Ursus (fellow dog)

Orso Particiaco , in the more timely sources Ursus , or Partecipazio or Participazio , was never recognized as a Doge of Venice , according to the Venetian traditional historiography, i.e. the historiography controlled by the state , because he was more a co-ruler than a co-doge. He was only for a short time, from about 885 to 887, co-ruler of his older brother John II Particiaco , who found recognition in the eyes of local historiography as the sole ruling doge. Ursus is said to have founded the church of Santi Cornelio e Cipriano on the Lido di Malamocco . Together with his seriously ill elder brother, he resigned in favor of Doge Pietro Tradonico , who, like a number of rulers in these decades, also ruled only for a short time. His brother Peter had already died early as his predecessor in the office of fellow doge and another brother had died in an attack. This ended the dynasty of the Particiaco family, exceptionally through resignations, not through the death of the Doges. Johannes and Ursus were their last representatives. The Badoer family later led back to the Particiaco.

The office of fellow doge

Ursus was the brother and fellow dog of John II , who in turn had been brought into office by his father Ursus without election. After his death, John followed him in 881 in the office of Doge. In terms of foreign policy, Iohannes obtained from Emperor Charles III. 883 in Mantua the renewal of the privileges already renewed under Ursus I in 880, which in turn went back to the Pactum Lotharii of 840. However, it did not succeed in occupying the territory of Comacchio , which the Pope claimed. In order to gain control of the city near Ferrara , John sent his brother Badoer to negotiate with Pope Hadrian III. , but he was killed as a result of an attack by Marino, the Count of Comacchio (the Badoer family can be traced back to him). In revenge, the Doge had the city devastated in 883, which remained a competitor to Venice.

Towards the end of his reign, a series of deaths wiped out the family in the male, and thus the ruling line. First of all, the Doge made his youngest brother Peter a fellow doge because he was sick himself. However, he, acclaimed by the people , soon died at the age of 25. The remaining brother Ursus was also out of the question, because he refused to take over the office, although he had already ruled as a fellow dog. According to the Chronicle of John the Deacon, in view of this situation, the Venetians chose Petrus Candianus as doge. According to the chronicle, John II himself is said to have initiated this transition by making Petrus Candianus co-regent. He himself abdicated on April 17, 887, the same day he handed over the insignia of power to Peter, ending the short-lived Particiaco dynasty. For his part, Petrus Candianus died after five months.

reception

For Venice at the time of Doge Andrea Dandolo , the interpretation given to the brief co-rule of Ursus was of symbolic importance as one of the families forming the dynasty ended with the demise of the Particiaco brothers. Fate had thus ruined the third attempt in the history of Venice to establish a dynasty permanently. In his chronicle, the Doge considers the uprising of a fellow Doge, more precisely the simultaneous rule of two Doges, to be “perishable”, as Henry Simonsfeld already stated. What is unusual is the peaceful transition of the office in this otherwise extremely violent epoch in Venice, but also the voluntary resignation by fellow doge Ursus.

The oldest vernacular chronicle, the Cronica di Venexia detta di Enrico Dandolo from the late 14th century, depicts the events on a level that has long been customary at this time and was dominated by individuals. When the Doge fell ill - "de corporal infirmitade agrevado" -, so the chronicler, "Piero Badoer, suo fradelo, coaiuctor et compagno nel seggio dugal constituì". So Peter appears here as “coaiuctor” and “compagno”. According to this chronicle, the Doge and his brother Ursus renounced the Doge office together after eight years of rule: "lui cum suo fradelo refiutò lo ducado".

Pietro Marcello reports with a few deviations . In 1502, in his work, which was later translated into the Volgare under the title Vite de'prencipi di Vinegia, he stated that John, who had been Doge since 881, was sick and that he had therefore expressly raised his brother Pietro as his successor. But the doge recovered, so that Pietro became a fellow dog. After Pietro's death, "si tolse in compagnia Orso suo fratello minore". Together with this 'younger' brother, whom he had made a co-doge instead of the late Pietro - "in compagnia" - both of them, Johannes again seriously ill, withdrew from the Dogat together. More precisely, it only says: "lasciò il Magistrato". This happened before reaching the sixth year of rule.

