Cronicha dela nobil cità de Venetia e dela sua provintia et destretto

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The Cronicha dela nobil cità de Venetia e dela sua provintia et destretto (analogously: 'Chronicle of the noble city of Venice, its province and its district') is a Venetian chronicle penned by Giorgio (Zorzi) Dolfin ( 1396 - 1458 ).

The author Zorzi Dolfin

Zorzi Dolfin was born in Venice in 1396 as the son of Francesco di Giovanni and his wife Orsa , probably in the palace in which he later lived, namely in the municipality of San Canzian in the Cannaregio sestiere . Zorzi was the third-born son, of his brothers Giovanni, Nicolò, Giacomo, Vittore and Orso only known that Giovanni became a priest and that Giacomo devoted himself to trading with the Levant .

In 1421 Zorzi Dolfin married a daughter of Giovanni Gradenigo, from whom he in turn had a daughter who lived until 1506. In 1424 he married for the second time, namely Barbarella Contarini. In addition to the two daughters Lucrezia and Pellegrina, she gave birth to six sons, namely Pietro, Francesco, Giacomo, Leonardo, Vittore and Domenico. Pellegrina became a nun in the Monastero degli Angeli di Murano .

As was customary in Venice, Zorzi was elected to various offices. On October 28, 1447 he became Bailò and Capitano of Durazzo , but he resigned from this office after eight days. On July 3, 1449 he was Provveditore di Comun . From 1453 to 1455 he was the overseer of the authorities , Provveditore sopra offici , an office that was primarily supposed to monitor the financial conduct of the authorities, from which he, however, also resigned on June 22, 1455. He also had a seat in the Consiglio dei Pregadi , the Senate, with which he belonged to the group of Venetians with the greatest influence and far-reaching contacts. Apparently he had died at the time of his son Pietro's marriage in 1458. Zorzi Dolfin was one of the supporters of Doge Francesco Foscari , which brought him into conflict with the otherwise unreserved loyalty to Venice and its institutions, which otherwise ran through his entire chronicle, especially the Council of Ten .

Testament and Library

From the will of Zorzi Dolfin of March 12, 1448, it emerges that the Dolfin had a stately library at their disposal, without this being comparable with the large book holdings of Marino Sanudo the Younger, for example , who bequeathed 6,500 books - possibly even more than 20,000 , if one can regard the handwritten numbering as a consecutive one. Zorzi Dolfin decreed that the collection should remain together, but the inventory from 1507, which contains perhaps 200 entries, shows that the books passed on through his heir Pietro Dolfin were given to friends by his son, contrary to his will. From Zorzi's handwritten chronicle, the grandson Giacomo gave volumes I and II of the Annali veneti to Marcantonio Loredan and volumes III and IV to Michele Trevisan di Andrea, the two executors. Volumes II and III are now lost.

The Chronicle

Zorzi Dolfin called his work cronicha , scriptura , rarely historia , often tractado . He performs his work like a kind of conversation with the reader, often using proverbs and metaphors . Particularly when describing the processes of his own time, he enriched the language with Latinisms.

Lore

His work has survived in the form of a copy from the 16th century: Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana It., VII, 794 (= 8503). The page format is 335 by 235 mm and includes the folia I-474. The codex has two paginations , namely an older one at the bottom right and a modern pencil number at the top right. The older pagination is discontinuous, the younger continuous. From the collection of Emmanuele Antonio Cicogna , two copies have survived which are in the Museo Correr (Cicogna 3755 and 3756 - previously MCIX and MC) and which Cicogna annotated as copies of the work of Zorzi Dolfin.

The I parte , the folia 1r – 31v old count (3r – 31v modern count) reports on the captivity of Giorgio Corner , a story that is followed by a list of Venetian noble families. The II parte (folia 1r – 34v (33r – 66v)) includes a list of the same type of coat of arms of the said families, III (folia 37r – 45r (69v – 77r)) a list of the doges elected in Eracliana and Rialto, and ranging from Angelo Partecipazio to Leonardo Loredan . Then follows in IV (45r – 93v (78r – 84v)) a list of those who subscribed to loans because of the war against the League of Cambrai . The V parte (94r – 114v (85r – 105v)) fills an index in the chronicle of Zorzi Dolfin. Only VI (1r – 344r (112r – 450r)) contains the actual chronicle. Zorzi's son Piero intervened in the text in many places. Further additions were made until 1531.

On f. 34r (145r) explains Zorzi explicitly the aim of the Chronicle, namely the growth of Venice and its noble state, the beginning and the means of its government and the emergence of its noble houses, the production of the doges and their magnanimo and good government through which they allowed the Venetian state to flourish.

