Venetian nobility in the context of "House of Loredan"

The Commune of Venice (Latin: Commune Veneciarum) is the title with which the government of the city of Venice and its Republic was designated from 1143. The municipality, similar to other medieval municipalities, was based on the popular power of the assembly, called Concio in Venice. It represented the patriciate of the city with a system of assemblies including the Great Council, Minor Council, Senate and the Council of Forty.

The Gherardini family of Montagliari (or Florence) was one of the most prominent historical Italian noble families from Tuscany, Italy. Through the Amideis, the family was of Roman descent. Between the 9th and 14th centuries, they played an important role in Tuscany. Its influence was also felt in the Veneto and Emilia regions between the 16th and 18th centuries, and during the Italian Risorgimento as well as in today's Italian politics and economy. The family's restless and fighting nature has aroused the curiosity of many historians of the Middle Ages. Originating from feudal tradition, it was one of the founding families of the Republic of Florence.

The family took part in Florence's political life between 1100 and 1300. In 1300, they were exiled from the city when Florence began its transformation into a Signoria, later ruled by the Medicis. In his Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri, who was exiled with the Gherardinis, placed the family in Paradise's V Sphere. Following its exile from Tuscany, the family joined the Great Council of Venice (Venice's Chamber of Peers), becoming Patricians of that city, and members of the Venetian nobility. Until 1800, they kept some fiefs between Tuscany and Emilia Romagna.

The Council of Ten (Italian: Consiglio dei Dieci; Venetian: Consejo de i Diexe), or simply the Ten, was from 1310 to 1797 one of the major governing bodies of the Republic of Venice. Elections took place annually and the Council of Ten had the power to impose punishments upon patricians. The Council of Ten had a broad jurisdictional mandate over matters of state security. The Council of Ten and the Full College constituted the inner circle of oligarchical patricians who effectively ruled the Republic of Venice.

The office of Procurator of Saint Mark (Venetian: Procurador de San Marco) was one of the few lifetime appointments in the government of the Venetian Republic and was considered second only to that of the doge in prestige. It was routinely occupied by nobles belonging to the most influential families and typically represented the climax of a distinguished political career, although it was often an intermediate position prior to election as doge.

Lodovico Giovanni Manin (Italian: [ludoˈviːko maˈnin]; Venetian: Lodovigo Xuane Manin [lodoˈviɡo maˈniŋ]; 14 May 1725 – 24 October 1802) was a Venetian politician, patrician, and the 120th and last Doge of Venice. He governed the Venetian Republic from 9 March 1789 until its fall on 12 May 1797, when he was forced to abdicate by Napoleon Bonaparte. He officially left the Doge's Palace 2 days later on 14 May 1797.

The Concio (from the Latin contio, "assembly"), in the Republic of Venice, was the general assembly of freemen (citizens and patricians) from which the Doge was elected. It existed between the years 742 and 1423, although it was mostly ceremonial after the Serrata del Maggior Consiglio passed power into the hands of the aristocratic class.

The Great Council or Major Council (Italian: Maggior Consiglio; Venetian: Mazor Consegio) was a political organ of the Republic of Venice between 1172 and 1797. It was the chief political assembly, responsible for electing many of the other political offices and the senior councils that ran the Republic, passing laws, and exercising judicial oversight. Following the lockout (Serrata) of 1297, its membership was established on hereditary right, exclusive to the patrician families enrolled in the Golden Book of the Venetian nobility.

The Great Council was unique at the time in its usage of lottery to select nominators for proposal of candidates, who were thereafter voted upon.

N.H. and N.D. are two Latin acronyms, used mainly in the Italian language, to indicate respectively "Nobilis Homo" (a noble man) and "Nobilis Domina" (a noble woman), in particular with reference to the patricians of the Republic of Venice. In formal written texts they are placed before the name, as a courtesy title, and roughly correspond to "lord" and "lady" in the English language.