In his Historie venete dal principio della città fino all'anno 1382 , Gian Giacomo Caroldo reports on "Ioanni Badoaro" that he had led the regiment alone from 871 onwards. Returning from the rescue of Grado, John was raised to be a fellow doge. He, his father, clergy and people together forbade the trade in slaves: "li Duci co'l 'Clero et Popolo". For Caroldo it was obviously unproblematic to address father and son equally as "Duci". After describing Badoer's death and the subsequent acts of revenge, the author reports on the confirmation of the old rights by the emperor. Then Caroldo, listing the sickness, the ascension and death of Peter, continues: “Morto Pietro, il Duce fece consorte del Ducato knife Orso l'altro fratello”. So when the Doge became seriously ill, the people agreed that he should raise another brother, Pietros Orso, to be a co-doge ("consorte") after his death. He founded the church of Santi Cornelio e Cipriano on the Lido di Malamocco in a place called Vigna. It should be subordinate to the "Cappella di San Marco". When the Doge fell ill again, he allowed the people to choose another Doge ("permesse al Popolo ch'elegesse un Duce che più li fusse grato"). John gave the elected Pietro Candiano "l'insegne del Ducato et sede Duce". This Pietro also died on September 17, 887. Despite his illness, Johannes listened to the people's requests - "per soddisfare alle preghiere del Popolo" - to resume his office. 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 again in 888. So Caroldo carefully differentiates between the official examinations that were necessary every time John became seriously ill. With him and his father both were addressed as doges, then he appointed Peter as his successor with the consent of the people's assembly in order to make him a “consorte” after his recovery. Ursus was made a “consorte” from the outset, perhaps not requiring the consent of the people. He in turn allowed the people to elect a new doge, and the people in turn could ask the resigned doge to take office again.

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, Johannes "Orsi Son / ... took the regiment / in 881 .jar ". With him, too, the doge captured Comacchio in revenge for Badoer's death “with little effort. Also punishes the very hard / so umb his brother Todt had with science ”. He also covered the “Ravignaner” with “Schwerdt and Fewer.” But soon he fell seriously ill and “made him the successor to Petrum / his brother”. But when, contrary to expectations, he recovered, he took him "as an assistant in the regiment". When Peter died, "he chose his younger brother Orsum as his journeyman". The doge fell ill again and so "he gave his brother the felch / when he had not ruled for six years." The lawyer Heinrich Kellner carefully differentiates between the status of a successor (here without the consent of the people's assembly) and that of a "helper" .

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, and Die Die / Von dem Ersten Paulutio Anafesto an / bis on the now-ruling Marcum Antonium Justiniani , the equation was the Badoer with the Particiaco, starting with Johannes' father, already standard. In 881, his son John followed the deceased Ursus without further ado, there was no connection to Grado, that is, out of gratitude, and certainly no elevation to the doge during the father's lifetime. When the Doge fell seriously ill after Badoer's death and the criminal campaign against Comacchio and Ravenna, he “appointed” his brother as his successor, but as the Doge “unexpectedly recovered / only headed the regiment as an assistant”, and he too had "given the job to his younger brother Orso". Vianoli recognizes the fellow Doge in a sense of their office again and makes him a "helper".

In 1687 Jacob von Sandrart wrote in his work Kurtze and an increased description of the origin / recording / areas / and government of the world-famous republic of Venice also, albeit very laconically: "In the year 881. his son Johannes who gave the Ravennatern the city of Comaclum (Comacchio) removed by force ". When the Doge "fell into a fatal illness / and he avoided / that he would die / he asked the people / that his brother would like to be appointed as his successor". When he “came up again” “he used his brother as his co-regent; and as the same with death he took his eldest son with him with equal dignity ”. After six years of government he “felt” that “the people were not at peace with their government / so they both abdicated” (p. 21). Here Peter first becomes the successor, as with the other authors, then the “secondary regent”, Ursus becomes the son of Peter, but takes on the same dignity.

According to Johann Friedrich LeBret's state history of the Republic of Venice , published in four volumes from 1769 , the siege of Grado lasted only two days and John returned "with the glory of a victory that cost him nothing more than to show itself". Nevertheless, the people allowed his elevation to be a co-doge. The Doge's "son John followed him without any contradiction" (p. 176). “The Bado family was so used to ruling that they looked for princely thrones for all four brothers. Drey sat on the Venetian throne ”, so Comacchio seemed appropriate for“ Badoarius ”. When Johannes fell seriously ill and was no longer able to run the affairs of government, he obtained the “consent” of the people to “appoint his youngest brother Peter as successor or government administrator” (p. 179). With this term a new construct of the constitution is introduced. Even after recovery, the people “recognized” his brother as a permanent co-regent. ”However, when he died at the age of 25,“ [John] accepted the third brother as co-regent ”, but he too wished to“ withdraw ”from his dignity. So "Johannes finally gave thanks voluntarily". He called on the people to vote, from which Peter Candian emerged victorious. John called him to the “ducal palace”, where he “gave him the ducal sword, the scepter, and the ducal chair, thereby recognizing him as his successor”. His behavior after his reign is particularly emphasized, especially after the unexpected death of Pietro Candiano in 887: “As soon as John calm the unrest, fulfilled the wishes of the nation, and saw the throne occupied by a worthy successor, he returned to his philosophical calm returned, and all his conduct did him more honor than a thousand victories bought with human blood [...] He left the throne again, seeing his fatherland happy, lived as a philosopher, and died happy (p. 182 ). “The author believes that John needed the consent of the people to be promoted to successor, and that after his recovery the people simply recognized him. The elevation of Pietro Candiano took place in a more ritually represented form, whereas Ursus was simply accepted as co-regent.

