Maurizio Galbaio

Alleged coat of arms of "Mauritio Caballio" after the ideas of the 17th century. The coats of arms of early medieval doges are mere rear projections of modern family coats of arms. The Heraldry began only in the third quarter of one of the 12th century. Later coats of arms were also given to the early Doges who never had 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.

Maurizio Galbaio (* 730s in Eraclea ; † 797 in Malamocco ) was the 7th Doge of the Republic of Venice according to the Venetian historiographical tradition . Mauritius or Mauricius , as he is called in earlier sources, was elected by the popular assembly and therefore ruled from 764 to 787. In modern historical research, however, his death is dated to the year 797. During his long reign, the Venice Ducat came into conflict between the Frankish Empire under Charlemagne , who had conquered the Longobard Empire in 774 , and the Byzantine Empire , to which it still formally belonged. In 785, Pope Hadrian I arranged for Charles to forbid Venetian traders from entering the Pentapolis and the Ravenna Square .

The Doge resided in Malamocco , where he was also elected, on the eastern edge of the Venice lagoon . In the 23 years of his reign, according to the chronicle of Andrea Dandolo , the main course was set for Venice's rise and political independence, at the same time internal conflicts between families and political interest groups were mitigated and the decentralized exercise of power by the tribunes finally ended. Two of them each represented a first advisory body, so that this construction is considered the result of a compromise reached under Mauritius' predecessor, which was of great durability. However, this compromise could not prevent the Doge's office, which under Mauritius assumed more centralistic features, increasingly tended towards the formation of a dynasty and thus lost its official character, which went back more to administrative-military origins. This became evident from 785, when the Doge raised his son Johannes to a kind of co-regent, which in turn increased the opposition of the great , and even more so when the grandson Mauritius (II.) Also became Doge. At the same time, the first diocese was established in Olivolo (later called Castello ) in the east of today's historical center of Venice. Heinrich Kretschmayr viewed this diocese foundation as the “first founding act” of Venice, which only became the core of the lagoon in the early 9th century. In addition, Mauritius made it possible for the Doge to determine for the first time who in the Ducat Venice became bishop. Thus, on the one hand, rights and income came into the hands of the men he had chosen, on the other hand, this assignment of office could serve to balance the interests of the tribunician families and thus the balance of power.

The rule of Mauritius

Power constellation until the end of the Longobard Empire (764-774)

With Mauritius, which according to the Istoria Veneticorum of Johannes Diaconus from Eraclea , which was created around 1000 , as confirmed by the will of Dux Giustiniano Particiaco from 829, a Byzantine-friendly doge was chosen. In contrast, the Malamoccos families , the residence of the Doges, were more likely to be supporters of the Franks . Mauritius therefore counted on support from the Byzantine Emperor Leo IV , who had appointed him Magister militum and Ipato (consul) after his election , in its disputes with the Pope, who wanted to expand its territory at the expense of Venice . In a letter from the Patriarch of Grado to Pope Stephen III. from the year 770 the patriarch agreed with: "Mauricio, consuli et imperiali duci huius Venetiarum provinciae". Mauritius therefore not only had the title of 'consul', but also that of 'imperial dux' of the province. In the eyes of the Pope, the title was evidently still an emanation of imperial authority.

The appointment to Ipato provoked the Lombard king Desiderius . As a result, Mauritius got involved in the power struggles between the Lombard king, the Pope and the Frankish king Karl . In order to secure his influence in the lagoon, Desiderius took Johannes, the son of the Doge, who was called Giovanni Galbaio in later historiography , prisoner. John had fought on the side of the Byzantines in Istria against the Longobards. Now he served Desiderius as a hostage from 772/773. The hostage-taking is only mentioned in the Liber pontificalis , while the Venetian sources keep silent about this process. In a letter to the Pope, another John , the Patriarch of Grado , lamented the suppression of the Istrians by the Lombards who had occupied the peninsula and the fact that Grado was thereby removed from its jurisdiction. In another letter he emphasized the laudable resistance of Doge Mauritius.

At the same time, Byzantium tried to regain the territories it had lost to the Lombards in 751. But in 754 Pope Stephan II crossed the Alps and went to the Frankish court. The reason for this trip was the attacks of the Lombard king Aistulf , who had conquered the exarchate of Ravenna . Emperor Constantine V , who successfully fought against Muslim armies on the eastern border and was bound there, refrained from intervening in the west for some time. Under these circumstances, the Pope turned to King Pippin, who had ruled since 751, for help. His presence caused a sensation because it was the first time that a Pope went to the Frankish Empire. At the meeting in the Palatinate of Ponthion , Stephan II and Pippin made a friendship alliance (amicitia) . The king promised him support against the Lombards, Pippin himself was able to legitimize his kingship with it, because he had overthrown the last Merovingian king in 751 . At the same time, the Frankish kings became patrons of the Pope.

