<論説>ヴェネツィア貴族階級の確立とその背景

Abstract

支配階級としてのヴェネツィア貴族階級が確立したのは、一二九七年のセラータと呼ばれる行為 (大議会メンバーを特定の家柄に限定) によるのではない。ヴェネツィア貴族階級が排他的独占的カーストとしてその形態をととのえるのは、十四世紀という長い過程を経たあとで、一四〇三年、中産階級を貴族階級に加えるという提案を拒否したときであった。本稿ではこのような支配階級としての貴族階級確立の背後にある、不況にいたる経済環境の変化、それによってひきおこされたヴェネツィア貴族の意識の変化を求める。

The establishment of the venetian nobility as a ruling class was not made in the Serrata ('the Closing of the Great Council') of 1297, but completed through the long process of the fourteenth century. Indeed the Serrata was not a triumph of an oligarchy over the people, but in fact a widening of the ruling class in a fashion designed successfully to moderate the strife of factions between commoners and nobles. In 1403, a proposal was made by the Capi of Luarantia to add to the Great Council a worthy family of native-born commoners whenever one of the noble families dies out. But this prorosal was rejected by the ducal council. The rejection of this proposal symbolizes a definitive change in the nature of the venetian aristocracy. In this article, I have researched the social and mental background of the establishment of the venetian nobility as a ruling class in the fourteenth century. The mood of the nobility in the later fourteenth century was a response to the economic depression, and was reinforced by the depression's main effects, from the stiff competition for the shrunken markets to the widespread use of slaves. This mood constitutes, on the psychological level, the exclusive attitude of the venetian nobility.