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Maggior Consiglio| The ruling body of Venice during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. All adult males of the aristocracy had a lifelong hereditary right to sit on the council. Throughout the Renaissance the Maggior Consiglio functioned mainly as a pool from which members could be drawn for other councils and committees of state, such as the senate (with about 200 members) and the Council of Ten, all under the chairmanship of the doge. |
| The closure (serrata) of the membership to all except aristocratic families took place in 1297, and from 1325 their names were recorded in the Libro d'oro/Golden Book. |
| The Venetian council was copied in Florence on the fall of the Medici in 1494 and became the basis of the republican constitution there until 1512. |
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