Venice as the Polity of Mercy: Guilds, Confraternities, and the Social Order, c. 1250-c. 1650

This book re-examines Venices political economy from the viewpoint of its ordinary people or popolani, who organized and ran for themselves hundreds of corporations. Mercy was central to their Christian values, and those who offered it expected reciprocity in their own time of need. The book chronicles the collapse of this triad during the struggles between church and state, and a revitalizing reconnection of economy and polity after the plague of 1630.

Format: Hardback
Length: 496 pages
Publication date: 09 January 2019
Publisher: University of Toronto Press

This study re-examines Venice’s political economy from the viewpoint of its ordinary people or popolani who, despite the commonly held view that they were excluded from political life by the nobility or nobili, actually organized and ran for themselves hundreds of corporations within the city-state. Mercy was central to this popolani’s Christian values and those who offered mercy to their fellow men and women in temporary hardship were investing in the expectation of reciprocity in their own time of need. Beginning by tracing a formative linking of religion, economy, and polity from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries, Venice as the Polity of Mercy then chronicles the collapse of this triad during the struggles between church and state in the mid-sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, followed by a revitalizing reconnection of economy and polity within a different religious climate after the plague of 1630. As such, Richard Mackenney’s book offers up a revitalized image of Renaissance Venetian society as dynamic rather than static, as well as a new understanding of the city’s significance through a reconfiguration of its history and artwork.

Weight: 912g
Dimension: 164 x 237 x 36 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781442649682