Serene Death: Execution in the Early Modern Venetian Republic

Ariana Ellis, Doctoral candidate, Department of History, University of Toronto

The popular image of Venice as La Serenissima, the peaceful Republic of arts, education, and fair governance, was utilized and purposefully enhanced by the Venetian state across the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The use of public execution as a form of state punishment walked the line between supporting this reputation of divinely inspired Venetian justice and revealing the reality of civil dissent within the city. Through a discussion of ritual, geography, myth, gossip, and violence, this talk will illustrate the role and function of execution in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Venice.

Online with Zoom: https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/81730003190