COMPETING SPECTACLES IN THE VENETIAN FESTA DELLE MARIE ● by Thomas Devaney In 1349, the Venetian Grand Council passed legislation that stated: “Since the Festa delle Marie has been organized for the reverence of God and of the Virgin, for the devotion and consolation of the whole land, it is necessary that scandal-provoking conduct cease … from now on, the throwing of turnips or any other object is, on pain of a fine of 100 deniers, banned for the duration of the festival.”1 The Festa delle Marie, or Festival of the Twelve Marys, was Venice’s distinctive celebration of the Purification of Mary on 2 February, observed from at least the mid-twelfth century until it was abolished in 1379. It was second in spectacle and expense only to the Mar- riage of the Sea among Venetian civic rituals, and featured grand processions, sump- tuous displays of wealth, and lavish parties in private homes. A complex ensemble of ceremonies that lasted eight days, the celebration culminated in a waterborne proces- sion centered on twelve wooden effigies of the Virgin dressed in gold cloth and deco- rated with gems, pearls, and golden crowns. Although intended to present Venice as united in its devotion to Mary and prospering under the benign influence of God, the festival had, by the early-fourteenth century, become a locus for the articulation of competing viewpoints on the nature of Venetian society. Attempts to understand the meanings of the Festa delle Marie began with contem- porary efforts to fix its origins.2 The thirteenth-century Chronicle of Marco claimed that the festival commemorated Venice’s defeat of the legendary Istrian pirate Gaiolus in the tenth century.3 This story, likely fictional, became the popular explanation for the origins of the festival and was retold and embellished by a number of authors. The most detailed version, from an anonymous chronicle of the late fifteenth century, claimed that 31 January had been marked since ancient times by a ritual in which twelve poor but honest girls received dowries and weddings at the cathedral of San I thank Caroline Castiglione, Amy Remensnyder, Moshe Sluhovsky, and the two anonymous Viator review- ers for their thoughtful readings of earlier versions of this essay. 1 Archivio di Stato, Venice (ASV) Compilazione Leggi, B. 206 (feste) fol. 336r, as cited in Ėlisabeth Crouzet-Pavan, «Sopra le acque salse» Espaces, pouvoir et société à Venise à la fin du Moyen Age, Collec- tion de l’école française de Rome 156, 2 vols. (Rome 1992) 1.553. 2 For late medieval and Renaissance stories of the origins of the festival, see Giovanni Musolino, “Culto mariano,” Culto dei santi a Venezia, ed. Silvio Tramontin (Venice 1965) 257–258; Silvio Tramontin, “Una pagina di folklore religioso veneziano antico: La festa de ‘Le Marie,’” La religiosità popolare nella valle padana, Atti del II convegno di studi sul folklore padano, Modena, 19–21 marzo 1965 (Modena 1966) 411– 412; Edward Muir, Civic Ritual in Renaissance Venice (Princeton 1981) 135–140; and Crouzet-Pavan (n. 1 above) 1.561–566. 3 The relevant passage of the Chronicle of Marco is published in Giovanni Monticolo, La costituzione del Doge Pietro Polani (febbraio 1143, 1142, more veneto) circa la processio scolarum (Rome 1900) 43–45 (also available in Rendiconti di Reale Academia dei Lincei 9 [1900] 91–133). 2 THOMAS DEVANEY Pietro di Castello.4 When a band of pirates abducted the girls and stole the gifts, the casselleri (probably cabinetmakers) of Santa Maria Formosa parish pursued the pi- rates, returning to Venice on 2 February, the Feast of the Purification of Mary, with brides and gifts intact. The doge rewarded their courage by promising to visit their parish church each year on that day. In this recounting of the Festa delle Marie, the Virgin Mary plays no role. Only the coincidence of the date of the victory and the provenance of the rescuers tied the annual celebration to her feast day. An alternate late-medieval tradition returned the focus to Mary. Lorenzo de Monaco, in his 1354 chronicle, claimed that the ancient festivals of devotion to the Virgin were so lavish that pirates sought to steal the many treasures on display. Al- though pirates play a role in this account as well, it is not a central one. Another four- teenth-century variation on the pirate legend centered on the Virgin in a different way, asserting that the doge established the annual ritual at Santa Maria Formosa because, at that time, it was the only church dedicated to Mary in the city and he wanted to thank her for the victory over the pirates, won on the day of her Purification. These differing interpretations of the festival’s origins reveal the key functions of the festival for medieval and early modern commentators. The first tradition focused on the cohe- sion and strength of Venetian society; the second, on the city’s special relationship with the Virgin Mary.5 Although a number of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century antiquarian examinations of Venice’s parishes and festivals described the festival and published manuscript sources relating to the festival, modern scholarship on the subject began in 1900 with Giovanni Monticolo’s La costituzione del Doge Pietro Polani.6 Monticolo’s painstak- ing examination clarified the evolution of the festival as well as the itinerary of the 2 February procession, giving particular attention to its liturgical and ceremonial as- pects. In the mid-1960s, a pair of prominent historians of the Venetian church, Gio- vanni Musolino and Silvio Tramontin, expanded upon Monticolo’s work with new studies of the festival.7 While Musolino examined it as part of a larger project on the cult of saints in Venice, Tramontin interpreted the festival in terms of folklore and popular religiosity, focusing on the origins and development of the festival until its abolition in the late-fourteenth century. Edward Muir’s account of the Festa delle Marie, in his Civic Ritual in Renaissance Venice, is the most complete published in English.8 In exploring the ways in which the Venetian government harnessed a popular and potentially destabilizing festival to serve its own needs, he focused on the significance of the festival in presenting an image of the city in accord with the “Myth of Venice.” Although Muir did examine 4 This account is published in Jacopo Morelli, Operette, 3 vols. (Venice 1820) 1.130–134. 5 Muir (n. 2 above) 138–139. 6 Monticolo, La costituzione (n. 3 above). Prominent examples of the antiquarian works include Flaminio Cornaro, Ecclesiae venetae antiquis monumentis nunc etiam primum editis illustratae ac in dec- ades distributae, 13 vols. (Venice 1749); Giambattista Gallicciolli, Delle memorie Venete antiche, profane ed ecclesiastiche, 8 vols. (Venice 1795); Giacomo Filiasi, Memorie storiche de'Veneti primi e secondi, 9 vols. (Venice 1796–1798); Giustina Renier Michiel, Le origine delle feste veneziane, 6 vols. (Milan 1829); and Giuseppe Tassini, Feste, spettacoli, divertimenti, e piaceri degli antichi veneziani, 2nd ed. (Venice 1961). 7 Musolino, “Culto mariano” (n. 2 above); and Tramontin, “Una pagina” (n. 2 above). 8 Muir, Civic Ritual (n. 2 above). COMPETING SPECTACLES 3 the meanings of the collection of rites that comprised the festival, his more significant contribution was to bring attention to the implications of the government’s decision to abolish the festival in 1379. Muir suggested that the government used the War of Chioggia as a pretext to rid itself of an increasingly expensive and disruptive festival and argued that this was part of a larger process of confirming the patrician regime through a unified and controlled civic pageantry. Elizabeth Crouzet-Pavan, in a more recent study of the festival, discussed the spatial aspects of the processions and the evolving relationship between contrade and city expressed through them.9 Through extensive use of archival sources not considered by prior scholars, Crouzet-Pavan of- fered the most comprehensive examination to date of popular participation in the rites. The disruptive behavior and rising costs that led to the festival’s abolition, she argued, demonstrate that by the late-fourteenth century it presented an image of Venetian soci- ety no longer meaningful to much of the population. This essay seeks to clarify and expand our understanding of the ways in which a civic spectacle such as the Festa delle Marie functioned as an opportunity for medie- val Venetians to articulate alternatives to the dominant understanding of their social order. It examines several contemporary sources, including Pace del Friuli’s late thir- teenth-century Descriptio festi gloriosissime Virginis Marie and Boccaccio’s Deca- meron, to highlight a growing disjuncture during the fourteenth century between popular and official conceptions of the festival and, therefore, of Venetian society.10 Disruptive behavior at the festival, I argue, was