Despite this changed situation, Constantinople did not remain inactive. As early as 761, Emperor Constantine V managed to forge an alliance with Desiderius. The imperial themes of the south, Sicily and probably also the lagoon should provide help. But with the claim of the Franks and the conquest of the Longobard Empire in 774, the last imperial attempt to regain the Exarchate of Ravenna ended .

Relationship with the Frankish King and Pope, support from Byzantium (774–787), internal consolidation

Frankish conquests between 768 and 816; Venetian territory

Alpine crossings during the Longobard campaign of the Franks in 773

The Longobard campaign of Charles ended with the submission of Desiderius and the occupation of large parts of the Longobard Empire. In 774, Charles himself had the Lombards crown put on in the capital Pavia . At his instigation, the son of a dog was released.

Despite this gesture, Venice was now faced with an even more expansionist power. When an uprising flared up in 775/776, the last Lombard duces also disappeared from their offices and the duchies were converted into counties . The Duke of Friuli was also replaced. Many fled to the remaining Longobard duchy of Benevento , among them the important chronicler Paulus Diaconus , who worked on his Longobard history at least until 787 , which is one of the most important sources for the early Venetian period. In 781 he offered himself to King Karl as a scribe - he wrote a work there that celebrated the ancestor of the Charles dynasty ( Liber de episcopis Mettensibus ) - and lived in the Franconian Empire, which probably enabled him to free his brother from Frankish captivity in 785/786. The brothers were able to return to southern Italy.

Mauritius tried to create an antipole to the overpowering Franks by strengthening the old ties to the empire to which Venice was formally still a part. He managed to get his son's confirmation as successor in the Doge's office from the Byzantine emperor. His aim should have been to abolish the election of the Doge by the Venetians and to make the office hereditary, a policy that would determine the internal power struggles in Venice in the next decades.

At the same time, he ensured a more independent ecclesiastical policy by placing a “clericum, Obelliebatum nomine”, a member of a tribunician family from Malamocco, on the new bishopric Olivolo in the middle of the lagoon , as Johannes Diaconus writes (Johannes Diaconus II, 19-21 ). Soon the new bishopric increased the possibilities of balancing power between the tribunician families, because this gave the Doge a new wealth of power over the occupation of the bishopric to members of the said families.

But this also marked a new, sharp border to the Frankish Empire, this time in terms of canon law. This was of the greatest importance, as secular rights and income were attached to these positions. This new dogal power in turn led not only to conflicts with the patriarch, whose residence was on Frankish territory for a long time, but also with the Pope. A letter from Pope Hadrian , who had seized the Byzantine exarchate of Ravenna and addressed to King Charles, shows that all Venetian merchants had to leave the area of ​​the Pentapolis there and the Ravenna on his initiative. As Hadrian's letter says, they should be evicted and their property confiscated: “ut a partibus Ravennae seu Pentapoliis expellerentur Venetici ad negociandum […] ut in quolibet territorio nostro iure sanctae Ravennate ecclesiae ipsi Venetici presidia atque possessiones haberent, exinde omnino expelleret ... ". The reprehensible trade in slaves and eunuchs was given as the reason for this 'expulsion' of the Venetian traders . Frankish troops also occupied Istria in 787/788.

Unlike its predecessors, Mauritius died of natural causes after a long reign. However, he closed his eyes in the midst of a conflict that was about to threaten Venice's independence and economic survival. He left two daughters named Agata and Suria, and his son and fellow doge Johannes, who followed him in the Doge office.

reception

For the Venetian chronicler Johannes Diaconus , who wrote more than two centuries after Mauritius, the doge ruled "sapienter et honorifice", at the same time he was for the chronicler "peritissimus seculari studio", with which he gave the doge great experience in worldly matters, i.e. in the attested political leadership. The much more recent chronicle of Andrea Dandolo emphasizes that he largely succeeded in keeping the lagoon cities out of the conflicts between Franks, Lombards, the Pope and the Eastern Emperor . At the same time, Andrea Dandolo, a Doge himself in the 14th century, emphasizes that after a phase of fierce internal fighting, Mauritius had achieved a long internal balance with Mauritius. In the older Chronicon Altinate or Chronicon Venetum the Doge appears with the name and term of office “Mauricius dux ducavit ann. 23 ".

