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Jem Sultan and Venice’s intelligence system: sorting and deploying information in Venice’s ‘letterocracy’

2023; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 30; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/13507486.2023.2207578

1469-8293

Monique O’Connell,

Colonialism, slavery, and trade

ABSTRACTLike other early modern European states, Venice ruled by correspondence. The letters to and from officials preserved in Venetian and regional archives reflect the structure of the composite state. Just as Venetian rule layered centralized control onto areas of local autonomy, local archives contain series of documents created by governors and captains over centuries of Venetian rule and archived locally, as well as documentation produced by local elites. In Venice itself, letters about daily governance and sensitive intelligence passed through an interlocking system that was designed to manage correspondence about spies and supply chain problems through the same central institutions. This article uses the Council of Ten’s involvement in the dramatic circumstances of the Ottoman Jem Sultan’s rebellion, escape and time as a hostage in the West to examine the particularities of how the Ten gained power through their control of correspondence. Juxtaposing the Ten’s use of sensitive and timely information in a single case with the daily machinery for sending, receiving and archiving correspondence in Venice and in regional archives allows us to understand the internal dynamics of a particular ‘letterocracy’ and how one government council uses information to place itself at the centre of a republican polity.KEYWORDS: ArchivesVeniceinformationcomposite stateJem Sultan Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1. Viggiano, Governanti e Governati; and O’Connell, Men of Empire.2. Elliott, “A Europe.” For Venetian empire, see Christ and Morche, “Introduction.” For Venice as a commonwealth, see Ortalli, Schmitt, and Orlando, eds., Il Commonwealth veneziano.3. Knapton, “Il Consiglio”; more generally, see Gamberini and Lazzarini, eds., Italian Renaissance State and Lazzarini’s contribution to this volume (“Ruling”).4. Arbel, “Venice’s Maritime Empire.”5. For quantitative changes in Venetian correspondence, see De Vivo, “Diplomatic Correspondence, Information Overload,” 60–3; and “Ordering the Archive,” 234.6. Lazzarini, L’ordine; De Vivo, Guidi, and Silvestri, “Archival Transformations”; Head, Making Archives; and Friedrich and Dillon, Birth of the Archive.7. Silvestri, “Archives of the Mediterranean”; and Head, “Mirroring Governance.”8. Dover, Information Revolution, 107–20.9. For the cultural role of correspondence in Renaissance Italy, see Findlen, “With a Letter in Hand.” Brendecke, Empirical Empire; and Head, “Knowing like a State.”10. De Vivo, Information and Communication.11. Burke, “Early Modern Venice”; Petitjean, L’intelligence des choses; Morche, “Letters of Others,” 90–111; Christ, “A Newsletter in 1419?”; and Christ, Trading Conflicts.12. Iordanou, Secret Service.13. De Vivo, Information and Communication, 33–6; and Iordanou, Secret Service, 9–15.14. Burke, “Commentary,” 391.15. For a popular narrative of Jem’s life, see Freely, Jem Sultan; for more scholarly treatments see Setton, Papacy and the Levant, I, 381–416; Vatin and Caoursin, Sultan Jem; and Thuasne, Jem-Sultan.16. Sanudo, Vite dei Dogi, I, 184.17. Sanudo, Vite dei Dogi, I, 189.18. Dario, Dispacci, 142.19. Inalcik, “Case Study,” 75; Ménage, “Ottoman Secret Agent”; and Meli, “Firenze di fronte.”20. Mandelli, https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/marco-minio_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/. Minio’s