Robert Finlay
Title
Professor of History, Emeritus
Institution
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
Current Research
Life of Doge Andrea Gritti
Forthcoming Publications
"Noble Lies: Myth and Reality in Gasparo Contarini's Venice," Studi Veneziani." Abstract: Gasparo Contarini’s De magistratibus et republica Venetorum (1543) is the principal source of the well-known “myth of Venice.” This paper argues that Contarini calculatedly and consistently presents a distorted account of Venetian history to highlight his city-state as a millennium-old quasi-utopia. This program of misrepresentation most likely constituted Contarini’s appropriation of Plato’s infamous “Noble Lie” in The Republic, that is, the employment of subterfuge to foster political harmony and social cohesion. Exploring the strategy of the Noble Lie in De magistratibus clarifies the structure of the most influential political treatise in Venetian history.