Pope Hadrian I asks the Frankish King Charles for help in 772, miniature, Antoine Vérard, 1493

For Venice, the interpretation attached to the rule of "Maurizio Galbaio" was of considerable importance. The leading bodies attached great importance to the control of historiography with a view to the development of the constitution, the question of the internal disputes between the possessores , but also the shifts in power in the Adriatic and the eastern Mediterranean as well as in Italy. Above all, the questions about the sovereignty between the empires, the demarcation from the mainland powers, above all from the Roman-German Empire and the Franconian Empire, and thus the derivation and legitimation of their territorial claims, were the focus. The expulsion of the Venetian traders on the initiative of the Pope, later also the question of the slave trade and how to deal with the moral questions involved, played an essential role from then on. In doing so, the influence of the popular assembly, which finally lost its influence in the 13th century, was often ignored, and the more powerful among the early Doges were viewed as overcoming the rule of the tribunes . In addition, the problem of dynasty formation emerged with the elevation of John to a fellow doge, a dynasty formation that the later Venice tried to prevent by all means.

The oldest vernacular chronicle, the Cronica di Venexia detta di Enrico Dandolo , presents the events that are obviously not (no longer) understandable even for historians on a largely personal level. "Mauricio Calbanyo" was included in the year "VII ^c LII" (752) Consent of the people made doge ("fu facto Duxe, cum volontade del povolo"). He ruled "prudentissimamente". He was of extremely noble descent ("nobelissimo"), from Eraclea. When he was so old that he could no longer rule, he took one of his sons, "nomado Johane", to rule instead of his father. Mauritius died after "anni XVI" of his rule.

Pietro Marcello noted laconically in 1502 in his work later translated into Volgare under the title Vite de'prencipi di Vinegia that "Mauritio Galbaio" comes from "Eraclia". While he extensively praised the rule of Mauritius, he censured his son in the same paragraph for his behavior towards the patriarch and the subsequent military intervention of Pippin , who was ordered to attack the lagoon by his father Charlemagne. In the underlying Latin edition from 1502, the entry for the Doge was "Mauritius Dux.VII." It says in a lapidary manner that he "succeeded" his predecessor. This suggested a princely succession order that never prevailed in Venice.

Gian Giacomo Caroldo reports less succinctly about Mauritius in his chronicle , which he wrote between 1520 and 1532. Caroldo, who in his own words relies on the chronicle of Andrea Dandolo (p. 54), notes that "Mauritio", born in Heraclea, was elected in the year "DCCLXIIIJ", ie 764. With this doge, the author indulges in generalities. This is how he was “nobile et virtuoso”, led his office with “giustizia” and united the quarreling Venetians. He also maintained the peace against “barbariche perturbationi ch'erano iminenti”. The Doge, "Imperial Consule", was grieved that his authority in the Patriarchate of Aquileia was negligible due to "insolenze" of the Lombards, and so he sent "suoi Oratori al Pontefice Stephano di questo nome secondo, li quali furono Magno Sacerdote Strunario et Constantino Tribuno , con il Patriarcha di Grado ”. But even these two "oratori", which are named by name, and the Patriarch of Grado, could not achieve anything with the Pope. Up until that time, according to Caroldo, all the islands settled by Paduans had been subordinate to the Bishop of Malamocco. But now the “Gemelle isole, quelle di Rialto, de Lorio et Dorso duro” have submitted to the new bishop of Olivolo, the “antichissima isola” (meaning the bishopric in Castello ). This change was recognized by Pope Hadrian (“approvato per il privilegio”). A synod of the Venetian people and clergy, "assistente il Duce et Patriarcha", elected "Obeliobaro clerico, figliuolo d'Eneaglino Tribuno, Mathemaucense Vescovo, laudato investito et intronizato dal Duce". The new bishop was thus a son of the tribune Eneaglino, the bishop of Malamocco, which was unproblematic at the time. But it should also have been clear to Caroldo that the rights of the church hierarchy were pushed aside when the people and clergy voted and the doge, instead of the patriarch or the pope, ' invested and enthroned' the bishop . Caroldo continues, the bishop remained in office for 23 years. To thank the Doge for his extremely praiseworthy “operationi” (“gratificare”), the Venetians made his son a fellow Doge. However, the author considers the fact that the Venetians had two doges to be a “pernicioso essempio a successori”, a “harmful” or “disastrous example for the successors”. When Mauritius died, his son John followed him in 787.

