Salve Venetia, gleanings from Venetian history; vol. ICrawford, F. Marion (Francis Marion)
History
Salve Venetia, gleanings from Venetian history; vol. I
Crawford, F. Marion (Francis Marion)
Venice (Italy) -- History
After the first hours of agitation, arrangements were made for a regular
succession of watches at all the principal points. Meanwhile some of the
conspirators sought safety in flight, while some were arrested in their
houses. Isarello was taken in a garden, immediately after the first
revelations of the conspiracy. Some of the other chiefs were chased as
far as Chioggia, and brought back. On the same day Filippo Calendario
and Isarello were hanged between the red columns of the loggia of the
old palace, from which the Doge usually assisted at the Carnival
festivities. Others suffered the same sentence, and as their bodies were
not taken down directly after they were dead, there was soon a row of
eleven corpses hanging from the balcony, beginning with those of the
chief conspirators, who had been hanged with gags in their mouths, lest
they should cry out to the people. The minor conspirators were spared
this indignity.
The Doge during this time was under guard in his own apartments, until
at last one counsellor, Giovanni Mocenigo, one inquisitor, Luca da
Lezze, and one avogador, Orio Pasqualigo, entered together to examine
him. As the Council was not willing to accept the sole responsibility of
the trial, a committee was chosen, consisting of twenty nobles of the
most ancient and illustrious families of Venice; these, however, were
only to have a vote in consultation, but not upon the final sentence. It
was in this way that the ‘Zonta,’ or supplementary committee of the
Council of Ten, was constituted, and its usefulness was so readily
recognised that from that time on it was always called to assist in
cases of unusual importance. It followed that the court, before which
the Doge was to be tried, consisted of thirty-seven persons, _i.e._
nine of the Council of Ten, since Niccolò Faliero could not sit, six
ducal counsellors, twenty of the committee of nobles, and two avogadori
of the Commonwealth. The High Chancellor, I presume, however, must also
have been present; in which case the court consisted of thirty-eight.
Contemporary documents give us the names of all these judges except the
last.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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