Estadísticos descriptivos

With this sermon, Mattei sought to reform the image of Venetian governance as being inefficient and exploitative of Udine. Moreover, the sermon also pushed for a change in the mentality of the local nobility, and sought to promote changes in the structure of local government which would draw it closer to the Venetian model and which had already been implemented in other towns of the terraferma. It is quite possible that

116

Muir, Mad Blood Stirring, p. 37.

117

Mattei, ‘Sermones’, p. 377 - Sed et ipsa respublica, suos cives etiam plebeios, magnis libertatibus et singularibus immunitatibus conservat et tuetur…

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the particular focus of the St Mark feast-day sermon in 1446 was also influenced and prompted by the official legitimisation of Venetian rule in Friuli ten months earlier. There is past precedent for the feast-day of St Mark being employed to mark a

political event rather than to celebrate the saint specifically. For instance, a procession was held in Treviso on this feast-day – but to commemorate the takeover of the town by Venice in 1342 rather than celebrating the saint himself.119 The timing, however, of this speech in favour of Venetian governance – during the feast-day of St Mark – also bound the saint firmly to Venice and her fortunes whilst marginalising his patronage of the Friulan Church and further weakening any lingering calls for the the Patriarch of Aquileia – who drew his spiritual authority from St Mark – to resume his claims for a legitimate entitlement to govern the region.

The first half of the divisio on Venetian governance describes the identifying marks of nobility and its necessary virtues, and thus reflects the Venetian preference for dealing with local government composed of an element of society with which they could form relationships of patronage.120 Gradually over the course of the fifteenth century, the ConsiglioCivico of Udine did become progressively more restricted to the members of noble families in the city, thus emulating to some degree the Venetian example promoted by Mattei, though it also continued to maintain a popular

element.121 In the end, this minimal change seems not to have been deemed enough, as all sovereign power was taken from the local government in Udine by 1513.122 Whilst the propagation of a ‘myth of Venice’ has long been recognised, there has been lengthy debate on when its particular characteristics can be said to have

119

Webb, Patrons and Defenders, p. 119.

120

Muir, Mad Blood Stirring, p. xxiii.

121

Zorattini, ‘Udine capitale della “Patria del Friuli”’, p. 103.

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solidified into a recognisable form, and by when the extent of its promotion reached the level of mass public consciousness. Mattei’s sermon for the feast-day of St Mark provides evidence for an earlier establishment than sometimes argued. Franco Gaeta, for instance, argued that elements of the myth could only be classified as marginal until the later fifteenth century, reaching a popular status following the War of the League of Cambrai in 1508-16.123 Although Mattei’s sermon just about fits into this chronology, the main source the preacher employed, the treatise by Henry of Rimini, does not. Mattei’s use of this work indicates a keen familiarity with it, as the section of the treatise praising Venice forms only a side note to the purpose of the work.124 Moreover, Gaeta recognised Donato Giannotti and Gasparo Contarini in the sixteenth century as first promoting the idea of Venice as an ideal of mixed government, which Henry of Rimini’s treatise and its subsequent use by Mattei contradicts.125 Indeed, that the myth of Venice as the ideal state was already reaching the level of popular public consciousness is suggested both by Mattei’s sermon and near-contemporary oratory dealing with similar subject matter. For instance, the humanist Domenico de’

Domenichi gave an oration in praise of Venice in remarkably similar tones to Mattei three years later.126 Bernardino da Siena had also been full of praise for Venice’s stability and strict laws in several sermons.127 However, Mattei’s sermon is more than solely a standard promotion of an ideal state. Rather, it had a particular relevancy to

123

Franco Gaeta, ‘Alcune considerazioni sul mito di Venezia’, Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et Renaissance, 23, 1 (1961), pp. 58-75, p. 63.

124

Indeed, it is interesting to note that when Archbishop Antonino da Firenze employed Henry’s work in his Summa Theologica, he used everything except the section on Venetian governance, which he cut. Howard, ‘“You Cannot Sell Liberty”’, p. 225.

125

Gaeta, ‘Alcune considerazioni sul mito di Venezia’, p. 64.

126

Martin F. Ederer, Humanism, Scholasticism, and the Theology and Preaching of Domenico de’ Domenichi in the Italian Renaissance (Lewinston: 2003), p. 42. On interaction between Mattei and Domenichi, see Chapter 4, pp. 234.

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the context within which it was delivered. The central interest in promoting Venetian governance did not lie with the preacher (as in the case of Bernardino in Florence) but with the governing authority itself, which had a personal investment in seeing a positive image of its rule and the promotion of its particular political and economic interests put forward in that location. Venice had a direct involvement in Udine’s civic affairs, and Mattei’s sermon can be said to have been part of a process to ‘rehabilitate’ the opinion of Venetian rule in Udine, as well as legitimising its authority to govern the region (which had always been questioned) through an advertisement of its beneficial effects.

Finally, the identity of the preacher appointed to deliver such a sermon is highly significant. Leonardo Mattei was a celebrated native of Udine who had carved out an illustrious reputation for his preaching at home and abroad, and had, moreover, prior links to the Venetian central authority through his previous appointment to preach for Lent in Venice. The preacher was not only a trusted voice in Udine, but one who also had absolute command of the local dialect. His was a voice of local (as well as

spiritual) authority, one more likely to attract a large (or important) audience, and who could be more assured of gaining its attention.

Chapter 3

“I understand, glorious prince, your high regard for the virtue of justice”

The Dominican and the Duke in Ferrara, 1460

This chapter investigates the relationship of preaching and government from an initial premise which diverges from that of the previous chapters. First, fifteenth- century Ferrara exhibits a third type of government and political situation. The signorial rule of the Este family in Ferrara differs from the coalition of factions in Bologna and the foreign governance of Udine not only in the form of government, but also in its relative stability and popular support. Sermons in support of a governing authority have most often been highlighted in periods of crisis.1 This chapter, on the other hand, explores the nature of the support a preacher could, and did, also offer in a period of no immediate crisis (as in Bologna), or even long-standing threat (as could be argued for Udine). In the specific context of Ferrara, this support was manifested in the propagation of a certain type of ideal rule explicitly linked to the virtue of Justice – with which the Este ruler, Borso (1413-1471, signore from 1450) was also

vigorously working to link himself.

Second, this chapter also focuses on how the preacher – in the guise of the conventual Dominican Tommaso dai Liuti da Ferrara (c.1420-c.1481), may have attempted both to gain favour with the ruler and call upon the assistance of the secular authority in order to further his own causes.2 The exploration of this aspect highlights

1

See Introduction, p. 18.

2

The birth date is calculated from the rule that friars had to be at least forty years of age before they could attain the position of inquisitor, which Liuti became in 1462 (Antoine Dondaine, ‘Le manuel de

the potential of a mutually beneficial relationship. An analysis and comparison of the friar’s three surviving works, examined within the context of the courtly and

governmental institutions of Ferrara, form the heart of this chapter. Two of Liuti’s works were intended for the court and signore of Ferrara, and another, a Lenten cycle of sermons, was delivered at the Cattedrale della Madonna delle Grazie e San Giorgio. The analysis will primarily focus on this latter work, from which a sermon concerning the State (res publica), preached on Palm Sunday in 1460, is of particular interest here. In addition, the earliest of Liuti’s written works, a treatise on good governance dedicated to Borso d’Este, raises – and helps to answer – several contextual questions which may help to shed further light on Liuti’s decision to preach on the topic of the State. First, what was the nature of Liuti’s relationship with Borso d’Este? What were his motivations in writing the treatise and intentions for it? And lastly, did the content of this work relate to the preacher’s sermons?