Even Heinrich Kellner said in his 1574 published Chronica is Warhaffte actual vnd kurtze description, all Hertzogen to Venice lives , "Mauriitus Galbaius" had become 764 "the Sibende Hertzog". "Monegario has followed Mauritius Galbaius from Eraclia / im jar 764," says Kellner, following Marcello. For him, the new Doge was "A man of thewren high understanding / and benevolent mind or heart", who, because of his "honorable bilious regiment", obtained the privilege of being the first to raise his son Johann to his "helper". Some conspired under “Fortunats, Ertzbischoff zu Grado”, but the “mutiny” was discovered and Fortunatus had to flee “to Keyser Caroln”, “during which he rebukes the Venetians a lot / and angered and moved the Keyser so much / that he his Son Pipino / who was king in Italia / ordered the Venetians to go to war. ”Pippin moved to“ Eraclia and Equilio ”because they were“ close to the country ”. Given their weak walls, many of the residents went to Malamocco and Rialto. “Hertzog Johann”, who led the regiment much worse than his father, “sent his Son Moritzen to Grado with a large armada against Johannem / Ertzbischoffen”. This Mauritius (II.) Took the cleric Johann prisoner and threw him "from a very high tower." Fortunatus now made contact with the leading families - "he makes a secret understanding and practice with the princes in Venice" - to Mauritius and overthrow his son. But the "alliance" was "discovered" and Fortunatus went to "Tervis", ie to Treviso . On imperial orders, Pippin was now fighting the Venetians. Mauritius was Doge for 23 years, his son 9, after the death of his father again for the same period of time. After he had raised his son to be a fellow doge himself in the seventh year, both were overthrown - so “he went into misery with the son”, which is to be understood as the author explains in a marginal note that the two were “chased away” . Here Kellner apparently sees two attacks by Pippin, or he prefers his attack, the chronology is rather unclear.

Francesco Sansovino (1512–1586) gave in his work Delle cose notabili della città di Venetia, Libri II , published in Venice 1587, the name of the Doge with “Maoritio Galbaio” in a section of a few lines. After him, the Doge's “bontà” was so highly valued that he was able to enforce his son as a fellow Doge (“ottenne per compagno nel Principato vn suo figlio”) and he was made consul by the emperor. The said son followed him in office.

In the translation of the Historia Veneta by Alessandro Maria Vianoli , which appeared in 1686 under the title Der Venetianischen Hertzüge Leben / Government, und Die Die / Von dem Ersten Paulutio Anafesto an / bis auf die Marcum Antonium Justiniani , who was in power at the time , in Nuremberg, the doge was called "Mauritius Galbajus, the Seventh Hertzog". According to the extensive account he was "a true model of all perfect virtues" (p. 56). When Charles wanted to besiege the Longobard king Desiderius in Pavia, the Franconian realized that an incomplete siege would take an extremely long time, and he therefore had "the Venetians and a certain number of ships" stopped, whereupon they agreed to provide 25 ships to to shut off the besieged city from all supplies. As a result, Desiderius had to give up in 774 and go into Franconian captivity. Soon the city of Venice "increased not only in the number of inhabitants / but also apparently in temporal goods / to such an extent / that its state was now honored to be honored by Episcopal sovereignty / it was decided that it was the Obelialtum Marinum, a guild master of Malamocco's son / came over to the first bishop / who then had his seat in the island of Olivola, today called Castello: In this way, this benevolent Prince Mauritius enjoyed those fruits / because of the general fatherland, peace and prosperity / to taste for a long time until now / and saved ”(p. 63). In addition, he had "made himself so dear and defended his subjects" ... "that he was also allowed / to accept his son Johannem as an assistant and journeyman" (p. 64). He has experienced a total of 23 years of “good government”.

The dates of the rule were still controversial in the late 17th century, which was even more true of the earlier Doges. So wrote in 1687 Jacob von Sandrart in his work Kurtze and increased description of the origin / recording / areas / and government of the world famous republic Venice that the predecessor of the Doge, "Dominicus Monegarius" had failed because he and the two "annual councilors “Were never unanimous. This is followed by the author: "In the year 757. was chosen (VII.) Mauritius Galbajus". But besides the fact that “after he had reigned happily for a number of years / got power from the people / to take a successor next to him in government in his life” he only reports that he took his son Johannes into office, “which the only specimen was / by two ruling Hertz at the same time ”. However, he had used the "understanding" "that at his age he would need a companion".

Depiction of "Maurizio Galbajo", Emmanuele Antonio Cicogna : Storia dei Dogi di Venezia , vol. 1, Venice 1867, no p.

In popular representations, this aspect of dynasty formation was repeatedly taken up and interpreted as a failure. So took August Daniel of Binzer in 1845 that it came to the glare and banishment of his predecessor for election. This choice "fell on Maurizio Galba (or Galbajo), who ruled for 23 years, from 764-787, although he had appointed his son co-regent in 778 and actually followed him, impairing freedom of choice." Logically, at least in the eyes of Binzer, after he had raised his son Maurizio to co-regent in 796 , “after repeated unsuccessful attempts both were finally deposed and banished”.

