La Cronicha di Giorgio Dolfin (origini-1458) nel contesto culturale della Venezia del sec. XV

A copy (XVI cent.) of a work entitled La Cronicha dela nobil cità de Venetia et dela sua provintia et destretto is preserved in the ms. It. VII, 794 (=8503), located at the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana of Venice. The text documents the history of the city from its origins up to 1458. Its main author is Giorgio Dolfin (1396-1458), member of one of the most important Venetian aristocratic families; other contributors are Dolfin’s son Pietro, and Andrea and Nicolò Gussoni, the later owners of the volume containing the Cronicha. The chronicle remained unpublished up to the present day, although it represents a key source in the analysis of the work of Marin Sanudo the Younger (1466-1536), especially in regards to his digressions on number and inner workings of those Venetian judicial institutions assuring the good functioning of the Serenissima. Dolfin’s point of view is a profoundly religious one, aiming to represent Venetians as “veri et boni Christiani” and at the same time to celebrate their political and administrative independence. The events in the time of doge Francesco Foscari (1423-1457) are narrated in a truly passionate and affected manner, not only because the author and the Doge lived in the same period, but also because their two families were also related.