Ludovico Manin

Doge of Venice from 1789 to 1797

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Not to be confused with Ludovic Magnin.

Lodovico Manin

Lodovico Manin, portrait by Bernardino Castelli

Doge of Venice
Reign| 10 March 1789 – 12 May 1797
Predecessor| Paolo Renier
Successor| Position abolished
(Fall of Venice, annexation to the Austrian Empire)

Born| Lodovico Giovanni Manin
(1725-05-14)14 May 1725
Venice, Republic of Venice
Died| 24 October 1802(1802-10-24) (aged 77)
Venice, Habsburg Empire
Burial|

Church of the Scalzi, Venice, Italy

Spouse|

Elisabetta Grimani

(m. 1748; died 1792)​

Father| Lodovico Alvise Manin
Mother| Maria Basadonna
Religion| Roman Catholicism
Occupation| Merchant

Lodovico Giovanni Manin (Italian: [ludoˈviːko maˈnin]; Venetian: Lodovigo Xuane Manin [lodoˈviɡo maˈniŋ]; 14 May 1725 – 24 October 1802) was a Venetian politician, patrician, and the 120th and last Doge of Venice. He governed the Venetian Republic from 9 March 1789 until its fall in 1797, when he was forced to abdicate by Napoleon Bonaparte.

## Biography[edit]

### Early life[edit]

Lodovico Manin was the eldest of five sons of Lodovico III Alvise (1695–1775) and Lucrezia Maria Basadonna, the great-granddaughter of cardinal Pietro Basadonna. He attended the University of Bologna and was a boarder at the noble College of St. Xavier. Manin printed propositions of natural law, which he studied during this period. When Manin began public life he was quickly noticed for his generosity, honesty, kindness, and wealth. He married Elisabetta Grimani (d 1792) on 14 September 1748;[1] he received a dowry of 45,000 ducats. Elisabetta had been educated in a monastery in Treviso and was in poor health since childhood. She did not give birth to any children.

At 26 he was elected captain of Vicenza, then of Verona, where he had to cope with a flood in 1757, and finally Brescia. In 1764, he was appointed procurator de ultra of Saint Mark's Basilica. Fond of religious meditations, in 1769 he asked and obtained permission to not hold an office because of ill health and bad hearing. In 1787, he was chosen to honor Pope Pius VI as he crossed the possessions of Venice and the Pope rewarded him with a knighthood.

As the eldest son, he owned the Villa Manin di Passariano which was later inherited by his nephew, Lodovico Leonardo I (1771–1853). Lodovico Leonardo was the son of his brother Giovanni (1736–1774) and Caterina (Pesaro), the heiress of a wealthy noble Israelite family who claimed to descend from Cyrus the Great.

### Doge[edit]

Lodovico was elected Doge of Venice on 9 March 1789, the same year that would see the start of the French Revolution a few months later, on the first ballot (the electoral assembly was composed of 41 members). His traditional coronation ceremony required him to throw coins to the Venetians, which cost more than 458,197 Lira, less than a quarter of which was paid from the funds of the Republic of Venice, the rest coming out of his own pocket. By the year 1792, he had allowed the once great Venetian merchant fleet to decline to a mere 309 merchantmen.

Villa Manin, in Passariano, where the Treaty of Campoformio was signed.

When Napoleon invaded Italy, Venice, along with the Republic of Genoa, did not initially join the coalition of Italian states formed in 1795, instead maintaining neutrality. On 15 April 1797, French general Jean-Andoche Junot gave the Doge an ultimatum which he refused. A secret addition to the Treaty of Leoben, signed on 17 April 1797, gave Venice, alongside Istria and Dalmatia, to Austria. On 25 April 1797, the French fleet arrived at the Lido. Venetian cannons sank one of the ships, but did not succeed in repelling the invasion since the Venetian war fleet numbered only 4 galleys and 7 galliots. The Doge surrendered on 12 May 1797 and left the Doge's Palace two days later.

On 16 May French troops entered Piazza San Marco and the surrender contract was officially signed, submitting Venice to French rule.

### Later life and death[edit]

Tomb of Lodovico Manin, Santa Maria degli Scalzi

Following his abdication, Manin refused an offer to become the interim head of the municipality and withdrew from society. Manin resided in the Palazzo Dolfin Manin, reportedly refusing even to answer his door to friends. He returned the ducal insignia (principally the distinctive ducal crown known as the corno ducale) alongside the "Golden Book" that served as a register of the oligarchical families of Venice to the Piazza San Marco, where they were hidden by the new city authorities.

Due to health reasons, he was forced to walk outside frequently and was sometimes made the object of insults from former citizens. These accusers lamented Venice's changed fortunes and his decision to surrender to France. He wanted to end his days in a monastery, but this proved impossible.