career is analysed by Wright, “Bartolomeo Minio,” 1–235.21. The letters are published in a modern edition by Diana Gilliland and Melville-Jones, Greek Correspondence, 2 vols.22. Wright and Melville-Jones, Greek Correspondence, vol 1.23. Wright and Melville-Jones, Greek Correspondence, vol 2.24. The largest surviving collection of incoming correspondence from rectors is archived in the Capi di Dieci, Dispacci (Lettere) di Rettori, divided by original location and comprising 316 boxes.25. For descriptions of Venice’s postal service, see Palazzo, “Nuove d’Europa,” 75–107; and Dursteler, “Power and Information.”26. Zannini, “L’impiego pubblico.”27. An anonymous French treatise of the early sixteenth century leaves no doubt that there was an archive of letters sent to the College: “all the letters that were sent to the Doge and the Signoria are kept in perfect order, such that if someone wants to see a letter that was written 40 years ago or more, one would find it without any difficulty,” Braunstein and Mueller, Descripcion, 117. Those incoming letters for the fifteenth and early sixteenth century are now lost. There are substantial records of outgoing correspondence to governors and to ambassadors in the Collegio, Lettere Secrete series and in the deliberations of the Senato Secreta, even if it was not registered as correspondence (presumably the decision was communicated by letter). The incoming dispatches from rectors archived in the Senato, Dispacci di rettori series does not start until the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century.28. Maranini, La costituzione, 151–62.29. Wright and Melville-Jones, Greek Correspondence, v.30. Palazzo, “Nuove d’Europa.”31. De Vivo, “Cuore,” 175–9.32. Contarini, Republic, 56.33. Contarini, Republic, 57.34. Braunstein and Mueller, Descripcion, 117–18.35. Palazzo, “Nuove d’Europa,” 207–31; and Petitjean; and L’intelligence, 220–2.36. Palazzo, “Nuove d’Europa,” 217.37. Palazzo, “Nuove d’Europa,” 221–4.38. De Vivo, Information and Communication, 33–4; Cozzi, “Authority and the Law”; and Cozzi, “Politica del diritto.”39. Viggiano, “Politics and Constitution,” 56; Viggiano, Governanti e Governati, 179–253; and Knapton, “Consiglio dei Dieci.” See De Vivo, “Cuore,” 187–9, for the Ten’s control of the Ducal Chancellery.40. Iordanou, Secret Service, 59–81.41. De Vivo, Information and Communication, 40–5.42. Petitjean, L’intelligence, 204.43. De Vivo, Information and Communication, 37.44. Conzato, “Sulle faccende da praticate occultamente,” 110.45. Conzato “Sulle faccende da praticate occultamente,” 110–12.46. Vianello, Gli archivi del Consiglio dei dieci; and Viggiano, “Le carte della repubblica.”47. ASVe, Capi del consiglio di dieci, Dispacci (Lettere) dei rettori e pubblici rappresentanti; outgoing correspondence is in the ASVe, Capi del consiglio di dieci, Lettere, Lettere criminale, and Lettere secrete series, all described in moreveneto, https://asve.arianna4.cloud/patrimonio.48. For example, in the first part of the fifteenth century the majority of the duke of Crete’s correspondence in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth century was addressed to the doge. The one exception is a conspiracy of 1453–4 and again 1460–2, a plot by Sifi Vlastos, a Greek noble from Rettimo, to assassinate Venetian officials and replace them with a king from the Byzantine imperial house, a matter which was dealt with by the Ten, O’Connell, Men of Empire, 104–7 with further bibliography. By the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century, correspondence between Venetian councils and officials on Crete included a much higher proportion of