The gondola has not always been the light and decorated boat, suitable for romantic walks, like the one we are used to seeing in the Venetian canals. In the sixteenth century from a simple means of transport it was adapted to military defense needs. This was revealed by a historical study by Dario Camuffo of the Institute of Atmospheric and Climate Sciences of the National Research Council and published in the magazine “Méditerranée – Journal of Mediterranean geography”. The need to defend themselves and maintain dominance over the territories of Northern Italy prompted the Government of the Serenissima Republic of Venice to transform the vessel into an agile means of defence, equipped with two rams to sink enemy ships. There are few documentary sources that reveal this process of war adaptation, subjected throughout the sixteenth century to a real state secret.
“In the beginning it was a simple canoe-like boat, the cymbula Romana, as shown by the sixth century mosaics kept in the church of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna, in the Basilica of San Marco in Venice, (representation of the transport of the relics of the saint, XII century), in the illustrations of some medieval codices. Marco Polo’s contacts with China probably favored some similarities with the Asian marsh boats, and the two most important are the adoption of the flat bottom, suitable for shallow waters , and the movable cane sunshade,” explains Camuffo.
Until the end of the 1400s and the early 1500s, the gondola was symmetrical, arched in a crescent shape, without decorative irons, as can be seen in the paintings by Carpaccio, Bellini, Mansueti or in the famous bird’s eye view of Venice by Jacopo de’ Barbarians. Then, in 1500, it underwent a profound transformation. The reasons and exact timing of this change have long been ignored.
According to the Cnr scholar, the lack of sources in this regard is attributable to the fact that the gondola became an ‘assault’ boat, whose characteristics, for the Government of the Serenissima, had to be covered by military secrecy.
The historical circumstances are linked to the birth of the League of Cambrai, on 10 December 1508, a coalition of the major European powers of the time (Holy Roman Empire, Spain and France) against the Serenissima for hegemony over various territories of the Italian peninsula.
“Reinforced, symmetrical, very similar to Viking-Norman pirate vessels (as in the Bayeux tapestries), raised at both ends, the sixteenth-century gondola was equipped with sturdy sharp irons with a rostrum at the bottom and an ax at the top both at the bow and at the stern to go against enemy boats and break through their planking – continues the researcher – Venice set up a river fleet intended for small and quick raidscharacterized by boats maneuverable in confined spaces and in both directions (forward and backward without having to turn), robust and equipped with beaks to sink enemy boats”.
The thesis of military secrecy is strengthened by the analysis of the sixteenth-century representations of the gondola: these, in addition to being scarce, are very stylized or small, such as not to bring out the new characteristics of the boat. The silence for almost a century therefore appears justified by serious reasons of state. Venice at the end of the sixteenth century came to possess 10,000 gondolas, against 400 today.
“Sanudo, a Venetian chronicler, testifies in his Diary of 1509 that after the defeat of Agnadello, light boats were being built in the Arsenale of Venice in great secrecy to sail up the Po and Adige and make war raids with raids in the Ferrarese. Pietro Bembo and Francesco Guicciardini report that Venetian citizens were also invited to participate with their boats and were authorized to keep what they managed to plunder. Practically, the gondola was considered the new secret weapon that was supposed to change the tide of the war. The renewed form was well documented only when peace returned, at the end of the 16th century, as it appears in the paintings of Andrea Vicentino, Leandro da Bassano, Girolamo Forabosco, Joseph Heinz the Younger and many other painters. This form remained unchanged from 1509 to the second half of the 17th century” adds the researcher.
At the end of the 17th century, in times of peace, the gondola was gradually transformed to become the romantic baroque boat we know today, as evidenced by the paintings, from Canaletto onwards, with a decorative and balancing iron in front, a small curl stern and a demountable cabin for bad weather or privacy.