Historia ducum Venetorum

As Historia Ducum Venetorum (formerly Historia Ducum Veneticorum ) one is handwriting of the late 12th or the middle of the 13th century, made up, under the signature HV 44 in the library of the Seminario Patriarcale in Venice is. It fills pages 35 to 45 of this codex. The codex also contains a copy of the Chronicon Altinate , a chronicle that also dates from the 13th century. The manuscript extends from the rule of Doge Ordelafo Faliero (1102–1118) to the Peace of Venice (1177), and then, after a considerable gap with events between 1203 and 1229, and this only episodically, continues. In all probability, the manuscript was written before 1247.

title

The title Historia Ducum Veneticorum , which has been in use for a long time , was proposed and widely accepted by the editor Henry Simonsfeld . With the edition by Luigi Andrea Berto, the title was slightly modified, since then the work is called Historia Ducum Venetorum . The editor justified this with the fact that within the manuscript the Venetians were referred to exclusively as "Veneti", never as "Venetici".

Manuscripts, period

The manuscript belonged to Marin Sanudo d. J. and formed the basis for the edition created by Henry Simonsfeld for the Monumenta Germaniae Historica . Luigi Andrea Berto gave another copy, which, however, was not made until the 19th century ( Museo Correr , codex Cicogna n. 2180, pp. 29r – 40r). According to Sante della Valentina, chaplain of the Brotherhood of San Rocco, this is a faithful copy of the Historia of the 13th century. Pages 36a to 36b have been added. They represent a small part of the edition provided by Cicogna. In turn, they come from Angelo Zon, who in turn declared that he had copied them from a codex in the Biblioteca Marciana, excerpted from a book by Giovanni Cornaro, who in turn had transcribed a "historia latina" by Antonio Marsilio, the Chancellor in the Doge's Palace Was mid-16th century. This excerpt refers to the reign of Doge Sebastiano Ziani , and it thus represents part of the lost section of the 13th century manuscript (on this some dates in connection with the Peace of Venice, 1177). The original manuscript shows a time gap. It begins with the arrival of Pope Alexander III. to Venice. Its sequel includes descriptions of the first siege of Constantinople in 1203 during the Fourth Crusade . Luigi Andrea Berto filled a small part of the gap with the text part of the manuscript from the 19th century, more precisely, until the end of the reign of Sebastiano Ziani (1178). The time gap thus covers the years between 1178 and 1203.

Editions

Emmanuele Antonio Cicogna was the first to publish part of the Historia Ducum on the basis of the aforementioned Codex Cicogna. However, this was largely ignored, because for a long time the edition by Henry Simonsfeld for the Monumenta Germaniae Historica , which appeared under the title Historia Ducum Veneticorum , was decisive . This was based on Codex HV 44. This edition was reprinted in 1925 and was reprinted later. Simonsfeld filled the said gap between 1177 and 1203 with corresponding passages from the Venetiarum Historia of the 14th century, thus "ex chronico quod vocant Iustiniani", as Simonsfeld noted (Codex Lat. X 36a of the Biblioteca Marciana , assigned to Pietro Giustinian). For Simonsfeld, the only reason for this was surprisingly that the two manuscripts had the same narrative style. As a result of this edition, the time gap, for example in relation to Enrico Dandolo, was filled by sections from the Historia Ducum that did not come from this manuscript.

The edition presented by Luigi Andrea Berto under the title Historia Ducum Venetorum left the gap. Like Simonsfeld, Berto offers subdivisions which, however, do not appear in the completely unstructured manuscript.

Dating

On the grounds that the chronicle ended in 1229, it was assumed that it was made immediately afterwards. However, it was also speculated that it might not have been written shortly after 1177, only to be continued in the form of an independent work much later, precisely after the gap mentioned. In the absence of other manuscripts, this question cannot yet be answered. At least it can be shown that the section after the gap has considerably fewer historical details than the one before it. It is possible that the author was not a contemporary of Pietro Ziani at all, because he omits important events and only describes known ones superficially. However, the author may also have had personal motives, such as an illness, that led him to write episodically rather than continuously. Girolamo Arnaldi and Lidia Capo deduced from a sentence that referred to the naval expedition under Doge Domenico Michiel in the years 1122 to 1124, and in which it says "nefanda gens Saracenorum, que tempore illo civitatem Tyri et Ascalonis adhuc possidebat" that the author knew nothing about the conquest of both cities by the “Saracens” in 1292 and 1247, respectively. With this argument, the writing of the Historia ducum can be classified in the time before 1247. However, it could still be two phases of the author's work. This planned to write a praise full of optimism to the Doge Pietro Ziani, who however died in 1229, whereby the work was broken off. Over the next few years, the author noted one or the other process, but clearly more exemplary.

In terms of content, the author, according to Giorgio Cracco, stands on the border between dogal and communal Venice, between the epoch in which the Doges were almost absolute rulers and the time in which powerful bodies were established that increasingly limited the power of the Doge. The author seems to be more benevolent towards the past epoch, which could explain why he broke off with the death of Ziani. Giorgio Cracco therefore proposed to change the title of the Historia ducum to "Gesta Veneticorum per duces". S. Marin, on the other hand, as well as Berto, doubts that such a sharp break can be recognized. Furthermore, says Marin, the author does not praise the Doges as much as Venice and the Venetians as a whole. For example, he writes that God always had honor, wealth and fame for the Venetians. Another aspect is the urge to prove the inner harmony of Venice.

Edition

• Henry Simonsfeld (ed.): Historia ducum Veneticorum , MGH, Scriptores 14, Hannover 1883, pp. 72-97. ( Digitized version )
• Luigi Andrea Berto (ed. And translator): Testi storici Veneziani: (XI-XIII secolo). Historia ducum Venetorum, Annales Venetici breves, Domenico Tino, Relatio de electione Dominici Silvi Venetorum ducis (= Medioevo Europeo, 1), CLEUP XXXVI, Padua 1999.

literature

• Șerban V. Marin: Some considerations regarding Historia Ducum Veneticorum (13th Century) , in: Transylvanian Review 19 (2010) 9-28 ( digitized on academia.edu ).
• Berto Luigi Andrea: Memory and propaganda in Venice after the Fourth Crusade , in: Mediterranean Studies 24 (2016) 111-138 ( digitized on academia.edu ).

Remarks

1. ^ Review in the German Archives 57 (2001) 258 (Review No. 107).