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After the peace of Passarowitz  ,
the most prestigious post that a Venetian could occupy in the Levant was the position of
Provveditore Generale of the Ionian islands .
The role of
Provveditore combined civilian and military authority, even if the frequent
passing of laws was often contradictory, and involved unresolved jurisdiction
conflicts with Provveditori that Venice sent to rule individual islands. These
conflicts meant that the general's authority in civilian and penal matters was
never clearly defined, nor were their extension of powers in general. In
moments of special tension, the
Provveditore 'ordinario' might be joined by an
'extraordinario' who was provided with
more specific definite powers of control and intervention. This was the case of
Nicolò Erizzo, who in 1787 was assigned the task of revising the
civil councils of Cephalonia and Zante .
The prestige of the
Provveditore Generale began to wane in the 1770s. At
the conclusion of his mandate (1776-1779), Giacomo Nani wrote an anonymous
treatise on the Venetian government in the
Ionian islands ,
in which he deplored the decline of the role, overwhelmed by the
prevalence of favouritism and continual interruptions in the different ruling
functions.
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