neither blasphemous nor spontaneous, but a public performance that endorsed an alternate conception of society, one based on a neighborhood rather than a municipal identity, on competition instead of unity. By interpreting the festival as a locus for interplay between popular and elite institutions, historians can develop a more complete understanding of medieval Venetian civic culture. Surprisingly, the figure of the Virgin Mary, around whom the rituals and disrup- tions revolved and on whose centrality contemporary authors insist, has not occupied a prominent place in the scholarship. This essay examines the festival as a Marian cele- bration in order to reveal its divergent meanings, focusing first on the evolution of the Feast of Mary’s Purification and its close ties to pre-Christian festivals. The coinci- dence of a Marian holy day with the start of Carnival season influenced not only the ritual itinerary of the Festa delle Marie but also linked the two in popular understand- ing to create the unusual confluence of devotion and license that characterized the event. The second section of the paper describes the formal itinerary of the festival and explores the functions of its ‘official’ symbology. The final pages analyze popular behavior at the festival, refusing to dismiss the act of throwing turnips at the Marys as simple unruly behavior, but instead using it as a window through which to view a spectacle of a different sort. The Festa delle Marie first appears in the documentary record with the 1143 Con- 9 Crouzet-Pavan (n. 1 above). 10 Philip A. Stadter, “Planudes, Plutarch and Pace of Ferrara,” Italia Medioevale e Umanistica 16 (1973) 137–162, argues that scholars have known the proto-humanist scholar Pace del Ferrara as “del Friuli” due to a misread abbreviation of his name. Since, however, he is del Friuli in the literature on the Festa delle Marie, I refer to him as such to avoid confusion. 4 THOMAS DEVANEY stitution of Pietro Polani, which ordered an annual procession of boats to honor the feast of Mary’s Purification. That the festival predated this ordinance, however, is demonstrated by the Constitution itself, which refers to “those things which were ar- ranged long ago especially for the honor and benefit of our homeland by our prudent and economical ancestors.”11 The Purification was only one of a cycle of Marian feasts originating in the Byzantine East that became popular in the Western Church during the seventh century. Founded as the Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple in the mid-fourth century, it was initially observed on 14 February, forty days after the Christmas celebration of 6 January. When adopted in Rome near the end of the fifth century, the Feast of the Presentation was celebrated on 2 February, as Christmas had moved to 25 December. By the mid-seventh century, the Presentation, which had previously centered on Christ, began to focus more on Mary’s holiness and purity and become known in the West as the Feast of the Purification of Mary. The 2 February celebration of the Purification coincided closely with the ancient Roman Feast of Lights (1 February) and Lupercalia (15 February), which had been combined and later replaced by the Presentation of Christ.12 In commentaries on the significance of the feast, high medieval scholars empha- sized the multiple meanings of a feast day dedicated not only to the Virgin, but also to Christ. The Marian nature of the feast, however, took precedence. James of Voragine, for instance, opened his exposition by noting, “The Purification of the blessed Virgin is celebrated on the fortieth day after the nativity of the Lord. By custom, the feast is known by three names: Purification, Hypopanti [the Presentation of Christ in the Temple], and Candlemas.”13 The Purification served as a reminder of Mary’s ritual sacrifice of two doves or pi- geons in the Temple after she had completed forty days of purification in accordance with Mosaic Law (Luke 2.22; Lev. 12.1–4). For medieval observers, this story reso- nated on two levels. First, since the Mosaic Law did not apply to a woman who had conceived virginally, Mary’s obeisance to it not only brought the miraculous nature of her childbirth to the fore, but also provided an opportunity to consider the relationship of the new covenant to the old. As Johannes Beleth noted in his twelfth-century Summa de ecclesiasticis officiis, “She wished to observe the tradition of the law, be- cause Christ ‘comes not to bring an end to the law, but to fulfill it.’ (Matt. 5.17)”14 Writing slightly later, Sicardus of Cremona agreed, “It was correct that the virgin 11 Monticolo, La costituzione (n. 3 above) 38: “ea que antiquitus presortim pro nostre patrie honore et utilitate a predecessoribus nostris provida ac diligenti consideratione statuta sunt.” Tramontin, “Una pagina” (n. 2 above) 411, notes the possible existence of an 1138 document but argues that, even if this were true, it was only a few years earlier and thus would not merit the use of “antiquitus.” 12 On the adoption of the feast in the west and its links to pre-existing festivals, see Muir (n. 2 above) 139–140; Eric Palazzo and Anne-Katrin Johansson, “Jalons liturgiques pour une histoire du culte de la Vierge dans l’Occident latin (Ve–XIe siècles)” in Dominique Iogna-Prat, Eric Palazzo, and Daniel Russo, Marie: Le Culte de la Vierge dans la société médiévale (Paris 1996) 15–19; Mary Clayton, The Cult of the Virgin Mary in Anglo-Saxon England (Cambridge 1990) 25–51. 13 James of Voragine, Legenda aurea, ed. Giovanni Paolo Maggione (Florence 1998) 238: “Purificatio beate virginis Xl die post nativitatem domini facta est. Consuevit autem istud festum tribus nominibus ap- pellari, scilicet purificatio, ypopanti et candelaria.” 14 Johannes Beleth, Summa de ecclesiasticis officiis, ed. Heriberto Douteil, CCCM 41A (Turnhout 1976) 149: “Voluit tamen legis consuetudinem observare, quoniam Christus ‘non venit solvere legem, sed adim- plere’ [Matt. 5.17].” COMPETING SPECTACLES 5 should observe these things, not that she need to be purified, nor that her son be sancti- fied, but that she not seem to avoid the law.”15 James of Voragine elaborated on this theme by arguing that all Christians should see in Mary’s decision to submit to the law an example of humility and an admonishment to purify themselves of sin throughout their whole lives.16 Further, Mary sacrificed two young doves, the offering required of those who could not afford the yearling lamb that was the customary gift (Luke 2.24; Lev. 12.6–8). For the twelfth-century theologian Honorius Augustodunensis, this con- firmed that Christ identified with the poor and meek: “And it should be noted that the Lord wished to be born, not from the daughter of some king or ruler, but from the poorest of parents, to whom there was such a lack of things that she could not find a lamb to offer in sacrifice, because surely he comes to call the humble poor to heaven and to damn the arrogant rich to hell.”17 Moreover, Honorius saw the symbolism of the gifts offered as a lesson in humility to those who considered themselves above the need for continual penitence, “because we cannot sacrifice to God the lamb of inno- cence, let us instead offer Him the turtledoves of penitence.18 The celebration on 2 February commemorated another event from the same biblical story, the fulfillment of Simeon’s prophecy. Simeon was an old and just man who had been told by the Holy Spirit that he would not die until he had witnessed the Messiah. When he saw Christ presented in the Temple in accordance with the law, he took the baby into his arms and proclaimed the prophecy fulfilled (Luke 2.25–32). This biblical text received little attention from medieval commentators on the feast, who were mostly content to recount the story without a detailed exegesis. Rather, it was in ana- lyzing the candelit processions that marked this feast day that these authors explained their understandings of the text. The candles borne in nighttime processions to celebrate the Purification symbolized both Christ and Virgin Mary. The meanings of each component of a candle comple- mented one another: the wax represented Christ’s virginal flesh, its flame the Holy Spirit, and the wick the divine nature of Christ hidden within his mortal body.19 Fur- ther, the gesture of holding aloft a lighted candle commemorated Simeon’s words on holding Christ in his arms, “a light of revelation for the Gentiles (Luke 2.32).” Al- though Christians could not physically carry Christ in their arms, they could bear his symbol in a procession recalling that of Mary, Joseph, Simeon, and Anna in the Tem- 15 Sicardus of Cremona, Mitrale seu de officiis ecclesiasticis summa, PL 213.242: “Haec oportuit vir- ginem observare, non ut indigens purgaretur, nec ut filius sanctificaretur, sed ne legem solvere videretur.” 16 James of Voragine, Legenda aurea (n. 13 above) 240–242. 