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Venice consists of the Senate, or pregati, proposing, and sometimes resolving too, of the great Council or Assembly of the people, in whom the result is constitutively; as also of the doge, the signory, the censors, the dieci, the quazancies, and other magistrates, executing.
The Senate acted as court of appeal in judicial cases, and was formed of forty-five senators, the "Pregati," who were over forty years of age. The executive was the Little Council of seven members. At the head of public administration was a senator who from 1358 was called Prior, then Count, and later Rector.
The council of the "Pregati" consisted of fifteen members of the Senate, elected annually on S. George's Day. There were three judges selected by them from the lesser council, which was composed of six nobles, also elected annually.
Besides the Rector there was a town council of ten, which acted as police superintendents. The five provveditori, elected annually from among the "Pregati," looked after the rigorous observance of the statute. No law could be altered without the vote of seven-eighths of the Greater Council, and no new law could be made without a three-quarters majority of the same.
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