The Venetian Bride: Bloodlines and Blood Feuds in Venice and Its Empire

Description

A true story of vendetta and intrigue, triumph and tragedy, exile and repatriation, this book recounts the interwoven microhistories of Count Girolamo Della Torre, a feudal lord with a castle and other properties in the Friuli, and Giulia Bembo, grand-niece of Cardinal Pietro Bembo and daughter of Gian Matteo Bembo, a powerful Venetian senator with a distinguished career in service to the Venetian Republic. Their marriage in the mid-sixteenth century might be regarded as emblematic of the Venetian experience, with the metropole at the center of a fragmented empire: a Terraferma nobleman and the daughter of a Venetian senator, who raised their family in far off Crete in the stato da mar, in Venice itself, and in the Friuli and the Veneto in the stato da terra. The fortunes and misfortunes of the nine surviving Della Torre children and their descendants, tracked through the end of the Republic in 1797, are likewise emblematic of a change in feudal culture from clan solidarity to individualism and intrafamily strife, and ultimately, redemption. Despite the efforts by both the Della Torre and the Bembo families to preserve the patrimony through a succession of male heirs, the last survivor in the paternal bloodline of each was a daughter. This epic tale highlights the role of women in creating family networks and opens a precious window into a contentious period in which Venetian republican values clash with the deeply rooted feudal traditions of honor and blood feuds of the mainland. Cover The Venetian Bride: Bloodlines and Blood Feuds in Venice and Its Empire Copyright Dedication Contents Acknowledgements List of Illustrations Note on Citations and Abbreviations Archives and Libraries Publications Other abbreviations Names Dates Translations Previous publications Preface Part One: Birthrights Chapter 1: A Future Bride A New Malady Foeminae innocentissimae A Very Good and Virtuous Gentleman A Valiant Woman A Modest Affair What Fortune Will Bring Notes Chapter 2: A Bitter Bequest A Gathering Storm A Papal Dispensation A Great Shadow A Fateful Prediction A Sicilian Vespers A Desperate Flight Manifest Sign of Vendetta In Righteous Revenge of Patrician Blood Notes Chapter 3: Recovery A Rebuilt Villalta Reprisals and Pacification An Ancient Pedigree Discords and Urgent Conflicts New Alliances Honour Defended The Church and the Army Famine and Pestilence Notes Chapter 4: Restitution Redress of Grievances A Noble Lineage Imperial Honours Papal Connections A Beautiful Construction Family Business An Ominous Backdrop Notes Chapter 5: Honour and Disgrace The Visitor A Courtly Gesture A Great Offence to Justice A Problematic Balance Sheet A Band of Butchers A Manhunt In Honoured Storage Important News Notes Part Two: A Melded Bloodline Chapter 6: The Venetian Bride With Such Noble Breeding Advantageous Alliances Inspired by the Majesty of God Without Outward Demonstration of Celebration Setback in Rome Matters of Life and Death A Prisoner of Consequence The Continuing Quest for External Favours Memoria delle cose di casa nostra Notes Chapter 7: Exile Sailing into Dangerous Waters A Temporary Microcosm The Sentinel of the Adriatic That Other City of Venice in the Levant Another Count Girolamo Life in Candia A Firstborn Son Giulia’s Domain The Rent Collector No Place to Hide A Prodigious Birth Notes Chapter 8: The Capitano Grande Vindicated with Our Blood The Most Ardent Desire for Immortality For the Vendetta of My Father An Overwhelming Vote of Confidence The Capitano Grande at Work Water for Candia Celebrations and Censorship A Cretan Bride A Firstborn Daughter Back in the Friuli A Rare Thing The Family Regroups Notes Chapter 9: The Return A New Beginning No Coincidence Life and Death A Perpetual Candidate The Majordomo Famine and Feasting Pestilence and Prejudice Splendid Orations No Hour without Its Mark Of Universal Benefit to Everyone A Patrician of Age and Honour A New Dogaressa A new house and another baby Stormy Weather in the Friuli A Letter from London A Chapter Concluded Notes Chapter 10: The Sacrifice At Home in Ceneda An Atrocious and Enormous Crime A Terrible and Almost Unheard-of-Time Fitting to the Grandeur of the Torriana Family A Place of Retreat A Certain Natural Proclivity The Impious Babylon A Premonition A Beautiful and Numerous Posterity A Miraculous Band of ngels The Vita Notes Part Three: Lineages Chapter 11: Wars and Peace Trouble in Ceneda A Pamphlet War A Fourth Home The Peace of 1568 The Papal Nuncio Among the Most Honoured Gentlemen in the City Senza alcuna pompa A Mercenary Bishop The Ottoman Threat True Tranquillity Different Sides of the Coin Notes Chapter 12: Suitable Alliances Taddea Sigismondo Ginevra Elena Giulia Giovanni and Alvise A Most Noble Gift An Expanded Villalta Lord of Himself Notes Chapter 13: The Cardinal A Costly Honour The Cittadino Porporato A Colloredo Marriage Two Deaths and a New Bishop A List of Grievances Embattled on Two Fronts Notes Chapter 14: Retrenchment A Disposable Asset Un magnificentissimo e sontuosa palazzo Known for His Culture and His Liberality To Avoid Scandals and Inconveniences The Last Word Notes Chapter 15: The Legacy The Daughters The Sons Giovanni Sigismondo Giulio Sigismondo Giovanni The Udinese Line The Gorizian Line Palazzo Torriani Up for Auction Fraternal Feud The Bad Seed Crimes of lèse-majesté Atrocity of Such a Misdeed Stripped of All Honours Redemption Rewriting History Notes Epilogue Notes Appendices I. Francesco Sansovino, Vita delle illustre signora Contessa Giulia Bemba della Torre Appendix II: Family Trees A. Bembo B. Della Torre of Valsassina C. Della Torre – Gorizian line D. Colloredo E. Savorgnan Bibliography Primary texts Secondary texts Index