Chap. Iir, through Swis 
ty of the Greek Tongue, I do not name thefe Perfons, 
becaufe they are alive, and this might be a Prejudice 
to them. 
One of the Ornaments of Venice^ was the young Wo- 
man that fpake five Tongues well, of which the Latin 
and Greek were two. She paffed Dotflor of Phyfick at 
Padua, according to the Forms ; but, which was be- 
yond all, fhe was a Perfon of fjch extraordinary Virtue 
and Piety, that fhe is fpoke of as a Saint. She died 
Ibme Months before I came ; fhe was of the noble Fa- 
mily of the Cornaros, though not of the three chief 
Branches, which are St, Maurice, St. Paul, and Calle, 
who are defcended from the theee Brothers of the re- 
newed Queen of Cyprus, but the Diftindion of her Fa- 
mily was Pifeopia. Her Merit made all People unwil- 
ling to remember the Blemifh of her Dcfcent on the 
one Side ; for though the Cornaros reckon themfelves a 
Rank of Nobility beyond all the other Families of Ve- 
nice, yet her Father having entertained a Gondalier’s 
Daughter fo long, that he had fome Children by her, 
at laft, for their Sakes, married the Mother, and paid a 
confiderable Fine to fave the Forfeiture of Nobility, 
which his Children mufl have undergone by the-Mean- 
nefs of the Mother’s Birth. The Cornaros carry it fo 
high, that many of that Family have made themfelves 
Nuns, becaufe they thought their own Name was fo 
noble, that they could not induce themfelves to change 
it for another : And when lately one of that Family 
married the Heir of the Sagredos, which is alfo one of 
the ancienteft Families, and extreme rich, and fhe had 
fcarce any Portion at all, (for the Cornaros are now very 
low) fome of their Friends came to wifh them Joy ; 
but they rejected the Compliment, and bid them go and 
wifh the Sagredos Joy, fince they thought the Advantage 
Vt^as on their Side. 
There are of the truly ancient noble Families of Ve- 
nice four and twenty yet remaining j and among thefe, 
there are twelve that are thought fuperior to the reft in 
Rank. Since the firft Formation of their Senate, they 
have created many Senators. In their Wars with Genoa, 
they conferred that Honour on thirty Families j feveral 
of their Generals have had it given them as a Reward 
of their Service : They have alfo offered it to fome 
Royal Families •, for both the Families of Valois and 
Bourbon were Nobles of Venice \ and Henry III. when 
he came through Venice and Poland, to take PofTeffion of 
the Crown of France, went, fat among them, and drew 
his Ballot as a noble Venetian : Several Popes have pro- 
cured this Honour for their Nephews ; only the Barbe- 
rini^s would have the Vemtians offer it to them without 
asking it, and the Venetians would not give it without 
they asked it, and fo it ftuck. But during the War of 
Candia, Cardinal Francis Barberini gave twelve thou- 
fand Crowns a Year towards the War ; and the Tem- 
per found for making them noble Venetians was, that 
the Queen-mother of France moved the Senate to grant 
it. In all the Creations of Senators, before the laft 
War of Candia, they were free ; and the Confiderations 
were either great Services, or the Dignity of thofe 
on whom they beftowed this Honour : Thofe new 
Families are divided into thofe called Ducal Fa- 
milies, and Hew Families .* Ti'he Reafon of the for- 
mer Defignation is not rightly underftood ; all thofe 
Families, fay fome, that are called Ducal, have had 
the Dukedom in their Houfe ; but as all the old 
Families have had the fame Honour, though they 
carry not that Title, fo fome of the new Families 
•have alfo had it, yet are not called Ducal Others fay, 
that thofe Families that have had Branches made Dukes 
without their being firft Procurators of Sr. Mark, or 
that have been chofen to that Honour, without their pre- 
tending to it, are called Ducal. But the true Account 
of this is, that from the Year 1450, to the Year 1620, 
for an hundred and feventy Years, there was a Com- 
bination made among thofe new Families to pre- 
ferve the Dukedom ftill among them -, for the old Fa- 
milies carrying it high, and excluding the new from 
the chief Honours, nineteen of the new Families en- 
tred into mutual Engagements to exclude the ancient 
Nobility. It is true, they made the Dukedom fome- 
S ERLAN D, ^C. 