According to Johann Friedrich LeBret , who published his state history of the Republic of Venice from 1769 , the people “who elected the princes and chased them away like a potter makes his pot and smashed them again” were not to be trusted “much thought”. Mauritius, "from the noble house of Galba", received the most votes, according to Le Bret. He not only possessed a large fortune, but also earned "general respect" through his actions. He ruled in such a way "that he did honor to the name of the Venetians, and provided their public affairs with much wisdom and moderation." According to Le Bret, the popes turned to the Franconian kings above all in the interest of their "inclinations which the dukes gave them." had withheld from Benevento ”. But without fear of being threatened with banishment, Karl married Desiderius' daughter; according to the author, the king subordinated all virtues to his "thirst for conquest". In 771 Desiderius interfered in the dispute between Aquileia and Grado over the dioceses of Istria, giving the Franks cause for interference. The bishops of Istria responded to the papal ban by “ordaining themselves among one another.” Mauritius had now called “a clergyman, Magnus, his archivist, and a tribune, Constantinus, as ambassador to the Pope” (p. 113), but Desiderius's march against Rome, but also the presence of Charles' nephews in Italy, had caused this very Charles to conquer Verona, then Pavia. He took Desiderius prisoner. Istria was the last to have taken "Charlemagne from the Greek Empire". At a meeting in 801 not only the Patriarch of Aquileia and the bishops appeared, but also 172 "city deputies". On the basis of a document, the author believes he can show that by switching to Desiderius, the bishops had tried to reduce the taxes to Byzantium, of which they had to bear half on the peninsula. For this purpose they forged and loaded heavy loads on the Istrians, demanding "the third part of the wine wax". “This was the reason that they no longer wanted to be subject to the Patriarch of Grado; and Desiderius did nothing more than take advantage of their iniquity ”(p. 114). The Doge tried to take the Pope against it, but it was not his letters that changed the behavior of the bishops, but only the Frankish conquest. Then the author continues: "The Venetian historians report to us that the Doge Moriz has given the Emperor Karl ships on the Po". This was the first thing that “forced Desiderius to surrender” (p. 115), and the Venetians describe this process “with very artificial colors”, and this is the reason “why Karl afterwards granted them such freedoms”. The author later contradicts this description, because Venice's merchants were expelled from the area of ​​Ravenna and the Five Cities, Venice would have preferred a weak Lombard empire to an overpowering Frankish empire in any case (p. 117). Since Mauritius knew that "his old age already deprived him of the liveliness that was required in such a half-military and half-civil position", he also loved his son "with extraordinary tenderness" and had prepared him for his office, he could demand that he needed his son for support. However, the Doge noted that the “rash politeness” of the people “would serve to ensure that another prince could dare to make his dignity hereditary” (p. 115). Who wants to be a judge as to whether he has earned the same services as Mauritius, asks Le Bret rhetorically. “One would probably not be able to entrust the judiciary to the people, who were used to tearing the eyes out of their princes.” But they considered themselves lucky, according to the author, “and hoped that the golden times of Morizen, who was adored by his people, would last forever "(P. 116). When he died the people wept after having "had the throne with glory for three and thirty years".

In 1853 Samuele Romanin gave the Doge nine pages in his ten-volume opus Storia documentata di Venezia . For him, “Maurizio Galbajo” also came from a “nobile famiglia” from Eraclea. He stood out with “saviezza e prudenza, per mente perspicace e pronto” and had strong support from the people. Internally, his first task was to reconcile Eraclea and Jesolo, then to protect the lagoon from “incursioni degli Italiani”, as the Venetians have since called the inhabitants of the mainland, and finally to promote prosperity through peace . With Romanin, however, not only the sons and wife of Karlmann appear at the court of the Lombard king, but also "Unoldo, duca di Aquitania" ( Hunold of Aquitaine ), who was also deprived of his rights by Karl. But in Romanin's eyes the divided Lombards had no prospect of successful opposition to Charles. Romanin only deals with the legend of the help of the Venetians in the siege of Pavia in a footnote, since no one except later Venetian historians have commented on this (p. 127). The author shows the resistance against Franconian rule in Friuli as well as in Benevento and Rome, which the king quickly threw down in order to then devote himself to the coronation of the emperor (p. 129). The Venetians observed these processes more 'than is generally believed'. They changed alliances, sometimes with 'the Greeks', sometimes with the Pope, the Bishop of Ravenna, or with the Lombards. During the last years of the exarchate they had even acquired land near Comacchio on the lower reaches of the Po ("Filias. VII, 168"). So in 784 Karl forbade them not only because of this policy, but they were also supposed to be expelled because of the trade in slaves (p. 130). According to Romanin, later provisions prohibiting the slave trade would prove that this trade with the Saracens continued. In addition, Karl was not well-disposed towards the Venetians, so that the ground was prepared for the later events (this is probably the attack on Venice by Pippin). A synod of all the bishops of the Grado Patriarchate, but also the nobili, the clergy, and the people have determined "Obelierio od Obeliebato", son of "Eugario", or, according to other authors, the tribunes of Malamocco Eneangelo as Bishop of Olivolo to choose. It was invested by the Doge and consecrated by the Patriarch. Romanin proves this with two quotations from the "Sagornina", as the Chronicle of Johannes Diaconus was called at that time, and the Chronicle of Andrea Dandolo (p. 131). He does not explicitly name the contradictions, however, because Johannes Diaconus says: “apud Olivolensem insulam apostolica auctoritate novum Episcopum fore decrevit”, while the distinction between investment and enthronement by the doge on the one hand and consecration by the patriarch on the other only appears in Dandolo. Romanin follows Dandolo's much more recent chronicle. After all, according to a common custom in Constantinople, the aging doge made his son “Giovanii” a colleague after the popular assembly was called. This and the increasingly stronger Franconian party - due to the growing prestige of the emperor - led to unrest, but the doge died before these could lead to tangible consequences.

