1700 Carnival
By 1750, the city’s rich were very, very rich – and her poor very, very poor. Some patrician families had fortunes that amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars, lived in fifty-room palaces staffed with as many servants, owned as many as twelve gondolas, and maintained equally magnificent premises and appurtenances on the mainland. Venetians looked as if they had never suffered a defeat in their entire history as if their empire was not only intact but destined to last forever. Most Venetian Nobles acted as if Venice still ruled the entire Mediterranean Sea.
The 18th century for Venice was a mostly peaceful century. With no wars no fights, with the lower and middle classes doing all the hard work, and with diminished political responsibilities, the Venetian Nobleman was free – within the limits of his purse- to dedicate himself to “his pleasures”. The range of those pleasures was wide, for the 18th century Venice was a totally permissive society in which any behavior was condoned, as long as it was executed with style.
The number of families that could lead a life of pleasure probably numbered four hundred and each family had several members.
