The ''Concio'' (from the Latin contio, "assembly"), in the

Republic of Venice The Republic of Venice ( vec, Repùblega de Venèsia) or Venetian Republic ( vec, Repùblega Vèneta, links=no), traditionally known as La Serenissima ( en, Most Serene Republic of Venice, italics=yes; vec, Serenìsima Repùblega de Venèsia, ...

, was the general assembly of freemen ( citizens and

patrician Patrician may refer to: * Patrician (ancient Rome), the original aristocratic families of ancient Rome, and a synonym for "aristocratic" in modern English usage * Patrician (post-Roman Europe), the governing elites of cities in parts of medieval ...

s) from which the

Doge A doge ( , ; plural dogi or doges) was an elected lord and head of state in several Italian city-states, notably Venice and Genoa, during the medieval and renaissance periods. Such states are referred to as " crowned republics". Etymology The ...

was elected. It was in use between the years 742 and 1423 before it lost its function when the '' Serrata del Maggior Consiglio'' passed power into the hands of the

aristocratic class The aristocracy is historically associated with "hereditary" or "ruling" social class. In many states, the aristocracy included the upper class of people (aristocrats) with hereditary rank and titles. In some, such as ancient Greece, ancient Ro ...

interior.

History

The origin and the conquest of power for the election of the Doge

The origin of the popular assembly is uncertain. Assemblies of free men were already in existence in the 6th–7th centuries in various cities of maritime Venice for the election of local magistrates (or

tribunes Tribune () was the title of various elected officials in ancient Rome. The two most important were the tribunes of the plebs and the military tribunes. For most of Roman history, a college of ten tribunes of the plebs acted as a check on the ...

). Although the Venetian traditions called for a general meeting of Venetians, in 697 the appointment of the first Doge,

Paolo Lucio Anafesto Paolo Lucio Anafesto ( la, Paulucius Anafestus) was, according to tradition, the first Doge of Venice, serving from 697 to 717. He is known for repelling Umayyad attacks. Biography A noble of Eraclea, then the primary city of the region, he was ...

, would have been the prerogative of the Byzantine Emperor through the

Exarchate of Ravenna The Exarchate of Ravenna ( la, Exarchatus Ravennatis; el, Εξαρχάτο της Ραβέννας) or of Italy was a lordship of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire) in Italy, from 584 to 751, when the last exarch was put to death by the ...

. The first actual election was probably that of the third Doge,

Orso Ipato Orso Ipato (Latin: ''Ursus Hypatus''; died 737) was the third traditional Doge of Venice (726–737) and the first historically known. During his eleven-year reign, he brought great change to the Venetian navy, aided in the recapture of Ravenn ...

, when in 726 the Venetians, rejecting measures imposed by iconoclasts of the '

Byzantine emperor This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Byzantine Empire, Eastern Roman Empire, to Fall of Constantinople, its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. On ...

Leo III the Isaurian Leo III the Isaurian ( gr, Λέων ὁ Ἴσαυρος, Leōn ho Isauros; la, Leo Isaurus; 685 – 18 June 741), also known as the Syrian, was Byzantine Emperor from 717 until his death in 741 and founder of the Isaurian dynasty. He put an e ...

, chose their own leadership autonomously. Upon the death of Orso however, the Byzantines replaced the government with a ducal courts annually in the ''

magistri militum ( Latin for "master of soldiers", plural ) was a top-level military command used in the later Roman Empire, dating from the reign of Constantine the Great. The term referred to the senior military officer (equivalent to a war theatre commander ...

'' until 742 when the emperor formally granted the populate the right to elect the Doge. The power of the assembly at this time had yet be precisely defined and author John Deacon reports that in 887 Doge Giovanni Participazio II had to reaffirm that it was the responsibility of the people's assembly to elect the Doge.Giovanni diacono, ''Cronaca'', in ''Cronache veneziane antichissime'', Fonti per la storia d'Italia IX, Roma 1890, p. 129.

The struggle for power

Despite the power delegated to the Concio, over time several

duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are rank ...

s tried to change the assembly, turning the

monarchy A monarchy is a government#Forms, form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state for life or until abdication. The legitimacy (political)#monarchy, political legitimacy and authority of the monarch may vary from restric ...

from being an elective into a hereditary arrangement. One strategy chosen was to circumvent the electoral power of the Concio by associating the

throne A throne is the seat of state of a potentate or dignitary, especially the seat occupied by a sovereign on state occasions; or the seat occupied by a pope or bishop on ceremonial occasions. "Throne" in an abstract sense can also refer to the mona ...

with a

co-regent A coregency is the situation where a monarchical position (such as prince, princess, king, queen, emperor or empress), normally held by only a single person, is held by two or more. It is to be distinguished from diarchies or duumvirates such ...