In 1861, Francesco Zanotto dedicated three pages to the Doge in his Il Palazzo ducale di Venezia , which first started with the election on the Lido di Malamocco in 764 and then called the Sanudo variant, namely “Calbalono”. Like most historians, as Zanotto himself thinks, he also attributes the best qualities to him: "uomo di grande ingegno, peritissimo in ogni scienza politica, prudente, chiaro per la integrità del vivere". He also possessed the most important quality, the "moderazione". All in all, he was of the type of ruler who was remembered less through “splendide gesta” but rather through the “benedizioni dei popoli”. While Sagornino (as the Chronicle of John the Diaconus was called at that time), Dandolo, Giustiniano and Sanudo had remained silent about it, according to the author, he had thereby acquired merits, “che si levassero dallato i due tribuni”. According to Zanotto, it was precisely the doge's will to stay out of the great conflicts that distinguished him. The provision of a fleet for Karl, who was standing in front of Pavia, was an invention of Italian historians, while not a single foreign historian mentioned it. Zanotto explicitly follows Beneventano when he explains that the fleet was only used to deliver food, not for combat. In addition, Zanotto considered the elevation of the son to be a fellow Doge and successor to be the most important act of the Doge. In a footnote he also mentions that the historian Torrelli postulates that the family descended from the gens romana Sulpizia , to which Emperor Galba also belonged. Accordingly, this is also reported on p. Leone Mattina, who assumed the family had moved from Rome to the Venetian lagoon. Finding out whether these extensive speculations contained a true core, however, was a "futile undertaking" ('opera vana'). Places such as Trieste , Altino , Capodistria or Padua were also included in the speculations about the family's origin, as well as contradicting information, namely 1202, 1262 and 1286, when asked about the date of the family's extinction. Otherwise, the historians behaved in such a way that they praised Maurizio's qualities in the highest tones, as if this would make any further fact useless for his fame.

