Pietro I. Candiano

The coat of arms of "Pietro Candiano" as it was imagined in the 17th century. The coats of arms of the early medieval Doges are mere rear projections of much younger 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. So the coats of arms of the much later descendants of these Doges were projected back onto the alleged or actual members of the families that had ruled Venice (allegedly) since 697.

Pietro I. Candiano , in the contemporary sources Petrus Candianus or Piero (* around 842; † September 18, 887 near Tučepi , Croatia ), according to the Venetian historiographical tradition, as the state-controlled historiography of Venice was called, was the 16th Doge of the Republic of Venice . He ruled for barely five months, from April 17, 887 to September 18 of the same year, and died at the age of 45.

The end of the Particiaco dynasty meant that the reigning doge had left it to the people's assembly to find a suitable successor. As the first Doge, apart from the election by the People's Assembly, the insignia of power, namely sword, scepter and doge chair, were personally presented to Peter. He was also the first doge to perish in a military conflict outside of Venetian territory, a land battle against the Slavs on the Neretva , portrayed as mere pirates in Venetian historiography. These may have disrupted Venice's slowly increasing trade in the Adriatic.

Domination

Peter, who belonged to the Candiano family , was handed over the insignia of power on April 17, 887 by the sick Doge John II . However, he died five months later on September 18 in a battle with Dalmatian pirates who had established themselves at the mouth of the Neretva . He was the first doge to die in a battle for Venice. The Narentans , referred to as “pirati” in the sources, were even able to collect tributes from Venice for the next few decades (up to 998) . His son Pietro II. Candiano followed him later (932–939) as Doge.

Peter's brief reign marked a slow change in the constitution of Venice. It is true that the chronicler Johannes Diaconus has traditionally said that the sick doge is "licentiam populo dedit ut constitueret sibi ducem quem vellet". The seriously ill John II gave the people permission to choose a doge. But Johannes was the first doge to hand over the insignia of power personally to his successor, namely "spatam, fustem ac sellam", i.e. sword, scepter and the doge chair , separately from the election by the popular assembly . The chronicler explicitly claims that the doge determined his successor in this act: "eumque sibi successorem constituens". This process therefore also symbolizes the diminishing importance of the people's assembly, the arengo , at least in the perspective of the Chronicle of Johannes Deacon from around 1000.

The Candiano family is not entirely unknown in the history of the lagoon at this point. Peter belonged to the family that included another Petrus Candianus, who had participated in the assassination of Doge Peter in 864 and who therefore had to go into exile. Such families developed from a land-owning aristocracy into one that lived from trade (Hartmann, Heinrich Kretschmayr ) or were representatives of the new, emerging merchant aristocracy , which came into conflict with the old families ( Roberto Cessi , on the other hand: Gino Luzzatto ). In the period between the thirties of the 9th century and the end of the century, when they dominated the state, the Candiano first tried to use the populus in their interests, in order to rule this people later. But the tragic downfall of the last member of the family also shows that the socio-economic fabric of the lagoon was opposed to such a development. This resistance is expressed symbolically in the formula “dux et populus”.

The Doge's brief reign prevented any suggestion of such a program. His first aim was to eliminate the threat posed by the Slavs, especially the Narentans. The more their leading groups became dependent on long-distance trade through the Adriatic, the more they threatened Venice's existence. The first naval expedition achieved nothing against the pirates, the leadership of the second was now taken over by the Doge himself. Superior at sea, the battle in the countryside brought the Venetians a heavy defeat and the doge's death. He was buried in Grado.

For a long time these were the last attempts to use gun violence against the coastal inhabitants. It was not until Pietro II Orseolo succeeded in subjugating them more than a century later. Until then, Venice preferred to keep trade in the middle and lower Adriatic open and secure through individual contracts and the payment of tributes.

reception

For Venice at the time of Doge Andrea Dandolo , the interpretation given to Piero Candiano's brief reign was of symbolic importance in several respects. The focus of the political leadership bodies, long established in the middle of the 14th century, which have steered historiography especially since Andrea Dandolo, focused on the development of the constitution (in this case the question of the failure of one of the attempts to form a dynasty and the derivation of the rulership rights of the oldest families, here the Sanudo), but also the shifts in power within the Adriatic (here the fatal battle with the Slavic pirates on the Eastern Adriatic). The focus was always on the questions of the political independence between the disintegrating empires, of law from its own roots, and thus of the derivation and legitimation of their claim to territorial and maritime domination, because Venice was forced at this time to be completely independent at the highest risk to operate in a power vacuum left by the great empires of the time.

