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Manuscripts, miniatures, and Eastern routes: the Querini family's maritime power during the golden age of Venice
Capitolare Nauticum (13-16th century) by AnonymousFondazione Querini Stampalia
The relationship between the Republic of Venice and the sea is enshrined from its origins through a vibrant commercial vocation. The Republic's maritime hegemony in the East and West expands, in particular, between the 13th and 14th centuries.
Letter inhabited, in Capitolare Nauticum (13-16th century) by AnonymousFondazione Querini Stampalia
In 1255 the doge of the Venetian Republic, Ranier Zeno, ordered a local maritime legislation, that is, an organic collection of regulations on the employment of commercial ships, of which memory remains in the querinian codex Capitolare nauticum seu Statua De Nauibus.
Capitolare Nauticum (13-16th century) by AnonymousFondazione Querini Stampalia
This is a parchment miscellany collecting various legal acts from the 13th to 16th centuries, including the Capitolare nauticum.
Detail Capitolare Nauticum (13-16th century) by AnonymousFondazione Querini Stampalia
During these centuries, the state organized trading expeditions, known as mude, conducted annually by naval convoys subcontracted to private merchant companies.
Detail Capitolare Nauticum (13-16th century) by AnonymousFondazione Querini Stampalia
One of these companies and societies composed of Venetian patricians is formed by the Querini family, in agreement with the Badoer and Dandolo families.
Letter inhabited, in Capitolare Nauticum (13-16th century) by AnonymousFondazione Querini Stampalia
The agreement between the families is documented within the miscellany: in paper 77, Niccolò Querini, Pietro Badoer, and Marino Dandolo are depicted in miniature in an inhabited letter.
A little higher up is depicted a round trading ship with two armed masts and a lateen sail. A type of vessel called a buzonavis, or able-bodied ship, anticipating later galleys, useful for commercial activities.
Detail Capitolare Nauticum (13-16th century) by AnonymousFondazione Querini Stampalia
The miniature and the mention of Venetian nobles attest to the Querini family's revival of the sea after the family's compromise over Marco Querini's involvement in the conspiracy against Doge Gradenigo in 1310.
Island of Stampalia by AnonymousFondazione Querini Stampalia
The Querini, by establishing new agreements among Venetian families, sought to redefine their role in Venice, focusing on the East and Greece. In 1413, Giovanni became lord of Stampalia, while in 1433 his son Fantino received Nisyros as a fief.
Photographs by Adriano Mura
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