet Rialto , but Malamocco. It is from there that Galla's fall could have been initiated. But also the emperor of Byzantium and the last king of the Longobards, Desiderius , were declared to be masterminds of his rise and fall. His date of birth and death are not known, it is possible that he came from Iesolo . Some historians denied him any legitimacy due to lack of election or acclamation by the people's assembly and withdrew his doge status.

reception

The very brief Cronica di Venexia detta di Enrico Dandolo from the late 14th century, the oldest vernacular chronicle of Venice, presents the events as well as the doge and chronicler Andrea Dandolo on a long-familiar at this time, largely by individuals, especially the Dogen ruled level. This also applies to "Gallan". The individual doges even form the temporal framework for the entire chronicle, as was customary in Venice. This "Gallan" came to "Mathamauco" after the death of his predecessor and, supported by many, in the year "VII ^c XLVI", that is in 746, violently with an "armada" tore the Doge rule to himself. He ruled "quasi per força et a modo di tirania". Because of this tyranny and tyranny, he soon became very “odiado dal povolo”, that is, “hated by the people”. Like his predecessor, when he was unable to defend himself, he was blinded by the people (“crevadi gli occhi”), “et cum bruto dixenor et vergogna altra confinada”. According to the chronicler, falls, blinding and exile came after he had ruled for a year and six months.

Pietro Marcello said in 1502 in his work, later translated into Volgare under the title Vite de'prencipi di Vinegia , “Galla Doge. V. ”“ fu fatto doge ”('was made a doge'). This did not happen in the year "DCCLV", in other words in the year 755, as Caroldo wrote three decades later in 756, or the said Cronica di Venexia in the year 746. Since he had badly used the doge power that he had badly acquired, he also lost power in this way ("malamente lo perdette"). With Marcello, however, his eyes were torn out after barely more than a year of reign, and he was also “cacciato in esſilio”, “chased into exile”.

According to the more detailed, but also very brief chronicle of Gian Giacomo Caroldo , which he completed in 1532, “Diodato” was overthrown and blinded after 14 years of reign in 756 at the instigation of “Galla” (p. 49). He came to Malamocco after he had committed “tanta sceleratezza d'haver fatto morir deodato”. He took the seat and the title (“la sede et il titolo”) of the Doge. But after a year and two months, according to Caroldo, the Venetians rose up against him together (“unitamente”), robbed him of dignity and eyes (“lo privorono della dignità et de gl'occhi”), thereby creating divine justice for the crime against his predecessor had been practiced. In his place, "Dominico Menegacio" became Doge.

Even Heinrich Kellner said in his 1574 published Chronica is Warhaffte actual vnd kurtze description, all Hertzogen to Venice lives , "Galla" had become 755 "the fünffte Hertzog". In a similar phrase as Marcello, Kellner believes that Galla is “because he had gotten over the Hertzogthumbs / so unbredly white / even used it badly (when he was drowned in everything and many vices) he also lost viciously. Then because he also had his eyes poked out / in the beginning of the second jars of his amp / he was chased away. “In terms of content, Kellner largely follows Marcello, but he made the Venetian interpretation of the history of the lagoon known in German-speaking countries.

In the translation of Alessandro Maria Vianoli's Historia Veneta , which appeared in Nuremberg in 1686 under the title Der Venetianischen Herthaben Leben / Government, und Die Aussterben / Von dem First Paulutio Anafesto an / bis on the Marcum Antonium Justiniani , who was in power at the time, the author also counts “ Galla, The Fifth Hertzog ”. "This assassin / who is not even worthy / that he should bear the name of a prince / had to / taste and taste the bitter and bitter fruits of his evil merit in the first year of his tyranny to end." The author is of the opinion that rulers who have usurped the “government” in a “mischievous and deceitful way” are “common” with “wickedness” and “godlessness”. With him, too, Galla invited "the restlessness and the righteous rage of the people" so that he not only "horrified his dignity / robbed his eyes / but also shortened his life at the beginning of the following year". Vianoli saw in it "the punishment of divine justice / because of his human injustice". Even after him, "Dominicus Monegareus" followed in the post of Doge in 755.

