A true story of vendetta and intrigue, triumph and tragedy, exile and repatriation, this book recounts the interwoven microhistories of Count Girolamo Della Torre, a feudal lord with a castle and other properties in the Friuli, and Giulia Bembo, grand-niece of Cardinal Pietro Bembo and daughter of Gian Matteo Bembo, a powerful Venetian senator with a distinguished career in service to the Venetian Republic. Their marriage in the mid-sixteenth century might be regarded as emblematic of the Venetian experience, with the metropole at the center of a fragmented empire: a Terraferma nobleman and the daughter of a Venetian senator, who raised their family in far off Crete in the stato da mar, in Venice itself, and in the Friuli and the Veneto in the stato da terra. The fortunes and misfortunes of the nine surviving Della Torre children and their descendants, tracked through the end of the Republic in 1797, are likewise emblematic of a change in feudal culture from clan solidarity to individualism and intrafamily strife, and ultimately, redemption.
Despite the efforts by both the Della Torre and the Bembo families to preserve the patrimony through a succession of male heirs, the last survivor in the paternal bloodline of each was a daughter. This epic tale highlights the role of women in creating family networks and opens a precious window into a contentious period in which Venetian republican values clash with the deeply rooted feudal traditions of honor and blood feuds of the mainland.
Author(s): Patricia Brown
Publisher: Oxford University Press,
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 448
City: New York
Cover
The Venetian Bride: Bloodlines and Blood Feuds in Venice and Its Empire
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
Acknowledgements
List of Illustrations
Note on Citations and Abbreviations
Archives and Libraries
Publications
Other abbreviations
Names
Dates
Translations
Previous publications
Preface
Part One: Birthrights
Chapter 1: A Future Bride
A New Malady
Foeminae innocentissimae
A Very Good and Virtuous Gentleman
A Valiant Woman
A Modest Affair
What Fortune Will Bring
Notes
Chapter 2: A Bitter Bequest
A Gathering Storm
A Papal Dispensation
A Great Shadow
A Fateful Prediction
A Sicilian Vespers
A Desperate Flight
Manifest Sign of Vendetta
In Righteous Revenge of Patrician Blood
Notes
Chapter 3: Recovery
A Rebuilt Villalta
Reprisals and Pacification
An Ancient Pedigree
Discords and Urgent Conflicts
New Alliances
Honour Defended
The Church and the Army
Famine and Pestilence
Notes
Chapter 4: Restitution
Redress of Grievances
A Noble Lineage
Imperial Honours
Papal Connections
A Beautiful Construction
Family Business
An Ominous Backdrop
Notes
Chapter 5: Honour and Disgrace
The Visitor
A Courtly Gesture
A Great Offence to Justice
A Problematic Balance Sheet
A Band of Butchers
A Manhunt
In Honoured Storage
Important News
Notes
Part Two: A Melded Bloodline
Chapter 6: The Venetian Bride
With Such Noble Breeding
Advantageous Alliances
Inspired by the Majesty of God
Without Outward Demonstration of Celebration
Setback in Rome
Matters of Life and Death
A Prisoner of Consequence
The Continuing Quest for External Favours
Memoria delle cose di casa nostra
Notes
Chapter 7: Exile
Sailing into Dangerous Waters
A Temporary Microcosm
The Sentinel of the Adriatic
That Other City of Venice in the Levant
Another Count Girolamo
Life in Candia
A Firstborn Son
Giulia’s Domain
The Rent Collector
No Place to Hide
A Prodigious Birth
Notes
Chapter 8: The Capitano Grande
Vindicated with Our Blood
The Most Ardent Desire for Immortality
For the Vendetta of My Father
An Overwhelming Vote of Confidence
The Capitano Grande at Work
Water for Candia
Celebrations and Censorship
A Cretan Bride
A Firstborn Daughter
Back in the Friuli
A Rare Thing
The Family Regroups
Notes
Chapter 9: The Return
A New Beginning
No Coincidence
Life and Death
A Perpetual Candidate
The Majordomo
Famine and Feasting
Pestilence and Prejudice
Splendid Orations
No Hour without Its Mark
Of Universal Benefit to Everyone
A Patrician of Age and Honour
A New Dogaressa
A new house and another baby
Stormy Weather in the Friuli
A Letter from London
A Chapter Concluded
Notes
Chapter 10: The Sacrifice
At Home in Ceneda
An Atrocious and Enormous Crime
A Terrible and Almost Unheard-of-Time
Fitting to the Grandeur of the Torriana Family
A Place of Retreat
A Certain Natural Proclivity
The Impious Babylon
A Premonition
A Beautiful and Numerous Posterity
A Miraculous Band of ngels
The Vita
Notes
Part Three: Lineages
Chapter 11: Wars and Peace
Trouble in Ceneda
A Pamphlet War
A Fourth Home
The Peace of 1568
The Papal Nuncio
Among the Most Honoured Gentlemen in the City
Senza alcuna pompa
A Mercenary Bishop
The Ottoman Threat
True Tranquillity
Different Sides of the Coin
Notes
Chapter 12: Suitable Alliances
Taddea
Sigismondo
Ginevra
Elena
Giulia
Giovanni and Alvise
A Most Noble Gift
An Expanded Villalta
Lord of Himself
Notes
Chapter 13: The Cardinal
A Costly Honour
The Cittadino Porporato
A Colloredo Marriage
Two Deaths and a New Bishop
A List of Grievances
Embattled on Two Fronts
Notes
Chapter 14: Retrenchment
A Disposable Asset
Un magnificentissimo e sontuosa palazzo
Known for His Culture and His Liberality
To Avoid Scandals and Inconveniences
The Last Word
Notes
Chapter 15: The Legacy
The Daughters
The Sons
Giovanni
Sigismondo
Giulio
Sigismondo
Giovanni
The Udinese Line
The Gorizian Line
Palazzo Torriani Up for Auction
Fraternal Feud
The Bad Seed
Crimes of lèse-majesté
Atrocity of Such a Misdeed
Stripped of All Honours
Redemption
Rewriting History
Notes
Epilogue
Notes
Appendices
I. Francesco Sansovino, Vita delle illustre signora Contessa Giulia Bemba della Torre
Appendix II: Family Trees
A. Bembo
B. Della Torre of Valsassina
C. Della Torre – Gorizian line
D. Colloredo
E. Savorgnan
Bibliography
Primary texts
Secondary texts
Index