exchanges with the Council of Ten, as seen in ASVe, Duca di Candia, b. 4 and ASVe, Capi dei Dieci, Dispacci (Lettere) di Rettori, busta 285.49. ASVe, Capi del consiglio di dieci, Dispacci (Lettere) dei rettori e pubblici rappresentanti, b. 80, 274, 275, 278, 280, 281, 283, 285 and 291. The letters surveyed include more locations from the maritime state, but there is no reason to think that mainland rectors would have acted differently. For a rare example of a letter not addressed to the Ten, see ASVe, Capi del consiglio di dieci, Dispacci (Lettere) dei rettori, b. 283, f.4.50. ASVe, Consiglio di Dieci, Deliberazione Miste, reg. 24, f. 162 r-v, 19 January 1490, edited in Lamansky, Secrets d’Etat, 230–2 and discussed in Setton, Papacy and the Levant, II: 411–12. Macrino was reportedly dispossessed of his properties in the March of Ancona and travelled to Istanbul, where he became an agent of Sultan Bayezid.51. Setton, Papacy and the Levant, II: 412; and Thuasne, Djem-Sultan, 261–3, 268–70.52. ASVe, Consiglio di Dieci, Deliberazione Miste, reg. 24,162 v, January 19, 1490, edited in Lamansky, Secrets d’Etat, 231.53. ASVe, Consiglio di Dieci, Miste, reg. 25, 167 r-v, 13 October 1492, edited in Lamansky, Secrets d’Etat, 247; Setton, Papacy and the Levant, II, 425; and Lamansky, Secrets d’Etat, 238–9.54. ASVe, Consiglio di Dieci, Deliberazione Miste, reg. 26, f. 46 v, 6 July 1493, edited in Lamansky, Secrets d’Etat, 256–7.55. ASVe, Consiglio di Dieci, Deliberazione Miste, reg. 26, f. 48 v 17 July 1493, edited in Lamansky, Secrets d’Etat, 257.56. Ménage, “Ottoman Secret Agent”; and Inalcik, “Case Study.” For the context of Barbaro’s mission, see Figliuolo, Il diplomatico, 114, 120, 124.57. Inalcik, “Case Study,” 73; Lamansky, Secrets d’Etat, 234–7; and Thuasne, Djem-Sultan, 273–4.58. Inalcik, “Case Study,” 75; and Thuasne, Djem-Sultan, 279.59. ASVe, Consiglio di Dieci, Deliberazione Miste, reg. 24, f. 221 r-v, 23 September 1490, edited in Lamansky, Secrets d’Etat, 236; other letters from the Ten to Barbaro on the same topic are in ASVe, Capi dei Dieci, Lettere, r. 6.60. Freely, Jem Sultan, 193.61. Freely, Jem Sultan, 194–5; Inalcik, “Case Study,” 75; and Thuasne, Djem-Sultan, 279.62. Setton, Papacy and the Levant, II, 425; and Lamansky, Secrets d’Etat, 238–9.63. Lamansky, Secrets d’Etat, 232–4, 241–3.64. Inalcik, “Case Study,” 73.65. ASVe, Consiglio dei Dieci, Deliberazione, Miste, reg. 25, f. 167 r-v, 13 October 1492,edited in Lamansky, Secrets d’Etat, 247.66. Setton, Papacy and the Levant, II, 436; Lamansky, Secrets d’Etat, 246–9; and Thuasne, Djem-Sultan, 305–6.67. Lamansky, Secrets d’Etat, 251–2.68. Setton, Papacy and the Levant, II, 440; and Malipiero and Dolfin, “Annali Veneti,” 142.69. Setton, Papacy and the Levant, II, 439; Lamansky, Secrets d’Etat, 253–4; and Thuasne, Djem-Sultan, 310.70. Setton, Papacy and the Levant, II, 439; and Lamansky, Secrets d’Etat, 254–5.71. Setton, Papacy and the Levant, II, 439; and Lamansky, Secrets d’Etat, 255–6.72. Lamansky, Secrets d’Etat, 255.73. Setton, Papacy and the Levant, II, 454–5.74. Malipiero and Dolfin, “Annali Veneti,” 144–5.75. Setton, Papacy and the Levant, II, 454–5.76. Setton, Papacy and the Levant, II, 456–8.77. Malipiero, “Annali Veneti,” 146; and Setton, Papacy and the Levant, II, 481.78. Setton, Papacy and the Levant, II, 385.79. ASVe, Senato Secreta, reg. 33, f. 59 r, 31 December 1486.80. Malipiero and Dolfin, “Annali veneti,” 140.81. ASVe, Senato Secreta, reg 30, f. 128 v, 13 September 1482.82. ASVe, Consiglio dei Dieci, Deliberazione, Miste, reg 26, f. 35 r-v, 10 April 1493, edited in Lamansky, Secrets d’Etat, 255–6 and discussed Setton, Papacy and the Levant, II, 439–40.83. Bonfiglio