Italy at the time of the Lombard king Aistulf (749-756)

In 1687 Jacob von Sandrart in his Opus Kurtze and increased description of the origin / recording / territories / and government of the world-famous republic of Venice set Galla's reign in the years 755 to 756. If he, like Vianoli, accepted him as the fifth doge, so moral condemnation was less severe. Galla was elected by the people, "because they imagined he would be better / because he was the most distinguished ringleader against the previous Hertzog." "But he sought his own majesty too excessively / that the people would themselves in the next year of his reign also revolted against him / gouged out his eyes / and pushed him into misery. "

Johann Friedrich LeBret sees completely different causes at work in the run-up to the French Revolution in his four-volume State History of the Republic of Venice , published from 1769 . For the overthrow driven by Galla, the author sees a close connection to a “kind of tower or castle” that Galla's predecessor had built near Brondolo at the mouth of the Etsch . Immediately in Malamocco there was a rebellious person, named Galla, who had the idea to present the building of this fortress as a matter which this prince undertook only for the state, yes, which was of the utmost importance against the freedom of the citizens themselves . "LeBret insinuates that Diodatos" real intention "was" to pave the way to independent power and in future to bring the government to his descendants. "Galla thus became a fighter against the hereditary character of the Dogate. According to LeBret, it would take centuries "until the people were given their idol, freedom, through all the fake goods that existed in their imagination, and yet they reserved the secret of the government." The author believes that Galla has gradually got one A following built up, and: "One day when Theodat [ie Diodato] went to Brondolo to cheer up the workers, Galla fell upon him with a bunch of conspirators and stabbed his eyes out" (p. 110). But hardly in power, he seized "the ducal government". “It seems,” says LeBret, “that he either received confirmation of his dignity without questioning the people's assembly, or at least by other illicit means.” After that, “he let all the signs and claims of a tyrant be seen from him. It was therefore compelled to set limits for him so that he could not use the highest power to oppress the whole state. ”With him too, the people“ were just as bitter as against their predecessor. They also put out his eyes again, and pushed him from the throne. He was the fourth prince whom this irrepressible mob sacrificed to his anger. "

In his Il Palazzo ducale di Venezia from 1861, Francesco Zanotto grants greater influence to the popular assembly. "Galla Gaulo" claimed the Doge's office without voting. Nevertheless, he lasted over a year in his "usurpato dominio, costringendo le isole a sottomettersi e tacere" (in his 'usurped rule in which he forced the islands to submit and be silent'). Perhaps by raising the “nobili” of the opposing party, Malamocco was captured, Galla was seized and he was subjected to the same punishment that he inflicted on “ottimo su antecessore Teodato”. For Zanotto, the legitimacy of a doge at that time depended on the election by the popular assembly. In the meantime there was agreement about the reign from 755 to 756.

In 1853, Samuele Romanin gave Galla barely five lines in his ten-volume opus Storia documentata di Venezia . For him, "Galla Gaulo" was a usurper who, after more than a year, treated the people just as he had dealt with his predecessor. However, he believes, "alfine il popolo riscosso, l'assediò in Malamocco", the people have besieged him in Malamocco.

August Friedrich Gfrörer († 1861) sees in his history of Venice from its founding until 1084 , which appeared eleven years after his death in Galla's grip for power, an action supported by Byzantium, because according to him the "connection is palpable". According to Gfrörer, Galla's fall had a different background. In the Longobard Empire, Desiderius, a king, came to the throne who, according to Gfrörer, according to Andrea Dandolo, had previously been “Duke of Lombardy Istria”, which required very close contacts with Venice. Since Monegario , Galla's successor, who was overthrown in 764 , was a “mortal enemy of Basileus”, the Byzantine emperor, Galla, the enemy of his family and his dynasty formation, had to belong to the “Greek-minded party” that the author sees at work again and again. In order to find supporters for Galla, Gfrörer also believes that the Byzantine emperor expanded the power of the diocese of Grado by establishing a new diocese in Capodistria (Justinopolis), whose first bishop John swore obedience to the patriarch (p. 67 f.) .

Heinrich Kretschmayr believed he could identify Galla with an Egilius Gaulus, a nobleman from Iesolo who had been in a fight with Malamocco for generations (p. 480). The usurper was overthrown after him by the "unanimous indignation of the people" within a year. This in turn would give priority to local conflicts between the islands over approaches that assign the majority of events to the general political weather situation, as authors such as Gfrörer usually did.

