ABSTRACT
An almost incalculable gap separated the rlObeii of Venice from the 'patricians' of Zlln who stood just a few generations removed from servile status. Yet in functional terms they had much in common. Every town in early modern Europe had an elite, a group of families whose wealth, prestige and privileges placed thcm at the upper end of the social ladder and invested them with the power to dominate the community's economic and political life. No community could have functioned without a visible elitc to serve both as a centre of authority and a focus of cmulation and admiration for thosc who aspired to move up the social ladder. But the actual composition ofthe urban elite in early modern Europc remains a highly problematic issue in social history. For only rarely were social, political and economic power as perfectly and permanently conjoined as they wcre - or at least seemed to be - in a place like V cnice. In many cities, in fact, political and economic power were only partialIy linked, crcating tensions and generating rivalries that rendered the elite far from cohesive. Exactly who constituted the urban elite and by what criteria they belonged to it were problems that bedevilled contemporaries and continue to baffte historians. 3 Behind the sumptuous clothcs and stern
gazes of the burgomasters and merchants whose portraits can be seen in a thousand local museums lay economic worries and status anxieties that neither the artists nor their patrons ever wanted to admit.
