A Clandestine political manuscript from early modern Venice
Amelot de La Houssaye, Abraham-Nicolas (1634-1706). La storia delle massime e governo della Repubblica di Venezia, descritto da un segretario di un ambasciatore di Francia a Venezia. Manuscript translation to Italian of Histoire du gouvernement de Venise, ca. 1680. Pp. 562. Small quarto. The text begins with a manuscript title page, lower 4 cm torn away. The text is preceded by two tables (6pp.); an address to the reader – “A Chi Legge” and three main sections, each of about 80 leaves each, followed by Osservazioni, folio 249-281. In all 282 folios. In original cartonnage binding with decoratively angled lacing; old insect damage to inner paper lining. Text block loose within case. Housed in a modern clamshell case.
A clandestine manuscript translation of the 1677 expanded edition of Amelot de La Houssaye’s sharp critique of Venetian decadence, prepared independently of and probably earlier than the published Italian translation of 1681.
Historian Jacob Soll has given us a wonderful portrait of Amelot – printer, bookseller, failed diplomat, and proto-Grub Street author – as a colorful member of the French literary underground working at the margins of classical humanism, “a sort of low-paid [Justus] Lipsius.” Soll argues that with his Histoire du gouvernement de Venise, first published in 1676, Amelot invented a new genre of political criticism. “Clearly creating a political methodology for the common reader … he would not only unmask the methods of political reason of state in the public arena; he would create a critical instrument with exceptional lasting power.” Amelot’s book claimed to “reveal the true political maxims of the Venetians,” which were hidden by “a veil of appearances, and pretexts far removed from reality.” As Paolo Preto and other scholars have observed, Amelot’s theme of political secrecy would develop into the trope of the “black legend of Venice” that would overshadow the opinions of travelers and writers for centuries to come.
Soll notes that from the perspective of the history of dissent, Amelot’s topos of decadence was nothing less than revolutionary. “It was not simply a bad system that had overstepped its rights, [Amelot] insisted; it was a good system that failed due to its citizens’ lack of virtue.” Venice’s ruling elite were “perfidious, treacherous, guilty of ingratitude, envy, venom, treachery, dissimulation, a hatred of foreigners … licentiousness and vice.” Especially significant, Soll writes, was the fact that in addition to exposing the causes and extent of Venetian decadence, Amelot provided his readers with “a new and improved methodology for unmasking”:
Amelot showed through his own example that a simple individual, armed with the tools of erudition and reading, could attack a sick state and weaken it through the understanding of its flaws. It was a paradigmatic moment in the history of critical culture.
In Venice, Amelot’s history “was considered immoral, improper, and even dangerous.” The Venetian ambassador vowed he would present Amelot’s severed head to the Senate. Though the French did not comply with this request, they did throw him in the Bastille for six weeks. As Soll explains, the book was published at a complex time for the Republic, which was involved in a struggle over papal authority and had just suffered a devasting loss to Turkey after a 43 year battle over Crete. It was little surprise that the Venetian authorities should seek to suppress the book. The present manuscript is a mark of their failure.
As historian Federico Barbierato notes in his study of intellectual dissent in early modern Venice, the Republic boasted a lively market in forbidden books and clandestine philosophical manuscripts. In defiance of an extensive system of surveillance, bookstores sold a wide range of forbidden works (including those by Boyle, Machiavelli, Spinoza, and Boccaccio) under the table. An informal exchange network encouraged readers to transcribe prohibited texts for their own benefit or that of others. So if a printed copy could not be obtained, “it was not very difficult to procure heterodox material in … handwritten form.” Inquisition records reveal that prohibited manuscripts were sold through by unscrupulous entrepreneurs on the street, in houses and inns, and at a variety of botteghe – including hair salons and hat shops.
There are many indications that the present translation of Amelot’s history of Venice is just such a samizdat production. The text appears to have been executed rather quickly – this is not the work of a careful scribe -- and a note on the title page remarks that this was “copiata a caffè” (copied in a café) -- a wonderfully evocative detail. The binding which bears no hint of the contents is another giveaway – this is the early modern analogue to the “plain brown wrapper” of the nineteenth and twentieth century pornographer.
More telling still is the fact that the manuscript appears to be a direct translation from the French. As Barbierato notes, Venetian freethinkers regarded France as the home of intellectual dissent and prized French books highly. But many readers did not possess the linguistic facility to read books in French. This manuscript likely was prepared for the benefit of readers eager for the critical analysis Amelot offered but unable to tackle it in the original.