August Friedrich Gfrörer († 1861) believed in his History of Venice, which was published posthumously in 1872, from its foundation to 1084 , that there had been a "change in the political system". He translates Andrea Dandolo's chronicle: "Although he was born in Heraclea, he set up his seat in Malamocco." For the author, Heraclea was the "center of the Byzantine-minded Venetians" (p. 69). Nevertheless, Desiderius saw in the new Doge “an instrument of Byzantine rule”. In order to win over one of the warring brothers Karl and Karlmann for himself after Pippin's death and at the same time help him to victory, he offered both of his daughter Desiderata for marriage. Karl took action and violated the Pope's words against his wife in order to marry the Longobard. In this way Desiderius hoped not only to make the victory of his son-in-law dependent on his support, but above all to be able to subdue Italy completely and also to incorporate Veneto into his kingdom. To this end, he first intervened in the episcopal elections, including in Istria. The local bishops fell away from Grado and placed themselves under Aquileia in the Longobard Empire. The Pope comforted the Patriarch of Grado because of the injustice he had suffered and threatened the Istrian bishops with their removal. Gfrörer believes that Grado will be reinstated in his rights by the Franks, by himself and by the "Romans" - this could only mean the Byzantines - especially since Istria was formally still part of the Roman Empire (p. 72). Desiderius took action against Mauritius, "the protégé of the Greeks", by capturing his son, an "act of violence" that both Johannes Diaconus and Andrea Dandolo, as Gfrörer emphasized, keep silent. But this constellation was soon out of date when Karl rejected Desiderata, Karlmann died in the same year 771 and Karl became the sole ruler of the Franconian Empire. The snubbed Desiderius was now working towards the overthrow of Charlemagne by taking in Karlmann's children and demanding that the Pope raise the elder to king. But Hadrian I refused, from which no army at the gates of Rome could dissuade him. In the autumn of 773, Karl's army crossed the Alps, conquered the capital Pavia, and took Desiderius as a prisoner into the Frankish Empire. Mauritius did not need to fear anything from the Lombard side, but now “the emerging world empire of the Franks was pressing on the small but rich state of the lagoons” (p. 75). There were also internal disputes, such as the separation of the "islands of Olivolo, Rupe (Luprio), Dorsoduro and Rialto" from Malamocco, which resulted in a separate bishopric "with seat in the castle of Olivolo", as Gfrörer translates Dandolo again. This is “the first beginning of the city of Venice, where the Doges have taken their homes forever since the 9th century.” The appointment of the 16-year-old “Greek” Christophorus as Bishop of Olivolo in 798 had “drawn bitter hatred to the ruling house ". Constantinople demanded this gesture because people there had become suspicious of the new center - rightly according to Gfrörer. The overwhelming power of the Franks forced Mauritius to form a closer association with Byzantium. This explains, according to the author, a sharp change in the constitution, because the Venetians, as Dandolo already said, showed their gratitude to the Doge by being able to appoint his son to be co-ruler and successor. This son named Johann ruled a total of 25 years, nine of them "together with his father Mauritius, then nine again alone, and finally the other seven next to his son Mauritius II" (p. 77). Under the assumption that Gfrörer makes that Mauritius I died in 787, the constitutional change took place in 778. Gfrörer considers the participation of the Venetians through an election to be a “sham election”, but the “nerve of this measure” came from Constantinople and the court there. There they had given permission to form a hereditary monarchy, because they feared that Mauritius might seek the “desired grace” at the Franconian court. In the same way, according to Gfrörer, the court proceeded when Mauritius II was appointed. 787 the Doge died "old and full of life".

Heinrich Kretschmayr emphasized the centralism and, in his opinion, the associated growth in size of Malamocco, which "can no longer hold the inflowing masses and has to give more than before to the islands of Rialto". Similar to the relationship between Heracliana and Jesolo, where a diocese was established in the first settlement phase, so it was between Malamocco and Olivolo. “In the year 774/775 this colorful island world was released from its ecclesiastical subordination to Malamocco and an episcopate was established on the most important island, Olivolo.” Again, according to Kretschmayr, this establishment means “the first founding act of the city of Venice.” Help He considers a Venetian fleet to be “a patriotic fable conceived later” (p. 53).

Modern research, such as Andrea Castagnetti, no longer accepts the information in Andrea Dandolo's chronicle. It goes back to the much more timely chronicle of Johannes Diaconus and uses it as the basis for the year of death of Mauritius in 797.

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Narrative sources

• La cronaca veneziana del diacono Giovanni , in: Giovanni Monticolo (ed.): Cronache veneziane antichissime (= Fonti per la storia d'Italia [Medio Evo], IX), Rome 1890, pp. 98-100 ( digitized version , PDF ).
• Ester Pastorello (Ed.): Andreae Danduli Ducis Venetiarum Chronica per extensum descripta aa. 46-1280 (= Rerum Italicarum Scriptores XII, 1), Nicola Zanichelli, Bologna 1938, 2nd edition, pp. 119-121. ( Digital copy, p. 118 f. )

Legislative sources, letters

• Paul Fridolin Kehr (Ed.): Italia pontificia , Vol. VII, 2, Berlin 1925, pp. 39, 127.
• Roberto Cessi (Ed.): Documenti relativi alla storia di Venezia anteriori al Mille , Vol. I, Padua 1942, n. 30, pp. 46-49 (“770-72. L'arcivescovo di Grado Giovanni a papa Stefano III ( IV) “) ( digitized version ), n. 36, p. 55 f. ("785. Adriano I papa a Carlo Magno", expulsion of the Venetians from the Pentapolis) ( digitized version )
• Louis Duchesne (Ed.): Le liber pontificalis , Vol. I, Paris 1981, p. 491.

literature

• Luigi Andrea Berto: Under the 'Romans' or under the 'Franks' , in: Haskins Society Journal 28 (2016) 1-14.
• Claudio Azzara: Maurizio Galbaio , in: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani , vol. 72, Treccani, 2008 p. 48 f.
• Andrea Bedina: Giovanni Galbaio , in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani , vol. 56, Rome 2001, p. 48 f.
• Gherardo Ortalli : Venezia dalle origini a Pietro II Orseolo , in: Paolo Delogu, André Guillou, Gherardo Ortalli: Longobardi e Bizantini , in: Storia d'Italia , vol. 1, Turin 1980, p. 375 f.