17 Honorius Augustodunensis, Speculum ecclesiae, PL 172.851: “Et notandum quod Dominus non de re- gis aut alicujus principis filia, sed de pauperrimis parentibus nasci voluit, quibus tanta rerum inopia incubuit quod agnum in sacrificium manus eorum invenire [non] potuit, quia nimirum venit humiles pauperes ad coelestia revocare et superbos divites in tartara damnare.” 18 Ibid. 172.851–852: “Quia igitur non possumus Deo offerre agnum innocentiae, offeramus turtures poenitentiae.” 19 Beleth, Summa de ecclesiasticis officiis (n. 14 above) 149: “In candela enim est cera, ignis, lichinus. Cera significant carnem Christi et virginitatem, ignis Spiritum Sanctum, lichinus deitatem in carne la- tentem.” Cf. Honorius Augustodunensis, Speculum ecclesiae, PL 172.852, “In candela enim Christi hu- manitas, in lumine intelligitur ejus divinitas”; and Sicardus of Cremona, Mitrale, PL 213.243: “Per ceram etenim Christi humanitatem accipimus… Per ellychnium mortalitas, per ignem exprimitur ejus divinitas: quidam per ellychnium intelligunt divinitatem, et per flammam ignis dona sancti Spiritus, quibus fuit prae participibus inflammatus.” 6 THOMAS DEVANEY ple.20 The candles served also and, for some commentators, primarily as a symbol of Mary’s virginity. James of Voragine noted that “so that it be shown to all that she is most pure and bright, the Church ordered that we should carry lighted candles, as if to say, ‘Blessed Virgin, you have no need of purification; on the contrary, you are wholly golden and pure.”21 Imbedded in this understanding was the challenge to imitate Mary in the hopes of joining her in heaven. For the visible wax and hidden wick of the can- dles represented not only the human and divine natures of Christ, but more prosaically, the humility of the faithful Christian who desires that his good works be hidden from others and known to God alone.22 All of these commentators were aware, however, that the rituals of Candlemas pre- dated the Christian feast of the Purification. The Feast of Lights, in which candles were carried in nighttime processions to exorcize evil spirits from the underworld, had an especially strong influence on the forms of Candlemas. While all acknowledged the origins of the candlelit processions, James of Voragine offered the most complete ex- planation of its transformation into a Christian observance. Recognizing that tradi- tional rites were often difficult to suppress altogether, he argued that Pope Sergius I (687–701) had attempted to impose a Christian meaning onto the custom by instituting a procession honoring the Virgin.23 While this account cannot be verified, it demon- strates that contemporaries were well aware of pagan undertones present in what was also a thoroughly Christianized ritual. Although the candles shining in darkness now symbolized Mary’s “incandescent purity,” Candlemas also marked the end of winter and occurred near the start of the potentially licentious Carnival season. A combina- tion of Marian devotion and Carnivalesque freedom would mark Venice’s Festa della Marie. The sixty contrade, or parishes, of Venice played a major role in the preparations for and the unfolding of the Festa delle Marie. Each year, two contrade, chosen on a rotating basis, took responsibility for the festivities. Preparations began months in ad- vance as the successful financing, planning, and execution of the festival was a point of pride and arena for inter-contrade competition. The contrade were centers for popular festivities, including hunts, masquerades, and banquets, that began well before the official opening of the Festa delle Marie and continued for days after.24 Through- out the festival, the links between the contrade and the city as a whole were ritually affirmed by the interplay of local and municipal rites, by the routes of the various pro- cessions, and by the movements of the twelve statues of the Virgin Mary. As a 1361 law noted, the festival was celebrated for “the honor of God, of the Virgin, of Venice, 20 Ibid. 213.243; Honorius Augustodunensis, Speculum ecclesiae, PL 172.852; James of Voragine, Le- genda aurea (n. 13 above) 247–248. 21 Ibid. 247: “Ut ergo ostendatur quod tota fuit purissima et splendida ideo ordinavit ecclesia ut lumi- nosos cereos baiulemus ac si ipso facto dicat ecclesia: ‘Virgo beata purificatione non indiges, sed tota ruti- las, tota splendes.’” 22 Ibid. 248–249. 23 Ibid. 246. 24 Martin da Canal, Les estoires de Venise. Cronaca veneziana in lingua francese dalle origini al 1275, ed. and trans. Alberto Limentani, Civiltà Veneziana, Fonti e Testi 12, Serie Terza 3 (Florence 1972) 252; Crouzet-Pavan (n. 1 above) 1.532–536; Muir (n. 2 above) 141–142; Tramontin, “Una Pagina” (n. 2 above) 402 n. 7. The sixty contrade were paired in the early 13th c. to form thirty trentacie and later organized into six sestieri. COMPETING SPECTACLES 7 and of its contrade.”25 The formal rites of the Festa delle Marie began on the eve of the feast of the Translation of Saint Mark, 30 January, when a group of adolescents departed by boat from one of the hosting contrada. Martin da Canal described an extravagant spectacle in which the members of the contrade took full advantage of the opportunity to dis- play their wealth.26 Disembarking at the Ducal Palace, the young men handed flags to small children awaiting them and, with the children in tow, marched two by two around the Piazza and in front of the Basilica San Marco in a procession that included trumpet players, youths bearing silver amphorae of wine with gold and silver cups as well as silver trays loaded with calisons (sweets), and, lastly, the priests of the con- trada resplendent in golden velvet. From San Marco the group paraded to the Church of Santa Maria Formosa, now walking in single file. Inside, they formally presented their gifts of wine and food to young unmarried women gathered there, as well as to the priests and choir. The rituals of procession and gift-giving were then reprised by the second hosting contrada. This ensemble of ceremonies has been interpreted as a charitable act in which the rich provided dowries for the poor (with the wine and food intended to help defray the costs of wedding feasts to be held the next day) and the contrade expressed support for the institution of marriage.27 Alternatively, it has been argued that these rituals con- sciously imitated Mary’s self-presentation in the Temple with customary offerings. By presenting gifts to virgin women in a church dedicated to Mary, “the contrada offers these gifts to the Virgin.”28 Whether charitable act or homage to Mary, however, this gifting ritual was a festive occasion and, despite the presence of watchful priests, a rare opportunity for flirtatious intermingling. The ritual gathered young single men, virgin women, and small children to enjoy wine and candies together, creating a pow- erful image of renewal and fertility within the sacred confines of the church. A similar procession opened the festivities on the Feast of St. Mark’s Translation on 31 January. Members of one of the hosting contrade gathered in the Piazza San Marco and distributed flags to small children. These children formed a procession, two by two, in front of the basilica, followed by older children bearing more than a hun- dred silver crosses. Next came the priests of the contrada with men bearing silver trumpets and plates. Bringing up the rear was a priest dressed in feminine clothes (de dras de dame) to represent the Virgin Mary and carried on an adorned chair by four 25 ASV, Senato, Misti, reg. 30, fols. 62v–63r, as cited in Crouzet-Pavan (n. 1 above) 1.535. 26 The following account of 30 and 31 January is derived from Canal, Les Estoires (n. 24 above) 252– 258. Canal’s chronicle, written in French in order to proclaim the greatness of Venice to a wider audience, provides vivid depictions of many of Venice’s important festivals that are unabashedly intended to flaunt the wealth and pomp of Venice as well as its social harmony. For this pro-government perspective, Crouzet- Pavan calls his work “une contribution fondatrice à l’historiographie officielle.” On his life, see Alberto Limentani, “Martin da Canale e ‘Les Estoires de Venise,’” Storia della cultura veneta 1 (1976) 590–601; Gina Fasoli, “La cronique des Venitiens di Martino da Canale,” Studi medievali 2 (1961) 42–74; and Agostino Pertusi, “Maistre Martino da Canale interprete cortese della crociata e dell’ambiente veneziano del secolo XIII,” Venezia dalla prima Crociata alla conquista di Constinopoli del 1204, ed. Vittore Branca, Storia della civiltá veneziana 11 (Florence 1966) 103–136. 27 Tramontin, “Una Pagina” (n. 2 above) 403; Musolino, “Culto mariano” (n. 2 above) 258; Muir (n. 2 above) 141. 