In 1853, Samuele Romanin describes in the first volume of his ten-volume opus' Storia documentata di Venezia , like Andrea Dandolo, the flight of the surprised Saracens from Grado, and how John II was immediately made a fellow doge. In connection with the conflict between the Count of Comacchio and the Doge's brother, Romanin added that on the one hand Comacchio's successful trade in Venice was a thorn in the side, and on the other hand that the county was given a diploma from May 30, 854 by Ludwig II Ottone d'Este had been awarded, for whom his son Marino led the government. This pre-figured the permanent conflict with the Estonians . Comacchio had also made available a fleet and auxiliary troops to Pippin's invasion army against the lagoon cities of what would later become Venice. According to Romanin, Marino had provided the captured Badoer with the best medical care and had given him the oath to refrain from annexation plans and sent him to Venice. Perhaps ("forse") died of the injuries suffered, revenge was demanded in Venice. The renewed privilege of Charlemagne in 883 included other provisions, such as that the Doge and his relatives were exempt from all taxes. Even in the event of an overthrow in Venice, provisions were made, such as the eviction of those concerned and their accomplices, the threat of a very heavy fine of 100 libbre d'oro for those who violated the imperial regulations. Eventually the sick doge took his brothers, apart from Badoer, one after the other as fellow doges, but they either died or refused to lead the office alone. After Romanin, Pietro was the youngest of the brothers (p. 203); John appointed him "collega" and successor. Pietro was also buried with him in San Zaccaria (the most important burial place of the Doges) next to his brother Badoer. The three Badoers brothers all had “l'onore del dogado”, the “honor of the Doge's office” (p. 203).

August Friedrich Gfrörer († 1861) assumes completely different assumptions in his history of Venice from its founding to 1084 , which appeared eleven years after his death . In gratitude for Grado, the Venetians raised his fleet leader to be a fellow doge after he returned home. Only now, probably in the last year of Orsos, had Constantinople and Venice made contact again, and the Emperor had also accepted Venice's new role as a regulating power in the Adriatic. For Gfrörer, the initiative to ban the slave trade came from the clergy, by no means, as Dandolo pretends, from the two doges. Dandolo saw, through and through Venetians, the clergy as the maidservant of the state and the Doges as the starting point for all initiatives - for Gfrörer this was the Byzantine relationship between state and church, “Byzantinism” par excellence. In addition, "there are reports that Orso's sons were men with weak nerves and inclined to infirmity." John II wanted to get "his brother Badoarius a substantial supply at the expense of the chair of Peter". The men of Count Marinus of Comacchio "hit" this man - while quoting Andrea Dandolo - "one of the legs in two". According Gfrörers the Pope took in the face of the nobility, to the Papal States , began to divide the seizure of Comacchio by Badoer in buying, "whose friendship was worth at least something." Gfrörer regards the contract with Karl the Dicken from 883, which provided for goods, duty-free trade, yes, protection from overthrow, as a sign of something else: the “Doge of Venetia recognized the Franconia as its master and took the Zealand off the imperial crown in fiefdom ”(p. 211). The Doge also retained jurisdiction over the "emigrants" who continually tried to overthrow the Doge while they were in exile in Franconia. These provisions are a kind of secret addition to the contract, which Muratori "referred" to in a footnote. Gfrörer suspects that John II turned entirely from Byzantium and turned to the Carolingians, also because his business was perhaps more likely to extend to the Franconian Empire - hence the tax exemption. Byzantium, however, by no means let the Doges have their way. Now the author weaves in an original justification for the elevation of Piero to co-doge. Gfrörer claims that "that the Greek party in Veneto, whenever Doges broke with Byzantium, forced the appointment of fellow Doges". But this ultimately failed due to the death of "Peters". Then the reinstatement of Johann followed, but since his alleged patron Karl the Fat had been overthrown, he could no longer 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.

