1 I plan a subsequent article on legislation concerning Venetian ambassadors.

2 Giulio Cesare Buzzati, ‘Diritto diplomatico veneziano del sec. XIII', in Studi giuridici dedicati a Francesco Schupfer (Torino, 1898), II, 223 ff. This is not an adequate treatment. The author has missed many acts, has included one which ought to have been omitted, and has incorrectly dated approximately half of those given through apparent ignorance of the meaning of exeunte.

3 Not only in the Deliberazioni of the Maggior Consiglio, the Misti of the Died and various series of registers of the Senate, but even in the records of the Avogaria di Comun, which contain copies of legislative acts imposing upon that body the duty of enforcing penalties. The task for the thirteenth century is relatively simple, for only the Great Council legislated on diplomacy at diat time, though the records of such acts may be found in the Avogaria di Comun or in some calendar of acts if lacking, for some reason, in the Deliberazioni of the Maggior Consiglio.

4 Buzzati, pp. 230-231.

5 Of the doge's Council of Six.

6 Deliberazioni del Maggior Consiglio di Venezia, per cura di Roberto Cessi (Bologna, 1931-1950), (Liber Luna), in, 59. Cited hereafter as Maggior Consiglio, ed. Cessi. Buzzati omits this act.

7 ‘Legatus est… quicumque ab alio missus est, … sive a principe, vel a papa ad alios … nuncii, quos apud nos hostes mittunt, legati dicuntur …’ (Guillielmus Durandus, De legatis, in Vladimir E. Hrabar, De legatis et legationibus, Dorpat, 1906, p. 32). Legatus is equated with the nuncius of a private person in Du Cange, rv, 62. Francois L. Ganshof equates them (Le Moyen age, Histoire des relations internationales, ed. Pierre Renouvin, Paris, 1953,1, p. 268). This Venetian law of 1284 is one of the documents upon which I shall rely in a book which I am writing upon the medieval ambassador to establish the near identity of nuncius and ambaxator and their extremely broad significance. Any of these envoys might also be procuratorial plenipotentiaries, which has a highly specific and technical meaning (Donald E. Queller, ‘Thirteenth-Century Diplomatic Envoys: Nuncii and Procurators', Speculum xxxv, 1960, p. 206 et passim).

8 Senato, Terra, 138^r (139^r). The multiple pagination, here and hereafter, represents a dual or occasionally triple system found in most registers. Rubricario dei Libri d'Oro, Verde e Roano, I, 30^r.

9 Maggior Consiglio, Regina, 37^v (43^v)-38^r (44^r). Since the ducal oath was handed on from doge to doge—modified at the will of the Great Council, of course—I have regarded it as quasi-legislation.

10 The six councilors and the heads of the Forty formed the Signoria or Dominium.

11 Senato, Terra, vnt, 108^r (199^r). A fine of 1,000 ducats was imposed upon any councilor who should fail to enforce the act. Similar provisions are common in Venetian laws.

12 See Vittorio Lazzarini, ‘Obbligo di assumere pubblici umci nelle antiche leggi Veneziane', Archivio Veneto XIX (1936), 3-17.

13 The Collegio was made up of the Signoria and the Savi.

14 Maggior Consiglio, ed. Cessi, II, 25. Buzzati, p. 227, dates it incorrectly.

15 Maggior Consiglio, Comune 1, 79^r. The learned Cessi, I think, erred in transcribing ambaxator venec venerit as atnbaxatores Veneciarum venerint rather than ambaxatores Veneciam venerint ﹛Maggior Consiglio, ed. Cessi, II, 102). The clause otherwise does not make sense.

16 Maggior Consiglio, Fronesis, 177^v (227^v). Copy; original lost.

17 Maggior Consiglio, Novella, 30^v (41^v).

18 Maggior Consiglio, Fronesis, 177^v (227^v). There is a notation of cancellation at the end because the act was revoked by the Forty and the Senate, probably by the codification of 1349.

19 Infra, p. 12.

20 Senato, Misti, xxv, 49 (49).

21 ‘Licensing’ means formally authorizing them to depart.