28 Crouzet-Pavan (n. 1 above) 1.539: “la contrada consacre à la Vierge … ces dons.” 8 THOMAS DEVANEY men.29 To the sides of this procession, other members of the contrada carried gonfa- loni, paintings on wood or fabric commonly displayed in civic processions throughout Italy. While the assembled procession remained in the Piazza, three priests stepped out of line and onto a raised platform. From there, they formally extolled the doge, who watched from a window of the palace with a group of nobles. The doge responded by tossing coins to the priests, who then returned to their places. After pausing for a mo- ment so that “Mary” could salute the doge, all proceeded along a route thronged with spectators to the Church of Santa Maria Formosa, where they awaited the second con- trada. This group moved through the same rituals, except that its priest was dressed to resemble the angel Gabriel.30 When all were present, the processions, joined by monks and nuns, entered the Church to see a re-enactment of the Annunciation of Mary (Luke 1.28–38). Although the feast of the Annunciation was normally celebrated on 25 March, this dramatic reading played a central role in the rituals of 31 January. Its popularity highlights the varied functions of the festival. On the one hand, plays, skits and public performances were central to Carnivalesque rejoicing, as an opportunity to gather and celebrate the end of winter. While the usual licentious performances of Carnival would be inappro- priate for such an audience, the Annunciation story harnessed themes of rebirth and fecundity in a celebration of the mystical marriage of Mary.31 On the other hand, the authorities viewed the play as a means of educating the public and took pains to ensure its quality. Canal placed special emphasis on it in his account of events, even includ- ing the script. In 1342, the government contracted Paolo Veneziano, one of the most renowned Venetian artists of the day, as director. It is especially notable that such at- tention was bestowed on the Virgin on the day of the Feast of the Translation of St. Mark, the patron saint of Venice. In fact, the Festa delle Marie commemorated both the Purification of Mary and the Translation of St. Mark. While the accounts of Canal and Pace del Friuli obscure this duality by focusing on the splendor of the Marian de- votions, such an understanding of the festival unifies superficially unrelated rituals, such as formal laud offered to the doge, who received his power and legitimacy from St. Mark, and the Annunciation play which followed it. This duality highlights the deep significance of the festival, which tied the city’s place in a providential order to a 29 There were close symbolic links between the Virgin Mary and the office of priest as both acted as mediums through which God assumed a physical form on earth—Mary by giving birth to Christ and the priest by consecrating the Host. In the words of a 12th-c. author: “Oh revered dignity of priests, in whose hands the Son of God is incarnated as in the Virgin’s womb”; Caroline Walker Bynum, Holy Feast, Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women (Berkeley 1987) 57, 278. 30 Canal, Les estoires (n. 24 above) 254–245. 31 On 25 March, Venetian celebrated the official Feast of the Annunciation with processions and a high mass in San Marco. Since the feast often occurred in the middle of Lent, the presence of the Annunciation play during the Festa delle Marie may reflect a desire to present it on an occasion when celebrating was more appropriate. Muir notes that it was later a custom in Venice to solemnize all marriages of the previous year on the afternoon of 31 January. Although he finds no evidence that this was the case during the period of the Festa delle Marie, he argues that this would further explain the choice of the Annunciation text. Muir (n. 2 above) 70–71, 142–143; Maria Georgopoulou, “Late Medieval Crete and Venice: An Appropriation of Byzantine Heritage,” The Art Bulletin 77 (1995) 495 n. 120. COMPETING SPECTACLES 9 fervent devotion to Mary.32 After the Annunciation play, participants and spectators returned to their homes, emerging later to attend parties at twelve homes in the participating contrade, each of which hosted a wooden effigy of the Virgin. Though these homes were originally cho- sen by lot, the parties had grown so expensive by the late thirteenth century that only nobles or very wealthy citizens were permitted to be host. This gave the festival an aristocratic tone. Whereas earlier, the movements of the processions had confirmed the relationship between the doge and the people, the festival now concentrated on central authority and local influence. Although one Mary per house was usual, two or more might be displayed together if there was a perceived lack of sufficiently wealthy no- bles in a particular contrada. At the parties, conspicuous consumption was the norm. As Canal noted: “the women and girls sit around, very richly dressed, and the men offer sweets to their friends, and then drink great amounts of wine.”33 Numerous acts of legislation, especially in the fourteenth century, attempted to ensure that these par- ties were conducted with proper decorum, and that men and women celebrated sepa- rately. A 1315 act forbade parties in which the sexes mingled freely and successive acts of the Grand Council first required women to be chaperoned and finally prohib- ited them from attending. The need for repeated legislation implies the difficulty of enforcing such restrictions, while attesting to an ongoing concern that this religious festival, unless contained and regulated, could have unintended consequences.34 These parties centered on the twelve statues of Mary, which were adorned and de- livered to the chosen homes on 25 January, the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, according to established tradition. The statues’ appearance, intended to overawe and inspire, made a deep impression on contemporary observers. Canal wrote of them in glowing tones: “And, after eating, the people … find, in twelve houses, twelve Marys dressed so richly and so beautifully, that it is a wonder to see. They each have a crown of gold on their heads, with precious stones, and are attired in clothes of gold, and on all the clothes are ornaments of gold, with precious stones and pearls in abundance.”35 Pace del Friuli, author of a poem that described the festival as a testament to the power of Mary’s virginity, was no less impressed: “The paint adorns the effigy of the Virgin with a variety / of colors, and her countenance pleases as if she were alive. / Made of wood, enriched with such grace ...”36 At the same time that the statues, with their gold and jewels, created an image of splendor in private homes, the churches of the two contrade, the Basilica San Marco, and the major Venetian monasteries all displayed their stores of relics and treasure. Across Venice, a grand display of divine wealth pre- 32 Crouzet-Pavan (n. 1 above) 1.548–550; Canal, Les estoires (n. 24 above) 255; Giorgio Padoan, “Sulla novella veneziana del Decameron,” Studi sul Bocaccio 10 (1977–1978) 177–178; Tramontin, “Una Pagina” (n. 2 above) 405. 33 Canal, Les estoires (n. 24 above) 258 : “les dames et les demoiselles sent environ, mult richement apa- rillees, et li homes donent a lor amis calisons et dou vin a boivre a planté.” 34 Crouzet-Pavan (n. 1 above) 1.545–547; Muir (n. 2 above) 143 n. 22. 35 Canal, Les estoires (n. 24 above) 256–258: “Et après manger vont les gens … trovent en .xij. maisons .xij. Maries aparillees si richement et si bel, que c’est une mervoille a veoir. Ele ont chascune corone d’or en lor testes, a pieres preciouses, et sunt vestues de dras a or, et par totes ses robes sunt les nosques d’or et les pieres preciouses et les perles a planté.” 36 Cornaro, Ecclesiae venetae antiquis (n. 6 above) 3.305: “Virginis effigiem vario pictura colore / ornat, & in c(v)ultu fit quasi viva placet. / Li[g]nea materies tanto ditata decore ...” 