Politics, Diplomacy and Religious Dissent. The Activity of the Inquisition in Early Modern Venice

The chapter aims to examine the activities of the Venetian Inquisition, especially in terms of its political, social and cultural consequences. Therefore, it is not focused primarily on the institutional aspects – which will be analyzed by other essays in this volume; instead, it will highlight the complex relation- ship that developed between Rome and the Republic of Venice, which found a privileged place of conflict and political recomposition in the Inquisition’s Tribunal. Therefore, the focus will be placed in the first instance on the most “hidden” aspects of the inquisitorial operations, and secondly on both the con- crete activity of the inquisitors – their fields of action and interest, strategies, etc. – and on the “resistance” and the strategies of the people under investigation as well as the witnesses. In other words, we will analyze the main areas of intervention of the Sant’Uffizio [Holy Office] in Venice and through the Inquisition’s papers, we will try to offer an overview of the religious dissent (whether conscious or not) set in the early modern Italian city.