Venice as the Polity of Mercy Guilds, Confraternities, and the Social Order, C. 1250-C. 1650

"Mackenney certainly makes his case regarding the activity and agency of subordinate classes long treated as disenfranchised [...] as the key to tracing [...] inequality. The case is made stronger by his clear mastery of the archives."

"This is an important book and repays an effort on the part of the reader. It not only provides much information about guilds and confraternities and other aspects of Venetian social and religious life at the often-neglected level of the popolani, but it also demonstrates that exclusion from political office did not prevent them from active engagement in autonomous activities in defense of their interests in the political, social, and religious spheres."