times fall on new Families that were not of this AfTo- 
ciation ; but this was indifferent to them, as long as 
the ancient Families were fhut out, and it appeared that 
they bore the chief Sway in the Eleftion. This Com- 
bination was a Thing known to the very People, tho® 
the Inquifitors did all they could to break it, or at leaft 
to hide it •, fo that I never met with it in any Author, 
But this failed in 1620, when Memmio was chofen Duke, 
and was defcended of the ancient Nobility j which was 
fo great a Mortification to the Cafe Ducale, that one of 
them (Veniero) hang’d himfclf through the Rage to 
which that drove him j but his Man came in Time be- 
fore he was dead, and cut him down, and he lived 
long after in a better Mind. Since that Time one of 
the Bembos, two of the Cornaros, one of the Contarinis, 
and the prefent Prince of the JuJtiniani, the firft of 
that Family that hath had that Honour, have been 
Dukes, who are all of ancient Families *, fo that this 
Faftion is fo entirely buried, that it is not generally 
known feven in Venice itfelf) that it was ever amongft 
them. And thus Time and Accidents bring about hap- 
py Events, which no Care nor Induftry could produce *, 
for that, which all the Endeavours of the Inquifitors 
could not compafs, came about of itfelf. It is true, the 
Fadions in Venice, though violent enough in thofe who 
manage them, are not derived by them as an Inheri- 
tance to their Pofterity, as formerly among the Floren- 
tines -, who though they value themfelves as much above 
the Venetians, whom they defpife as a dull Race of Peo- 
ple, yet (hewed how little they underftood to conduiffc 
their State ; fince by domeflick Heats they loft their 
Liberty, which the Venetians have had the Wifdom to 
preferve. The Faction of the Cafe Ducale perhaps 
willing to let the Matter fall, for they loft more than 
they got by it; fince the ancient Families in Revenge 
fet themfelves againft them, and excluded them from 
all the advantageous Employments of the State. For 
they being only united in that Point relating to the- 
Dukedom, the ancient Families let them carry it ; but in 
other Competitions they fet up fuch Candidates againft 
the Pretenders of the Ducal Families, as were more 
efteem’d than they, fo that they fhut them out of all 
the beft Offices of the Republick. Such a Fadion as 
this, if it had been ftill kept up, might have proved 
fatal to their Liberty. 
It is indeed a Wonder to fee the Dignity of the 
Duke fo much courted ; for he is a Prifoner of State, 
tied to fuch Rules, fo feverely reftrained, and fhut up as 
it were in an Apartment of the Palace of St. Mark, 
that it is not ftrange to fee the greateft Families, in 
particular, the Cornaros, decline it. All the Family, 
how numerous foever, muft retire out of the Senate, 
when a Duke is chofen out of it ; only one, that is next 
a-kin fits ftill, but without a Vote : And the only real 
Privilege that the Duke hath is, that he can, without 
communicating with the propofe Matters either to 
the Council of Ten, to the Senate, or Great Council ; 
whereas all other Propofitions muft be firft offered to the 
Savi, and examined by them, who have a Sort of tribuni- 
tian Power, to rejeft what they diflike ; and though they 
cannot hinder the Duke’s making a Propofai, yet they 
can mortify him when he hath made it ; they can hinder 
it from being voted ; and, after voted, they can fufpend 
the Execution till it is examined over again ; And a 
Duke that is of an aiftive Spirit muft refolve to endure 
thefe Mortifications ; for it is certain that the Savii do 
fometimes affed to fli«w their Authority, and exercife 
a Sort of Tyranny in rejecting of Propofitions, v/hen 
they intend to humble thofe who make them : Yet the 
greateft Part of the beft Families court the Dukedom 
extremely. When Sagredo was upon the Point of be- 
ing chofen, there was fo violent an Outcry againft it, 
becaufe of the Difgrace they thought would arife, if 
they had a Prince whofe Nofe had mifearried in fome 
Dilorders, the Senate complied fo far with the People, 
though the Inquifitors took Care to hang or drown 
many of the Chief of the Mutineers, as to Jet the 
Defign for Sagredo fall ; upon which he retired to a 
Houfe he had in the Terra Firma, and never appeared 
more z.iVenice : During which Retirement he wrote two 
Boobs I 
