The Venetian M int in the Age of the Black Death ALAN M. STAHL A s much as half of the population of Venice died from the Black Death, which reached the city in the winter of 1347-48.' By the summer of 1348 many who had not perished sought refuge on the mainland, away from the contagion of the island city. The Council of Forty, charged with a wide variety of legislative, administra- tive and judicial responsibilities, had difficulty assembling a quorum for its meetings and lowered the number of votes necessary for approving certain legislation.1 2Between early June and the end of September of 1348, the Forty met on an average of once a week, about half of the normal frequency of meetings.3 Of the thirty items of business 1 The classic study is Mario Brunetti, “Venezia durante la peste del 1348,” Ateneo Veneto 32. 1 (1909): 289-311 and 32.2 (1909): 5—42. See also Reinhold C. Mueller, “Aspetti sociali ed economici della peste a Venezia nel medioevo,” in Venezia e la peste, 1348-1797 (Venice: Comune di Venezia, Assessorato alia Cultura, 1979), 71-76. Archival research for this study has been made possible by a series of grants from the Gladys K. Delmas Foundation. I am grateful to Reinhold Mueller for his valuable comments on this piece. " Brunetti, “La peste,” 16; see Antonino Lombardo, ed., Deliberazioni del Consiglio dei XL della Repubblica di Venezia, 3 vols. (Venice: Deputazione Venetadi Storia Patria, 1957-67), 2: xi-xii for the areas of activity of the Forty and 2: 9 for the lowering of the number of votes needed for legislation. 3 Lombardo, Deliberazioni, 2: 9-20; compare 2: 48-81, for the same period the following year, when the average was eight meetings per month.