Of mice and masks : how performing citizenship worked for a thousand years in the Venetien Republic and why the Age of Enlightenment brought it to an abupt end

Abstract

While the plague raged in the 14th century, eradicating numerous patrician families, who used to keep the Maritime Republic alive with its unique system of office rotation and power distribution, the Venetians invented their endangered community and polity anew–with the help of a uniform white mask (larva or volto), a black hood and a three-pointed hat.

Presumably, this so-called bautà was first borne out of protest against the Black Death, that killed rich and poor without exception. But soon it developed into a powerful institution of social compensation. It permitted the Venetian Republic to regard its own police and spy state as necessary to fight corruption, but also allowed its citizen to lead a comparatively untroubled life beyond convention and constraints. As a social mask, the bautà grew in popularity between the 14th and 18th century, and can be seen on countless Canaletto paintings, at almost every public occasion. But above all it revolutionized social life by allowing a simple form of anonymisation. It guaranteed Venetian citizens of both sexes libertine, even voluptuous practices while respecting etiquette.

This mask reflects the richness of the Venetian social and political inventions. The Venetians did not believe in the good of man, one of the reasons why the Republic would survive thousand years of crusades and slaughter but not the century of enlightenment. Instead, the Venetians believed in institutions, in healing restrictions they would impose on unwelcomed human behaviour. They broke their heads over procedures that would prevent human beings to choose the easy way. Acknowledging the fact, that destroying and doing harm is simple in comparison to the difficulties of re-installing trust and credibility, they invented sophisticated practices and countless precautions, from which they expected more benefits and practical wisdom than from weak, only too corruptible human beings.

The success of Venetian Republic depended on its profound pessimism, its distrust in human goodness. Instead of wanting to change the nature of man, e.g. by self-eclaration, it created a system of procedural inventions and institutional coups, which counteracted abuse and corruption like a corset fighting formlessness. Control and freedom of movement, spying, libertinage, and veneration were no opposites for the citizens of Venice, but rather reciprocal fires, to express their unique concept of performing citizenship adequately.