Individuals, Families, and the State in early Modern empires

The case of the Venetian Stato da Mar

Abstract

This article takes a Carpaccio painting as an entry point to the functioning of the Venetian maritime state in the late medieval and early modern period and offers an introduction to the historiographical issues surrounding Venice’s Renaissance empire. The article demonstrates how ties of kinship and clientage were used to construct and maintain Venetian governance in its maritime territories. While earlier historiography conceptualized these territories within a colonialist or a nationalist framework, this article contends that empire is a useful framework of analysis for Venice, looking at how the Venetian case fits within definitions of early modern empires.