10 THOMAS DEVANEY sented the image of a city united in its faith and blessed with worldly goods under the approving eyes of God. The statues were the central figures in this dramatic presentation of Venice. First and foremost, they represented the Virgin Mary, to whom the festival was devoted. They may have been dressed to indicate different stages of or moments in her life, or to embody Mary’s various attributes: purity, innocence, virginity.37 Ilene Forsyth, in her study of wooden statues of the Madonna in Majesty, has noted that such effigies of the Virgin were carried in processions commemorating the Purification in Rome, Mi- lan, and Essen in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.38 While we cannot identify the statues used in the Festa delle Marie with those that are the subject of Forsyth’s work, her arguments about the functions performed by sculptures of the Virgin may be rele- vant. She acknowledges that such processions were opportunities for the church to solicit funds or to encourage public morale, but contends that such functions are not sufficient to explain the emergence of a whole category of sculpture. Instead, she sug- gests that the statues vicariously manifested Mary’s presence and authority. As physi- cal proxies for the Virgin, Maiestas statues were seen to possess emotions and thoughts; promises made to them were as binding as if made directly to the Virgin.39 While the gold and jewels adorning the Marys symbolized the Virgin’s status as a denizen of heaven, Richard Trexler’s description of the reliquary of St. Zanobi, which was made of silver in the likeness of the saint’s face, points to a more general under- standing of the effigies’ luxurious decorations. He concludes that “physical likeness and precious surrounding combined to provide a setting encouraging adoration.”40 This reading of the Marys, however, clashes with their presence primarily at private parties notable not only for their precious surroundings, but also for their heavy drinking. The Marys functioned not only as objects of devotion but also as fertility symbols. Through them the confluence between the celebration of the Purification and Carnival season is visible. In the division into age-groups of the processions on 30 and 31 Janu- ary, in the presentation of wine and sweets to unmarried women by young men, and in the Annunciation play, there is a consistent theme of rebirth and fecundity. While no- tions of fertility may seem superficially at odds with Mary’s virginity, the two themes were complimentary rather than opposed. Although virginal, Mary was the literal and figurative mother of Christ and of the Church. Virginity itself is not necessarily op- posed to fecundity. Early Christian patristic authors regularly referred to the fecundity of virgins in describing their ability to win converts and therefore “give birth to souls” for the Church.41 Crouzet-Pavan neatly combines these two understandings of the Marys when interpreting their number: “Twelve like the twelve disciples of Christ, twelve like the twelve virgins who, in Heaven, surround Mary, but twelve also like the 37 Muir (n. 2 above) 148; Musolino, “Culto mariano” (n. 2 above) 259–260. 38 Ilene Forsyth, The Throne of Wisdom: Wood Sculptures of the Madonna in Romanesque France (Princeton 1972) 41–43. 39 Ibid. 45–47. 40 Richard Trexler, “Ritual Behavior in Renaissance Florence: The Setting,” Medievalia et Humanistica 4 (1973) 129. 41 See, for example, Augustine, De Sancta Virginitate, CSEL 41.242–243. Augustine contrasts fecundity of the flesh with fecundity of the soul. Similar ideas were expressed by Jerome, Ambrose, and others. COMPETING SPECTACLES 11 twelve months of the year and the promise of their harvests: ‘In the middle of the place … was the grove of life, bearing twelve (harvests of) fruits, yielding each month its fruit.’”42 The juxtaposition of the Marys amongst drinkers combined rejoicing and hope for the coming spring with reverence for the Holy Virgin, who brought hope to the whole world. The eve of the feast of the Purification, 1 February, saw a lull in the formal cere- monies. The only official event was the doge’s solemn visit to Santa Maria Formosa to hear vespers accompanied by the two priests who had performed the Annunciation play the day before. At the same time, informal festivities continued in the twelve homes hosting the Marys.43 On the following day, 2 February, the Festa delle Marie culminated with a procession by water that crossed the city, stopping at numerous lo- cations for ceremonies. The procession began in the early morning hours, when a priest, deacon, and sub- deacon of Santa Maria Formosa took two boats to the church of San Pietro di Castello, where they celebrated mass and consecrated candles for the later procession. The pre- cision of the directions for their preparations hints at the intensely ritualized nature of the day: “… at that hour, one priest and one deacon and one subdeacon should be sent to the said Castello with fifteen candles of one and a half pounds and two ounces of incense and with the vestments of their office; the candles should be blessed as a gift to Saint Mary and distributed by the bishop among the clergy and others.”44 At the same time, the two contrade in charge of festivities decorated six large boats with drapes and banners of gold cloth. Into one of these went forty armed men, with drawn swords (xl homes bien armés, lor espees nues en lor mains), and another was reserved for the bishop as well as a number of priests and other clergy, all dressed for the occa- sion in their best finery. The remaining four boats carried the Marys and their escorts of women and girls. These vessels proceeded from the contrade to San Pietro di Cas- tello, where the bishop blessed the Marys and entered the priests’ boat. The procession now included ten vessels, as the six from the contrade were joined by two from Santa Maria Formosa as well as two others representing the contrade selected to host the following year’s festival.45 The cortege made its way from San Pietro di Castello to the Molo (the bank in front of the Doge’s Palace and the Basilica San Marco), where all disembarked and entered the basilica to meet the doge. Inside, the primicerio conducted another mass, blessing 42 Crouzet-Pavan (n. 1 above) 1.552–553: “Douze comme les douze disciples du Christ, douze comme les douze vierges qui, au Ciel, entourent Marie, mais douze aussi comme les douze mois de l’année et la promesse des leurs récoltes: « Au milieu de la place ... un bois de vie, produisant douze (récoltes de) fruits, rendent chaque mois son fruit. » [Rev. 22.2].” 43 Canal, Les estoires (n. 24 above) 258. 44 Monticolo, La Costituzione (n. 3 above) 46: “… debet ipsa hora mittere unum presbiterum et unum di- aconum et unum subdiaconum ad dictum Castellum cum XV candellis de libra una et media et uncias duas incensi et cum paramentis sui officii; que candelle debent benedici ad missam sancte Marie et sunt dis- tribuende per dominum episcopum inter canonicos et alios.” 45 Canal, Les estoires (n. 24 above) 258; Monticolo, La Costituzione (n. 3 above) 45–47; Cornaro, Eccle- siae venetae antiquis (n. 6 above) 3.303–305. See also: Muir (n. 2 above) 145; Tramontin, “Una Pagina” (n. 2 above) 406–407; Musolino, “Culto mariano” (n. 2 above) 259–260. 12 THOMAS DEVANEY more candles to be distributed to the celebrants.46 Following the mass, the procession, joined now by the doge, gathered again to cross the city via the Grand Canal. As it rowed from the Molo toward the Fondaco dei Tedeschi, this little fleet was joined by hundreds of smaller boats full of spectators, while others lined the banks and women leaned from windows, all enjoying the spectacle and perhaps hoping for a glimpse of the gathered dignitaries: “But, if you were there, gentlemen, you would have been able to see the water entirely covered with boats coming after [the procession]: you would know that no one could count the number. And from all the windows of the palaces and along the river, from one part to the other, are a great many women and girls… as richly dressed as is possible. With such joy and festivity, they go to the other end of the city.”47 At the Fondaco dei Tedeschi, the cortege turned down a smaller canal to reach Santa Maria Formosa, where a third, and final, mass was performed. Little is known about this final ceremony as it is described only in the Catastico of Castello, and with few details. It may have been a mass of thanksgiving, rather than a third blessing of the candles.48 The religious ceremonies and the formal rituals ended here, but popular festivities continued for several days. The doge returned to his palace with the nobles and clerics who accompanied him on his boat to find a sumptuous meal waiting. Although Canal ended his account with the doge’s meal, Pace del Friuli addressed the public diver- sions, the ludi mariani, which included more banquets, athletic competitions, hunts, and dances, and lasted for several more days: “after lavish meals come games, and the joys of the crowd; / no home, no field is without its games. / The joyful day passes, the ancient festival ends, / and the masses that have come return to their own homes.”49 Central to the perspective of all extant sources is the Marian nature of the festival. In the Constitution of Pietro Polani, the purpose of the festival is clear: “for the honor and praise of God and of the blessed, perpetually virgin, Mary mother of God.” For Martin da Canal, it was “the beautiful festival that the Venetians hold to revere our lady saint Mary.” And the Catastico of Castello referred to the festival only in terms of 46 Monticolo, La Costituzione (n. 3 above) 47. The primicerio was the chief cleric of the basilica. Ap- pointed by the doge, he had authority over the parish of San Marco and all churches within it; Tramontin, “Una Pagina” (n. 2 above) 408 n. 29. 