Dosio, L’amministrazione del territorio, 4–16.84. Silvestri, “We Want to Know,” this volume.85. Korčula (Curzola) is an excellent example of a place where the survival of abundant archives allow both comprehensive and microhistorical study: see Schmitt, Korčula sous la domination, pp. 10–11; Kümmeler, Korčula. Korčula’s archives are now held in the DAZ, see https://vodic.dazd.hr/dazd-0011/86. ASVe, Collegio, Commissioni, Formulari, 8 registers.87. For an overview of mainland archives, see Bonfiglio Dosio, L’amministrazione del territorio; Varanini, “Gli archivi giudiziari.” I am not aware of a similar overview for maritime archives.88. Varanini, “Professionalità cancelleresca”; and Varanini, “Gli archivi giudiziari.”89. Varanini, “Professionalità cancelleresca,” 347.90. Varanini, “Professionalità cancelleresca.”91. Cecchetti, Saggio di un dizionario, 30.92. Braunstein and Mueller, Descripcion ou Traicté, 117.93. Miscellanea Ducali, b. 21, has a detached lead seal in the box.94. For ducali in regional archives, see Guida Generale, I, 686 and IV, 806, 1254 (for Brescia, Udine and Verona, where ducali are part of the rector’s chancellery in each place). See also DAZ, Dukale I terminacije; for ducali now in the central archive that were originally part of regional archives, see ASVe, Duca di Candia, Ducali e Lettere; ASVe, Podestà di Torcello e contrade, Lettere ducali ai podestà.95. The Archivio di Stato di Padova (ASP) has an unusually complete series of ducali, with separate series of original ducali, those sent to the civic chancellery, those sent to the rector, and those sent on fiscal matters: Guida Generale, III, 232.96. For instance, ASP, Archivio Civico Antico, r. 3; De Vivo, “Ordering the Archive,” on the importance of indexing.97. ASVe, Duca di Candia. The other regional archives that have been transferred back to Venice are the Archivi dei Reggimenti series that include material from the podestà of the Dogado (Caorle, Chioggia, Malamocco, Murano, Torcello), Guida Generale, IV: 1006–7, Da Mosto, II: 26. Part of the Luogotentente of Udine’s archive was also moved to Venice; see Guida Generale, IV: 806 and 1010–1011; the circumstances that led to this transfer are unclear.98. Tiepolo, “Note sul riordine”; and McKee, Uncommon Dominion, viii.99. Guida Generale, IV: 1008–10; and Tiepolo, “Note sul riordine,” 89.100. McKee, Uncommon Dominion, viii–xi. There are notarial archives preserved in other locations in Venice’s composite state, notably the Dalmatian notarial archives from Pag, Rab, Split and Zadar now consolidated in the DAZ: https://vodic.dazd.hr/a-uprava-i-javne-sluzbe/a-1-2-mletacka-uprava-u-dalmaciji-1279-1409-1797/biljeznici-mletacka-uprava/.101. Tiepolo, “Note sul ridordine.”102. Lazzarini, “Ruling,” this volume.Additional informationFundingThe research for this article was supported by a Gladys Krieble Delmas Fellowship and two Archie Awards from Wake Forest College; Wake Forest UniversityNotes on contributorsMonique O’ConnellMonique O’Connell is Professor of History and the James P. Barefield Endowed Faculty Fellow at Wake Forest University. She is the author of Men of Empire: Power and Negotiation in Venice’s Maritime State (2009) and The Mediterranean World: From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Napoleon (co-author Eric Dursteler, 2016). She has held fellowships at Villa I Tatti, the Folger Shakespeare Library and her research has been supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, and the Renaissance Society of America. She is the project editor of Rulers of Venice (rulersofvenice.org). Her publications focus on the politics, ideology, and communicative strategies of the Venetian empire.