Annual ceremony of espousing the Adriatic.
Bucentaur state barge.
On various occasions the Venetians exhibited the greatest punctiliousness lest their rights to the sovereignty of that sea should be infringed. Every year the ceremony of espousing the Adriatic was performed with extraordinary magnificence by the Doge. A state galley, celebrated as the Bucentaur,[657] preserved from time immemorial in the Venetian arsenal, carried the Doge and Senate upon these occasions; and everything which could add pomp and splendour to this annual ceremonial was employed, the public functionaries and foreign ambassadors being present as well as the senators and chief nobility. The Bucentaur, of which the drawing on the preceding page is an imperfect representation, measured 110 feet in length, and 21 feet in width. A covered deck was specially appropriated for the Doge’s reception; and the splendour of her equipment equalled the most gorgeous floating palaces of ancient Egypt.
Form of espousal.
In this magnificent state barge the Doge, accompanied in the manner described, was rowed, amid the sound of music and the loud acclamations of the people, from the city to an appointed spot on the waters of the Adriatic. As a sign of the perpetuity of the dominion of the republic over that sea, the Doge cast into it a ring, in token of his love, exclaiming, “We wed thee with this ring in sign of a real and perpetual dominion!”[658] This peculiar and splendid matrimonial ceremony was observed annually, throughout many centuries, until 1795, when Napoleon, having conquered the once proud and powerful city, handed Venice and all its wealth and territory over to Austria: nor did the Bucentaur escape the notice of the rapacious conqueror, who stripped her of her gold, which, with her other valuable contents, he transferred to the treasury of Milan. The hulk afterwards, under the name of the Hydra, became a guard-ship, mounting seven guns, and was anchored to protect the mouth of the Lido, till, in 1824, a decree of the Aulic Council ordered her final demolition. A model of this once magnificent and historical barge, which, in the course of centuries must have been frequently rebuilt, is now preserved in the arsenal of Venice.
The progress and commercial policy of Venice.
Although the Holy Wars gave Venice, Genoa, and Pisa a position which they might never otherwise have attained, other causes contributed to revive the spirit of commerce between different and distant nations. The Italians, by their intercourse and commercial relations with various cities of the Greek empire, and especially with Constantinople, had obtained a knowledge of the valuable trade of the East, and had cultivated a taste for its precious commodities and curious manufactures. They were consequently not slow to embrace and develop direct intercourse with India; hence, in the course of the twelfth century, Venice established a regular commerce with the East through the ports of Egypt, which she maintained during four centuries. Introducing into their own territories manufactories of various kinds, and carrying on these with surprising ingenuity and vigour, the Italians transplanted from warmer climates several new productions which furnished the materials of a lucrative and extended trade. “All these commodities,” remarks Dr. Robertson,[659] “whether imported from Asia, or produced by their own skill, they disposed of to great advantage among the other people of Europe, who began to acquire some taste for an elegance in living unknown to their ancestors, or despised by them. During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the commerce of Europe was almost entirely in the hands of the Italians, more commonly known in these ages by the name of Lombards. Companies or societies of Lombard merchants settled in every different kingdom, and were taken under the immediate protection of the several governments, with the enjoyment of extensive privileges and immunities. The operation of the ancient barbarous laws concerning strangers were suspended with respect to them; and they became the carriers, the manufacturers, and the bankers of all Europe.”[660]
Variable character of her laws, A.D. 1272;
The commercial policy of the Venetian republic frequently varied, and though generally protective and sometimes strictly prohibitory, the most perfect freedom was in many instances allowed to foreign merchants to encourage them to make Venice the chief depôt for the supply of produce and manufactures to the markets of Europe. By the decrees of the Grand Council, during the latter half of the thirteenth century, when Venice had reached the zenith of wealth and splendour, her merchants were allowed to import freely from the Levant, from Marseilles, and from other ports of France, produce and manufactures of every kind, provided they were warehoused in the markets of the republic; while they had equal freedom in the export of their own manufactures. This freedom was likewise extended to Flanders. Cloth imported from that country paid no duty. Ship-owners were encouraged by special laws to import iron, tin, and lead, the Senate having in view the policy of concentrating in the city of Venice as many articles of merchandise as possible, so as to attract merchants to that exclusive market, and to secure there a stock of goods for the lading of Venetian merchant ships to the Levant, as also an abundant supply of raw materials for their home manufactures.