Jem Sultan and Venice’s intelligence system: sorting and deploying information in Venice’s ‘letterocracy’

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Like other early modern European states, Venice ruled by correspondence. The letters to and from officials preserved in Venetian and regional archives reflect the structure of the composite state. Just as Venetian rule layered centralized control onto areas of local autonomy, local archives contain series of documents created by governors and captains over centuries of Venetian rule and archived locally, as well as documentation produced by local elites. In Venice itself, letters about daily governance and sensitive intelligence passed through an interlocking system that was designed to manage correspondence about spies and supply chain problems through the same central institutions. This article uses the Council of Ten’s involvement in the dramatic circumstances of the Ottoman Jem Sultan’s rebellion, escape and time as a hostage in the West to examine the particularities of how the Ten gained power through their control of correspondence. Juxtaposing the Ten’s use of sensitive and timely information in a single case with the daily machinery for sending, receiving and archiving correspondence in Venice and in regional archives allows us to understand the internal dynamics of a particular ‘letterocracy’ and how one government council uses information to place itself at the centre of a republican polity.