Conflicting Masculinities: Gender and Politics in Fifteenth-Century Venice

DOE的私人和公共人之间的冲突构成了拟议的博士论文的症结所在。这场冲突构成了社区共和主义和君主制倾向之间长达数百年的斗争的一部分，这一斗争是威尼斯人政治的特征，掩盖了威尼斯人声称的“最宁静的共和国”。因此，本论文通过性别的棱镜来看待教宗，为威尼斯的政治史乃至更广泛的前现代政治生活史提供了独到的贡献。利用跨学科的方法，将性别理论和更传统的历史方法与宪政史和政治思想结合起来，我的作品将评估威尼斯15世纪的教条如何通过公共公民仪式和自己个人身份的表达，越来越多地卷入关于理想文艺复兴时期人的不同愿景的斗争中。在威尼斯共和国的整个生活中，在每年的阿森松日，威尼斯国家元首，狗，都会举行“嫁给大海”的仪式。在这个仪式上，狗把一枚戒指扔进海里，宣布它为他的配偶，确认了威尼斯对亚得里亚海的统治。在这样做的过程中，这只狗体现了精英的男子气概：作为威尼斯的“父亲”和大海的配偶，他反映了威尼斯人男子气概的中心支柱-父亲和丈夫的角色。狗的人因此结合了‘两个身体’：私人和公共，凡人和威尼斯政府强加的持久职位。在15世纪，更广泛的文艺复兴时期，古典共和党语言出现了复兴。古典的“Virtus”概念--或中世纪意大利语的“Virtu”--被复兴为男子气概的缩影。在古典时期，“Virtus”被认为在很大程度上体现了军事的特征。然而，“美德”是一个极具争议性的术语。在商人共和的城市，比如威尼斯，“Virtu”成了商人或银行业精英的愿景。对于其他人来说，比如尼科洛·马基雅维利在他16世纪开创性的作品《伊尔王子》中，‘美德’是一种某种冷酷，一种骄傲、勇敢和军事技能的美德。随之而来的是一种与生俱来的对娘娘腔的焦虑，尤其是与财富创造的奢侈品有关的焦虑。因此，我认为威尼斯政府的社区共和主义与教宗之间的冲突集中在对这种阳刚的“美德”的相互竞争的愿景上；而威尼斯的政治精英希望教宗被描绘成平等中的第一，分享商人精英的特征“美德”，而许多教宗却将自己理想化为达到了古典共和国的“美德”。

The conflict between the private and public persons of the doge forms the crux of the proposed PhD thesis. This conflict formed a central - but as yet unstudied - part of the centuries-long struggle between communal republicanism and the monarchical tendencies which characterised the Venetian polity that belied its claims to be "the most Serene Republic". Consequently, the dissertation provides an original contribution to the history of politics in Venice, and to the history of premodern political life more broadly, by viewing the doge through the prism of gender. Utilising an interdisciplinary approach, marrying gender theory and more traditional historical approaches with constitutional history and political thought, my work will assess how Venice's fifteenth-century doges, through public civic rituals and their own personal expressions of identity, became increasingly embroiled in a battle of alternate visions of the ideal Renaissance man. Throughout the life of the Venetian republic, on every Ascension Day the Venetian head-of-state, the doge, performed the ritual of the 'Marriage to the Sea'. During this ritual, the doge cast a ring into the sea and proclaimed it his spouse, confirming Venice's dominion over the Adriatic. In doing so, the doge embodied elite masculinity: as the 'father' of Venice and the spouse of the sea he reflected the central pillars of Venetian masculinity - the roles of father and husband. The person of the Doge thus combined 'two bodies': the private and public, the mortal man and enduring office imposed by the Venetian government. During the fifteenth century, and the Renaissance more broadly, there was a revival of classical republican language. The classical concept of 'virtus' - or the medieval Italian 'virtu' - was revived as the epitome of masculinity. In the classical period, 'virtus' was perceived as embodying largely martial characteristics. 'Virtu', however, was a highly contested term. In merchant-republican cities, such as Venice, 'virtu' became a vision of the merchant or banking elite. To others, such as Nicolo Machiavelli in his seminal sixteenth-century work 'Il Principe', 'virtu' was a certain ruthlessness, one of pride, bravery, and military skill. With 'virtu' came an inherent anxiety of effeminacy, especially in relation to the luxuries created by wealth. Consequently, I believe the conflict between the communal-republicanism of the Venetian government and the doge was centred on competing visions of this masculine 'virtu'; whereas the Venetian political elite expected the doge to be depicted as first among equals, sharing the characteristic 'virtu' of the merchant elite, many of the doges instead idealised themselves as having attained the 'virtus' of the classical republics.