Daughter of Venice by Donna Jo Napoli

Author:Donna Jo Napoli
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9780375890079
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2002-05-14T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

LESSONS

The tutorial takes place in our library. Laura and I sit in chairs at the side of the room. Our older brothers sit in chairs grouped together in the center of the room. The tutor stands in front of them, pacing, now and then circling them. He doesn’t look at Laura and me.

Messer Zonico is a private tutor, not a teacher. Most private tutors are members of the clergy, usually priests well known for their skills in preaching. But Messer Zonico is a layman—and a citizen, not a noble. I know a lot about him. Or about his family. Antonio told Laura and me the whole story of intrigue and treachery.

The Zonico family had been a member of Venice’s nobility for as far back as anyone knows. They were never wealthy, but they had a good business in luxury items. Today they’re known for soap. They import the ingredients—soda ash, quicklime, and olive oil—from other areas on the mainland peninsula, but they actually produce the soaps in Venice. Like everything else wonderful in Venice, these soaps come in startling colors. And they smell of fruits and flowers. Zonico soaps are exported all over Europe. We use them in our family. In fact, Andriana likes to wet her underdresses in little spots here and there and rub on a bit of soap. At parties the other girls ask her how she gets that sweet smell, and Laura and I, on strict instruction from Andriana, insist that it’s our sister’s natural essence.

The Zonico family was busy developing their connections in the export business and, thus, were not participating in the government of Venice, when the Great Council passed its decree of 1297. This decree officially closed the nobility, limiting it to those who were active in the legislative body during the few years preceding it, and to their descendants. The Great Council drew up its membership roles of all the noblemen over twenty-five years old. The Zonico men were excluded.

It was a terrible blow. And not just for the Zonico family. Dozens of old families were left out. They argued over it for more than ten years, but only the men listed in the membership roles were allowed to vote to select the magistrates for the offices of the Republic. And those men, the electorate, didn’t seem to care about the ones left out.

So a group of ex-noblemen formed a plot to overthrow the government. They enlisted the help of some commoners, too—citizens. And even of some outsiders, from Florence and Ferrara. All together there were over thirty men who planned to attack the Palazzo Ducale.

But at the last moment, one of the Venetian ex-noblemen, one who had been a key figure in the conspiracy, went to the Doge himself and reported the whole plot. In return the Doge put the man’s name in the register of the Great Council, so his family regained their status.

But the Doge was pitiless toward the others. He had the rebels captured and beheaded. Those few he could not capture were banished from Venice forever.

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