Alleged tomb of Pietros I Candiano in Tučepi , Croatia , at the Georgskapelle (Crkva sv. Jure) there, which was built from 1311

The oldest vernacular chronicle, the Cronica di Venexia detta di Enrico Dandolo, from the late 14th century, like Andrea Dandolo, presents the events on a level that has long been familiar and dominated by individuals, which once again gave the Doges greater power. According to this chronicle, "Piero Candiam" came from the house of Sanudo. When his predecessor resigned from office, he came to the Doge's seat, so it was a question of the peaceful end of a dynasty, which was very unusual in Venice at that time. Except for the naval expedition against the Narentans, the chronicle reports nothing about the time of the Doge's sole rule. This led an "armada de nave XII", a fleet of twelve ships, against the Narentans, with whom there was a fight, in the course of which the doge died. It is important to the author to note that the body was snatched from the Slavs ("El corpo per gli Sclavi fu tolto") and buried in Grado. According to this chronicle, the Doge ruled for 7 years and 5 months ("anno VII, mensi V").

Pietro Marcello in 1502 in his work, which was later translated into Volgare under the title Vite de'prencipi di Vinegia , led the Doge in the section "Pietro Candiano Doge XV." After him, a fleet first drove out against the Narentans, but it returned because they "the Didn't find enemies ”. Thereupon twelve galleys drove under the leadership of the new Doge, who was killed in a battle. According to the author, he had ruled no more than five months. His body was taken to Grado and buried there. His predecessor, the resigned "Giovanni Particiaco", took over the Doge's office again, moved by the requests of the people, until Pietro Tribuno took office.

The history venete dal principio della città fino all'anno 1382 of Gian Giacomo Caroldo does not report from the 15th, but from the 16th Doge "Pietro Candiano", "il qual fù ricevuto da knife Ioanni Barbaro suo precessore gratiosamente et da lui hebbe l ' insegne del Ducato et sede Duce ”, so he received the insignia of the ducat and the doge chair from his predecessor. When this predecessor fell seriously ill, he allowed the people to choose a doge they preferred ("permesse al Popolo ch'elegesse un Duce che più li fusse grato"). With Orso the new doge went against the Narentans, but without success. Pietro, who launched a new attack in August and initially achieved success by capturing five ships, was killed in fighting on September 17, 887 along with seven other men. The Andrea Tribuno succeeded in securing his body and having it buried in the church of Grado. The author of the chronicle attests that he was "bellicoso, audace, prudente et molto liberale", and at the same time he was so inclined to churches and divine service that he was never absent from worship. “Of medium stature, 45 years old” - “di mediocre statura, d'anni XLV” - he had only been a doge for five months. The resigned Doge Johannes took up his post again at the request of the people, despite his illness. After six months and thirteen days the "pubblici rumori" were so reassured that he was able to persuade the people to elect a new doge in 888.

In the Chronica published in 1574, this is Warhaffte actual and short description, all the lives of the Frankfurt lawyer Heinrich Kellner in Venice , who based on Marcello made the Venetian chronicle known in the German-speaking area, is "Peter Candian the Fifteenth Hertzog". Lapidar writes Kellner that the new Doge was "received / in jar 887." Under the Particiachi ruling up to now, the Doges had raised their sons or brothers to be fellow Doges ("assistants") and thus designated them as their successors - apparently by circumventing the right to vote the popular assembly. A fleet had been sent against the Narentans, “the Venetian old enemies and adversaries”, “But the Naven came against / did not meet the enemy.” Such mishaps appear again and again in the chronicles. "Not long afterwards", however, twelve galleys were "armored out" against the Narentans who "killed" the enemy in the "Dalmatian Sea". The Venetians were victorious at first and hijacked “several” ships, but when the “Barbari” were superior to ships, “they did great damage / conquered the heart of the ship / sampt another ... the Duke also came himself / when he was chivalrously defending himself / umb in this battle ”. Kellner gives his reign as five months. His body was brought to Grado and buried there. The resigned Doge "Johann Partitias" only accepted the office again "at the request of the people", "bit Peter Tribun was elected."

