The Commune of Venice () is the title with which the government of the city of

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

and its Republic was designated from 1143. The municipality, similar to other medieval municipalities, was based on the popular power of the assembly, called Concio in Venice. It represented the patriciate of the city with a system of assemblies including the Great Council, Minor Council,

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

and the Council of Forty.

Overview

Unlike other Italian cities, Venice retained some vestiges of their previous institution of the monarchy embodied by the Doge for setting bounds for power that such assemblies were developing. The leading groups of most of the towns gathered at the time around the core of the ancient patrician families, creating a new merchant aristocracy with the '' Serrata del Maggior Consiglio'' of 1297 and actually took over the power and ousting the popular assembly. In the name of the Commune, it continued to operate the highest representative body of the

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

sovereignty Sovereignty can generally be defined as supreme authority. Sovereignty entails hierarchy within a state as well as external autonomy for states. In any state, sovereignty is assigned to the person, body or institution that has the ultimate au ...

– including the Doge, the Minor Council and heads of the Forty – until 1423. At this time, the abolition of the Concione ended the last residue of municipal institutions and the supreme body took the name of Serenissima Signoria.

Overview

See also