Web links

Commons : Maurizio Galbaio  - 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. ^ Giovanni Monticolo (ed.): Iohannes Diaconus, Cronaca veneziana (Cronache veneziane antichissime, I), Rome 1890, p. 98.
3. ^ Andrea Castagnetti: Famiglie e affermazione politica , in: Storia di Venezia , Vol. I: Origini-Età ducale , Rome 1992, pp. 613-644, here: p. 614).
4. ↑ Roberto Cessi (ed.): Documenti relativi alla storia di Venezia anteriori al Mille , 2 vol., Padua 1940 and 1942, vol. 2, n. 30, pp. 46-49, here: p. 49.
5. ^ Nicola Bergamo: Costantino V , Il Cerchio, Rimini 2007, p. 98.
6. ^ Stefan Weinfurter : Charlemagne. The holy barbarian , Piper, Munich and Zurich 2015, p. 90 f.
7. ↑ Pauli Warnefridi. Liber de episcopis Mettensibus , ed. By Georg Heinrich Pertz in: Monumenta Germaniae Historica Scriptorum tomus II, pp. 260–270, Hanover 1829 ( digitized at archive.org).
8. ↑ Nicola Bergamo: Venezia bizantina , Helvetia editrice, Spinea 2018, p. 99.
9. ↑ Roberto Cessi (ed.): Documenti relativi alla storia di Venezia anteriori al Mille , 2 vol., Padua 1940 and 1942, vol. 1, n. 36, p. 55 f., Here: p. 55.
10. ^ Andrea Castagnetti : Famiglie e affermazione politica , in: Storia di Venezia , Vol. I: Origini-Età ducale , Rome 1992, pp. 613-644, here: p. 615.
11. ^ MGH, Scriptores XIV, Hannover 1883, p. 60, Chronicon Venetum (vulgo Altinate) .
12. ^ Roberto Pesce (Ed.): Cronica di Venexia detta di Enrico Dandolo. Origini - 1362 , Centro di Studi Medievali e Rinascimentali "Emmanuele Antonio Cicogna", Venice 2010, p. 19.
13. ↑ Pietro Marcello : Vite de'prencipi di Vinegia in the translation of Lodovico Domenichi, Marcolini, 1558, pp 8-10 ( digital copy ).
14. ↑ Petri marcelli De uitis principum et gestis Venetorum compendium , Venice 1502, o. S. ( digitized version ).
15. ↑ 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, p. 49 f. ( online ).
16. ↑ Heinrich Kellner : Chronica that is Warhaffte actual and short description, all life in Venice , Frankfurt 1574, p. 4r – v ( digitized, p. 4r ).
17. ↑ Francesco Sansovino : Delle cose notabili della città di Venetia , Felice Valgrisio, Venice 1587, p. 86 f. ( Digitized version ), then again printed at Salicato at the request of Girolamo Bardi , Venice 1606, p. 58 ( digitized version ).
18. ↑ Alessandro Maria Vianoli : Der Venetianischen Herthaben life / government, and withering / from the first Paulutio Anafesto to / bit on the now-ruling Marcum Antonium Justiniani , Nuremberg 1686, translation ( digitized ).
19. ↑ Jacob von Sandrart : Kurtze and increased description of the origin / recording / areas / and government of the world famous Republick Venice , Nuremberg 1687, p. 14 f. ( Digital copy, p. 14 ).
20. ↑ August Daniel von Binzer : Venice in 1844 , Gustav Heckenast, Leipzig 1845, p. 405.
21. ↑ 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 the correct time order, at the same time adding new additions to the spirit of the Venetian laws and secular and ecclesiastical affairs, to 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, 1769, pp. 112–116 ( digitized, p. 112 ).
22. ↑ 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, pp. 124–132). The enormous historical work has a volume of about 4000 pages.
23. ↑ Francesco Zanotto: Il Palazzo ducale di Venezia , Vol. 4, Venice 1861, pp. 13–15 ( digitized version ).
24. ↑ 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. 68-78 ( digitized version ).
25. ^ Heinrich Kretschmayr : History of Venice , 3 vol., Vol. 1, Gotha 1905, p. 52.
26. ^ Andrea Castagnetti: La società veneziana nel Medioevo , vol. I: Dai tribuni ai giudici , Verona 1992, pp. 61 f .; Ders .: Famiglie e affermazione politica , in: Storia di Venezia , Vol. I: Origini-Età ducale , Rome 1992, pp. 613–644, here: p. 614.

predecessor	Office	successor
Domenico Monegario	Doge of Venice 764–797	Giovanni Galbaio