Extract from the journal “The Voyage of Italy” by Richard Lassels, an English traveller, priest and essayist who found himself in Venice on Ascension Day.
The journal was published in Paris in 1670.
“I happened to be in Venice thrice, at the great sea triumph or feaſt of the Aſcension Day, which was performed thus. About our eight in the morning the Senatores in their Scarlat robes meet at the Doges Pallace, and there taking him up, they walk with him proceſſionally unto the ſhoare where the Bucentoro lyes waiting them. The Popes Nuncio being upon his right hand, and the Patriarch of Venice on his left hand. Then, aſcending into the Bucentoro by a handſome bridge throwne out to the ſhoare, the Doge takes his place and the Senatores ſit round the gallie as they can, to the number of two or three hundred. The Senate being placed, the anchor is weighed and the ſlaves being warned by the capitains whiſtle, and the ſound of trumpets, the ſlaves begin to strike all at once with their oares to make the Bucentoro march as gravely as she can upon the water. Thus they steere for two miles upon the Laguna and all the while the muſick plays. Round about the Bucentoro flock a world of Piottas and Gondolas, richly covered overhead with ſumptuous canopies of ſilks and rich ſtuffs, and rowed by watermen in rich liveries as well as the Trumpeters.”
Lo Sposalizio
Lo Sposalizio del Mare (The Marriage of the Sea) was an ancient ceremony which used to symbolize the maritime dominion of Venice, and was an annual opportunity for the Venetians to gather and offer prayers and thanks to Saint Nicholas, patron saint of seafarers, and ask for continued protection. The ceremony, established on 9th May 1000 AD to commemorate the Doge Pietro II Orseolo's conquest of the Slavs in Dalmatia in 999, was originally one of supplication, Ascension Day being chosen as the day on which this annual event occurred. The form it took at this time was an early morning mass at St Mark’s followed by a solemn procession of boats heading out to sea, led by the Doge's ceremonial and spectacular galley (known from 1311 as the Bucentoro). The Doge and his company were solemnly sprinkled with consecrated water (any remainder of which was thrown into the sea) while priests chanted Asperges me hyssopo, et mundabor (Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean), Psalm 51:7.
The ceremony assumed a new and lasting significance on Ascension Day in 1177 when the serving Doge, Sebastiano Ziani, welcomed into St Mark’s Basilica the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick Barbarossa, and Pope Alexander III, to conclude the signing of the peace treaty which marked the end of the centuries-old dispute between the Holy Roman Empire and the Pontificate. On this occasion the Pope drew a ring from his finger and, giving it to Doge Ziani, bade him cast it into the sea, confirming Venice’s ongoing dominion over the sea, and so symbolically marrying the sea to the city. Henceforth the supplicatory ceremonial became nuptial.
Every year thereafter the serving Doge dropped a consecrated ring into the sea, and, with the Latin words Desponsamus te, mare, in signum veri perpetuique domini (We wed thee, sea, as a sign of true and everlasting domination), declared Venice and the sea to be indissolubly one. The procession of boats then continued to the church of San Nicolò on the island known as Lido, where a large-scale solemn mass was held. Despite the ending of the office of the Doge in 1796 and the destruction of the Bucentoro, the ceremony of Lo Sposalizio del Mare, or the Marriage of the Sea continues today. Currently it is performed (still on Ascension Day) by the Mayor of Venice aboard a smaller ceremonial barge called the Bissona Serenissima.
