The People Are the City*: The Idea of the Popolo and the Condition of the Popolani in Renaissance Venice

Abstract

Venetian society in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries is generally described in terms of a tripartition between patricians, citizens, and popolo. This article focuses on the popolo and the popolani of Venice, combining a terminological and conceptual study of these categories with a sociological analysis of the individuals who belonged to them. The history of how these social groups developed reveals the complex definition of the popolo in Venice between the end of the Middle Ages and the start of the early modern era. A consideration of the popolani’s “condition” involves analyzing how they established who they were and the framework of their action, according to the associations, spaces, and institutions in which they interacted.