In 2003, John Julius Norwich no longer even mentions Galla's name, but only lists it as one of the examples of the series of Venetian doge murders.

swell

• Luigi Andrea Berto (ed.): Giovanni Diacono, Istoria Veneticorum (= Fonti per la Storia dell'Italia medievale. Storici italiani dal Cinquecento al Millecinquecento ad uso delle scuole, 2), Zanichelli, Bologna 1999 ( text edition based on Berto in the Archivio della Latinità Italiana del Medioevo (ALIM) from the University of Siena).
• La cronaca veneziana del diacono Giovanni , in: Giovanni Monticolo (ed.): Cronache veneziane antichissime (= Fonti per la storia d'Italia [Medio Evo], IX), Rome 1890, p. 98 ( digital copy , PDF).
• Ester Pastorello (Ed.): Andrea Dandolo, Chronica per extensum descripta aa. 460-1280 dC , (= Rerum Italicarum Scriptores XII, 1), Nicola Zanichelli, Bologna 1938, p. 118. ( digitized, p. 118 f. )

literature

• Andrea Da Mosto : I Dogi di Venezia , Martello, Florenz 1939, reprint 1983, p. 270.
• Roberto Cessi : Galla , in: Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1932.

Web links

Commons : Galla Lupanio  - Collection of Images

Remarks

1. ↑ So the coats of arms of the much later descendants of these doges, especially since the 17th century, were projected back onto the alleged or actual members of the families (allegedly) ruling Venice since 697: "Il presupposto di continuità genealogica su cui si basava la trasmissione del potere in area veneziana ha portato come conseguenza la già accennata attribuzione ai dogi più antichi di stemmi coerenti con quelli realmente usati dai loro discendenti "(Maurizio Carlo Alberto Gorra: Sugli stemmi di alcune famiglie di Dogi prearaldici , associazione nobiliare regional veneta. Rivista di studi storici, ns 8 (2016) 35–68, here: p. 41).
2. ↑ Art. Cognome , in: Enciclopedia Italiana e Dizionario della Conversazione , Vol. VI, Venice 1843, p. 608 f., Here: p. 609 ( digitized version ).
3. ^ Roberto Pesce (Ed.): Cronica di Venexia detta di Enrico Dandolo. Origini - 1362 , Centro di Studi Medievali e Rinascimentali "Emmanuele Antonio Cicogna", Venice 2010, p. 18.
4. ↑ Pietro Marcello : Vite de'prencipi di Vinegia in the translation of Lodovico Domenichi, Marcolini, 1558, p 7 ( digitized ).
5. ↑ Șerban V. Marin (Ed.): Gian Giacomo Caroldo. Istorii Veneţiene , Vol. I: De la originile Cetăţii la moartea dogelui Giacopo Tiepolo (1249) , Arhivele Naţionale ale României, Bucharest 2008, pp. 93-95 on Dogat ( online ).
6. ↑ Heinrich Kellner : Chronica that is Warhaffte actual and short description, all life in Venice , Frankfurt 1574, p. 3v ( digitized, p. 3v ).
7. ↑ Alessandro Maria Vianoli : The Venetian Herthaben life / government, and withering / from the first Paulutio Anafesto on / bit on the now-ruling Marcum Antonium Justiniani , Nuremberg 1686, p. 51 f. ( Digitized version ).
8. ↑ Jacob von Sandrart : Kurtze and increased description of the origin / recording / areas / and government of the world famous Republick Venice , Nuremberg 1687, p. 13 f. ( Digital copy, p. 13 ).
9. ↑ Johann Friedrich LeBret : State history of the Republic of Venice, from its origin to our times, in which the text of the abbot L'Augier is the basis, but its errors are corrected, the incidents are presented in a certain and from real sources, and after a Ordered in the correct time order, at the same time new additions, from the spirit of the Venetian laws, and secular and ecclesiastical affairs, from the internal state constitution, its systematic changes and the development of the aristocratic government from one century to another , 4 vols., Johann Friedrich Hartknoch , Riga and Leipzig 1769–1777, vol. 1, Leipzig and Riga 1769, p. 109 f. ( Digitized version ).
10. ↑ Francesco Zanotto: Il Palazzo ducale di Venezia , Vol. 4, Venice 1861, p. 12 ( digitized version ).
11. ^ Samuele Romanin : Storia documentata di Venezia , 10 vols., Pietro Naratovich, Venice 1853–1861, 2nd edition 1912–1921, reprint Venice 1972 ( digitized from vol. 1 , Venice 1853, p. 122 f.). The enormous historical work has a volume of about 4000 pages.
12. ↑ August Friedrich Gfrörer : History of Venice from its foundation to the year 1084. Edited from his estate, supplemented and continued by Dr. JB Weiß , Graz 1872, pp. 60, 62 f. ( Digitized version ).
13. ^ Heinrich Kretschmayr : History of Venice , 3 vol., Vol. 1, Gotha 1905, p. 50.
14. ^ John Julius Norwich : A History of Venice , Penguin, London 2003.

predecessor	Office	successor
Diodato Ipato	Doge of Venice 755–756	Domenico Monegario