Inviting the visitor to retrace a path that symbolically connects the legal history of the Serenissima Repubblica with the present and future of a Europe, the exhibition “Democracy through law: from the Serenissima Republic to the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe”, held at the Doge’s Palace, the place where the tradition of Venetian law was built up over the centuries, “reminds us that democracy is never a given. It is a continual journey, renewed each day through knowledge, dialogue, and shared responsibility,” said the President of the Fondazione Musei Civici Di Venezia, Mariacristina Gribaudi.
The exhibition begins with the European Convention on Human Rights, the first treaty of the Council of Europe, which celebrated its 75th anniversary on 4 November 2025. It captures the enormity of Europe’s constitutionalism journey, from its late medieval roots to the most modern mechanisms.
“It is a document that enshrines the fundamental principles of human dignity, freedom, and justice: living themes that run through the terrible events of history and that must reach us as precious assets to be protected, as invaluable and fragile as the heritage we preserve,” President Gribaudi said, honoured to contribute to a reflection that transcends time and speaks to the heart of Europe about the awareness that freedom and law are the very foundations of our civilisation.
The exhibition contains documents, artefacts, and insights that illuminate decades of democratic development ranging from the Most Serene Republic of Venice (697-1796) to a kind of proto-constitutional system evolved during that time, with Venice’s founding laws, voting system and protections of rights to the fore.
Among the most interesting exhibits is the graduation report of Elena Lucrezia Corner Piscopia, the world’s first female university graduate.
Simona Granata-Menghini, Director/Secretary of the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission) explained that the Venice Commission was set up and holds its plenary sessions today in that city where the exhibition was mounted in celebration of the 35th anniversary of that globally recognised body, which today counts 61 members from around the world. “The links of the Commission with the city of Venice are both historical and conceptual. The Commission was set up in Venice in 1990, in the aftermath of the fall of the Berlin Wall, aiming to assist in finding appropriate institutional and legal solutions to guarantee the democratic exercise of power. The Serenissima Republic, over the centuries, had implemented institutions and mechanisms that in certain respects anticipated the modern concepts of checks and balances and the rule of law. This exhibition reveals how the never-ending quest for democracy makes it necessary to find new solutions to the ever-evolving dangers of democratic and rule of law backsliding,” Director Granata-Menghini said.
The exhibition, which is a collaboration between the Venice Commission, the Council of Europe Programme Office in Venice, the Soprintendenza Archivistica e Bibliografica del Veneto e Trentino - Alto Adige, l’Archivio di Stato di Venezia, Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia (MUVE) and il Consiglio Regionale del Veneto, can be seen until the 6 January 2026.
Italy and the Council of Europe
More about the exhibition (in Italian)