In the translation of the Historia Veneta by Alessandro Maria Vianoli , 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 now-ruling Marcum Antonium Justiniani , the doge is “ Petrus Candianus, again called the Sixteen Hertzog ”. When his predecessor John "sensed / that he could no longer rule the congregation / because of the diminution of powers" he handed over "this high dignity of the princely throne" to Petrus Candianus. According to Vianoli, the Doge triumphed "near Marano, against the Sclavonians", and in a "serious meeting he had completely defeated this angry bunch and destroyed it." In contrast, a fleet that was supposed to fight the Narentans returned without having achieved anything back. Now the Doge had to "strengthen" the fleet with twelve ships, but he was "too hotly followed up at the meeting". According to Vianoli, he “ventured into the midst of the enemy”. These surrounded and killed him, whereby "the whole Venetian power has been lost". The sick Doge Johannes took up his post again at the request of the people, but after six months, when he saw “that the Vatterland had landed in a safe port”, he resigned again, “whereupon with great joy / the government -To drive chariots / in the year eight hundred and eight and eighty / was named Petrus Tribunus ”.

In 1687 Jacob von Sandrart wrote laconically in his work Kurtze and an enlarged description of the origin / recording / areas / and government of the world-famous republic of Venice : “And so in the year 887 Petrus Candianus was chosen to be the (15th) Hertzog: but who in that fifth month of his government / in a battle against the Slavs in Dalmatia / (or as others write / against pirates), which he had previously overcome. "

In 2003 a plaque hung up on a house in Makarska to commemorate the victory of the "Croats" over the Venetian fleet on September 18, 887, in which the doge "Petar I Candiano" was killed (photographed in 2019). According to the table, this victory was the basis for the Croatian naval forces.

With Johann Friedrich LeBret , who published in his four-volume State History of the Republic of Venice from 1769 , “Johannes finally gave thanks voluntarily” after his brothers had died or had refused the office. He called on the people to vote, from which Peter Candiano emerged victorious. John called him to the “ducal palace”, where he “gave him the ducal sword, the scepter, and the ducal chair, recognizing him as his successor” (p. 179). The new Doge's family was “in great esteem for three hundred years. The state promised himself the greatest service from him, and the people were most delighted with his election. ”“ Everyone promised a permanent government, and his personal qualities gave his people hope for good luck. ”“ Venice was lucky for the first time, two Princes in peace and with glory, rise from the throne and see another rise on it ”. Candianus was clever and brave, accompanied by “a certain love of religion, which he truly valued, and which he diligently attended. The priest who wrote the Sagorninian chronicle reports that he had kept the prayer book with him at all times, "a message woven in by Johannes Diaconus, which LeBret dismisses:" We like him, as a bold warrior, as an honest man, as a philanthropist, as a defender of his fatherland. " The first fleet could do nothing against the" Narentans, whose constitution was that which we observe today in the predatory nests on the northern African coast "(meaning the barbarian states ) . But Candianus wanted "to distinguish his government by completely exterminating these robbers." "Bey the Muculus promontory, which is now called Ponta Micha, and not far from Zara," he met Narentans who fled into the bay and landed . While the Venetians had "smashed five predatory ships", the Narentans returned with many more men. In the fight the doge was killed with seven other men. “The Croats, however, had no part in it, but rather sought, in company with the Dalmati and Venetians, to increase their shipping [...]. The Croats showed some respect for the Venetians. Because after they found the body of the murdered Doge, Andreas Tribunus took him to Grado, where the rest of the crashed Venetian fleet had also withdrawn ”(p. 181).

In 1853, Samuele Romanin barely gave Candiano a page in the first of ten volumes of his Storia documentata di Venezia . Apart from decorations on the landscape with its caves in which the pirates could hide, and a lively style, Romanin reports the events in a similar way, but does not, like LeBret, ask whether the "pirates" are for Croats. However, he reports (p. 206) of a grave ("Tuscupi nel Primorje", also Tučepi ), from which the local residents should have assumed "per antichissima tradizione", "according to the oldest tradition", that it was the grave of Dogen acted.