47 Canal, Les estoires (n. 24 above) 260: “Mes, se la fussiés, signors, bien peüssiés veoir l’eive tote coverte de barches chargees de homes et de femes que vont après : sachés que nus ner vos poroit conter la sume. Et es palés as fenestres et entrevois desor la rive, que d’une part d’autre, est si grant planté de dames et damoiselles… si richement aparillees con l’en poroit miaus apariller dames et damoiselles. A tel joie et a tel feste s’en vont jusque a l’autre chef de la vile.” Cf. Cornaro, Ecclesiae venetae antiquis (n. 6 above) 3.306–307: “Musica cuncta sonant; clangor ferit astra tubarum, / Undaque tam densa classe sepulta jacet ... Vix populum retinet utraque ripa suum ... Nulla domus vacua est, nulla carina vacans. / Finitimis gens nam- que locis venit ista videre / Festa; juvat tanti cernere mira joci.” 48 Monticolo, La Costituzione (n. 3 above) 40–47; Tramontin, “Una Pagina” (n. 2 above) 410 n. 39. The text of the Catastico of Castello, a set of guidelines for ecclesiastic participants in the festivities of 2 Febru- ary, can be found in Monticolo, La Costituzione 45–47. 49 Canal, Les estoires (n. 24 above) 260; Cornaro, Ecclesiae venetae antiquis (n. 6 above) 3.308: “Post epulas ludos ineunt, & gaudia turbae; / Nulla domus ludis, nulla platea vacat. / Laeta dies agitur; festum venerabile transit, / Et repetit proprios advena turba lares.” See also Crouzet-Pavan (n. 1 above) 1.551–552; Tramontin, “Una Pagina” (n. 2 above) 410. COMPETING SPECTACLES 13 the celebration of the Purification.50 Pace del Friuli was the most insistent on the Marian focus of the festival. While he devoted part of his poem to a panegyric to the doge, the illustrissimus Dux Venetorum, and a retelling of the mythical founding of Venice, its true focus is the Festa delle Marie, which he presented through a series of metaphors describing the many virtues of Mary, reserving her virginity for special attention.51 These metaphors draw on an understanding of the festival in accord with the theological commentaries mentioned above. Del Friuli’s various allegories clarify that the effigies should inspire onlookers to remember the story of Mary’s purification and use it as inspiration. To him, the Marys represented not only the riches and power of the city of Venice, but also, and more importantly, the virginity and power of Mary. For instance, when he wrote of Mary as “an enclosed garden,” he used a well-known trope to refer to her perpetual virginity.52 In a more complex reference, he called her the “woman wearing the toga of the Sun”53 While the identification of the Virgin with the “mulier amicta sole” of Revelations 12.1 dates at least to the early-twelfth century, this line was usually seen to indicate the Church, not Mary.54 By adopting this reading of the text, however, del Friuli drew on a substantial body of literature linking Mary to the church.55 This connection is perhaps best articulated by Honorius Augustodunensis, in his commen- tary on the Songs of Songs: “The Glorious Virgin Mary acts as the type of the Church, which appears as virgin and mother; it is proclaimed as mother because, having been made fertile by the Holy Spirit, children are born every day in baptism through it. It is called a virgin; however, because, serving inviolate the integrity of faith, it is not cor- rupted by perverse heresy. Likewise Mary was mother in giving birth to Christ and, remaining closed, she was a virgin even after giving birth. Thus everything written of the Church is appropriately read in her as well.”56 The effigies of the Virgin were not, according to del Friuli, meant simply as pleasing images; just as the golden reliquaries and priceless crucifixes adorning the churches of Venice proclaimed the power of God, so too did the golden crowns and jeweled vestments of the Marys trumpet the Virgin’s glory. 50 Monticolo, La Costituzione (n. 3 above) 38: “ad honorem et laudem Dei seu et beate Marie simper vir- ginis Dei genitricis”; Canal, Les estoires (n. 24 above) 252: “la bele feste que les Venecians font en reve- lance de nostre dame sainte Marie.” 51 Cornaro, Ecclesiae venetae antiquis (n. 6 above) 3.303–308. The text of the poem is also available in La festa delle Marys descritta in un poemetto elegiaco, ed. Emanuele Cicogna (Venice 1843). On Pace’s life, see Stadter, “Planudes, Plutarch and Pace of Ferrara” (n. 10 above) 140–152; and Padoan, “Sulla no- vella veneziana” (n. 32 above) 175, n. 2. 52 Cornaro, Ecclesiae venetae antiquis (n. 6 above) 3.307: “Hortus conclusus.” Jerome, De perpetua vir- ginitate beatae Mariae: Adversus Helvetium, PL 23.193–216, and Epistola XXII: Ad Eustochium, CSEL 54.143–211. 53 Cornaro, Ecclesiae venetae antiquis (n. 6 above) 3.307: “mulier Solis amicta toga.” 54 See Rachel Fulton, From Judgment to Passion: Devotion to Christ and to the Virgin Mary, 800–1200 (New York 2002) 410, for early examples of links between this passage and Mary. 55 Cornaro, Ecclesiae venetae antiquis (n. 6 above) 3.307. He also refers to Mary as “columna eccle- siae.” 56 Honorius Augustodunensis, Sigillum beatae Mariae, PL 172.499: “Gloriosa virgo Maria typum Eccle- siae gerit, quae virgo et mater exstitit, etiam mater praedicatur, quia Spiritu sancto fecundata, per eam quo- tidie filii Deo in baptismate generantur. Virgo autem dicitur, quia integritatem fidei servans inviolabiliter, ab haeretica pravitate non corrumpitur. Ita Maria mater fuit Christum gignendo, virgo post partum clausa per- manendo. Ideo cuncta quae de Ecclesia scribuntur, de ipsa etiam satis congrue leguntur.” 14 THOMAS DEVANEY Del Friuli’s interest in describing Mary along these lines was not abstract, however, but clearly linked to the event at hand, the feast of her purification. Elsewhere in his poem, he calls the Virgin “star of the sea,” and “a tranquil port.”57 Turning again to Honorius Augustodunensis, we find similar images described in greater detail: “The name of the Virgin is Mary, which means ‘star of the sea’… Those who sail upon the ocean of this life regard her as a guiding star, imitating her humility and chastity, and through her safely enter the port of life.”58 For del Friuli, the Marys embodied these virtues to remind spectators of their duty to emulate the Virgin. James of Voragine, as well, had singled out these same two qualities of Mary—humility and chastity—as the most important his readers could take from the Purification story. In speaking of the latter virtue, del Friuli explicitly clarified that spectators must look beyond the visual presentation of the Marys to focus on their spiritual significance: “But there is one cure for sickness that distinguishes Mary / to the wretched. Her virginity is her great refuge. / Whoever, burning in the center of their heart [i.e., lusting], turns / toward her will have the fire in their chest extinguished and be well / Focus not on the image of Mary in gems and gold, / but look to her who lives with her Son in a chamber in heaven.”59 Del Friuli was painfully aware that his form of appreciation for and devotion to the Virgin was not common to all Venetians. He complained that the crowds of spectators spent more time admiring the Marys’ female escorts, dressed in their best finery, than they did contemplating the significance of the holy images: “Moreover, the women’s most agreeable appearance / is not admired less than the effigies of the goddess. / Among these sacred rites of the crowd Cupid dares to scatter his weapons / and Venus herself her flaming torches.60 Del Friuli’s grumblings reveal a discord between the idealized images of the festival presented by himself (and by Canal) and the joyful revelry that permeated the public enjoyment of the holy processions and was espe- cially visible in the numerous private diversions available in the hosting contrade and throughout the city during the festival. The friction between reality and spectacle was apparent to visitors as well. For ex- ample, Giovanni Boccaccio, in his story of Frate Alberto (Decameron 4.2), used the Festa delle Marie as the backdrop for a sharp critique of Venetian society. In Boccac- cio’s tale, Berto della Massa, disguised as the minorite Alberto, convinces a young Venetian matron that the angel Gabriel is so enamored with her that he has chosen to enjoy her physically through the body of Frate Alberto. Gossip soon reaches her in- laws, however, and Frate Alberto avoids their ambush by jumping from her window. He takes refuge in the home of a “buon uomo,” but is himself tricked when this man, 57 Cornaro, Ecclesiae venetae antiquis (n. 6 above) 3.307: “stella maris,” “portus tranquillus.” 58 Honorius Augustodunensis, Sigillum beatae Mariae, PL 172.500: “Nomen autem virginis est Maria, quod sonat maris stella... Qui autem in salo hujus saeculi navigant, et ejus humilitatem et castitatem imi- tando ut stellam considerant, portum vitae per eam tuti intrant.” See Fulton, From Judgment to Passion (n. 54 above) 244–288, for a thorough reading of Honorius’s Sigillum. 