The Histoire du gouvernement de Venise was written simply enough to pose little difficulty for even a minimally skilled translator – Amelot was not a complex stylist. This manuscript contains ample variations from than the published Italian edition of 1681 to demonstrate that it was prepared independently and probably earlier. The first and clearest example of these variations is the title, which the manuscript has as La storia delle massime e governo della Repubblica di Venezia, and the 1681 edition has more simply as La Storia del governo di Venezia. Whereas the published edition identifies the author plainly, the title page of the manuscript rather garbles his name but spells out his qualifications in detail (“un segretario di un ambasciatore di Francia a Venezia”). We have not attempted an exhaustive comparison, but in general, the manuscript appears to sacrifice elegance for clarity.
A final suggestive detail: the date on the title page has been abraded. Our guess is that this was done once a published Italian translation was issued. Once the prohibitions against the work were lifted, owning the text itself would no longer be dangerous, but a date that was too early would serve as evidence of lawlessness.
The binding is also of interest. Nicholas Pickwoad's recent work on Italian laced-cased bindings with cartonnage covers includes several examples of decoratively angled support slips laced through the covers, but nothing so elaborate as the lacing on the binding of this manuscript.
Although clandestine manuscripts of the philosophical works of the Enlightenment were once widely circulated, few have survived over the years. The present example is exceptional for not only being a banned work from the Venetian intellectual underground, but also for being a landmark of cultural analysis, offering a new and highly influential historical model for political critique. It is a remarkable find indeed, and worthy of further study.
Selected References
- Barbierato, Federico. The Inquisitor in the hat shop: Inquisition, forbidden books, and unbelief in early modern Venice. (Farnham, Surrey; Burlington, VT: Ashgate. 2012)
- Del Negro, Piero. “Forme ed istituzioni del discorso politico veneziano,” Storia della cultura veneta. Il Seicento (Vincenza: Neri Pozza, 1982), 4/II: 406-36
- Del Vento, Christian and Xavier Tabet, eds. Le mythe de Venise au XIX siècle : Débats historiographiques et représentations littéraires (Caen: Presses universitaires de Caen, 2006)
- Pickwoad, Nicholas. "Italian laced-case paper bindings," Journal of Paper Conservation (IADA) 20 (2019), pp. 122-51.
- Povolo, Claudio. “The creation of Venetian historiography,” in John Martin and Dennis Romano, eds., Venice reconsidered: the history and civilization of an Italian state, 1297-1797 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000), pp. 491-519
- Preto, Paolo. Persona per hora secreta: accusa e delazione nella Repubblica di Venezia (Milano: Il Saggiatore, 2003)
- Soll, Jacob. Publishing The Prince: history, reading, and the birth of political criticism (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005)
We are grateful to Patricia Osmond, Ennio Sandal, and Jan H. Waszink for sharing their learned opinions. The conclusions presented here – and any errors – are ours alone.
Product tabs
$0
$8,500
Earn 0Reward points
Recommend this product

A Clandestine political manuscript from early modern Venice
Related products
Manuscript Archive for the First Cold War Spy Novel
Linebarger, Paul Myron Anthony (1913-1966). Atomsk: A Novel of Suspense by "Carmichael Smith." Original manuscript archive for the novel published pse...
view details
$25,000
View details
$7,500
Nantucket Traders and Trojan Pioneers: A New York Archive, 1748-1834
Boardman, John (1758–1813) and Clarinda Starbuck Boardman (1773–1846). A substantial archive of over 80 letters and documents documenting the lives of...
view details
$7,500
View details
$4,500
Class notes from the first years of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts
Sargent, Franklin Haven (1856 – 1924) and Ida Ellen Serven (1859 – 1928), Pantomime, class notes by Kathryn A. Fischer (1859 – 1939). Manuscript noteb...
view details
$4,500
View details
$1,250
Consumer culture, art, and subjectivity in Kazimierzowo, Chicago
Porembski, Olga V. (1924-2011). Rose Rosinski and Bruno Zidek, April 11, 1942. 96 leaves, 11½ x 14 in. (29 x 26 cm.) Homemade scrapbook comprised pri...