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The author states that he has the chronicle of Andrea Dandolo , then the works of Flavio Biondo , Matteo Palmieri , the Commentarii de rebus gestis Francisci Sfortiae by Giovanni Simonetta , the Supplementum chronicarum by Giacomo Filippo Foresti , the Rerum Venetarum ab urbe as templates condita libri XXXIII of Marcantonio Coccio Sabellico as well as the documents of the Dogenkanzlei used. But he also used other chronicles, such as the chronicle probably written by Fantin Pisani (Cronaca marciana It. VII, 2034 (= 8834)). Zorzi Dolfin also used an anonymous chronicle from the mid-15th century that is now in the Newberry Library in Chicago (ms. F. 87.1). Written in Venice, it was in the collection of Lorenzo Antonio da Ponte until 1821, when the dealer Adolfo Cesare bought it. From there it ended up in the collection of Sir Thomas Phillips in Great Britain. The current owner acquired the chronicle in 1957.

In addition to these chronicles in Volgare , Dolfin also used Latin models, such as the Chronica brevis and the Chronica extensa of Doge Andrea Dandolo, the Chronicon Venetum , the Istoria Veneticorum and the Chronica de singulis patriarchis Nove Aquileie . Certainly Dolfin also used the Chronicon de rebus Venetis from UCad annum MCCCLIV by Lorenzo De Monacis without explicitly naming it, as well as the Codex Marc. It. VII, 760 (= 8582) from the 15th / 16th centuries Century. He probably also used the Cronica di Venexia detta di Enrico Dandolo , which Roberto Pesce edited in 2010. Zorzi Dolfin also used the Cronaca di Venezia by Antonio Morosini (edited by Andrea Nanetti), which has also been edited in the meantime , and which is probably the first 'diaristic chronicle', i.e. chronicle in a kind of diary format. There are also works such as the pseudo-Zancaruola in the Marciana (It. VII, 49–50 (= 9274–9275), then It. VII, 49–50 (= 9274–9275)), a work published in 1967 by the Milan Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense was returned after 162 years, and that does not come from Marco Foscarini , as was believed for two centuries , as well as some copies of the Zancaruola .

Codex CM 548 of the Biblioteca Civica in Padua is a copy of the Dolfin Chronicle .

Founding legends of Venice

In contrast to the usual chronicle, for Dolfin the history of Venice does not begin with the escape of the Romans from Aquileia to the Venetian lagoon to escape the Huns of Attila , or with the flight from the Lombards . Nor does he initially report, as is usually the case, of the founding of Venice by Trojans . On the contrary, he initially propagates a purely Christian root that goes back to the Evangelist Mark , before he also reports these legends. The Venetians are not only the descendants of those whom Markus personally baptized, but they are actually one of the peoples who were the first to come to Christianity. In the eyes of the author, they were thus on a par with the chosen people. Markus, here Dolfin again follows Doge Andrea Dandolo, lost his way to Alexandria due to a storm . According to Dolfin, he met an angel on an island who had predicted that a great city would be built there. Thanks to the merits of Mark, God himself had given the future Venetians a city similar to what the Israelites once did . Dolfin implicitly implies that they are the new chosen people. With San Francesco della Vigna he even gives the place of this apparition. The exact reference to the church, in which the Dolfin owned a chapel, may have served to raise their own family at the same time. For Sanudo, however, "San Magno di Aquileia" was the first church founder. In Attila's invasion, Dolfin omits the prominent role assigned to the Estonians in other chronicles, and thus at the same time the evidence of the old age of this noble family. Instead, he attributes the victory over Attila to the legendary Paduan King Janus. Janus' wife Handriana founded Venice.

literature

  • Chiara Frison: La Cronica di Giorgio Dolfin (Origini-1458) nel contesto culturale della Venezia del sec. XV , tesi di laurea, Venice 2011. ( online , PDF)

Remarks

  1. ^ Chiara Frison: La Cronica di Giorgio Dolfin (Origini-1458) nel contesto culturale della Venezia del sec. XV , tesi di laurea, Venice 2011, p. 15.
  2. ^ Chiara Frison: La Cronica di Giorgio Dolfin (Origini-1458) nel contesto culturale della Venezia del sec. XV , tesi di laurea, Venice 2011, pp. 47-51.
  3. ↑ Chiara Frison: La Cronica di Giorgio Dolfin (Origini-1458) nel contesto culturale della Venezia del sec. XV , tesi di laurea, Venice 2011, pp. 51–53.
  4. ^ Roberto Pesce (Ed.): Cronica di Venexia detta di Enrico Dandolo. Origini - 1362 , Centro di Studi Medievali e Rinascimentali "Emmanuele Antonio Cicogna", Venice 2010.
  5. ↑ Andrea Nanetti (Ed.): Il codice Morosini. Il mondo visto da Venezia (1094–1433) , Centro Italiano di Studi sull'Alto Medioevo, Spoleto 2010; see. Morosini Codex .
  6. ↑ Chiara Frison: La Cronica di Giorgio Dolfin (Origini-1458) nel contesto culturale della Venezia del sec. XV , tesi di laurea, Venice 2011, p. 64.
  7. ↑ Chiara Frison: La Cronica di Giorgio Dolfin (Origini-1458) nel contesto culturale della Venezia del sec. XV , tesi di laurea, Venice 2011, p. 78 f.