59 Cornaro (n. 6 above) 3.307: “Una sed est miseris morbi medicina Mariam / Cernere. Virginitas est sua summa salus / Quisquis in hanc aciem mentis converterit ardens / Protinus, extincto pectoris igne, valet. / Cernite non pictam gemmis auroque Mariam, / Sed quae cum Nato vivit in arca poli.” 60 Ibid. 3.307: “Foemina praeterea festivo plurima cultu / Non minus aspiciant (aspicitur) quam simula- cra deae. / Audet in his sacris coetus sua tela Cupido / Spargere flammigeras, & Venus ipsa faces.” COMPETING SPECTACLES 15 having learned of his escapades, convinces him that the only means of escape is to disguise himself as a wild man since there was to be a festival that day in which peo- ple dressed in masquerade for a boar hunt. The buon uomo, however, sends word ahead that he will bring the angel Gabriel to the Piazza and, when they arrive, he un- masks the imposter, and the mob pelts Alberto with garbage as he is dragged to prison. Boccaccio’s novella is a polemic against the idealized image of Venetian society portrayed in the Festa delle Marie and other civic spectacles. He presents a festival in which the boundaries between sacred and profane have blurred to the point where they no longer exist in any practical sense. The image of Frate Alberto “flying without wings” as he made love in the guise of an angel is a stark critique of the festivities of 31 January, when Venetians attended a dramatic reading of Gabriel’s Annunciation (which retold a rather different sort of night visit) and then attended raucous private parties at which the Marys were displayed. Frate Alberto’s irreverent impersonation of the Annunciation is meant to mirror Venice’s pompous version of the same—in both cases, the original religious message is lost. Even more striking is the final scene, in which the celebratory hunt is transformed into a ritual sacrifice, as Frate Alberto’s ‘rescuer’ shouts to the crowd: “Gentlemen, as the boar hasn’t come, and the hunt isn’t taking place, so that you haven’t come here for nothing, I want to give you a look at the angel Gabriel, who descends from heaven to earth by night to solace the ladies of Venice.”61 Francesca Pennisi has likened this scene to a ritual purification in which Alberto, metonymically linked to Venice itself, is sacrificed by a crowd seeking to cleanse itself of impurities of which it is only subconsciously aware.62 The Venice presented here is lecherous, gullible, dirty, and violent—more a mob deluded by its own pretensions than the august and unified civic body celebrated in the official pro- cessions. Boccaccio’s satire, though directed at fundamental contradictions in Ve- netian society, was facilitated and perhaps even inspired by the irreverence visible throughout the festival. Although the authorities attempted to squelch instances of direct disrespect throughout the festival’s history, disorderly conduct appears to have increased in the fourteenth century. Brawling, murder, and raucous behavior were common enough to require the Senate to repeatedly pass legislation requiring particular safeguards during the festival; the 1349 ordinance against throwing turnips at the Marys and their escorts is only one example. Previous scholars have interpreted this conduct simply as con- trade rivalry and Carnivalesque excess that spiraled out of control as the festival lost its religious meaning amidst changing social conditions and growing expense.63 The actual behavior, however, was not a case of spontaneous exuberance. The assailants were well prepared for these attacks, meeting in predetermined locations with supplies 61 Giovanni Boccaccio, Decameron 4.2.55: “Signori, poi che il porco non viene alla caccia, e non si fa, acciò che voi non siate venuti invano, io voglio che voi veggiate l'agnolo Gabriello, il quale di cielo in terra discende la notte a consolare le donne viniziane.” 62 Francesca Pennisi, “Unmasking Venice: Allegory and the Politics of Reading in Decameron IV.2,” Heliotropia 2 (2004), available at <http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Italian_Studies/heliotropia/02- 01/index.shtml>. 63 Monticolo, La costituzione (n. 3 above) 41; Tramontin, “Una Pagina” (n. 2 above) 409–410; Muir (n. 2 above) 152–153; Crouzet-Pavan (n. 1 above) 1.548–554, 558–559; Musolino, “Culto mariano” (n. 2 above) 260. 16 THOMAS DEVANEY of ammunition at hand. Since Boccaccio likely witnessed the festival only two or three years before the law banning turnip throwing, his fictional account of the crowd’s treatment of Frate Alberto may reflect actual observations of spectators’ behavior: “they greeted him with hootings, rating him with language as offensive and opprobri- ous as ever a rogue was abused with, and pelting him in the face with every sort of filth that came to hand.”64 One explanation is that inter-contrade rivalries spawned the mockery of Marys hosted by other contrade. But why would local loyalties outweigh religious devotion so much that Venetians would publicly humiliate images of the Blessed Virgin Mary for the fleeting thrill of expressing their contempt for another neighborhood’s attempts at creating a stirring spectacle? Disorderly behavior was far from uncommon during public rituals and processions but there are few medieval parallels for such public dis- respect toward saints outside of heresy trials. One example is the humiliation of saints, in which relics that were perceived as not performing their miraculous functions were subjected to various indignities. This, however, is a far cry from mocking their image on their feast day.65 To attack the Virgin Mary was, for medieval Venetians, an act of supreme danger, one that endangered the soul and could result in accusations of heresy or blasphemy. The fact that they engaged in such activity despite the potential consequences points to its significance.66 Inter-contrade rivalries, which played a central role in the Festa delle Marie, are at the heart of this issue. Attempts by contrade to outdo each other in pomp and largesse drove up the costs of the festival until it was beyond the means of all but nobles and the richest citizens to host the Marys. Eventually, the costs became a burden even for them. A 1323 law punished residents who relocated less than five years before their contrada was due to host the festival in order to avoid its costs. Brawls between groups from different contrade were common and there is evidence that youths from the hosting contrade spent the festival moving through the city in decorated boats, exhibiting their Marys while issuing taunts and challenges.67 The contrade of Italian cities, especially of modern Siena, have been the subject of a number of historical and anthropological studies that show they acted almost as in- dependent cities within the larger municipality, each with its own particular customs, feasts, and patron saints, creating ties of group identity that superseded all other loyal- ties. Muir has argued that “through participation in rituals … such parishes, like tribes and secret societies, behave as if they constituted a separate species of being.” In Venice, the ritual space defined by the processions between the contrade and Santa Maria Formosa on 30 and 31 January confirmed a propensity to view the city as the 64 Decameron 4.2.56: “contro al quale si levaron le grida di tutti, dicendogli le piú vituperose parole e la maggior villania che mai a alcun ghiotton si dicesse, e oltre a questo per lo viso gettandogli chi una lordura e chi un'altra.” 65 See Patrick Geary, Living with the Dead in the Middle Ages (Ithaca, NY 1995) 95–115. 66 The notion of “deep play” as articulated by cultural anthropologists aptly describes the mocking of the Marys during the Festa delle Marie. See, for instance, Clifford Geertz, “Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight,” Daedalus 101 (1972) 1–37. 