THE MAZZORINI WILD DUCKS OF THE LAGOON: THE OSELLE OF THE REPUBLIC OF VENICE
In the constitutional system of the Republic of Venice, the Doge was appointed for life and had the same privileges as a king. A game preserve in some areas of the State territory was one of the Doge’s privileges. He was bound to share its products, at first as a moral obligation, with the members of the Great Council and with the authorities of the Republic. In the 13th Century, the sharing was officially regulated. In the Promissione Ducale, solemnly pronounced in public by the Doges at the assumption of their office, they had to specify that they would provide an annual donation of wild ducks, which were very sought-after in their lagoon game preserve.
In the Promissione, the ducks are called mazzorini, a dialectal term, and it is specified that they had to be oselle, another dialectal term meaning “female birds”. They had a more delicate taste, the favourite of the Venetian nobles’ fine palates. However, the number of beneficiaries increased whilst the quantity of wild ducks available decreased, so it was more and more difficult for the Doge to fully comply with the commitment and those who did not receive any duck were given a sum of money corresponding to the commercial value of the duck. This caused many complaints, because it was considered as harmful to the receivers’ dignity, as if they were given alms. Since this phenomenon continued and the number of oselle kept falling, it was proposed to solve the problem through the institutionalisation of the sum of money as a donation for everybody, in place of the traditional mazzorini. However, the donation had to fully keep its original meaning, so it was decided to mint celebratory coins with special features. For their weight and fineness, these coins were assigned the value of one fourth of a gold Ducat, corresponding to the commercial value of a mazzorino. Because of the characteristics required, the coins had to be minted in silver, since gold coins would have been very small and weighed less than one gram. After the death of the Doge Leonardo Loredan, during the vacant period, when the complex voting system to elect his successor was being applied, on 28th June 1521, the Great Council issued a decree to substitute the donation of a duck with a coin, which was called Osella, to emphasise the relation with the ancient tradition. The next Doge, Antonio Grimani, was bound to assume this obligation and included it in the initial Promissione. The same was done by every Doge, up to Ludovico Manin, the last Doge of the Serenissima, who minted the last Osella in 1796, the year before the final fall of the autonomous institutions of Venice, in their thousand-year-old form.
The set of 275 annual Oselle was created during these almost legendary events. The coins give us some insight into the Venetian political events: over the years, the legend on the reverse, which characterised the first Oselle and qualified them as Doges’ donations, was replaced with various allegorical images referring to those events. A collection of 52 Oselle will be put up for sale at the next Bolaffi’s auction at the beginning of December. The number of coins is not very high, but their quality is remarkable. Many of them, even the highest-quality ones, show signs of hooking or mounting. This has no serious consequence on their value. Because of the Oselle being Doges’ donations and thanks to their unique images, they were often used by the receivers as personal ornaments. Nearly all coins which have come down to us show this kind of flaws. In chronological order, we have an Osella of the first year of Marcantonio Giustinian’s dogeate (1684- 1688), showing a wonderful image of the Piazza San Marco with water and its shipways, and a coin dating back to the fifth year of Alvise III Mocenigo (1722-1732), which shows a mythical galleon sailing the Giudecca Canal. The Osella of the ninth year of Francesco Loredan (1752-1762) shows a detailed image of the clock tower, as we can still see it on the north side of Piazza San Marco. It was realised in the same style as the works by the coeval painter Giovanni Antonio Canal, the world-famous Canaletto. The last Osella of this brief presentation dates back to the fourth year of Alvise IV Mocenigo (1763-1779). On this peculiar coin, the African Tiger and the Lion of St. Mark are facing each other with peaceful intents, but well-aware of their strength. In that year, after long diplomatic negotiations, the Serenissima and the North-African Arab Beys reached an agreement. Their corsair vessels, based on the North-African coasts, were fast and agile like tigers and bothered the Venetian large commercial ships, which were solid and heavily built, like lions. The brief hunting season for the mazzorini opens at the beginning of December: after years of peaceful rest in their loving and careful collector’s lagoon, they will take flight towards other lagoons. We are sure the enthusiast hunters are already preparing the nets to catch them. It will be a hard fight: may the best win!
By Carlo Barzan
In the Promissione, the ducks are called mazzorini, a dialectal term, and it is specified that they had to be oselle, another dialectal term meaning “female birds”. They had a more delicate taste, the favourite of the Venetian nobles’ fine palates. However, the number of beneficiaries increased whilst the quantity of wild ducks available decreased, so it was more and more difficult for the Doge to fully comply with the commitment and those who did not receive any duck were given a sum of money corresponding to the commercial value of the duck. This caused many complaints, because it was considered as harmful to the receivers’ dignity, as if they were given alms. Since this phenomenon continued and the number of oselle kept falling, it was proposed to solve the problem through the institutionalisation of the sum of money as a donation for everybody, in place of the traditional mazzorini. However, the donation had to fully keep its original meaning, so it was decided to mint celebratory coins with special features. For their weight and fineness, these coins were assigned the value of one fourth of a gold Ducat, corresponding to the commercial value of a mazzorino. Because of the characteristics required, the coins had to be minted in silver, since gold coins would have been very small and weighed less than one gram. After the death of the Doge Leonardo Loredan, during the vacant period, when the complex voting system to elect his successor was being applied, on 28th June 1521, the Great Council issued a decree to substitute the donation of a duck with a coin, which was called Osella, to emphasise the relation with the ancient tradition. The next Doge, Antonio Grimani, was bound to assume this obligation and included it in the initial Promissione. The same was done by every Doge, up to Ludovico Manin, the last Doge of the Serenissima, who minted the last Osella in 1796, the year before the final fall of the autonomous institutions of Venice, in their thousand-year-old form.
The set of 275 annual Oselle was created during these almost legendary events. The coins give us some insight into the Venetian political events: over the years, the legend on the reverse, which characterised the first Oselle and qualified them as Doges’ donations, was replaced with various allegorical images referring to those events. A collection of 52 Oselle will be put up for sale at the next Bolaffi’s auction at the beginning of December. The number of coins is not very high, but their quality is remarkable. Many of them, even the highest-quality ones, show signs of hooking or mounting. This has no serious consequence on their value. Because of the Oselle being Doges’ donations and thanks to their unique images, they were often used by the receivers as personal ornaments. Nearly all coins which have come down to us show this kind of flaws. In chronological order, we have an Osella of the first year of Marcantonio Giustinian’s dogeate (1684- 1688), showing a wonderful image of the Piazza San Marco with water and its shipways, and a coin dating back to the fifth year of Alvise III Mocenigo (1722-1732), which shows a mythical galleon sailing the Giudecca Canal. The Osella of the ninth year of Francesco Loredan (1752-1762) shows a detailed image of the clock tower, as we can still see it on the north side of Piazza San Marco. It was realised in the same style as the works by the coeval painter Giovanni Antonio Canal, the world-famous Canaletto. The last Osella of this brief presentation dates back to the fourth year of Alvise IV Mocenigo (1763-1779). On this peculiar coin, the African Tiger and the Lion of St. Mark are facing each other with peaceful intents, but well-aware of their strength. In that year, after long diplomatic negotiations, the Serenissima and the North-African Arab Beys reached an agreement. Their corsair vessels, based on the North-African coasts, were fast and agile like tigers and bothered the Venetian large commercial ships, which were solid and heavily built, like lions. The brief hunting season for the mazzorini opens at the beginning of December: after years of peaceful rest in their loving and careful collector’s lagoon, they will take flight towards other lagoons. We are sure the enthusiast hunters are already preparing the nets to catch them. It will be a hard fight: may the best win!
By Carlo Barzan