The Republic's Kiss

From the establishment of the office of Doge until its final conquest by Napoleon, the Republic of Venice had a total of 120 doges. Not every one of them achieved great things; some were even confined to monasteries. Yet Pietro Grazia, the forty-ninth Doge elected in 1289, was not one of those mediocre figures. He played an important role in Venice's constitutional system and oligarchy.

The forty-sixth, forty-seventh, and forty-eighth doges before him had accomplished little. They included Giovanni Dandolo, another man from the Dandolo family.

During the French Revolution, there was a painter named Eugène Delacroix. He painted the famous Liberty Leading the People, which was now housed in France's Louvre Museum. He also had another painting called The Execution of the Doge Marino Faliero, now held by London's Wallace Collection. It was not as famous as Liberty Leading the People, but Monica, an art student, knew that the story depicted in it was connected to Giovanni Dandolo.

Oligarchy referred to a form of rule in which political power was held by a small number of people. After the forty-eighth Doge, Giovanni Dandolo, stepped down, he did not retire. Instead, he moved to the naval department on the first floor of the Doge's Palace. The navy was the key to the Republic's dominance over the Mediterranean.

During ancient Rome, the Italian Peninsula had dense fir forests. Fir was an excellent material for building warships, but shortages had already emerged in the early fourteenth century. At first, the arsenal's commanders bought timber from the foothills of the Alps. Later, they purchased it from the northern region around Trieste. Eventually, they had to cross the Adriatic Sea to obtain timber, while private shipyards had no choice but to buy oak from abroad.

The rising cost of materials indirectly increased the price