The Imperial Claims of Venice in the Venetian Historiography of the Beginning of the XVIth Century

Whether Venice at the end of the XVth-the beginning of the XVIth century was an empire or a republic is still debatable question. Some authors (Michael Malett, Janet Coleman, Monique O’Connell) consider combining the admiration of republican ideals as freedom and equality and expansion on other territories impossible, while others (Stephan Epstein, John Najemy, Michael Knapton) think that it was a part of the Italian city-states life since the XVth century. In 1509, Venice faced a crisis due to the loss to the League of Cambrai. So, for the return of the status of a superior state the Venetian authorities assigned historians who re-actualized the myth of Venice. In this work the author aims to describe how the imperial claims of Venice were represented in the Venetian historiography of the sixteenth century. For that, the author addresses to 'Historiae Venetae' of Pietro Bembo, contextualizes his rhetoric and answers how with the expression of Venice's imperial claims, Pietro Bembo justified the Venetian changed political course. Applying the Cambridge School methodology, the author concludes that through the rhetoric founded on symbolism and the recreation of Venice's myth Pietro Bembo jusified such Venice's imperial claims as the territoriality claim, claim for subjection and financial support of Venice by terraferma, for independence from the Emperor, for the respect towards the Venetians' own history, separately from the tradition of worshiping ancient Rome. In the first chapter the author comes to the conclusion that Pietro Bembo used 'imperium' to justify the elite's consolidation of power and to change the perception of Venice from a trade power to a prominent political and military empire. Apart from that, Pietro Bembo articulated such categories as fortuna, freedom, virtus and magnanimity to show Venice superior to other states, and, as a result, its right to expand its own understanding of freedom. The second chapter of this study reveals that Pietro Bembo pays attention to the Venetians' origin but, unlike many other humanist thinkers, he does not appeal to the Romans' greatness. Instead, he discusses the greatness of the ancient Venetians and expresses the concern of the heritage's destruction because of other peoples' invasion. Continuing the topic of the Venetians' independence from others' past and respect towards only their own history, Pietro Bembo poses Venice independent from the Emperor's influence. In the third chapter the author of the study carries on the topic of the superiority and the exclusivity of the Venetians with illustrating their will for military dominance. So, the author concludes that with the motives of guaranteeing the freedom and safety to terraferma, Pietro Bembo expresses Venice’s imperial claim for the subjection of terraferma, while the motives of winning unbeatable adversary in the wars with the Turks and the Germans helps Pietro Bembo to define the military and political dominance of the Venetians beyond the Venetian dominions.