Pouvoir ou privilèges nobiliaires. Le dilemme du patriciat vénitien face aux agrégations du XVIIe siècle

Power or exclusive noble rights: the Venetian patriciate and the aggregation of new families in the seventeenth century. Power in Venice was synonymous with noble status The Venetian patriciate the long-time ruling elite conceived this linkage as an effective barrier against claims of other social groups At the second half of the seventeenth century the patrici te deci mated in number and unable to fund the war of Crete contemplates the aggregation of newcomers in turn for money After long debate the idea of an official aggregation is rejected The proposal demands in fact difficult choice sharing power with others means also ceding the patrician exclusive noble status The debates preceding the vote reveal the patrician belief in the congenital nature of nobility and thus in its incommunicability Consequently the unwillingness to give up its qualitative distinc tion and lose its noble reputation produces an ambiguous solution the patrici te incor porates 125 families by exercising the right to reward the subject for his services avoiding thus an official ennoblementRaines Dorit. Pouvoir ou privilèges nobiliaires. Le dilemme du patriciat vénitien face aux agrégations du XVIIe siècle. In: Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations. 46ᵉ année, N. 4, 1991. pp. 827-847