Giorgio Pisani - Vita processi e pensieri di Giorgio Pisani - 1798

In awaiting binding, with negligible flaws on the back, interiors enviable for freshness, only a few faint curling at the lower central area of the book. 336 pages, measurements cm 21.5 x 14.5. On the title page it indicates volume one, but it was the only one published. Correct identification of the author (1739–1811) The reference “Pisani, Giorgio” is perfectly consistent with the historical figure: Giorgio Pisani, Venetian patrician, Procurator of San Marco, involved in the 1780 conspiracy against the Council of Ten. Arrested, tried, condemned to exile. During the exile (France: Marseille/Tolon), he composed his own political-judicial self-defense: Life, trials and thoughts. The date 1739–1811 is compatible with the chronologies of the Pisani family members documented by Treccani (San Marco branch). State of the work’s bibliography Web research yields no printed edition or modern catalog description. This implies that: - the work was never officially published; - it circulated in semi-clandestine prints produced during exile; - its existence is attested only by indirect citations in studies on the 1780 conspiracy and on the Republic’s final crisis. Giorgio Pisani (1739–1811) was one of the most radical and coherent Venetian patricians in the attempt to reform the Serenissima at the end of the 18th century. A high-ranking magistrate, an Enlightenment reformer, a protagonist of the 1780 correction, he was tried and condemned to exile. His political-judicial autobiography, Life, trials and thoughts, is today one of the rare testimonies of the Republic’s final crisis. Origins and formation Born in 1739 in the San Marco branch of the Pisani family, Giorgio belonged to a lineage of great political and diplomatic weight. His formation followed the typical path of the Venetian Enlightened aristocracy: - legal and administrative studies; - early experience in minor magistracies; - strong interest in reforming laws and rationalizing the state apparatus. From the 1760s–70s he placed himself among reformist patricians, opposed to oligarchic immobility. Public career His rise was rapid: - magistrate of the Quarantia, one of the Republic’s main tribunals; - extraordinary corrector of the laws, a highly delicate task involving the revision of the ordinances; - Procurator of San Marco (1780), one of the highest offices of the State, second only to the doge. Pisani was convinced that the Serenissima had to reform itself deeply to survive: more transparency, less arbitrariness of the Council of Ten, greater representation of the petty nobility. The 1780 “correction” and the trial The breaking point was the 1780 correction, a legislative reform attempt that degenerated into a political clash. Pisani proposed changes to civil and criminal law. He sought to curb the influence of the Council of Ten. His positions were seen as a threat to the oligarchic balance. In December 1780 he was arrested on charges of electoral corruption and manipulation of the Grand Council procedures. The trial was swift and severe: Pisani was condemned to exile. Exile and the writing of the autobiography The sentence provided for: - confinement in San Felice Castle (Verona); - subsequent banishment until the Republic fell in 1797. During exile he composed his work: Vita, processi e pensieri di Giorgio Pisani ex-veneto, opera dello stesso A political-judicial, autobiographical text, today extremely rare, probably circulating only in: - handwritten copies; - semi-clandestine prints produced in a French environment (Marseille/Tolon). The work is a moral and political defense, but also a proposal for reform of the Venetian State. Final years and death After 1797, with the end of the Serenissima, Pisani no longer held public roles. He lived through the Napoleonic era and the Restoration in a marginal position. He died in 1811, probably in Venice, leaving a complex political legacy: a patrician who tried to save the Republic by reforming it from within."

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