Lodovico died in his villa of dropsy and heart problems on 24 October 1802. His will ordered that his funeral should take place "with the least possible pomp". He left 110,000 ducats to the Manin Foundation for the benefit of the city's lunatics, orphans, and girls from poor families needing a dowry. His remains were interred in the chapel of the Church of the Scalzi in Venice, near the present railway station of Venice Saint Lucia in the family tomb of Manin where his late wife already lay. The tomb slab survives and bears the simple inscription Manini Cineres ("ashes of Manin").

Ducatus Venetus, Venetian ducat, of the reign of Manin. Venetian ducat, of the reign of Manin (San Marco side).

## Work[edit]

* Lodovico Manin. Memorie del dogado, preface and notes by Attilio Sarfatti, Venice, 1886 (in Italian)

## See also[edit]

* Fall of the Republic of Venice

## References[edit]

1. ^ Staley, Edgcumbe: The dogaressas of Venice : The wives of the doges. London : T. W. Laurie

Political offices

Preceded by

Paolo Renier

|  Doge of Venice
1789–1797  | Office abolished

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Doges of Venice

Byzantine period (697–737)

* Paolo Lucio Anafesto
* Marcello Tegalliano
* Orso Ipato

Regime of the magistri militum (738–742)

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Ducal period (742–1148)

8th century|

* Teodato Ipato*
* Galla Lupanio*
* Domenico Monegario*
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* Giovanni Galbaio*

9th century|

* Obelerio degli Antenori*†
* Agnello Participazio
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* Giovanni I Participazio*
* Pietro Tradonico†
* Orso I Participazio
* Giovanni II Participazio♦
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10th century|

* Orso II Participazio
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11th century|

* Otto Orseolo*
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* Domenico Flabanico
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* Vitale Faliero
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12th century|

* Ordelafo Faliero
* Domenico Michiel
* Pietro Polani

* deposed  † executed or assassinated  ‡ killed in battle  ♦ abdicated

Republican period (1148–1797)

12th century|

* Domenico Morosini
* Vitale II Michiel
* Sebastiano Ziani
* Orio Mastropiero
* Enrico Dandolo

13th century|

* Pietro Ziani
* Jacopo Tiepolo
* Marino Morosini
* Reniero Zeno
* Lorenzo Tiepolo
* Jacopo Contarini
* Giovanni Dandolo
* Pietro Gradenigo

14th century|

* Marino Zorzi
* Giovanni Soranzo
* Francesco Dandolo
* Bartolomeo Gradenigo
* Andrea Dandolo
* Marino Faliero†
* Giovanni Gradenigo
* Giovanni Dolfin
* Lorenzo Celsi
* Marco Cornaro
* Andrea Contarini
* Michele Morosini
* Antonio Venier

15th century|

* Michele Steno
* Tommaso Mocenigo
* Francesco Foscari*
* Pasquale Malipiero
* Cristoforo Moro
* Nicolò Tron
* Nicolò Marcello
* Pietro Mocenigo
* Andrea Vendramin
* Giovanni Mocenigo
* Marco Barbarigo
* Agostino Barbarigo

16th century|

* Leonardo Loredan
* Antonio Grimani
* Andrea Gritti
* Pietro Lando
* Francesco Donato
* Marcantonio Trivisan
* Francesco Venier
* Lorenzo Priuli
* Girolamo Priuli
* Pietro Loredan
* Alvise I Mocenigo
* Sebastiano Venier
* Nicolò da Ponte
* Pasquale Cicogna
* Marino Grimani

17th century|

* Leonardo Donato
* Marcantonio Memmo
* Giovanni Bembo
* Nicolò Donato
* Antonio Priuli
* Francesco Contarini
* Giovanni I Cornaro
* Nicolò Contarini
* Francesco Erizzo
* Francesco Molin
* Carlo Contarini
* Francesco Cornaro
* Bertuccio Valiero
* Giovanni Pesaro
* Domenico II Contarini
* Nicolò Sagredo
* Alvise Contarini
* Marcantonio Giustinian
* Francesco Morosini
* Silvestro Valiero
* Alvise II Mocenigo

18th century|

* Giovanni II Cornaro
* Alvise III Mocenigo
* Carlo Ruzzini
* Alvise Pisani
* Pietro Grimani
* Francesco Loredan
* Marco Foscarini
* Alvise IV Mocenigo
* Paolo Renier
* Ludovico Manin*

† Marino Faliero (1354–55) was convicted of treason, executed and condemned to damnatio memoriae
* Francesco Foscari (1423–57) was forced to abdicate by the Council of Ten
* Ludovico Manin (1789–97) was forced to abdicate by Napoleon leading to the Fall of the Republic of Venice

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