It all started on a rainy afternoon in the Museo Correr in Venice. Matteo Pagan’s eight meticulously detailed woodcuts of “The Procession of the Doge on Palm Sunday in Venice” from 1556 (see below) were hanging in sequence on the long wall of a narrow room.

The characters in the Doge’s Procession were labeled in Latin. I got most of the titles, but “Ballottino,” directly in front of the Doge, threw me. He was a kid, marching alone, in a long line of generals, knights, musicians, priests, pages, squires, Senators, and Ambassadors. They all made sense to me, but who was the boy strutting in his finery for no apparent reason?

As I scratched my head over this, a tour group came into the room to view the “Procession.” I stepped aside so they could see better and without missing a beat, the tour guide pointed at the Ballottino and said, “That’s the ballot counter. He tallied the votes in the election of the Doge. His job was to keep the nobles honest. By law he had to be a commoner, under 15, and selected at random to avoid the possibility of chicanery. As soon as he was chosen he was taken from his family and installed in the Doge’s Palace where he remained in the Doge’s service until the Doge died.”

I was hooked.

I needed to know more.

And like all things Venetian, the story turned out to be as complex and fascinating as the city.

The Procession of the Doge on Palm Sunday in Venice

The procession starts at the top right and reads right-to-left. The Ducal procession was tweaked over its 500 year history but the order of march remained rigidly regimented. The Doge was, by law and custom, discouraged from leaving the palace without a proper retinue. Many processions simply circled St. Mark’s Square on their way to the church adjacent to the Doge’s Palace. The procession was a symbolic representation of the majesty and serenity of the Venetian Republic, which lasted a thousand years, the longest-standing Republic in history. Eight flag-bearers lead the way, followed by Commanders, trumpeters, retainers of foreign ambassadors, more musicians, the Cavalier of the Doge, the Squires of the Doge, the Canon’s of St. Mark’s, the Patriarch of Venice, a Chaplin carrying a white candle, a squire carrying the corno (the Doge’s dumpling-shaped crown), Secretaries of the Doge and Senate, the Vicar, Squires carrying the Doge’s throne and cushion, the Grand Chancellor, and the Ballot Boy followed by the Doge himself,  his umbrella-bearer, Ambassadors, a knight bearing a symbolic sword, and the Signoria (the leading patricians). (Click on the panels for a better view.)