view details
$1,250
View details
$950
Distributing bibles in Texas and Mexico
Powell, William D[avid] (1854 – 1934) and G[eorge] J[ames] Johnson (1824 – 1902). Correspondence archive. 10 letters from Johnson to Powell, 1882 to 1...
view details
$950
View details
An important Methodist church register from the Second Great Awakening, recording a shark attack
$1,750
$1,750
An important Methodist church register from the Second Great Awakening, recording a shark attack
Webb, Rev. Daniel (1778-1867), et al. Church Register of the Eastern Methodist Episcopal Church, Lynn, Massachusetts, 1813-1840. 21 x 16½ cm. (8¼ x 6 ...
view details
$1,750
View details
$750
Diary of a chorus girl at the Ned Wayburn Dance Studios, 1927
[Wayburn, Ned (1874-1942)]. Miller, Maude Eloisa Driver (1897-1976). Diary of Maude Miller, a student at the Ned Wayburn Dance Studios. New York, 1927...
view details
$750
View details
$6,500
The Guest Books of the Lord Mayor of London (1893-1894)
Tyler, Sir George Robert, 1st Baronet (1835-1897). Invitation Book. Mansion House. The Right Honourable George Robert Tyler, Lord Mayor. 1893-94. 36 c...
view details
$6,500
View details
$125
Rockabilly notebook of a teenage fan
[Rockabilly] Lyric Notebook. Manuscript, pencil. [ca. 1960] 11 ff. + [5] blanks. 10½ x8 ¼ in. Spiral bound notebook. Soiling and wear; very good condi...
view details
$125
View details
$2,250
Correspondence Archive of Massachusetts Governor Increase Sumner (1771-1792)
Sumner, Increase (1746-1799). A small archive of 28 letters, mostly invitations sent to Sumner and his family, 1771-1792. Included is also a candid l...
view details
$2,250
View details
$0
The business records of Eli and Ted Wilentz's Eighth Street Bookshop
The Eighth Street Bookshop. Financial Records, 1947-1980. 21 volumes, chiefly folio. Various sizes and pagination. Some mold and water damage to cove...
view details
$0
View details
$15,000
Indian Treaty for Catskill Land Purchase, with an Alexander Hamilton Connection
The Catskill Patent. The Indians to Cornelis Van Dyck & Marte Gerretse [Van Bergen]. Dated the 13th June 1684. Copy Deed Translated. A copy in Eng...
view details
$15,000
View details
$7,500
Richard Allen: the modest power of an pioneering African-American leader
Allen, Richard (1760-1831). Holograph document, signed. Philadelphia, 26 October 1799. 4 3/4 x 8 1/4 in. (121 x 212 mm). Scattered spotting, light to ...
view details
$7,500
View details
$1,350
A San Francisco judge starts in Cleveland (1849-1850)
Cowles, Samuel (1823-1880). Diary, July 1849 to July 1850. About 50 pages, written in a clear, easily legible hand with a few lines in Pitman's shorth...
view details
$1,350
View details
$850
Manuscripts by Elisha Deming Andrews, Vermont minister and Michigan pioneer
Andrews, Elisha Deming (1783-1852). An archive of twelve sermons, with additional manuscripts, 1806-1825. Over 250 pages. Very good condition. A m...
view details
$850
View details
$1,450
An 1850s album amicorum from St. Mary’s Academy and Notre Dame
Byerley, Josephine (1835 – 1896). Souvenir Album. South Bend, Indiana, 1852 – 1857. 7 x 8 in. At least 45 pages of holograph poetry, remembrances, and...
view details
$1,450
View details
$2,750
Chance Bradstreet placed "within these walls"
[Bradstreet, Chance (1762 – 1810)]. Isaac Story (1749–1816). Autograph Document Signed for Lease of Slave. One page, 7.75" x 5.25", Marblehead, Massac...
view details
$2,750
View details
$750
Stan BRAKHAGE. Space as Menace in Canadian Aesthetics (1989), signed typescript.
BRAKHAGE, Stan (1933-2003). Space as Menace in Canadian Aesthetics: Film and Painting. Photocopy of the 25-page manuscript (typewritten, with holograp...
view details
$750
View details
$300
An early letter from Kate Milner Rabb, Indiana journalist
Rabb, Kate Milner (1866 – 1937). Letter the Rockport High School Class of 1890, 22 August 1892. Two pages, typed with holograph corrections, signed in...
view details
$300
View details