, also called co-Dux, selected from children or close relatives. This person would, on the death of the Doge, automatically succeed him, with the co-regent being already on the throne and thus in a position of strength. It is unclear what role that the Assembly had at the time in the coronation of coreggenti, and whether it could exert some form of confirmation of their appointment. However between the 8th and 11th centuries, there were at least fifteen coreggenti that were associated with the throne. This chaotic phase was resolved in 1032 when the Concio refused to recognize the coronation of Domenico Orseolo and appointed Flabanico Domenico in his place. At this time the Concio enacted the first law of the Constitutional Republic. This law forbade the practice of association to the throne, separated the perpetual

Orseoli The House of Orseolo was the name of a powerful Venetian noble family, who descendend from '' Dux'' Orso Ipato and his son Teodato Ipato, the first ''Doges of Venice''. Four members of the Orseolo family became Doges of Venice, as well as Command ...

from the government, and provided two ducal councilors for the Doge, to constantly supervise his actions.

The training of municipal institutions and the loss of power of Concio

After this period the Concio in effect was the supreme arbiter of the state. It now faced the need to create permanent organizations that were able to replace the previous ducal power structures. At the same time, the ancient noble families were no longer committed to push for a hereditary sovereign and began to form, along with other prominent families, a class of aristocrats able to influence and direct the city politics. In 1143, the city installed its first Consilium Sapientium, who was appointed by and responsible to support the Doge permanently in government. The new communal form of the State was sanctioned by the '' Veneciarum Commune'' ("City of Venice") documents. The first step that marked the beginning of the decline of the power of Concio occurred in 1172. At this time, the Consilium Sapientium, became the Great Council and was entrusted with the ordinary legislative power. Also at this time, it decided to entrust the election ducal seven elected by voters. A second event came six years later in 1178 when the Concio lost significant control over the appointment of the doge. From that, the seven electors from this nominated no longer directly choose the Doge: they instead began to raffle four with the task of appointing the forty ducal actual voters. The

Council of Forty The Council of Forty ( it, Consiglio dei Quaranta), also known as the ''Quarantia'', was one of the highest constitutional bodies of the Republic of Venice, with both legal and political functions as the supreme court. Origins and evolution By some ...

sold out the task and then remained in power as an assembly of the government and as a supreme court. In 1207 the appointment of members of the Great Council was entrusted to a small group of three voters and then subsequently increased to seven in 1230. A consequence of this choices was that the aristocratic part increased in these municipal bodies. The status quo of popular power supported by an aristocratic power cracked in 1286 when two attempts, rejected, to foreclose access to the Great Council families popular, marked the opening of hostilities between the two factions. Rejected again in 1296, with difficulty, the proposed Serrata was finally approved at the urging of the Doge

Pietro Gradenigo Pietro Gradenigo (1251 – 13 August 1311) was the 49th Doge of Venice, reigning from 1289 to his death. When he was elected Doge, he was serving as the podestà of Capodistria in Istria. Venice suffered a serious blow with the fall of Acre, ...

on 28 February 1297. After these events, in 1300 and in 1310 a plot of Marin Bocconio and

Tiepolo Giovanni Battista Tiepolo ( , ; March 5, 1696 – March 27, 1770), also known as Giambattista (or Gianbattista) Tiepolo, was an Italian painter and printmaker from the Republic of Venice who painted in the Rococo style, considered an import ...

attempted a restoration of the people. However, these failed and the aristocratic form of the state was now a reality.

The abolition

Deprived of any real power, the Concio of the People survived only as a formal meeting at dell'acclamazione under the new Doge that was elected. The body still presented the crowd with a ritual phrase: :( VEC ) ::"Questi xe monsignor el Doxe, se ve piaze!" :( EN ) ::"He is our lord, the Doge, if you like!" (ritual presentation of the new Doge to the People) The meeting was at this point useless and officially abolished in 1423. However, the custom of ritual request for approval to the people remained in use until the fall of the Republic in 1797.

References