temptation, if they could get away with it, for the existing
elites sitting in the Great Council to close down the system
to these new people.
At the Great Council’s inception, membership was
determined each year. As we saw, at the end of the year,
four electors were randomly chosen to nominate a hundred
members for the next year, who were automatically
selected. On October 3, 1286, a proposal was made to the
Great Council that the rules be amended so that
nominations had to be confirmed by a majority in the
Council of Forty, which was tightly controlled by elite
families. This would have given this elite veto power over
new nominations to the council, something they previously
had not had. The proposal was defeated. On October 5,
1286, another proposal was put forth; this time it passed.
From then on there was to be automatic confirmation of a
person if his fathers and grandfathers had served on the
council. Otherwise, confirmation was required by the Ducal
Council. On October 17 another change in the rules was
passed stipulating that an appointment to the Great Council
must be approved by the Council of Forty, the doge, and
the Ducal Council.
The debates and constitutional amendments of 1286
presaged La Serrata (“The Closure”) of Venice. In February
1297, it was decided that if you had been a member of the
Great Council in the previous four years, you received
automatic nomination and approval. New nominations now
had to be approved by the Council of Forty, but with only
twelve votes. After September 11, 1298, current members
and their families no longer needed confirmation. The
Great Council was now effectively sealed to outsiders, and
the initial incumbents had become a hereditary aristocracy.
The seal on this came in 1315, with the Libro d’Oro , or
“Gold Book,” which was an official registry of the Venetian
nobility.
Those outside this nascent nobility did not let their
powers erode without a struggle. Political tensions
mounted steadily in Venice between 1297 and 1315. The
Great Council partially responded by making itself bigger.
In an attempt to co-opt its most vocal opponents, it grew
from 450 to 1,500. This expansion was complemented by
repression. A police force was introduced for the first time