Le parole del potere. Il lessico delle istituzioni nelle cronache cittadine veneziane del Trecento

Abstract

In Venice, during the 14th century, historical narrative found its primary form of expression in town chronicles, while the political and institutional structure stabilized into what became known as the "Stato Patrizio". Starting with the Estoires de Venise by Martin da Canal and the works of the doge and chronicler Andrea Dandolo (1306–1354), this historiographical genre became widely disseminated within Venetian society of the time through a variety of distinct and unique works. The history of the city is, moreover, the history of its institutions: the connection between these two domains thus emerges as the most suitable object for studying the development and systematization of the lexicon of Venetian power and institutions. This book aims to analyze this semantic field, taking into account the textual, linguistic, and thematic dynamics of town chronicles, and it provides an annotated glossary of a hundred significant terms found across the chronicles written in the three linguistic varieties used in institutional and cultural contexts in Venice at the time (Latin, Venetian, and Old French).