Venice's secret service: Key takeaways. The Council of Ten and the inquisitors of the state -- Why Venice? -- Methodology and sources -- Archival records -- Note on dates, currency, translations, and abbreviations -- Epilogue: Venice and Venetian intelligence in the European panorama. Renaissance Venice's politico-economic landscape ; Venice as an information centre in Early Modern Europe ; Sixteenth-century Europe and the rise of secret services ; Conclusion -- 2. State secrecy: A Venetian virtue. The Ten's regulations on secrecy ; The illusion of state secrecy ; Masks, lions' mouths, and secret denunciations ; Secrecy as an enabler of knowledge exchange ; Conclusion. -- 3. Renaissance Venice's intelligence organization. Organizing and managing Venice's secret service ; Correspondence as a tool of management and organization of work ; Venice's ducal Cahncery and the Cancelleria Secreta ; Organizational secrecy ; Venice's central intelligence organization ; Conclusion -- 4. Venice's department of cryptology. A brief historical overview of cryptology ; The diplomatic use of ciphers in the Renaissance ; Venice's cryptology department ; The professionalization of cryptology in Sixteenth-century Venice ; Conclusion -- 5. Venice's secret agents. Spie, Confidenti, Exploratori ; Venice's secret agents ; Spying in Early Modern Venice: A profession? ; Conclusion -- 6. Extraordinary measures. Venetian counter-intelligence ; The terrors of the ten -- Other tricks and tactics ; The normalization of extreme measures ; Conclusion -- Epilogue: Intelligence organization in Renaissance Venice: An evaluation -- Intelligence organization, commodification, and the myth of Venice -- Venice's secret service: Key takeaways.
Summary:
Venice's Secret Service is the untold and arresting story of the world's earliest centrally-organised state intelligence service. Long before the inception of SIS and the CIA, in the period of the Renaissance, the Republic of Venice had masterminded a remarkable centrally-organised state intelligence organisation that played a pivotal role in the defence of the Venetian empire. Housed in the imposing Doge's Palace and under the direction of the Council of Ten, the notorious governmental committee that acted as Venice's spy chiefs, this 'proto-modern' organisation served prominent intelligence functions including operations (intelligence and covert action), analysis, cryptography and steganography, cryptanalysis, and even the development of lethal substances. Official informants and amateur spies were shipped across Europe, Anatolia, and Northern Africa, conducting Venice's stealthy intelligence operations. Revealing a plethora of secrets, their keepers, and their seekers, Venice's Secret Service explores the social and managerial processes that enabled their existence and that furnished the foundation for an extraordinary intelligence organisation created by one of the early modern world's most cosmopolitan states.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.