A European Collection of the Coins of Venice

CNG 93, Lot: 1687. Estimate $200. Sold for $320. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ITALY, Venezia (Venice). Jacopo Tiepolo. 1229-1249. AR Grosso (21mm, 2.20 g, 6h). Doge and S. Marco standing facing, holding banner between them / Christ Pantokrator enthroned facing. CNI VII 3; Papadopoli 1.1; Paolucci 1. EF, toned, attractive bust of Christ.

From a European Collection.

INTRO TO VENICESince the time of its traditional foundation in the mid-fifth century AD, the city of Venice was an important regional outlet into the northern Adriatic, connecting the eastern Mediterranean with the central and northern European heartland. In the late seventh, or very early eighth century, Venice – which was until then a collection of lagoon communities united in defense against the Lombards – became united under a single leader, later known as the Doge, who was confirmed in his position by the Byzantine emperor. By the end of the eighth century, Venice had expanded to include the Rialto islands and had assumed a position of not only regional, but also international, prominence. At the same time, within the city's leadership, the rise of a pro-Frankish faction in opposition to the older, pro-Byzantine group put Venice in a precarious position between the Carolingian and Byzantine Empires. Although an 803 treaty between the two empires, known as the Pax Nicephori, recognized the de facto independence of Venice, the city also acknowledged its nominal subservience to the Byzantine Empire. In response, the pro-Frankish Obelerio degli Antenori seized control of the city government the following year. Calling on the Frankish king of the Lombards, Pepin, for assistance, the situation resulted in the expulsion of Obelerio and his supporters from the city and the withstanding of a subsequent Frankish siege. Under Obelerio's opponent and immediate successor, Agnello Participazio and his successors (Giustiniano Participazio, Giovanni I Participazio, and Pietro Tradonico), Venice secured its military and economic powers, so that by the tenth century it was developing into a major mercantile empire.

During the early part of the Middle Ages, Venice remained neutral in the conflicts then happening in the Italian Peninsula between the Papacy, the Holy Roman Emperor, the Normans to the south, and the Byzantine Empire. As a result of this position, Venice was able to extend its economic primacy into the Adriatic and accumulate wealth and economic power through its establishment of exclusive trading rights in silk and spices that came from the East through the Levant and Egypt. In order to ward of any external threat to it, Venice constructed the Arsenale di Venezia, a massive complex of armories and shipyards. The Venetians became so well-known for their shipping that occasionally the Byzantine Empire hired the Venetian navy for its use. In return, Venice received extensive trading privileges within the Empire. This arrangement had long-ranging consequences for the Byzantine Empire, for Venice was becoming the Empire’s main economic rival. This situation fuelled anti-Western hatred among the people of Constantinople, leading to a riot in 1182 against the Venetian enclave there. During the Fourth Crusade (1204), the Doge, Enrico Dandolo, used the inability of the Crusaders to pay for their Venetian transport to manipulate them into sacking and plundering Constantinople. As a result, Venice not only extremely wealthy, due to receiving the largest portion of the spoils, but it also gained a firm foothold in strategic areas of the Aegean. Thus Venice became the only trading middleman between the West and East, best indicated by the 1221 trade agreement made between the Republic and the Mongol Empire.

Now, as a major power in Europe, Venice began to come into conflict with other European states. Its two main rivals during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were Hungary to the north and the Italian city-state of Genoa on the other side of the Italian Peninsula. Hungary hoped to break Venice’s control of the Adriatic, particularly in Dalmatia, while Genoa sought to undercut Venice’s trading monopoly with the East. At the same time, Venice became caught up in the politics of the Italian Peninsula. Over this period, the fortunes of the Republic see-sawed back and forth as it maneuvered through the complicated process of Renaissance Italian politics. After 1453, when Constantinople fell to the Ottomans, Venetian holdings in the eastern Aegean came under threat. Throughout the second half of the fifteenth century, Venice jockeyed unsuccessfully to hold onto its trading ports in Ionia and the Peloponnesus by entering into an alliance with Hungary, as well as the Shah of Persia. In 1479, peace with the Ottoman Empire was achieved, but at the cost of Venice ceding its territories in mainland Greece to the Turks in addition to paying an annual indemnity of 100,000 ducati.

The peace that Venice enjoyed was brief, for it soon got caught up in the war between France and Spain for domination in Italy, as well as the conflict that emerged between the growing Spanish Empire and that of the Ottomans for the control of the Mediterranean. During this period, Venice began the slow decline as it began to lose its overseas territories. While Venice did assist the Spanish against the Ottomans at the Battle of Lepanto in October 1571 by supplying a contingent of galleys under the command of Sebastiano Venier (who became Doge in 1577), Philip II of Spain was careful to maintain Spanish control of the Mediterranean and prevent Venice from regaining influence in the Levant. Under the terms of the 1573 treaty, Famagusta in Cyprus, the last Venetian stronghold on the island and which had been ceded by the Venetians to the Ottomans prior to Lepanto, was not returned to Venice. Throughout the seventeenth century, Venice, though attempting to maintain its historical neutrality, continued to experience periodic conflicts with France, Spain, and the Ottoman Empire, in the hopes of recovering its ever diminishing mercantile empire. While there were some successes, they were not enough to stem the Republic’s ongoing decline. The eighteenth century establishment of the port of Livorno (Leghorn) by Tuscany, as well as Ancona and Austrian-controlled Trieste ended Venice’s control of the Adriatic and reduced the Republic’s extent of control to Venice itself and the Venetian Lagoon. Under the last Doge, Ludovico Manin, the city could no longer defend itself, since its fleet was largely unseaworthy. By 1796 the French controlled sections of the Veneto, with several of Venice’s neighboring towns now governed by pro-French provisional governments. One last attempt at staving off the inevitable surrender of the city failed in 1797 when Napoleon declared war on Venice and placed warships at the edge of the Venetian Lagoon. Although the Venetian government hoped to transfer power over to a provisional municipal government, they were unsuccessful and, under the provisions of the Peace of Campo Formio in October 1797, Venice came under the overlordship of Austria. Thus, after over a thousand years of political sovereignty and influence in the Mediterranean, the Republic of Venice was no more.

All of the following coins of Venice are from this collection, with the exception of lots 1749, 1766, 1774, and 1780. The remainder of this collection will be offered in CNG Electronic Auction 303, which closes Wednesday, 29 May 2013.