Pietro Pinton translated and annotated Gfrörer's work in the Archivio Veneto in annual volumes XII to XVI. Pinton's own account, which did not appear until 1883 - also in the Archivio Veneto - contradicted Gfrörer's account in many places. He considers the doge's self-serving motive for the occupation of Comacchio to be one-sided, as the trade advantages for the whole of Venice would be suppressed. In the treaty of 883, too, Gfrörer underestimated the difficulties in which Charlemagne had found himself and who had by no means succeeded in outbidding Charlemagne in this regard. According to Pinton, the Doge, harassed by the greats of the mainland, could have stipulated that opponents such as the Ravennaten or those from the neighboring mainland should be subject to severe punishment. In any case, there is no indication of any kind of supremacy by Charles. After all, Gfrörer based his interpretation on an incorrect chronological sequence of events, because the Doge's resignation was at least three months before the death of Charlemagne, so that his resignation could not be linked to the end of his alleged overlord.

In 1867, Emmanuele Antonio Cicogna, in the first volume of his Storia dei Dogi di Venezia, expressed the view that John II had asked the Pope for Comacchio in order to increase the influence of his family. Cicogna nebulously writes that the later doge before Grado with the Saracens "si valentemente portossi in questo incontro", that he was made a fellow doge as a reward by the people ("dalla nazione"). Neither the Pope nor the Emperor opposed the looting that was carried out against Ravenna. Venice received a renewal of privileges from Emperor Charles, and Cicogna also does not forget to mention that the Doge's trade was not only permitted, but even without taxes. After the two other deaths in the family, Johannes finally resigned and left the nation to choose whoever it liked (“qual più le piacesse per doge”) as doge.

In the Compendio delle lezioni teorico-pratiche di paleografia e diplomatica of 1874, Ursus is listed as "Orso II.", Who resigned when his eldest brother resigned from his office.

Heinrich Kretschmayr assumes in his story of Venice that after Grado it was not the people who raised the son of the Doge to co-regent, but the Doge himself. Since 867, Byzantium managed to intervene again in the Adriatic "under the iron fist of the first Basil", to win Bari and to set up the subject of Langobardia , so that around 880/881 the Adriatic in the south could be “considered pacified”. "The development was heading more and more towards a supreme power inherited in the house of the particiaci" (p. 100). Kretschmayr only briefly mentions the two fellow doges Peter and Ursus: “But Johannes was suffering; no less his brother and co-regent Peter, who died at the age of 25; maybe also the second brother Orso, who temporarily took over the full administration of Dogates for the sick Johannes ”.

swell

• 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 ("Iohannes dux alterum germanum suum, Ursum nomine, sibi consortem fecit; siquidem domnus Ursus dux, dum quattuor haberet filios, id est Iohannem, Badovarium, Ursum et Petrum, omnes ducatus dignitate, preter Badovarium, claruerunt. ”) ( Digitized , PDF).
• 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, pp. 155-161.

literature

• Marco Pozza:  Particiaco, Orso I. In: Raffaele Romanelli (Ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 81:  Pansini – Pazienza. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2014.

Remarks

1. ↑ 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. 59–171, here: p. 128 ( digitized .
2. ↑ More precisely it says: "perniciosae rei exemplum" (quoted from Henry Simonsfeld: Andreas Dandolo und seine Geschichtswerke , T. Theodor Ackermann, Munich 1876, p. 138 f.).
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. 39.
4. ↑ Pietro Marcello: Vite de'prencipi di Vinegia in the translation of Lodovico Domenichi, Marcolini, 1558, p. 26 f. ( Digitized version ).
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, p. 64 f. ( online ).
6. ↑ Heinrich Kellner : Chronica that is Warhaffte actual and short description, all life in Venice , Frankfurt 1574, p. 10r – 10v ( digitized, p. 10r ).
7. ↑ Alessandro Maria Vianoli : Der Venetianischen Hertsehen Leben / Government, und dieback / From the First Paulutio Anafesto to / bit on the now-ruling Marcum Antonium Justiniani , Nuremberg 1686, pp. 107-111, translation ( digitized ).
8. ↑ 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 ).
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 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, Leipzig and Riga 1769, pp. 176–179 ( digitized version ).
10. ^ 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. 199–204 ( digitized version ).
11. ↑ 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. 208-218 ( digitized version ).
12. ^ 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 ).
13. ^ Emmanuele Antonio Cicogna : Storia dei Dogi di Venezia , Vol. 1, Venice 1867, o. P.
14. ^ Andrea Gloria: Compendio delle lezioni teorico-pratiche di paleografia e diplomatica , Volume 2, P. Prosperini, Padua 1870, p. 274.
15. ^ Heinrich Kretschmayr : History of Venice , 3 vol., Vol. 1, Gotha 1905, p. 100 f.