Cittadinanza
The Lessico Veneto (Venetian Vocabulary) by Fabio Mutinelli was published in 1851. It is an invaluable tool for anybody who reads texts from the time of the Republic of Venice.
Fabio Mutinelli (1797-1876) was director of the I. R. Archivio Generale di Venezia (1847-1861), and a prolific writer on the history of Venice.
CITIZENSHIP. There were two kinds, native, and granted by favor. Those of Venetian extraction, their legitimacy of birth, their citizen ancestry for three degrees, of oneself, of the father, of the ancestor, and the honourability, that is, never having practiced a menial craft, were the requirements, which established the original citizenship. The one granted by favor was also divided into two species, de intus, and de intus et extra. The first enabled the exercise of some internal ministries of the city of little importance, and that of some main crafts; the second conferred the faculty of being able to navigate and trade like a Venetian on the destinations of Venetian trade.1
Translator’s notes
- It is worth noticing that, in the Venetian terminology, the members of the nobility were not citizens. They were noblemen and -women, i.e., an entirely different category. ↩︎
Original Italian text
CITTADINANZA. Era di due specie, originaria, e conceduta per favore. I natali sortiti in Venezia, la legittimità loro, la civiltà di ascendenti cittadini per i tre gradi, di sè, del padre, dell’ avo, e l’ onorevolezza, cioè il non aver mai esercitato un’arte meccanica erano i requisiti, che stabilivano la cittadinanza originaria. Quella conceduta per favore si divideva pure in altre due specie de intus, e de intus et extra. La prima rendeva capace all’ esercizio di alcuni ministerii interni della città di poco rilievo, e a quello di alcune arti principali; la seconda conferiva la facoltà di poter navigare, e di mercanteggiare come Veneziano nelle scale dei veneti traffici.
Mutinelli, Fabio. Lessico veneto che contiene l'antica fraseologia volgare e forense … / compilato per agevolare la lettura della storia dell'antica Repubblica veneta e lo studio de'documenti a lei relativi. Venezia : co' tipi di Giambatista Andreola, 1851, pp. 105–106.
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