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Venetians and Greeks - The War for Candia previous 8/9 next

Candia: the Venetian rectors face the local powers
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The structural problem of the shortage of money to complete works that became increasingly complex and costly with the passage of time is a constant refrain in the report sent by the Venetian governors to Candia - as in other parts of the dominion on land  and sea  - which was read to the Senate  at the conclusion of their mandate. Such reports  were intended as model instruments of self-glorification for their public throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. At this early period they were written in a particularly lively style, and served as primary sources both for the knowledge of territories subject to Venice as well as for the philosophy and practice of those sent to govern them. On his return from a stint as Provveditore  of Candia in 1578, Paolo Contarini justified his failure to complete the restructuring of the fort of San Dimitri, as the money simply ran out at a certain point. His successor in this assignment, Natale Dandolo, complained in 1580 that the Revenue Offices  of the city ('Camera fiscale') were drained because of militia expenses, so that nothing remained for the maintenance of defense works. These governors' denunciations were therefore aimed at the Revenue Offices, which were institutions for collecting money accumulated by direct or indirect taxes. Renominated governor of Candia, Giovanni Sagredo claimed in 1604 that rather than leave the fortress incomplete, it would have been better never to have started it. As Governor Paolo Contarini pointed out in his report, a final increase in this debt was due to the fact that they had to continue paying the defense experts ('proti' , supervisors, and engineers) although the work was at a standstill.


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Venezia e il mare
Le isole, le fortezze, le difese contro i Turchi
© 1997 by the VENIVA consortium