Dogale issued by Doge Girolamo Priuli to Pandolfo Guoro 

1560–61 CE, Venice, Venetian Republic (present-day Italy) 

Illumination on parchment 

SCRC 375 

Pandolfo Guoro, a sixteenth-century Venetian senator, kneels in an attitude of prayer before Christ. Despite its religious subject matter, this illumination once decorated the first page of a secular employment contract issued by the civic ruler of Venice in 1560 to the appointed governor of Cyprus. The document beginning on the back of this page outlines the duties and obligations of Guoro’s new role. Since we have only its first page, however, it does not reveal how much Guoro would earn for his salary—a key detail that would have been very important to this capitan but has been lost to us. 

Emma P. Holter 

Digitized manuscript at Temple Digital Collections