Council of Forty

The Council of Forty was a subcouncil selected by Venice’s Great Council and assigned legislative and executive responsibilities. Its significance grew beyond those functions when its approval became a formal barrier to entry into the Great Council, helping transform Venice’s once-expanding political system into one increasingly controlled by established families.

Place in Venice’s Government

After the murder of the doge in 1171, Venice created a Great Council as the ultimate source of political power. The Great Council was composed of state officeholders, including judges, and was dominated by aristocrats. It selected members for two subcouncils, the Senate and the Council of Forty, which carried out various legislative and executive tasks. It also chose the Ducal Council, whose membership expanded from two to six.

The Council of Forty was therefore embedded in a system designed to distribute governing work among councils while keeping the doge under institutional constraints. The Great Council also created a separate, randomly chosen body to nominate the doge; the General Assembly formally ratified the nominee, but because it received only one candidate, the council effectively controlled the choice. New doges had to swear an oath limiting their authority, and successive rules required them to obey magistrates and obtain approval for decisions from the Ducal Council.

From Council to Gatekeeper

The Council of Forty became especially consequential in 1286, when the rules for admission to the Great Council were contested. On October 3, a proposal would have required new nominations to be confirmed by a majority of the Council of Forty, then tightly controlled by elite families. That measure failed. Two days later, a different proposal passed: people whose fathers and grandfathers had served on the Great Council would be confirmed automatically, while other nominees needed approval from the Ducal Council.

A further amendment, passed on October 17, required appointments to the Great Council to be approved by the Council of Forty, the doge, and the Ducal Council. The Council of Forty thus acquired a direct role in deciding who could enter the body that held ultimate political power. These amendments were part of a broader shift from annual nomination toward restrictions favoring established officeholders and their families.

The Closure of the Great Council

The 1286 changes presaged the Venetian Serrata, or closure. In February 1297, membership rules gave automatic nomination and approval to those who had served on the Great Council during the previous four years. New nominations required approval from the Council of Forty, although only twelve votes were needed. After September 11, 1298, current members and their families no longer needed confirmation. The Great Council was effectively closed to outsiders, and its incumbents became a hereditary aristocracy.

The Council of Forty was one of several institutions through which this exclusion was enforced. The settlement was further formalized in 1315 with the Libro d’Oro, an official register of Venetian nobility. As tensions grew between the new aristocracy and those excluded from it, the Great Council expanded from 450 to 1,500 members in an attempt to co-opt vocal opponents, while a police force was introduced in 1310 and domestic coercion increased.

Political Exclusion and Economic Change

The closure of political access was followed by restrictions on economic opportunity. Venice banned commenda contracts, an important innovation that had enabled new merchants to prosper. Beginning in 1314, the state also took over and nationalized trade through state galleys; from 1324, individuals faced high taxes if they wished to trade. Long-distance commerce increasingly became the preserve of the nobility.

This sequence illustrates how the Council of Forty’s gatekeeping role fit into a wider institutional reversal. The earlier councils had helped constrain ducal power, while the Great Council’s later admission rules protected incumbents against rising competitors. Political closure and economic restriction reinforced one another: established families limited newcomers’ access to office and, in turn, to the commercial arrangements that had helped make Venice prosperous.