August Friedrich Gfrörer († 1861) assumes in his history of Venice from its foundation to the year 1084 , which appeared eleven years after his death : “So on April 17th, 887 Peter Candiano, in his own apartment, was elected Doge by the people . “Gfrörer suspects that John II. Completely from Byzantium and the Carolingian Karl III. turned to, also because his business perhaps extended to the Franconian Empire. Gfrörer claims "that the Greek party in Veneto forced the appointment of fellow Doges whenever Doges broke with Byzantium", but this ultimately failed because of Peter's death . Then the reinstatement of Johann followed, but due to a lack of Franconian support he was no longer able to hold his office. This also indicates that the election of his successor took place in his house and that John II only handed over the insignia of his power in the Doge's Palace afterwards. As always with Gfrörer, Byzantium was behind the appointment of fellow Doges and the resignation of the Doge. In this case, the origin of the Doge family from "the Byzantine fire herd Heracliana" indicates a corresponding procedure, which however became obsolete due to the Doge's early death.

Pietro Pinton translated and annotated Gfrörer's work in the Archivio Veneto in annual volumes XII to XVI. Pinton's own account, which, however, did not appear until 1883 - also in the Archivio Veneto - was criticized many times by Gfrörer. For Pinton it was not the leaning of two warring factions on one of the two empires, but rather the difficult task of fighting pirates, which resulted in a search for healthier fellow doges and finally the appointment of the apparently suitable, if ultimately unsuccessful, Candiano.

As early as 1861, Francesco Zanotto in his Il Palazzo ducale di Venezia , in which he gave the people's assembly considerably more influence, speculated that the 16th Doge had been elected unanimously. From the illness of Doge John II, from the death of Pietro, the cause of which he mentions later, he highlights the resignation of John as a unique case. With him, this resignation and the election of a new doge came from the people. In the fight against the Croats, Candiano lost “lasciando per la patria, in suolo straniero, la preziosa sua vita”, he “left his precious life for the fatherland, on foreign soil,” as the author adds pathetically.

Also Emmanuele Antonio Cicogna made 1867 his first volume Storia dei Dogi di Venezia the new Doge of the "assemblea nazionale" select and deploy the predecessor by handing over the insignia. After the deaths in the family, Johannes finally resigned and left the nation to choose whoever it liked ("qual più le piacesse per doge") as doge. Cicogna calls the pirates "Slavi Narentani" again, against whom the Doge led twelve "grossi navi". The carelessness of landing turned into an unusual success at Cicogna. But then 'expecting no harm', the doge stayed with a few men on the bank. He defended himself desperately against the attackers, but, covered with numerous wounds, he died at the 'fresh age of 45'.

Heinrich Kretschmayr sketched the rule of Candiano in a few sentences. According to him, the Doge came from “an old battle race”, was “full of war zeal himself” and did not hesitate to strike “against the scourge of the Adriatic Sea, the Narentaslawen”, and after an initial failure even to lead a fleet against them. "At Macarsca the army met the enemy, took and destroyed five ships, but finally succumbed to an ambush"; “The atrium of the Euphemienkirche in Grado received his corpse, rescued from the enemy”.

In his History of Venice , John Julius Norwich , who otherwise limited himself to the appointment of fellow doge Pietro Candiano due to illness, emphasizes that he was the first doge to be killed in a battle on September 18, 887.

swell

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, p. 128 f. ( Digitized version ).
• 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).
• Ester Pastorello (Ed.): Andrea Dandolo, Chronica per extensum descripta aa. 460-1280 dC , (= Rerum Italicarum Scriptores XII, 1), Nicola Zanichelli, Bologna 1938, p. 163 f. ( Digital copy, p. 162 f. )
• Giovanni Tabacco (ed.): Petri Damiani Vita Beati Romualdi , Rome 1957 (= Fonti per la storia d'Italia, XCIV), pp. 21-23

Legislative sources

• Theodor Sickel (Ed.): Conradi I Heinrici I et Ottonis I Diplomata , Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Diplomata regum et imperatorum Germaniae, Vol. I, Hannover 1879–1884, n. 351, p. 483 f.
• Roberto Cessi (ed.): Documenti relativi alla storia di Venezia anteriori al Mille , 2 vols., Vol. II, Padua 1942, n. 41, pp. 70-74; n. 48, p. 85 f .; n. 49, pp. 86-91; n. 58, p. 109 f .; n. 65, pp. 130 f .; n. 66, p. 131 f.
• Roberto Cessi (Ed.): Pactum Octonis , in: Le origini del ducato veneziano , Naples 1951, pp. 309-313.
• Cesare Manaresi (ed.): I Placiti del "Regnum Italiae" , 3 vols., Rome 1955–1960, vol. II, 1, Rome 1957 (= Fonti per la storia d'Italia, XCVI *), n. 181, Pp. 169-175.
• Luigi Lanfranchi , Bianc Strina (eds.): S. Ilario e Benedetto e S. Gregorio , Venice 1965, n. 10, pp. 42-44.
• Adolf Fanta : The contracts of the emperors with Venice up to the year 983 , in: Mittheilungen of the Institute for Austrian Historical Research, Supplementary Volume I, Innsbruck 1885, pp. 97 f., 101 f.

