Ludovico Manin, the last Doge
Following the death of Doge Paolo Renier on 13th February, 1789, Lodovico Manin was elected 120th (and last) Doge.
On being elected, Manin burst into tears and fainted. When his rival for the Dogeship, Pietro Gradenigo heard of Manin’s election he said, prophetically “I ga fato doxe un furlan! La Republica xè morta!” (They have chosen a Doge from Friuli. The Republic is dead.)
‘… Manin (the first [Doge] to come from the ‘new’ moneyed nobles, whose forbears had bought their way into the Golden Book), caused so much alarm that even his wife hid herself in Murano and failed to take up the full splendour of her office. His portrait in the Museo Correr shows him looking hesitant and weak, as alarmed by what he has taken on his shoulders as most other people.’
—Maurice Rowdon ‘The Fall of Venice’
