Decoding Debate in the Venetian Senate : : Short Stories of Crisis and Response on Albania (1392-1402) / / Grabiela Rojas Molina.

• Superior document: The Medieval Mediterranean ; 134
• VerfasserIn: Molina, Grabiela Rojas,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden ;, Boston : : Brill,, 2022.
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: The Medieval Mediterranean ; 134.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (266 pages)
• Notes: This book uncovers a long-lost classification mechanism for analysing the Deliberazioni, secretive records of the medieval Venetian Senate. Using Albanian cities as a case study, the book helps identify unspoken state priorities during a transformative decade for Venice.

Debate within the Venetian Senate at turn of the fifteenth century has long been opaque, as only an elite few were allowed access to Senate proceedings, their participation bound to secrecy. This volume offers a new interpretation of scribal intent, enabling hidden aspects of those discussions to come to light. By using documentation related to Venice’s involvement in Albanian territories as a case study, this study unfolds the systematic yet secretive method by which scribes classified Senate discussions. The registers emerge as triumphs of precise and pragmatic codification within a milieu of information overflow.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments -- List of Illustrations -- Introduction -- 1 Albania in Focus -- 2 Sources -- 3 Note on Names, Transcriptions and Dates -- 1 Decoding Senate Debate -- 1.1 Theoretical Considerations -- 1.2 From ‘Debate’ to Entry -- 1.3 From Entry to ‘Story’ -- 1.3.1 Selection Criteria -- 2 Debate in Context -- 2.1 Elitism and Protagonism -- 2.2 Sea Riches -- 2.3 Past and Present -- 3 Outline on Venice and the Mediterranean Protagonists -- 3.1 Power Units alla veneziana -- 3.2 Communal Administration and Organisation of Albanian Cities -- 3.3 Albanian Protagonists -- 3.4 Mediterranean Protagonists -- 4 Newsworthiness -- 4.1 Uneven Impact: N-entries and Other Nouitates (1392–1394) -- 4.2 Alternative Formulations of N-entries (1394–1395) -- 4.3 The Ottoman Victory: A Change of Perspective (1396–1397) -- 4.4 Albania Rebels (1398–1400) -- 4.5 News Heard and Expectation (1400–1401) -- 4.6 Latest News: All Enemies Defeated (1402) -- 4.7 Concluding Remarks -- 5 ‘What the  Signoria Says’ -- 5.1 First Responses to Durrës, Shkodra and Lezhë (1392–1394) -- 5.2 New Threats: Many Responses (1395–1396) -- 5.3 Venice’s Silence and Its Consequence (1397–1400) -- 5.4 Venice’s Say in a Changing World (1401–1402) -- 5.5 Concluding Remarks -- Epilogue: Antonio Morosini, the Witness -- Some Conclusions -- Bibliography -- Index.