literature

• Margherita Giuliana Bertolini:  Candiano, Pietro. In: Alberto M. Ghisalberti (Ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 17:  Calvart-Canefri. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1974, pp. 756-757, (forms the basis of the presentation part).
• Agostino Pertusi : Quaedam regalia insigna. Ricerche sulle insegne del potere ducale a Venezia durante il Medioevo , in Studi Veneziani XII (1966) 4 f., 65 f.
• Ernesto Sestan : La conquista veneziana della Dalmazia , in: La Venezia del Mille , Florence 1965, pp. 85–116, here: pp. 91, 96 f.

Remarks

1. ↑ "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 stemmi." (Maurizio Carlo Alberto stemmra di alcune famiglie di Dogi prearaldici , in: Notiario dell'associazione nobiliare regional veneta. Rivista di studi storici, ns 8 (2016) 35–68, here: p. 41).
2. ^ 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. 128 ( digitized version ); ed.Zanichelli, III, 32.
3. ^ Ludo Moritz Hartmann : The economic beginnings of Venice , in: Quarterly journal for social and economic history II (1904) 434-442.
4. ↑ Gino Luzzatto : Les activités économiques du patriciat vénitien (Xe-XIVe siècles) , in: Ders .: Studi di storia economica veneziana , Padua 1954, pp. 125-165 (first in Annales d'histoire économique et sociale 9.43 ( 1937) 25-57).
5. ^ Roberto Pesce (Ed.): Cronica di Venexia detta di Enrico Dandolo. Origini - 1362 , Centro di Studi Medievali e Rinascimentali "Emmanuele Antonio Cicogna", Venice 2010, p. 39 f.
6. ↑ Pietro Marcello : Vite de'prencipi di Vinegia in the translation by Lodovico Domenichi, Marcolini, 1558, p. 27 f. ( Digitized version ).
7. ↑ 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. 65. ( online ).
8. ↑ Heinrich Kellner : Chronica that is Warhaffte actual and short description, all life in Venice , Frankfurt 1574, p. 10v – 11r ( digitized, p. 10v ).
9. ↑ Alessandro Maria Vianoli : Der Venetianischen Hertehmen Leben / Government, und dieback / From the first Paulutio Anafesto to / bit on the now-ruling Marcum Antonium Justiniani , Nuremberg 1686, pp. 112-114, translation ( digitized ).
10. ↑ Jacob von Sandrart : Kurtze and increased description of the origin / recording / areas / and government of the world famous Republick Venice , Nuremberg 1687, p. 21 ( digitized, p. 21 ).
11. ↑ 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, pp. 176–179 ( digitized version ).
12. ↑ Samuele Romanin : Storia documentata di Venezia , 10 vols., Pietro Naratovich, Venice 1853–1861 (2nd edition 1912–1921, reprint Venice 1972), vol. 1, Venice 1853, pp. 205 f. ( Digitized version ).
13. ↑ 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, p. 216 f. ( Digitized version ).
14. ^ Pietro Pinton: La storia di Venezia di AF Gfrörer , in: Archivio Veneto 25.2 (1883) 288-313, here: pp. 295-298 (part 2) ( digitized version ).
15. ↑ Francesco Zanotto: Il Palazzo ducale di Venezia , Vol. 4, Venice 1861, p. 38 ( digitized version ).
16. ^ Emmanuele Antonio Cicogna : Storia dei Dogi di Venezia , Vol. 1, Venice 1867, o. P.
17. ^ Heinrich Kretschmayr : History of Venice , 3 vol., Vol. 1, Gotha 1905, p. 101.
18. ^ John Julius Norwich : A History of Venice , Penguin, London 2003.

predecessor	Office	successor
Giovanni II Particiaco	Doge of Venice 887	Pietro Tribuno