67 Dennis Romano, Patricians and Popolani: The Social Foundations of the Venetian Renaissance State (Baltimore 1987) 122–123; Matteo Casini, I gesti del principe: La festa politica a Firenze e Venezia in età rinascimentale (Venice 1996) 155–156; Crouzet-Pavan (n. 1 above) 1.553, 557. Muir (n. 2 above) 146 n. 26, cautions that the source for this parading of the Marys through the city is questionable. COMPETING SPECTACLES 17 sum of the sixty contrade rather than as a unified whole.68 Although the rituals represented each contrada as an organic whole, social and economic boundaries within the parish resulted in varied means of expressing local pride. Where wealthy and noble Venetians could promote their contrada by hosting the Marys and providing lavish entertainment, decorations, and charitable gifts, poorer members of the community had fewer options for actively proclaiming their local identities. While they could, and did, participate in the processions to Santa Maria Formosa, they found that activities outside the boundaries of the official festival al- lowed a more autonomous expression of contrada solidarity. By parading the Marys throughout the city and defending the contrada’s honor in brawls, they confirmed not only their identities as members of a specific contrada but also their status as active contributors to its success. The rotating responsibility for the Marys, however, limited the opportunity for such expression. Each contrada hosted the Marys only once in thirty years, making active participation a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for most people. The ritual of throwing refuse at the effigies, in contrast, provided a means for publicly upholding local honor during off-years, when the spotlight shined upon rivals. This heckling was an alternate spectacle, in which the poorer members of different contrade participated in a compe- tition no less serious and meaningful than that enacted on the Grand Canal and in the homes hosting Marys. The popular understanding of the festival contrasted with the official affirmation of the social order and of civic unity. In throwing turnips at the Marys and at their escorts, the assailants asserted the right to publicly proclaim their loyalties and priorities. This barrage was an act of violence only in its symbolism; it did not actually injure anyone, nor was it intended as a rejection of the Virgin Mary or of Christianity. Instead, by fracturing the official spectacle of the Festa delle Marie, it brought into view the essential nature of the festival’s themes—wealth, power, unity, reverence—from a different perspective. But why were the Marys chosen as the object of derision in a proclamation of local solidarity that questioned the existing social order? Two explanations seem possible. First, the opposition of the Mendicant orders to lavish displays of church wealth may have influenced local rabble-rousers. In this case, throwing refuse was a reaction to the elaborate vestments, not the effigies themselves. The clash between garbage and gold, between the sumptuous decorations that visually linked devotion to wealth and the physical realities of daily life, would have made a striking visual impression. This interpretation, however, neglects the competitive aspects of the Marys. If there was such a visceral opposition to the statues’ luxurious appearance, then we should find some evidence that people resisted their adornments in ways other than hurling refuse at them, perhaps an attempt to present simpler effigies. Instead, the Marys functioned as symbolic representations of the contrada; by draping them in gold and gems, the hosts visually proclaimed the wealth and devotion of their parish. In attacking them, residents of other parishes responded to these proclamations, not to any theological notions. 68 See ibid. 146–147, for a more in-depth discussion of the significance of the contrade-based organiza- tion of the Festa delle Marie. 18 THOMAS DEVANEY Although disorderly conduct during the Festa delle Marie dated back at least to the Constitution of 1143, the evidence indicates that authorities became increasingly con- cerned with it over the course of the fourteenth century. During the War of Chioggia, a struggle with Genoa that began over competing efforts to control the Black Sea trade and lasted from 1378–1381, the government suspended the Festa delle Marie, ostensi- bly in an effort to divert the vast amounts of money usually spent on festivities to the war effort.69 After the war, the festival returned only in an abridged form, in which contrade participation and the citywide processions were replaced by a somber ritual centered on a ducal visit to Santa Maria Formosa on 1 February, and a liturgy in San Marco on 2 February. With the emphasis on individual parishes removed from the rites, the Feast of the Purification no longer served as a locus for articulating local solidarities. The war was used as a pretext for abolishing a celebration that was, from the gov- ernment’s perspective, increasingly problematic. Changes in religious practice had altered the light in which potentially blasphemous actions were viewed. The four- teenth century saw an intensification of Marian devotion, spearheaded by the Francis- cans but quickly adopted by lay confraternities in a number of Northern Italian cities, creating an atmosphere in which perceived disrespect toward the Virgin, regardless of its cause, was judged more harshly than before.70 The feast of the Presentation of the Virgin (21 November), introduced in Venice in 1369 by Phillippe de Mézières, quickly established itself as a major Marian feast day, shifting focus away from the feast of her Purification. The adoption of the festival and the subsequent reorganizing of the Marian calendar had the effect of separating Marian devotion and Carnivalesque license.71 Shifts in Venetian society during the fourteenth century also made the festival, with its focus on the relationship between the center and the periphery, between the con- trade and the city, less relevant. The perception of the parish as a community in which proximity and common culture erased social and economic differences was in decline. Nobles came to identify more with the state than with their contrada of residence. Plague ravaged the city, reducing the population by as much as half and disrupting social ties. City-wide institutions took on many of the functions of parishes, such as poor relief and care of the sick. In such a setting, disorderly conduct increased as the festival no longer seemed to speak to the people and they instead expressed their own perceptions of the social order. Perhaps most significant were efforts to consolidate authority, both real and symbolic, on the figures of the doge and the ruling class. Ac- cording to Dennis Romano, there was a “substitution of hierarchy for community as the organizing principle in Venetian social relations” in the late-fourteenth and early- fifteenth centuries.72 One aspect of this process was the reduced role of the contrade, 69 Giuseppe Tassini, Feste, spettacoli, divertimenti e piaceri degli antichi Veneziani (repr. Venice 1961) 13. 70 Barbara Sella, “Northern Italian Confraternities and the Immaculate Conception in the Fourteenth Century,” Journal of Ecclesiastic History 49 (1998) 599–619. 71 Muir (n. 2 above) 152–153; Crouzet-Pavan (n. 1 above) 1.558–559. See also Karl Young, “Phillippe de Mézières’ Dramatic Office for the Presentation of the Virgin,” PMLA 26 (1911) 181–234; Philippe de Mézières Campaign for the Feast of Mary’s Presentation, ed. William Coleman (Toronto 1981). 72 Romano, Patricians and Popolani (n. 67 above) 122–123, 152–155. COMPETING SPECTACLES 19 centers for potentially disintegrated tendencies, in urban life. In the decades after the War of Chioggia, they were replaced as competitive organizations by less organic as- sociations: guilds; the Compagnie delle Calze; and the Castellani and Nicolotti, larger groupings that gathered numerous parishes into a single entity.73 While these new divi- sions fostered fresh rivalries, such as the battagliole (ritualized battles for the bridges of Venice fought by the Castellani and Nicoletti factions), these were tolerated by the elites, who saw a population divided into factions as less likely to revolt than a unified proletariat.74 Another facet of Venetian centralization was the harnessing of civic and religious ritual toward political ends. Already by the fourteenth century, the government had moved to regulate and control other popular festivals. The Festa delle Marie had been, because the contrade financed, planned, and conducted it, one of the least regulated events. Its abolition, therefore, was a “principal and essential turning point in the con- struction of a centralized and uniform civic festivity.”75 Control over civic ritual was critical as the patrician class sought to gain general acquiescence to their role in a time of war and significant social, economic, and demographic change. The Festa delle Marie provided too many opportunities for the public expression of discord. As Muir notes, “men more often judge by appearances than by reality. The vision of Venetian social life presented by ritual was vivid: Venice was La Repubblica Serenissima.”76 There was no room here for competing visions of Venetian society, for the stark image of garbage mar- ring the golden robes of the Marys. History Department Brown University Box N Providence, RI 02912 73 Casini, I gesti del principe (n. 67 above) 156–157; Muir (n. 2 above) 153–155; Frederic Lane, Venice: A Maritime Republic (Baltimore 1973) 173; Crouzet-Pavan (n. 1 above) 1.558. 74 Robert C. Davis, The War of the Fists: Popular Culture and Public Violence in Late Renaissance Italy (New York 1994). 75 Casini, I gesti del principe (n. 67 above) 157: “un primo turning point essenziale nella costruzione di una festa civica centralizzata e uniformata.” 76 Muir (n. 2 above) 181.