22 Senato, Terra, 1, 28^r.

23 Maggior Consiglio, Regina, 37^v (43^v)-38^r (44^r).

24 Ibid., 17F (181^V).

25 M. A. R. de Maulde-la-Clavière, La Diplomatie au temps de Machiavel (Paris, 1892- 1893), II, 255, regards this as exceptional in Italy, whereas it was customary.

26 Maggior Consiglio, ed. Cessi, II, 25.

27 Maggior Consiglio, Fractus, 41^V, un. Buzzati, p. 227.

28 Maggior Consiglio, ed. Cessi, II, 100, no. LVIIII. Mentioned in Senato, Misti, xxv, 49 (49). Omitted by Buzzati.

29 Avogaria di Comun, Cerberus, 23v, no. 6. Buzzati (p. 229) dates this one 31 November !

30 Senato, Terra, 1, 51^v (52^v); Libro Verde, 1, 54^v (55^v); in the Rubricario dei Libri d'Oro, Verde e Roano, 1, 29^v-30^r, there is a slight misdating.

31 Philippe de Commynes, Memoires, ed. B. de Mandrot (Paris, 1901-1903), livre III, ch. VIII (1, pp. 221 ff.).

32 Just beginning to play a prominent role in diplomacy in the latter half of the fifteenth century.

33 Published by Pompeo Molmenti, ‘Le relazioni tra patrizi veneziani e diplomatici stranieri', in Curiosita di storia ueneziana (Bologna, 1919), pp. 45-46.

34 Published in S. Romanin, Storia documentata di Venezia VI (Venezia, 1857), 116. Molmenti, pp. 38-39, corrects the eighteenth-century dating of Vetto Sandi. Maulde-la- Claviere, La Diplomatic au temps du Machiavel, II, 310, n. 2, is wrong on the amount of the fine. Alfred von Reumont, Dei diplomatici italiani e delle relazioni diplomatkhe italiane del 1260 ad 1550 (Padova, 1857), p. 6, suggests borrowing of restrictions upon foreign diplomats from Byzantium. It is possible, of course, but historians are too apt to find borrowing, forgetting that there are often only a quite limited number of ways of reacting sensibly to a given sort of problem.

35 Molmenti, pp. 47-52.

36 Senato, Misti, XXXIII, 104^v (104^v).

37 I was not able to find the act. It is described, however, in an act authorizing an exception to it in 1384 (Senato, Misti, XXXVIII, 96^r [97^r]). Further exceptions, ibid., 110^v (III^v), 136* (137^r). 142^r (143^r). 144^v (115^V).

38 Maggior Consiglio, Ursa, xxn, 131^v (137^v); Libro Verde, 1, 54.

39 Senato, Terra, VII, 116^v (115^v).

40 Ibid., XII, 77^v (79^v).

41 Senato, Terra, IV, 135^r (136^r).

42 Maggior Consiglio, Regina, 155^v (163^v). After reading many documents on Venetian diplomacy I have a strong impression that the Venetian governing class was entertained, as well as instructed, by speeches full of useful matter, but was intolerant, as this oath and an occasional expression of disgust by Marino Sanudo tend to show, of eloquence extended out of proportion to the content. Venetian evidence suggests that too much has been made of the oratorical function of the late medieval ambassador. These busy men had something better to do than to listen to oratorical tours deforce.

43 Died, Misti, XXI, 53^r (89““).

44 Died, Misti, XXV, 84^r (119^r); orig., filze, VI, 23.

45 Maggior Consiglio, Leona, 78^v.

46 Maggior Consiglio, ed. Cessi, II, 87. Omitted by Buzzati.

47 Ibid., III, 416. Omitted by Buzzati.

48 Avogaria di Comun, Capitolare, VII, 3^r. I was not able to find a copy in the registers of the legislating bodies.

49 Maggior Consiglio, Clericus Civicus, 193^r.

50 Maggior Consiglio, Spiritus, XVII, 92^r (93^r). Also it is found quoted in the document cited below, n. 51.

51 Maggior Consiglio, Novella, XIX, 42. This was, indeed, the rule under international law. Joannes Bertachinus, Repertorium, v° Ambasiator, in De legatis et kgationibus tractatus varii, ed. Vladimir E. Hrabar, p. 71.